Home set-up Mac - large AVCHD and Photo collection

[bbridge]

Hi, looking for some advice from people who have a similar issue as I do. I have an increasing home movie collection thanks to my 8 month old son as well as a pretty large iphoto collection. I'm running a 17' iMac with 500GB drive which is now nearing full capacity.

- My AVCHD videos are currently in iMovie, backed up in .mts format on an external Drobo FS. On an import last night i've hit capacity on my Mac Hard drive.
- My iPhone library is currently in iPhoto, backed up via Time Machine also to the Drobo.
- My Films and TV shows are stored directly on the Drobo and accessed via Plex media player installed on the Mac and watched on the TV's around the house, works very well.

I have plenty of space on the Drobo and have previously looked at putting the iPhoto and iMovie libraries on the Drobo but the time to access the applications when you boot up and try to edit is far too slow so I abandoned that. In hindsight it may have been a mistake buying the Drobo FS, however this is what I have at the moment.

I'd like to hear from others how they currently cope with keeping the storage on their Mac workable, while having the larger storage files (Photos, Videos, Music) stored externally and accessible through the Apple suite or other apps like Final Cut pro etc, with good performance. Appreciate any advice.

 

[tuxon86]

Hi, looking for some advice from people who have a similar issue as I do. I have an increasing home movie collection thanks to my 8 month old son as well as a pretty large iphoto collection. I'm running a 17' iMac with 500GB drive which is now nearing full capacity.

- My AVCHD videos are currently in iMovie, backed up in .mts format on an external Drobo FS. On an import last night i've hit capacity on my Mac Hard drive.
- My iPhone library is currently in iPhoto, backed up via Time Machine also to the Drobo.
- My Films and TV shows are stored directly on the Drobo and accessed via Plex media player installed on the Mac and watched on the TV's around the house, works very well.

I have plenty of space on the Drobo and have previously looked at putting the iPhoto and iMovie libraries on the Drobo but the time to access the applications when you boot up and try to edit is far too slow so I abandoned that. In hindsight it may have been a mistake buying the Drobo FS, however this is what I have at the moment.

I'd like to hear from others how they currently cope with keeping the storage on their Mac workable, while having the larger storage files (Photos, Videos, Music) stored externally and accessible through the Apple suite or other apps like Final Cut pro etc, with good performance. Appreciate any advice.

What i'm presently working on, is on my interal drive.
I have an external drive for thing that i'm finished with but may still have a need to access it easilly.
The i have my 24tb media server and backup machine accessible via 1gb/s ethernet.
My internal and external are backed up via timemachine on my server.
The server uses snapraid with two level of parity protection.

 

[fa8362]

I don't use my internal drive for anything other than applications and temporary files. All software libraries and all original photos, video, and music are on external hard drives. So my internal drive will never fill up.

 

[tuxon86]

I don't use my internal drive for anything other than applications and temporary files. All software libraries and all original photos, video, and music are on external hard drives. So my internal drive will never fill up.

What is your internal drive? Because if you paid for a 1tb or more then you're waisting ressources unless your external are tb.

 

[fa8362]

What is your internal drive? Because if you paid for a 1tb or more then you're waisting ressources unless your external are tb.

My externals are a minimum of 2 TB. I have 20 or more of them. My internal is 1 TB. That was the minimum available.

 

[tuxon86]

My externals are a minimum of 2 TB. I have 20 or more of them. My internal is 1 TB. That was the minimum available.

Are your external connected via thunderbolt or usb 2 or 3?
Because with usb 2 you really take a hit in performance. And isn't it a pain to plug and unplug those 20 external to find one file?

 

[fa8362]

Are your external connected via thunderbolt or usb 2 or 3?
Because with usb 2 you really take a hit in performance. And isn't it a pain to plug and unplug those 20 external to find one file?

Some are USB 3, some are 2. USB 2 is fine for what I use it for. Rarely spend time looking for files because my drives are logged and labeled. I use NeoFinder, so I don't even have to have the drive connected to find the file. When I find the file (very easy), I then connect the drive for access.

 

[tuxon86]

Some are USB 3, some are 2. USB 2 is fine for what I use it for. Rarely spend time looking for files because my drives are logged and labeled. I use NeoFinder, so I don't even have to have the drive connected to find the file. When I find the file (very easy), I then connect the drive for access.

I see...

But I would like to add that you are missing some form of security in case of drive failure. You don't seem to have any backup or data integrity solution. What if one of your drive goes bad?

 

[fa8362]

I see...

But I would like to add that you are missing some form of security in case of drive failure. You don't seem to have any backup or data integrity solution. What if one of your drive goes bad?

That's an assumption on your part. Everything important is backed up via Intego Backup Manager Pro.

 

[tuxon86]

That's an assumption on your part. Everything important is backed up via Intego Backup Manager Pro.

In part yes. You failled to explain how you used your external drives. The OP did explain what is present setup was and so did I, but you didn't mention any form of backup. So how many of your externals are dedicated to backup?

 

[kennyap]

Hi, looking for some advice from people who have a similar issue as I do. I have an increasing home movie collection thanks to my 8 month old son as well as a pretty large iphoto collection. I'm running a 17' iMac with 500GB drive which is now nearing full capacity.

- My AVCHD videos are currently in iMovie, backed up in .mts format on an external Drobo FS. On an import last night i've hit capacity on my Mac Hard drive.
- My iPhone library is currently in iPhoto, backed up via Time Machine also to the Drobo.
- My Films and TV shows are stored directly on the Drobo and accessed via Plex media player installed on the Mac and watched on the TV's around the house, works very well.

I have plenty of space on the Drobo and have previously looked at putting the iPhoto and iMovie libraries on the Drobo but the time to access the applications when you boot up and try to edit is far too slow so I abandoned that. In hindsight it may have been a mistake buying the Drobo FS, however this is what I have at the moment.

I'd like to hear from others how they currently cope with keeping the storage on their Mac workable, while having the larger storage files (Photos, Videos, Music) stored externally and accessible through the Apple suite or other apps like Final Cut pro etc, with good performance. Appreciate any advice.

I use a Drobo 5D (20TB) for home videos, photos, iTunes homesharing (kid's movies & T.V.) to my kid's Apple TV's. Then I have a Synology DS1512+ (16TB) for my movies & T.V. downloads which is managed by my Popcorn Hour (networked video jukebox). Both the Drobo and the Synology are synched using Goodsync program.