Need more space for Music/Videos/Photos/etc.

[edeninwonderlan]

Hi, sorry if this ended up in the wrong thread but, I got my Macbook Pro a little less than two years ago and I listen to a lot of music and take a lot of pictures. So much music and pictures that my HD space is running extremely low. I'll be in college next year so I really need to have some extra space for more music and other things. I've looked into external HDs, an Apple time capsule as well as a few other things and I'm wondering if any of you could suite me up with something based on my needs, it would be greatly appreciated!

I need something with..
-At least a terabyte of storage.
-Wireless
-Streaming of my music right to my laptop from the device without having to re-drag and drop into my iTunes
-Access to files without having to re-download to my computer
-Reliability (in other words something that's not going to clunk out on me a year from now and take all my precious files with it)

If you need any more verification feel free to ask, and thank you in advance!

 

[duervo]

I believe that this meets all of those requirements:

http://www.synology.com/products/product.php?product_name=DS213air&lang=us


Put two 2TB drives in it and then mirror them.

 

[el-John-o]

What about adding a second drive using an OptiBay or Data Doubler?

Basically, you remove your optical drive (DVD drive) and put a hard drive where it goes. If you need the optical drive, you can always get an enclosure to stick your existing drive in. If you're like me, you'll use a second hard drive a whole lot more than you'll use a DVD drive, so having the hard drive internal and the DVD external makes more sense.

Bear in mind than any network solution (like a Time Capsule) will be pretty slow over Wi-Fi. Expect under 20MB/s with a time capsule. Compare that to 130+ MB/s with an internal spinning drive (400MB/s for a good SSD). That's not an issue for streaming music, but it is an issue for copying large files back and forth, and for streaming certain types of video.

As far as what that other drive should be; there are TONS of 750GB 2.5" hard drives, there are even a couple 2.5", 9mm 1TB and 2TB drives lurking around.

If that doesn't sound any good, the next best solution would be a USB 3.0 external. Thunderbolt is nice but you'll only really take advantage of that speed if you are using an external SSD. There are lots of 1TB+ external USB 3.0 drives. Preferably, find one that is bus powered if possible, meaning it'll run straight off of the USB port. That makes it a bit more usable on-the-go.

Also, keep in mind a second hard drive in the machine will reduce battery life. Not a tremendous amount, but some.

Here's what I'd do if I were in your shoes:
1TB Western Digital Hard Drive (order two if you want to go really crazy and have 2TB of storage. You could even improve the speed some by combining two 1TB drives into a RAID0 configuration, though I'd recommend having a good backup solution because if one drive fails, all data is lost)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136927

And a Data Doubler from OWC:
http://www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai=...ign=googlebase&rct=j&q=OWC+hard+drive+optical

There are some cheaper alternatives too if you shop around on Amazon/eBay.

If you include the external enclosure for your SuperDrive, you could actually stick TWO 1TB hard drives in your MBP, perhaps running RAID0 doubling the speed, put the SuperDrive into an external enclosure, put your factory drive into an external enclosure for even more storage, all for less than a 2TB Time Capsule.

-John