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Opinionated NAS/Network folks, step inside...

Gozar

Gozar

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 23, 2011
211
121
Austin, TX
I have received good advice here on my Airports and my AppleTV so I am going to the well again.

I have a mixed network - 1 Mac Mini with a 1TB FW drive, several PCs, a Wndows Home Server, AppleTV, iPhones, iPads, 1 Samsung Note 2 (my son) AirPort Extreme AC, Airport Express and Uverse GigaPower.

I backup my Mini to the FW drive, my PCs to the WHS, the WHS photos/docs to an IoSafe 2TB drive and use Crashplan on the Mini, WHS and my wife's PC. I am sure I am not coming close to making the best use of what I already have and yet I want to add a Synology to the mix, why easier remote and iDevice access.
Am I nuts? :confused:

My thinking - keep using the WHS for bare metal backup of the PCs, and use the Synology to centralize photos, documents and have easy remote and mobile access. Backup the WHS backups to the IoSafe and the rest to Crashplan for offsite.
Or should I replace the WHS with a Synology and simplify things?

What would you do?

And as far as media goes I have several terabytes but find I rarely watch a movie twice and use Beats/iTunes radio for most of my music.
 
F

flynz4

macrumors 68040
Aug 9, 2009
3,242
126
Portland, OR
Gozar said:
I have received good advice here on my Airports and my AppleTV so I am going to the well again.

I have a mixed network - 1 Mac Mini with a 1TB FW drive, several PCs, a Wndows Home Server, AppleTV, iPhones, iPads, 1 Samsung Note 2 (my son) AirPort Extreme AC, Airport Express and Uverse GigaPower.

I backup my Mini to the FW drive, my PCs to the WHS, the WHS photos/docs to an IoSafe 2TB drive and use Crashplan on the Mini, WHS and my wife's PC. I am sure I am not coming close to making the best use of what I already have and yet I want to add a Synology to the mix, why easier remote and iDevice access.
Am I nuts? :confused:

My thinking - keep using the WHS for bare metal backup of the PCs, and use the Synology to centralize photos, documents and have easy remote and mobile access. Backup the WHS backups to the IoSafe and the rest to Crashplan for offsite.
Or should I replace the WHS with a Synology and simplify things?

What would you do?

And as far as media goes I have several terabytes but find I rarely watch a movie twice and use Beats/iTunes radio for most of my music.
Click to expand...

My strongly opinionated view is to have one single place for all of you data. I happen to use an iMac. That way, I am never confused where 100% of my data "lives".

Then I make sure that my iMac is backed up using fully automated process, both onsite, and to the cloud. I use Time Machine and Crashplan+. Then, I have local automated clones (I do not consider clones to be backup, yet they are very useful).

Then... any data generated on any mobile device (mostly my MBA) is synced with dropbox back to my iMac... so whenever I do anything mobile, it is synced and backed up with everything else.

My bottom line is that by keeping everything in one case... there is never any confusion where the data lives. Any data on any other device is just a copy and can always be deleted without worry.

/Jim
 
glenthompson

glenthompson

macrumors demi-god
Apr 27, 2011
2,982
842
Virginia
I'm also in the keep things in one place camp. I have a Synology NAS that is used for Time Machine backups, media files, and archived files. Everything I routinely use is kept on my MBP. Any content created is stored on that machine or or synced to it via the cloud.

As to backups, the best strategy is the one that requires the least effort and is transparent to the user. One of the reasons I like Time Machine. I also use CrashPlan for offsite storage.
 
Gozar

Gozar

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 23, 2011
211
121
Austin, TX
Your input makes sense, I'll pick up a Synology and keep everything there + Crashplan.

Thanks
 
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