New camera = new backup strategy

[jljonathan]

I recently got a Canon 1dsIII and the raw files are very large. Making raw buckets now is a real pain because I have to split many shoots into multiple buckets and make more backups then I really want. The process has gotten somewhat out of hand.
New strategy that I would like to adopt:
Stop using buckets. I know, it sounds like heresy. All folders, named by date and kept in year master folders, will be stored in one RAW master folder on the RAW/DRV drive in a 4 drive box.
Use a 1TB drive that I will plug into the 4 drive box at least once a week to backup the RAW/DRV drive that resides in the box. This backup drive will then be kept off site and when near full will be archived off site and replaced with a new backup drive.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated before I start.
Thanks
Jonathan

[peterkrogh]

Jonathan,
No heresy (the recent book is more flexible on how you choose to do things).
If you go hard drive only, I suggest you learn about data validation, and make sure you have three copies. 
Hard drive only makes me very nervous, for pros, at least, unless you understand an implement data validation.

You might also consider Blu-ray. 23 GB, for under $5 a disk.
Peter

[jljonathan]

I am not a pro. The blu-ray route isn't something I want to set up. For now I think I will try to live with the hard drive backups using Cronosync. Can you be more specific about data validation. Is this checking the hard drive backup using Bridge?
Any thoughts or suggestions about the one single RAW (or DRV) folder holding the year subfolders? All this is imported into EM2 into a RAW and a DRV catalog (I also keep a JPEG catalog for all the point and shoot stuff).
Thanks again
Jonathan

[peterkrogh]

Jonathan,
I've written a lot about data validation in the book, blog, on this forum and elsewhere.  I'd start with the book.
Bridge is one of the worst for this, unless you purge al three caches properly.

again, it all depends on how hard you want to work to preserve the images.
Peter

[jljonathan]

Peter
At your suggestion, I have looked at the ImageVerifier and Chronosync information pertaining to validating the image data. In the future, when I ingest-copy or move-copy I will run the verify option.
Thanks
Jonathan