Mac mini m2: external ssd for music server

[whyrichard]

Hello,

I am trying to upgrade the music server, Mac mini that I use in my main stereo… I just ordered a used M2 Mac mini with only 8 GB ram and the internal to 256 GB hard drive.

Given the size of my music library, I will need at least one to 2 GB of music storage…

What do you all recommend for an external hard drive for the Mac mini M2? Is there one that is minimal reliable and blends well with the form factor?

The emphasis on reliability is important, I plan on leaving it on constantly for years

Thank you!

 

[whyrichard]

In a way, the simplistic would be to use a USB dongle that is 1tb (turns out that would be big enough).
Is there a downside to using a USB dongle to store my music library? Reliability?

Alternatively, I could use an external SSD in this:

 

[Basic75]

For storing a music library you don't need high speed and you don't need high write endurance, even a cheap and ****** QLC drive will be perfectly fine for this write-once-read-often low-bandwidth case.

And you don't need to care about reliability and other quality. Like with all data, keep at least two backups, perhaps one on an SSD and one on an HDD, or on two SSDs.

Remember to plug the backup SSDs into the computer for a day at least every couple of months and even if your music library doesn't change and you don't need to update your backups.

(Google "SSD data retention unpowered" and read page 3 of https://documents.westerndigital.co...ite-paper-ssd-endurance-and-hdd-workloads.pdf to understand why.)