How do you manage your data

[JamesMay82]

My MacBook Pro has a 2TB drive where my core computing life is. It backs up via Time Machine to a 4TB SSD connected to a Mac mini server and also backs up via Carbon Copy Cloner to a 4TB T9 SSD mounted to the back of my display.

My media library (Plex and iTunes) and archived files are saved to two 8TB SSDs connected to that Mac mini server. These are mirrored to two more 8TB SSDs via CCC.

Lastly, both the MacBook Pro and the two 8TB server drives (not the additional two redundant ones) are backed up via Backblaze.

impressive and expensive. if you were buying the SSD in todays world.

 

[whitestar27]

I just built a NAS last month. NAS drive prices have doubled in less than 6 months here so I ended up with half the storage space I would have had if I'd gotten off my backside and built it a year ago like I originally planned.

 

[Traverse]

impressive and expensive. if you were buying the SSD in todays world.

Luckily I snagged the 8TB SSDs over the past few years. 5-ish years ago you could find the Samsung QVO 8TB SATA drives for as low as $329. They're not very fast - but are faster and quieter than 5400 RPM drives and more than enough for media streaming.

The 4TB T9 I bought in 2024 just before things start going south. I honestly don't know what I'd do today.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Use an app called Parachute backup to completely backup my iCloud files. That way, I always have access to my important files should something go wrong with iCloud access.

Parachute Backup – Seamless Backup for iCloud

Parachute automatically backs up your iCloud Photos and iCloud Drive to your own storage.

parachuteapps.com

 

[NeonNights]

I just built a NAS last month. NAS drive prices have doubled in less than 6 months here so I ended up with half the storage space I would have had if I'd gotten off my backside and built it a year ago like I originally planned.

That's no exaggeration! I was considering expanding my backup NAS but prices of 16TB drives are insanely expensive compared to last year. Yeesh. It would actually be cheaper for me to buy another NAS with more bays and re-use the collection of 4TB drives I have laying around.

 

[Ben J.]

I have a 512GB internal and use it for apps and user accounts primarily. A few apps installed a lot of data that is almost never used, and by using DaisyDisk to find that data (~230GB), I have moved it to an external drive, and replaced the folders with symlinks. Simple, one time procedure, basically. This way, my internal is mostly around 50% free space or more.

I have two 4TB and one 2TB ssd in 40Gbps external enclosures that are connected all the time, with both photos/videos/sample libraries/projects etc., and backups - so that if any drive should fail, I can replace it and restore its contents quickly.

I also have 3x2TB 2.5" SATA ssds with clones of everything, stored at my neighbour's house and updated every other week, in case of total disaster.

Update:

I've moved stuff around a bit, and here's my new storage setup:

Internal drive: as before.

Primary external drive: 4TB SSD Thunderbolt4 (40gbps):
as before, w/my three main volumes:
Neptun, Jupiter, and Venus.
~1800GB free space.

Secondary external drive: 4TB SSD Thunderbolt4 (40gbps):
Install macOS, bootable installer (HFS+ partition).
CCC MAX, backup with APFS snapshots.
Saturn. For things that don't need backup, sample-archives I can redownload if needed, short-term storage etc.
~2800GB free space.

Third external drive: 4TB HDD USB-A, USB 3.2 (new):
CCC backups of MAX, Neptun, Jupiter, and Venus (Because of the HFS+ format, each in their own folder, and not on volumes. CCC Safetynet kept for 50 days.)
~1600GB free space.

This way, I've freed up two ports, one 4TB and two 2TB NVMe and a few NVMe enclosures. The HHD cost me ~$200usd, and selling the NVMes and enclosures will earn me a good profit. Plus, it's pretty slick and streamlined this way.

My next door secondary backup is the same as before.

BTW, I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the new HDD. I got about 220MB/s, which is far better than the HDs in my old mac pro, they were around 70MB/s.

 

[dmr727]

I finally succumbed to streaming movies and music, so most of my data is in photos and homemade movies, and all of that is barely 100GB. All in, I think my wife and I *might* have 500GB of data. So each of us have 1TB Macbook Airs, and that's been more than enough. The biggest limit for me is games, but it's easy to limit myself to having one or two AAA titles available at a time.

From a backup standpoint the Cloud handles it all, but I have an 8TB Synology NAS that has a copy of everything as well.

 

[ignatius345]

Are most people keeping large libraries on external SSDs and only plugging them in when needed? Or relying more on cloud storage now?

I’m not really a fan of cloud storage because I worry accidental deletions or sync issues can spraed across devices. But external drives can be a pain too ans easy to forget, and they seem to complicate backups.

Interested to hear what setups are working well for people.

it’s not an either/or.

I spec’ed my iMac with a 1TB drive so I’d have room to use iCloud Drive and keep Optimize Mac Storage set to OFF so that all my synced files are kept downloaded to my drive.

Big(gish) media libraries are kept on a 2 TB SSD. As with the iCloud Drive files, my Photos library is set up to keep the whole library downloaded.

The main reason for all this keeping stuff downloaded business is that everything is backed up a few different ways (daily to Time Machine; weekly to a separate drive via Carbon Copy Cloner; monthly via CCC to a drive kept offsite).

So basically I have everything synced to iCloud but I also have local copies. If for whatever reason I got cut off from iCloud, I could recover. If my house got sucked into a tornado, I could recover. Hell, if both happened, I could recover.

(I had my Mac and my backups all stolen at the same time years ago and I’ve never quite recovered mentally and now I’m paranoid as **** about my data. I only own about 5 TB of data so it’s not really that hard to keep it managed.)

 

[benholt]

Same problem on my side as a motion designer — project bundles run 30-40 GB and add up quick. Current shape: internal NVMe holds OS + apps + one active project at a time, a TB4 NVMe enclosure on the Studio carries the last six months of work, then cold archive on a pair of 18TB spinners with Carbon Copy Cloner rotating snapshots weekly. Backblaze covers the boot drive only, since the project tier is already redundant and uploading multi-terabyte cold archives just isn't realistic. The mindset shift that helped was treating internal storage as scratch/working set rather than permanent — Apple stopped subsidizing the internal-upgrade math years ago and a TB4 enclosure pushes 2.8 GB/s, which is fast enough for ProRes 4K direct playback. The corruption concern with Photos libraries is real though, and rotating two destinations on different physical drives is the cheap insurance.