Just purchased a new M2 Mac Mini and need Storage advice...

[bassett72]

I just bought a M2 Mac Mini, upgraded the RAM to 16GB, but didn’t want to spend the $200 on going to 512GB for storage. What I want to do is have an external drive to use for storage, and also back up everything with Time Machine. Which I currently have a 4TB Seagate HDD.
I really won’t do much besides storing about 60,000 family pictures & movies, which we may edit using Photos now and then, but nothing special. Excel and Word docs, along with PDF of manuals, I do my taxes and general email and internet usage.
Wondering what would be the best setup for me to do this? Is SATA SDD, NVME SDD, or another HDD going to be the best bet for me? Doubt I need the speed of an NVME and stability/not losing my data is most important. Also, I do back up my photos on iCloud, but like to keep the originals on the local drive.
I recently lost my iMac to a hard drive failure so I’m trying to do a better job at backing up.
If you have a set up in mind that would be best, I would appreciate hearing what you would recommend. I get the new Mac Mini on 03/18 so looking to order a setup soon.
Thank you!

 

[mystery hill]

Samsung T7 SSD.

 

[Hat Tric]

The external Samsung SSDs are very good and are widely recommended. I'm using the T7 as well.

But please make up your mind beforehand how much disk space you want to allocate for the Time Machine backups.

If you have your data and Time Machine on the same container/volume then over time Time Machine will grow and grow until there's no space left for actual data.

Maybe it's good to have a container/volume with double the space you want to backup exclusively for Time Machine and then create another container/volume for the rest of the data. I'm sure there are many guides on how to do that with Apple's Disk Utility.

 

[bassett72]

Can I run a separate (Lets say T7) to just run Time Machine?

 

[chabig]

Can I run a separate (Lets say T7) to just run Time Machine?

Yes.

If you do get one of these, expect it to ship with some Samsung software. The first thing you should do is ignore that and reformat the drive using Disk Utility. Samsung's software is neither necessary nor desired. macOS has already everything it needs to use the drive.

 

[bassett72]

Is a SATA more reliable long term? I've heard NVMEs aren't as reliable...

 

[Ifti]

Separate your data from your backup drive. If the drive failed, you lose everything!

 

[Ifti]

Is a SATA more reliable long term? I've heard NVMEs aren't as reliable...

All of my external drives are NVMe, and have been for the past 2 years or so. No issues at all. And that includes 2 external Time Machine drives.

 

[Fishrrman]

You would have been better off to spend the $200 for the 512gb drive, assuming it would "hold everything" with a little room to spare.

Now you have to be concerned about backing up TWO drives:
- internal SSD
and
- the external drive you buy for additional storage.

As for backups, I'd suggest either SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner instead of time machine. Over the years, I've read too many posts of users who thought they'd be fine with tm, and then -- in a moment of need -- tried to access their tm backup and... couldn't.

Especially for an external drive that IS NOT a "bootable" drive.
You want your backup to be an exact copy, so if the external drive fails, you just substitute the cloned backup "in its place".

 

[Cave Man]

+1 for CCC. Time Machine has failed me more than once and it's really not reliable.

 

[bassett72]

You would have been better off to spend the $200 for the 512gb drive, assuming it would "hold everything" with a little room to spare.

Now you have to be concerned about backing up TWO drives:
- internal SSD
and
- the external drive you buy for additional storage.

As for backups, I'd suggest either SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner instead of time machine. Over the years, I've read too many posts of users who thought they'd be fine with tm, and then -- in a moment of need -- tried to access their tm backup and... couldn't.

Especially for an external drive that IS NOT a "bootable" drive.
You want your backup to be an exact copy, so if the external drive fails, you just substitute the cloned backup "in its place".

Well, since it is too late to get the internal drive. Would I be best served with a SATA drive for reliability, and using the CCC software?

 

[LavaLevel]

I'm in the EXACT SAME BOAT! I just purchased a Mac Mini M2 16/256. That means M3 Mac Mini will be announced in the next few weeks! LOL. My plans are to get an M3 Studio later this year when they are announced anyway so no bother.

I plan to keep little to nothing on the main 256 boot drive. Even some programs will run from external, like Blender, SublimeText2, Solar2d. I think Xcode will be the main program on that drive. And anything else that requires complex subfolders upon install. I make Apps hence that software, so Applications_2 & Documents_2 will get a lot of use!

