• Location: Canada (eh!)
  • Joined: October 6, 2015

Topic: File storage and backups

Does anyone have any good techniques they would like to share on how they save and (possibly) back up their work? Stop-motion seems to eat away at my hard-drive space, and I'd like to hear your opinions on the subject.

Edit: I probably should have put this under the post-production topic, sorry about that.

Last edited by BrickBrosProductions (October 13, 2016 (08:48pm))

-BrickBrosProductions

Youtube Channel https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCm2mA8FCaPP1ySSA8CL46YQ
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BrickBrosProductions's Website

  • Joined: December 27, 2008

Re: File storage and backups

Cloud storage (to name a few)

  • Dropbox

  • Mega

  • OneDrive

Physical backup

  • Secondary harddrive

  • External harddrive

  • Flash drive

Amazon.com, TigerDirect, etc. take your pick

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Lechnology's Website

  • Location: Wales
  • Joined: July 21, 2015

Re: File storage and backups

I just save everything on memory sticks. I also sometimes back up my completed scenes by uploading them, unlisted, on YouTube. I used to upload them to the drive, but I have limited space on there.

William Osborne's Website

  • Location: Middle Zealand
  • Joined: July 6, 2011

Re: File storage and backups

External hard-drives are pretty cheap now, just get a 1 TB and you're good for awhile.

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Youtube Channel
  • Location: United States
  • Joined: June 21, 2011

Re: File storage and backups

Yep, I actually bought a 2TB external hard drive several years ago, and it's still got plenty of room.
However, Lech is right. Cloud storage is another good option now.
I'd recommend using a bit of both, just in case something happens to one or the other.

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Pritchard Studios's Website

  • Location: Vermont
  • Joined: December 3, 2015

Re: File storage and backups

Here's what I do, and this is for all my video projects, not just stop motion.


First, all project and source files are on a 5TB USB3 external drive, (which unfortunately is not backed up right now, but sometimes I will keep the source files on the card, and back up project files to the internal HD)

Next all exported/finalized films are stored on the 1TB internal HD, which is backed up onto a cheap 2TB external HD, as well as being uploaded to YT and Vimeo which adds an extra layer of protection, as you can re-download your videos from Vimeo.


Keep in mind that if you are doing just stop motion, particularly with a web cam and or .jpg files, your space requirements will be way smaller.

I suggest that you at least have some kind of backup for your computer, and then consider archiving the source files when your projects are complete.

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MarkNelsonMovies's Website

  • Location: Canada (eh!)
  • Joined: October 6, 2015

Re: File storage and backups

I already am using an 1TB external HD for storing all of my video work, but I have been a little worried lately that I might lose all of that stuff if it ever fails. I probably will invest in another hard drive and back it up onto there.

-BrickBrosProductions

Youtube Channel https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCm2mA8FCaPP1ySSA8CL46YQ
"Do everything you do for the glory of the one who made you.."

BrickBrosProductions's Website

  • Location: Middle Zealand
  • Joined: July 6, 2011

Re: File storage and backups

I have three...

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Youtube Channel
  • Location: Cary, NC
  • Joined: September 14, 2009

Re: File storage and backups

I think an external hard drive is the only logical way to go. It's the cheapest and fastest. I'm probably a bit in the extreme because the size of my average brickfilming project is over 100 GBs. So storing that online in like Dropbox or Google Drive is just too expensive plus would take a while to upload and download when I need it.
Plus you probably won't be accessing your backups all that often so it makes sense to have an external hard drive since you can store it somewhere and get it when you need it. I also think it makes it easy to back up your project as you work on it. Just copy your files to the hard drive and since it is separate you have a good back up if something happens to your computer.

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AquaMorph's Website