MacBook Pro and External Storage

[deckard666]

Well got myself a MacBook Pro M1 512GB this week - Didnt quite realise the "nuance" of it just having two Thunderbolt connectors (compared to the hundreds on my 2010 MacPro) so I am waiting for my USB C dock (have you seen the price of TB ones and their drives !) to arrive today so I can migrate over my cMP data.

Also didn't really figure in my 16TB internal storage on my old machine and how that was going to translate to usage on this 512 wonder (although I do have 12TB of external USB3 hard drives about) so a lot to think about....I think in the short term I might have to considerably upgrade my cloud storage and dump most of it there till i get some more drives.

You lot any thoughts ? TB is far too pricey for me at the moment so just buy another external USB3 Drive ? Any recommendations for a large cloud storage provider ? BackBlaze looks good as unlimited storage....or iDrive...

Actually just installed free trial of BackBlaze and looks great so far...nice iOS app too.

 

[velocityg4]

If you think a large HDD is pricey. Cloud file storage will be through the stratosphere.

Use your old Mac Pro as a NAS/Server. Another option is to sell it. Then do a cheap and far more energy efficient DIY NAS. Utilizing your old HDD for storage.

Perhaps sell the Mac Pro and replace it with a used Mac Mini for the NAS. Popping the drives in external enclosures. If you want to stick with Macs and not fool around with something like FreeNAS.

 

[deckard666]

Well I was paying 10 quid a month for 2TB with dropbox so BackBlaze with unlimited for 60 dollars a year is a massive improvement. I was think of selling the cMP with the 4 Internal SATA Drives (as it has one SSD installed in the old CD writer) but now I think I might keep 3 and use them as storage.

 

[velocityg4]

Well I was paying 10 quid a month for 2TB with dropbox so BackBlaze with unlimited for 60 dollars a year is a massive improvement. I was think of selling the cMP with the 4 Internal SATA Drives (as it has one SSD installed in the old CD writer) but now I think I might keep 3 and use them as storage.

That's unlimited backup though. Not unlimited storage. Their cloud storage is much pricier. Storage is by the GB and downloading said storage is by the GB. They charge to store and access data.

Backup is just that, backup. There won't be any sort of syncing like Dropbox and restoring files isn't as simple as click and download.

Are you looking for backup or storage? As your post indicated 16TB storage. For storage you would need their B2 Cloud Storage service. Using your 16TB as a starting point. Here is a hypothetical use case
- 16TB initial storage
- Upload 150GB new files per month
- Download 200GB per month to work with files
- Delete 10GB per month from the cloud
- Cost $1,038 per year

Cloud Storage Pricing Comparison: Amazon S3 vs Azure vs B2

Looking for low cost cloud storage? Find out how the leaders in cloud storage compare by price and function.

www.backblaze.com

Also note some caveats of their backup.
- They remove stale data. If you delete a file. They remove it in 30 days. Same with old revisions. Same with removing drives. So, those 16TB drives will have to be on and connected at least once a month. For the data not to go the way of the dodo. You may extend this to a year if you pay extra.
- Restores are slow. 16TB will require waiting for them to pack it in an archive. Then you can download it. You'll need enough space for the archive plus unpacking it. Given the size. You'll likely need to restore in multiple steps. Creating multiple archives covering smaller groups of files.
- You can wait and get a restore drive. But you better send it back in time or get hit with a big fee.

 

[deckard666]

I think I got confused after using Dropbox for so long about backup and storage thanks for the info - I think I will go with this and use the hard drives in the cMP and just sell it with the 1tb internal SSD drive I installed as I see a lot of ebay sellers do that...

ORICO USB 3.0 4-Bay Hard Drive Docking Station and Clone for 2.5 and 3.5 Inch SATA III HDDs/SSDs

www.amazon.co.uk

I have 12tb of external USB3 drives so the above would just be my weekly backup.