Hey everyone, I’ve been using my drone mostly to make short videos of family vacations and such. The problem is I’m running out of space on both my drone memory card and my laptop (which only has a 500GB SSD). Do you guys delete your raw footage once you’re done editing, or do you archive it somewhere like an external hard drive? I usually render my final videos in 4K for YouTube and a 1080p version for social media, so those take up space too. Just looking for advice on managing storage better. Thanks in advance!
I’ve got a 64TB NAS that I dump everything onto. Honestly, I probably won’t look at most of it again, but it’s there just in case.
Tyler said:
I’ve got a 64TB NAS that I dump everything onto. Honestly, I probably won’t look at most of it again, but it’s there just in case.
Same here. I back everything up to my NAS. Never trust a single card to store your footage—it’s risky!
Tyler said:
I’ve got a 64TB NAS that I dump everything onto. Honestly, I probably won’t look at most of it again, but it’s there just in case.
Yeah, I keep mine too. When I need it, I really need it, and losing it would be the worst.
Tyler said:
I’ve got a 64TB NAS that I dump everything onto. Honestly, I probably won’t look at most of it again, but it’s there just in case.
Agreed. NAS is the way to go, and 4-bay units are great since you can expand them easily as your storage needs grow.
I keep everything. Storage is cheap these days. I use a home NAS and some external SSDs while traveling. Pro tip: backups need to be in at least two places. One copy isn’t a backup!
Layne said:
I keep everything. Storage is cheap these days. I use a home NAS and some external SSDs while traveling. Pro tip: backups need to be in at least two places. One copy isn’t a backup!
Two is one, and one is none. Always have a backup of your backup.
I just keep the files I turn into videos and delete the rest. No point in hoarding footage I’ll never use.
I save everything. You never know when old footage might come in handy. For example, I used drone footage to document property conditions before a hurricane recently. It’s also fun to look back at old clips to see progress and changes in nature.
Right now I’m using a 2TB SSD for storage. It’s affordable and works fine for now, but I might look into something more secure later.
Case said:
Right now I’m using a 2TB SSD for storage. It’s affordable and works fine for now, but I might look into something more secure later.
Costco had 5TB drives for $120. I’d get two and RAID them for extra reliability.
If I don’t care about the footage enough to look at it later, I delete it. No raw footage, no full-length stuff—it’s gone.
I use two 1TB external drives. I organize everything by year, then by month, and for events, I add folders with specific dates and names. Makes finding stuff way easier!
I use a Synology NAS for long-term storage. You can get used rack servers on eBay for a decent price. Drives to fill them can get pricey, though.
I store videos on a USB drive, organized by year/month/day folders. Edited videos go in a separate folder for easy access.
I use a 4TB Bee Drive—it’s like a beginner-friendly NAS. The app makes it easy to access my footage on my phone when I want to show people.