Moving my iTunes library to external drive. Suggestions on setup?

[MacProDude]

I'd got with (1) over (2).

Solution 1 will solve two issues: iTunes media storage and give you a backup solution for everything in case of failure or deletion.

Solution 2 provides iTunes media storage but does not provide a backup solution for anything in case of deletion, and it only provides protection against a loss of the one drive in the mirrored pair and not your Mac HD.

If you only have one computer, I'd go with (1). NAS is no real benefit for you, and is a lower perf solution for same amount of money spent.

If you have (or soon expect to get) more than one computer you are trying to solve this for, you should seriously consider a NAS for both media storage and backup.

Keep in mind you would still need a backup strategy for the primary media storage on the NAS!

I have three Macs and a PC in the family (the PC is my daughter's hand-me down from my wife and will eventually go away).

All back up to my NAS. All have media storage on the NAS. The media storage on the NAS is backed up to at least one of the three computers, so I always have a second copy of everything, regardless of whether it is on the NAS or not.

My most important data is also backed up to external disk with the intention of rotating it offsite. But I never get around to rotating the offsite disks. So, I'm going to set up public or private cloud solution.

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My main issue with a NAS is questions about future Mac security updates that could lock it out..I have had issues with an older Buffalo NAS that will not be updated to fix a similar issue with Mountain Lion.

I'm not worried about getting locked out from iTunes media storage. You'd have to lose both file-level (AFP, CIFS/SMB2, NFS) and block-level (iSCSI) protocol support somehow.

Time Machine, however, is still a minor concern of mine, particularly if it changes once my NAS device loses support from the vendor.

I had a crappy two-drive Buffalo NAS from a few years back. Too slow at everything, feature poor, and poor device support. Gave up on NAS and switched to external drives.

Just recently decided home NAS has come a long way since then and picked up a Synology 413j for media storage and backup. So far so good!

Home NAS, you've come a long way, baby!

 

[Uofmtiger]

I'm not worried about getting locked out from iTunes media storage. You'd have to lose both file-level (AFP, CIFS/SMB2, NFS) and block-level (iSCSI) protocol support somehow.

Time Machine, however, is still a minor concern of mine, particularly if it changes once my NAS device loses support from the vendor.

I had a crappy two-drive Buffalo NAS from a few years back. Too slow at everything, feature poor, and poor device support. Gave up on NAS and switched to external drives.

Just recently decided home NAS has come a long way since then and picked up a Synology 413j for media storage and backup. So far so good!

Home NAS, you've come a long way, baby!

Well, Apple managed to permanently lock out my NAS and I don't think it is isolated to Buffalo devices since the Buffalo forum had a link to the Synology forum with the same issue. Luckily, I have VMware fusion and Windows installed on a couple of my Macs, so I was able to copy the files to an external drive that my Macs could access.

That being said, I am still going to take the risk on a NAS since I am tired of trying I manage numerous external drives.

The 413j is on my short list for my next NAS. I am glad to hear you are happy with it. I am just trying to decide between it and the 1512+ which costs a lot more, but seems to be worth it. I am leaning toward going the cheaper route, though.

Anyway, for iTunes only, I think it really depends on the size of the library before deciding the best solution. Using a couple external drives (one for the library and one for backup) seems to be a cheaper and possibly faster solution if the library can fit on one drive.

 

[d.steve]

That being said, I am still going to take the risk on a NAS since I am tired of trying I manage numerous external drives.

The 413j is on my short list for my next NAS. I am glad to hear you are happy with it. I am just trying to decide between it and the 1512+ which costs a lot more, but seems to be worth it. I am leaning toward going the cheaper route, though.

Anyway, for iTunes only, I think it really depends on the size of the library before deciding the best solution. Using a couple external drives (one for the library and one for backup) seems to be a cheaper and possibly faster solution if the library can fit on one drive.

Yeah, I pretty much agree with that last paragraph.

It also depends on how many computers you're dealing with and what else you need to solve for. if I only had to worry about one computer, I'd just stick with DAS.

With multiple computers, I find NAS useful a single destination to back up everything, as well as iTunes media storage (just making sure to back that iTunes media storage elsewhere so I don't have to re-rip everytihng from original media again if I lose it).

I now have three Macs in the family, and I'm finding it very handy to have NAS.

There's a world of difference between the 413J and the 1512+!

One extra bay.
Expansion unit-capable.
Hot swap, if you can't be offline for a few min.
Link aggregation, if you need 2x1Gbps - mostly for multiple concurrent systems accessing the unit.
Virtualization. (Really, get a separate server if you need this)
More oomph to run more packages
etc

None of which really are that much benefit for just backup, media storage and other basic file service except the extra storage capacity.

 

[Uofmtiger]

Yeah, I pretty much agree with that last paragraph.

It also depends on how many computers you're dealing with and what else you need to solve for. if I only had to worry about one computer, I'd just stick with DAS.

With multiple computers, I find NAS useful a single destination to back up everything, as well as iTunes media storage (just making sure to back that iTunes media storage elsewhere so I don't have to re-rip everytihng from original media again if I lose it).

I now have three Macs in the family, and I'm finding it very handy to have NAS.

There's a world of difference between the 413J and the 1512+!

One extra bay.
Expansion unit-capable.
Hot swap, if you can't be offline for a few min.
Link aggregation, if you need 2x1Gbps - mostly for multiple concurrent systems accessing the unit.
Virtualization. (Really, get a separate server if you need this)
More oomph to run more packages
etc

None of which really are that much benefit for just backup, media storage and other basic file service except the extra storage capacity.

thanks for the quick comparison of the two NAS products. My main goal is to use it as a backup and to be able to access files from more than one computer. Seems like the lower model will do what I need if I continue to use a Mac mini for most of my streaming needs.

 

[From A Buick 8]

I use a DROBO (4 bay with three 2-TB drives in there), iTunes runs on our iMac 24/7 and pulls from the DROBO

I have a 1-TB drive for time machine back up. Then i have two OWC Mecury Elite dual bay enclosures each with two 2-tb drives in them, these i use for a monthly backup of the DROBO and a secondary backup of the iMac (incase the time macine fails).