Also I Turn Time Machine OFF. I find it silly and it eats up space. To back up I use micro disks and just copy Data Files/folders to those every yearly quarter. Then put them to read only, and store them away in a big binder that dates back to 2015.

I ordered the:

Qwiizlab USB C Hub with Dual Drive Enclosure, Docking Station for Mac Studio Mac Mini M2/M1/Intel, Type-C 10Gbps, Card Readers 100MB/s, Fits M.2 NVMe NGFF SSD & 2.5'' SATA SSD (Silver)​

Acer SA100 240GB SATA III 2.5 Inch Internal SSD - 6 Gb/s​

and...

Acer FA100 512GB SSD - M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 x 4 NVMe Interface, 8 Gb/s, 3D NAND​

...to load in that bad boy. So almost 1T total. A little worried since someone told me these things often lose the drives, So I opted for Qwizzlab because I can plug it into it's own power source and not draw from the actual Mac-Mini

Either way, you're not alone in this! Best of luck to us both!

 

[Siliconguy]

I just bought a M2 Mac Mini, upgraded the RAM to 16GB, but didn’t want to spend the $200 on going to 512GB for storage. What I want to do is have an external drive to use for storage, and also back up everything with Time Machine. Which I currently have a 4TB Seagate HDD.

So it's a desktop, extreme portability not required, and power is not a problem. So there is no problem with your existing HDD. The extra speed of an SSD isn't really relevant for infrequently used files and Time Machine uses the eons (in CPU terms) between keystrokes to do it's work.

I take it you have a 256 GB internal SSD. As others have pointed out putting general file storage and Time Machine backups on the same drive can run you out of room. And this is true, Time Machine will grow without bounds.

So the solution is to partition your drive. Twice internal SSD is entirely fine for a Time Machine backup, so a 512 GB partition just for Time Machine. When that fills up TM will toss the obsolete versions of the files you forgot you had without intervention.

The other partition is for your other stuff. I'm assuming your Seagate is a 3.5" drive in a USB 3 case. If not that's what you need to upgrade. Where to put the current contests of the Seagate while you repartition it might be a problem. At worst you'll have to get a new external drive and start fresh there, and then use the original Seagate as an offline backup.

 

[Ifti]

I use both - I have two external drives. One is a CCC backup, and one is a TM backup. Both drives are dedicated of that purchase and used for nothing else.

 

[August West]

I have two T7 Shields. 4 & 2 Gb which I use for Time Machine backups and the other for media storage. They are only about ¼ as fast as the internal drive but still plenty fast backups and storage. Especially compared to the HDD's I used to use which made browsing TM backups excruciating.

 

[Ifti]

I have two T7 Shields. 4 & 2 Gb which I use for Time Machine backups and the other for media storage. They are only about ¼ as fast as the internal drive but still plenty fast backups and storage. Especially compared to the HDD's I used to use which made browsing TM backups excruciating.

I used to do this, but then moved to using my own NVMe drives (2230 size) in my own enclosures (Dockcase Pocket). My thinking was if the enclosure was to fail I wanted to be able to remove the drive and place it into another enclosure to access my data. Probably a bit OTT though! lol

 

[zapmymac]

Hi, My use-case is pretty similar to yours, so here is my setup.

The Dock is from OWC (10gb/s usb-c) to my working spinner, and my backup spinner (encrypted).

The 2TB LaCie SSD (encrypted) hold my 65k photo/video iCloud originals.
The 1TB Sandisk (encrypted)(supposedly not one of the defective ones) hold my photos/videos I don’t want uploaded to iCloud, so separate Photos Library.

Everything is encrypted by Mac OS. Spinners are HFs+, SSD is APFS.

3 data cables, and 1 power cable, messy but it doesn’t bother much.

I manually do backups, as I don’t make much new data.

The SSD’s are as fast as the internal SSD. Base M2. I use OWC Thunderbolt 4/3 cables.

I keep nothing on the internal SSD. I also have another 3.5 spinner not shown as my 3-2-1 backup plan.

