Hi folks,

I'm using a Sony HDR CX550V on a Mac and I'd like to take the MPEG-2 files from my camera and back them up onto my external firewire drive.

When I mount the camera's internal drive, a bunch of different folders come up (see screenshot). A couple of questions:
- Am I okay to just copy the movie files (for example M2U00001.MPG) or should I also copyother files / folders? If the latter, which ones?
- Is there any risk to my corrupting the camera's drive and/or movie files drive by mounting it on my Mac or PC?
- Any other common mistakes I should watch out for to avoid corrupting my data?

My project requires that I go to a tapeless workflow and I'm worried about losing any data :) Your advice would be appreciated

Hello,
You need to back up the entire contents (all the folders, everything).
Create a disk image using disk utility that's the same size as the amount of space that's used on your camera. Once the disk image is created drag/copy the entire contents of your camera's drive to the .dmg. Once that copy is made copy the .dmg to another drive just to be safe. Backup your back up.
I hope that helps.

Interesting; thanks for your reply.

What would happen if I only backed up the .mpg files? Couldn't I still open/edit the files just fine in Adobe Premiere?

I think you might be able to just backup the .mpg files because they are not .mts files which are dependent on the rest of the stuff contained in the camera's directory. .Mts files are the result of choosing to record at the highest quality. They are AVCHD and require the information in the entire directory. The .mpg files are self contained (I think) and were generated because you chose to record at a setting other than the highest quality. I've never tried it and do not recommend doing so, but I guess it can't hurt as long as you keep the original directory intact.
Having said that it's just dead simple to backup your footage per my first post. I've got a TB of files from my SR-11 and CX-550v from the past 2 1/2 years and it works just fine.

Thanks so much Andy and can someone validate whether the camera's MPG files are really self-contained (and don't require other info in the directory in order to be read?)

If they are self-contained, I imagine it wouldn't be a problem to put them on a thumb drive and share between a Mac and PC as well. Can anyone verify?