How to Back Up Your Video Footage from a Flash Memory Card

So you’ve got a camcorder which records to SD (flash memory) card. You downloaded your video footage to the computer to edit someday… who knows when?

You want to use the memory card again, what do you do with the footage that’s already on it?

If you delete it, the only copy of your once-in-a-lifetime Tahitian vacation is on your hard drive, which could – should we dare say it – crash.

These are big files. It’s not like backing up your photos – a few Gb. These video files might be anywhere from 5 – 20 Gb per file. What the heck do you do with that? The original video footage files are too big to fit on a single DVD.

What you need is a plan. An archival plan for your video files so that you know they’re safe from hard drive failure or accidental erasure of your card.

Back in the days (last year) of tape, you always had that tape to go back to, if you experienced a failure of your hard drive. You could always recapture the video footage to your hard drive.

But now you have this teeny little card, which you erase and reuse to get more video footage.

There are 3 archival options to keep you safe:

• Buy a memory card for every movie. 
• Back up all your video files to recordable DVDs.
• Buy an external hard drive. 

The problem with buying more memory cards is that you are now losing the cost savings you earned when you switched from tape to flash memory. You’re still buying one for every movie. 

If you decide to go this route and buy more cards, I’ve found them to be quite affordable here.

You'll need tons of dvd's to backup original video footage

Backing your video files up to data DVD is probably the least efficient method. Note, I said data DVD, not just DVD. If you simply burn a DVD of your footage, you’ll compress it, which will greatly reduce the quality when you go to edit.

You need to get software which enables you to transfer the uncompressed video footage to DVD or Blu-Ray disc. This involves spanning the video file across several discs, which is possible with this program.

external hard drives are your best option

Archival of your video footage to external hard drive is the most cost efficient and safest method. You can get a 500 GB hard drive for well under $100 and store several hours of footage.

Most professional filmmakers take a triple threat approach. 

1. Copy original files from flash memory card to a backup hard drive.
2. Capture video files to your editing hard drive, this can be a second internal hard drive. It’s good practice not to edit right from your startup disk as it really taxes the drive.
3. Copy original files to another external drive and store in a locked, fireproof safe. Most of us won’t take this last step.

A plain English translation of the video archival backup plan:

1. Download the video files to your computer, preferably to either a second internal hard drive or external hard drive. You will edit from these files.
2. Connect your designated backup drive to your computer (not the one used in step 1). Download those same video files right from the flash memory card to your backup drive.
3. Reformat the card and it’s ready to use again.

Another thing to consider when looking at external hard drives: connection method. 

USB2.0, although somewhat fast, parses the video files into bundles, not streams, which does not allow for efficient editing. Your computer will need to recreate the video files into continuous streams for editing. Firewire 800 or eSATA are your best bets.