 

[bassett72]

OK, this is where I'm at. I appreciate each and every reply, but wow, this can get confusing... To keep costs down, I'm thinking of getting a 2 TB Samsung T7 ($170) as my primary drive, then I'd get Carbon Copy Cloner and use a
Seagate Portable 5TB External Hard Drive HDD – USB 3.0 for PC, Mac, PS4, & Xbox - 1-Year Rescue Service (STGX5000400), Black Portable HDD---($130) for the back up.

I wasn't going to do another HDD since I have one, but it is 8-10 years old. Not a ton of use other than Time Machine backup, but I was thinking it may be pushing it to have this as my back up going forward..

Thoughts on all that? Any where I could do better in this?

 

[MacCheetah3]

OK, this is where I'm at. I appreciate each and every reply, but wow, this can get confusing... To keep costs down, I'm thinking of getting a 2 TB Samsung T7 ($170) as my primary drive, then I'd get Carbon Copy Cloner and use a
Seagate Portable 5TB External Hard Drive HDD – USB 3.0 for PC, Mac, PS4, & Xbox - 1-Year Rescue Service (STGX5000400), Black Portable HDD---($130) for the back up.

I wasn't going to do another HDD since I have one, but it is 8-10 years old. Not a ton of use other than Time Machine backup, but I was thinking it may be pushing it to have this as my back up going forward..

Thoughts on all that? Any where I could do better in this?

I think, overall, it sounds like a fair setup plan, however, I recommend keeping the internal SSD as the “primary drive” (if by that you mean boot, applications, etc), it’s going to keep the Mac overall faster and reduce/prevent a fundamental problem (e.g., the Mac not booting). On the 2TB T7, you can store your documents (likely in some folder hierarchy) as well as:

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

To save storage space on your Mac, you can move your Photos library to a different storage device.

support.apple.com

It might be best to perform the steps in the order:

Prepare your storage device​

Make sure that your external storage device, such as a USB drive or Thunderbolt drive, is formatted for Mac: either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.

You can't store your library on a storage device used for Time Machine backups. And to avoid possible data loss, don't store your library on a removable storage device like an SD card or USB flash drive, or on a device shared over your network or the internet, including over a cloud-based storage service.

If you get an error when moving Photos Library​

1. Select your external storage device in the Finder, then choose File > Get Info.
2. If the information under Sharing & Permissions isn't visible, click the triangle
   
   to see more.
   
   
3. Make sure that the “Ignore ownership on this volume” checkbox is selected. To change it, you might first have to click the lock button
   
   to unlock the setting. If the storage device isn't formatted correctly for Mac, or was used for Time Machine backups but hasn't been erased, this checkbox won't be present or won't be selectable after unlocking. In that case, erase the storage device first.

Move Photos Library to the storage device​

1. Quit Photos.
2. In the Finder, open the folder that contains Photos Library. By default, Photos Library is stored in the Pictures folder of your home folder. You can open your home folder by choosing Go > Home from the Finder menu bar.
3. Drag Photos Library to a location on your external storage device. Learn what to do if you get an error.
4. After the move is finished, double-click Photos Library in its new location to open it.
5. If you use iCloud Photos, or to access the library via the Photo Picker in other apps, designate this library as the System Photo Library.

Related:

Move your iMovie for Mac library - Apple Support

To save space on your Mac, you can move your iMovie library to an external storage device.

support.apple.com

Change where your music files are stored on Mac

On your Mac, change where your Music files are stored on your computer. You can also manage your files and create folders for better organization.

support.apple.com

 

[bassett72]

I think, overall, it sounds like a fair setup plan, however, I recommend keeping the internal SSD as the “primary drive” (if by that you mean boot, applications, etc), it’s going to keep the Mac overall faster and reduce/prevent a fundamental problem (e.g., the Mac not booting). On the 2TB T7, you can store your documents (likely in some folder hierarchy) as well as:

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

To save storage space on your Mac, you can move your Photos library to a different storage device.

support.apple.com

It might be best to perform the steps in the order:





Related:

Move your iMovie for Mac library - Apple Support

To save space on your Mac, you can move your iMovie library to an external storage device.

support.apple.com

Change where your music files are stored on Mac

On your Mac, change where your Music files are stored on your computer. You can also manage your files and create folders for better organization.

support.apple.com

Sorry, primary STORAGE Drive is what I mean. I'll leave the OS, booting,etc. on the 256 Internal drive. I'm not going to store anything new on the internal though....

Any thoughts on needing the new HDD based on the age of the old one I have?

