I have a strong feeling that the point of video editing is to make the raw footage watchable to those who want to see it including me.

So my approach is to decide to video something even if it is just a morning at home with the kids. Make a short movie with music etc, show it to the family who have a laugh etc and then save that short, edited, watchable video. The raw footage is deleted.

I never just pick up the camera and take snippets of video of this and that because eventually it just sits on the HDD and is never seen.

As for archiving: there is a copy of all my edited videos on my PC, on my NAS and on my remote back up HDD. Panasonic SD9, Panasonic TM700, Panasonic SD600, GoPro HD Hero.

Hello,
I throw away the bad clips (ex: my shoes being filmed for twenty minutes!) and pack these on another SD card. It is rather expensive but the cost will eventually come down. I do not trust anything mechanical , tapes or hard disks included. Hopefully the SD card will be readable in a few years when I'll be in the proverbial farm. I keep most of the stuff also in two hard disks and on the NAS. Belt and suspenders! I am so full of myself! ; Switched to PD10 now, just before PD11 was announced! Loser forever!

OK, I have 9 HDD and 3 of those are external. I have sufficent storage capacity. I replicate all stored video footage and other medial data, so I have two separate HDD. This can be done using a mirror duplication back up or simple copy and paste.

As for what you store - entirely up to you. How you store, do it logically and in a manner which makes searching easy. I store my data in a folder with the date of production. as windows lists items in numerical order I always list my folders with the year/month/day with the subject or location as a short guide.: 2011-01-16 - Dolphins. I retain all data on one+one HDD. This can be internal or external BUT please note the "ping" info below for externals.

Video selection. I use a software by CyberLink called MediaShow - I find it super to examine, remove, play and drag from (to PD). An ideal tool.

I run a two monitor set up, I hanker for three, and have done this for years. it allows me to have PD open in one monitor and another program (MediaShow) in the other.

Storage of video footage is cheap nowadays - HDD's are big and readily available. I've currently maxed my internals (SATA) but will look for eSata at some time.

HDD externals - USB's but really SATA when you open them up are very useful. I use a "ping" NoSleep software to make sure the externals don't shut down or are slow to wake up.

I currently haven't invested in any large solid state drives - not needed as yet.

ALWAYS back up your video to a second HDD.

Dafydd
(just my pennyworth)