A Guide for Data Storage Best Practices Featuring G-Technology Hard Drives
If you’re like most people involved with audio and music production, then the topic of data management may seem down-right daunting. It’s more than just buying the right hard drive — responsible data management is about having a system in place that protects you from losing your irreplaceable work when disaster strikes. That may sound complex, but don’t let that scare you off. Just follow the 3-2-1 rule, meaning that you keep three copies of the work, in two distinct locations, while working from one file. Stick with that, and you’ll be well on your way to a safer, more secure, and more efficient way to manage your work.

Step 1: Choose the right hard drive for the job
Step 2: Back up your data to a local storage system

Step 3: Secure your data with an off-site copy

G-Tech Diagram Illustration
Step 1: Choose the Right Hard Drive for the Job
For your main working drive, a G-Technology G-Drive is an excellent choice. One of the best reasons to go with a hard drive from an industry leader such as G-Technology is the actual hard disks that they use in their products. They use premium HGST drives that are among the most reliable drives available on the market today. But, while reliability is the most important thing to look for in a hard drive, there are other factors you’ll want to consider as well.

Drive Speed
For years now, 7,200rpm hard drives have been the standard, and with the wide-spread popularity of high-speed protocols such as Thunderbolt and USB 3.0, finding a hard drive that’s fast enough for high track counts and serious sample streaming isn’t usually an issue. If you’re regularly dealing with massive track loads or 192kHz samples, then you may need something faster. That’s where solutions such as solid-state drives and RAID systems pay off. Solid-state drives don’t rely on moving parts, enabling them to access data at extremely high rates, whereas some types of RAID systems (like RAID 0 and RAID 5) distribute the data load across multiple disks for higher performance.

Form Factor
If you’re recording nature sounds in the middle of a marsh, then your needs are going to be significantly different from what you’d use to track a 4-piece band in your project studio. Portable hard drives, such as G-Technology’s G-Drive ev RaW and ATC models, are great for shuttling your projects from place to place and are specifically designed for adverse conditions. These drives often prove to be better investments for field recording than standard desktop hard drives. At the same time, desktop G-Drive models offer extended connectivity options for use with a variety of computers.

HDD or SSD?
There’s been a fair amount of recent debate and confusion about the relative merits of SSDs (solid-state drives) compared to standard HDDs (hard disk drives). The fact is, neither is inherently better, and both have their relative strengths and weaknesses. Generally speaking, SSDs are much faster than conventional HDDs – they weigh less, have no moving parts to produce noise or fail. A technology still very much under development, earlier SSDs could only be written to a small number of times and thus failed after very limited use. The endurance of current SSDs has increased substantially, but they can still only be written to a finite number of times. Higher quality (and higher cost) SSDs typically do have higher endurance. For most users, though, the real disadvantages of SSD storage are the cost (drives typically run between five and ten times the price of HDDs) and total capacity.

Step 2: Back up your data to a local storage system
An inescapable fact of data management is that hard drives fail. They fail when you least expect them to, without preamble or warning, and often so irrecoverably that nothing short of painfully expensive data recovery can restore your lost work. Between the time lost and the agony spent trying to get your data back, a proper local backup solution, such as a G-Technology G-RAID or G-Speed Studio XL, will pay for itself over and over again.

Why Back up Locally?
With off-site cloud backup storage such a relatively inexpensive option these days, you may wonder why you’d even bother with a local storage system. The reason is simple: time. Uploading large amounts of data via your internet connection is a time-consuming process in itself, forcing you to pause and let your system catch up before you can get to work. More importantly, there’s the restoration process to consider. If your main storage drive goes down, you may be talking about days or even weeks of downloading before you fully recover terabytes of lost material. With a local backup system, a disk failure will set you back mere hours, minutes, or no time at all.

When we refer to local storage, we’re usually talking about a simple RAID 1 system. G-Technology G-RAID drives are perfect for this kind of application, right out of the box. Like RAID 0 systems, which distribute a single disk’s workload across a pair of hard drives, RAID 1 is a 2-disk system. However, with RAID 1, the same data is simultaneously written to both disks at once, providing you with an instant backup. While you won’t experience a performance increase with a RAID 1 system, you do get the benefit of redundant storage, so if one of the hard drives fails, none of your data will be lost.

What If I Need More?
If your needs require greater redundancy to prevent multiple drive failures from leaving you high and dry, or if you need the combination of redundant data storage and the performance boost of a RAID 0 system, then you’re looking at a more complex RAID system. G-Technology Studio Series rigs can accommodate standard RAID 5 and 6 as well as hybrid RAID 10, 50, and 60 setups. Bottom line: no matter what you need, your Sweetwater Sales Engineer can help you sort it out and get you what you need.

Step 3: Secure your data with an off-site copy
Local storage is absolutely critical, but what happens if your system becomes compromised? From catastrophic system failures and natural disasters to highly destructive viruses and run-of-the-mill theft, there are a number of things that could potentially wipe out your local data storage. An off-site copy of your data, whether on a hard drive or with an online storage provider, or both, provides you with protection against those potential catastrophes. Choosing the right type of off-site backup depends on a number of factors, including, as mentioned before, the quantity of data you need to backup, your access to another physical location and/or the bandwidth of your connection to the internet.

What’s Next?
If you have additional questions about data management or simply want help putting together a system that meets your storage and security needs, please give your Sweetwater Sales Engineer a call at (800) 222-4700. We’ll make sure you get both the performance and the peace of mind you need.

G-Technology Product Lines
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Desktop Hard Drives
G-Technology desktop hard drives are the single most-trusted hard drives in the world of media production, and countless professional studios, video houses, and artists depend on them daily. Each G-Drive comes equipped with a premium HGST disk drive that’s already undergone an extensive burn-in process to ensure maximum reliability. What’s more, desktop G-Drives come equipped with a fan-less heat sink and vibration-soaking chassis, virtually eliminating operation noise.

Desktop Hard Drives at a Glance:
High-speed connectivity onboard
Loaded with premium HGST drives
Low-noise, fan-free chassis design
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Portable Hard Drives
When it comes to portable reliability and versatility, you really can’t beat G-Technology’s Evolution Series. Designed around the G-Dock desktop hard drive docking system, G-Drive ev models are ideal for recording in the field and shuttling large projects from workstation to workstation. Individually, G-Drive ev models are slim, bus-powered hard drives that offer high-speed data transfer and low-profile convenience. They come in a variety of configurations, including the rugged G-Drive ev RaW and the water-resistant G-Drive ev ATC. Plug them into the 2-slot G-Dock, and you can also use these drives in a RAID configuration for added performance or security.

Portable Hard Drives at a Glance:
Grab-and-go docking hard drives
Bus power for convenient field use
Rugged protective cases available
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RAID Storage Systems
Do you need blazing-fast performance? What about rock-solid redundant storage for your invaluable data? How about both? With G-Technology’s impressive selection of RAID-ready storage systems, anything’s possible. On the more basic side, there are solutions such as the G-RAID mini and standard G-RAID models, with Thunderbolt connectivity as an option to speed up data transfer. If you need a more flexible setup for a RAID 50, 60, or 100 system, then ask your Sweetwater Sales Engineer about the G-Technology Studio Series.

RAID Storage Systems at a Glance:
Unrivaled speed and data protection
Simple software makes setup easy
Wide range of configuration options

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