 

[MacCheetah3]

Any thoughts on needing the new HDD based on the age of the old one I have?

My experience follows the trends, if a HDD doesn’t fail early on (e.g., within 2 years), it’ll probably be reliable for a great length of time — especially if it does not exhibit any abnormal operational symptoms.

How Long Do Disk Drives Last?

We followed up on our initial drive life study in 2013 with data from over 200,000 disk drives. Read this post to see the latest from our reporting on the life expectancy of the drives in our data centers.

www.backblaze.com

Can HDD last more than 5 years? - Darwin's Data

Hard disk drives (HDDs) have been a staple of computer storage for decades. With solid state drives (SSDs) becoming more popular, many wonder if HDDs are

darwinsdata.com

Hard disk drive reliability and MTBF / AFR | Seagate US

Seagate is no longer using the industry standard "Mean Time Between Failures" (MTBF) to quantify disk drive average failure rates. Seagate is changing to another standard: "Annualized Failure Rate" (AFR).

www.seagate.com

 

[mavis]

For my M2 Mini (512/16) I use a Trebleet Thunderbolt 3 dock with an internal NVMe slot (2TB Samsung 980 Pro) which I use to hold my photo library (I download all originals to my Mac, so that I can back it up myself). The drive has been plugged in and running 24/7 for about a year, with no issues. I also have a Qwizzlab USB-C dock/hub, with a 4TB Samsung 870 (?) SSD drive (SATA) just to have some extra archival storage. I use CCC to back everything up to my Synology NAS (3x8TB in SHR2 so 15TB usable) once a week. The Mac and all attached drives continuously back up to Backblaze, and once a month I connect two consumer-grade 8TB HDDs to the Mac, and use CCC to back up the entire NAS, which in turn is backed up to Backblaze (the two external HDDs are backed up, I mean).

So at the very least I'd recommend a 1TB or 2TB NVMe in a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure for extra storage, and that Qwizzlab (or similar) to house a SATA SSD or spinner for even more storage, if needed. The Qwizzlab actually has an NVMe slot as well, but mine would spontaneously disconnect from time to time no matter what power source or NVMe drive I used; the Trebleet OTOH has been rock-solid for a year and counting.

 

[LavaLevel]

I just got my Qwiizlab deck and mounted my two cheap externals! totalling 750gb of extra storage along with the 256 base, making it a total of 1T. I'm using it on my Mac Mini 2012 atm! 😂 Still waiting on my Mac Mini M2 16/256 to show up! Apple is taking EXTRA long on my 16gb upgrade which leads me to believe the M3 Mac Mini is just weeks if not days away if they dont have M2 16/256s laying around. So you can all thank me for the M3 Mac Mini coming out of course a week after i ordered my m2! 😅.

It's ok, I'm typing this on my wife's M1 that I also build my apps on (my mac mini 2012 is just too far out of date to be able to build apps now) So this will be a much needed upgrade, serving a direct purpose. I'll get my M3 Studio when I sell 10 bazillion apps. 😂

I've researched all the programs that I can put on External. moving files around. Waiting for my M2... patiently... lol

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I just got my Qwiizlab deck and mounted my two cheap externals! totalling 750gb of extra storage along with the 256 base, making it a total of 1T. I'm using it on my Mac Mini 2012 atm! 😂 Still waiting on my Mac Mini M2 16/256 to show up! Apple is taking EXTRA long on my 16gb upgrade which leads me to believe the M3 Mac Mini is just weeks if not days away if they dont have M2 16/256s laying around. So you can all thank me for the M3 Mac Mini coming out of course a week after i ordered my m2! 😅.

It's ok, I'm typing this on my wife's M1 that I also build my apps on (my mac mini 2012 is just too far out of date to be able to build apps now) So this will be a much needed upgrade, serving a direct purpose. I'll get my M3 Studio when I sell 10 bazillion apps. 😂

I've researched all the programs that I can put on External. moving files around. Waiting for my M2... patiently... lol

I just bought that same dock today.

 

[HDFan]

1. Implement a 3-2-1 backup procedure
2. TM should be only 1 of those backups as it tends to fail
3. iCloud is not a backup
4. Using an SSD for a TM backup is often a waste of money. You can get equivalent reliability at a lower cost using a HD. You also get more HD storage for the same cost which increases the number of days that have backups.