running out of storage on 2016 MBP and need more

[psywzrd]

So I have a 2016 MBP running High Sierra. It only has a 256GB HDD in it, and I am rapidly running out of storage space. What is my best option for gaining more storage space without having to "permanently" attach an external HDD?

To add to the equation, I have an old MacBook that has a lot of data on it that I would like to somehow bring over to the MBP. I also have a 2TB Time Capsule running in bridge mode that both the MacBook AND the MBP back up to via CCC.

My first thought was to attach an external HDD to the USB port on the Time Capsule. Would that work and, if so, can I copy everything from my MacBook over to it as well? If I could buy a big enough external HDD, it could easily house everything I need and I can then retire the MacBook since it's so old anyway. I would also want to set my MBP up to be my Plex server (the MacBook serves that function right now, albeit poorly) with all of the media stored on the external HDD connected to the Time Capsule.

I don't know if I would be able to back up the external HDD to the Time Capsule's built-in HDD via CCC though, and that's important as well.

Is there a better solution to this problem? I'd rather not have to buy a brand-new MBP with a bigger HDD if I can avoid it and I don't think upgrading the HDD in my MBP is an option.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Howard2k]

I use a NAS.

There are plenty of routers out there that claim NAS type capabilities. I tried a couple and the ones that I tried were totally useless in this regard for anything beyond basic novelty. I'm not sure how the Time Capsule fairs in that capacity.

 

[Fishrrman]

Buy a small USB3 SSD.

Then take a hard, critical look at "the stuff" on the internal drive.

With each item, apply the questions:
Does this really need to be here?
How often will I access it?

Then move things you don't plan on accessing to the external drive.
When you need something, plug the external in.

If it's something like a movie, I would do this:
Plug in the external
COPY the movie to the internal drive (leave the original on the external)
Watch the movie.
Then... erase it from the internal drive.
It's still "archived" on the external drive.

I'm amazed at the folks who will pay Apple $700 for a 1tb internal drive, then fill it up with stuff they never use...

 

[psywzrd]

Buy a small USB3 SSD.

Then take a hard, critical look at "the stuff" on the internal drive.

With each item, apply the questions:
Does this really need to be here?
How often will I access it?

Then move things you don't plan on accessing to the external drive.
When you need something, plug the external in.

If it's something like a movie, I would do this:
Plug in the external
COPY the movie to the internal drive (leave the original on the external)
Watch the movie.
Then... erase it from the internal drive.
It's still "archived" on the external drive.

I'm amazed at the folks who will pay Apple $700 for a 1tb internal drive, then fill it up with stuff they never use...

Thank you for that; however, I would actually prefer to not have to plug in an external drive every time I need to access something from it. If an external drive can reside connected to the Time Capsule (or I can use a NAS option like Fishrrman mentioned), that would be a more elegant and convenient solution. Plus it would help me moving forward as well because I wouldn't really have to worry about internal storage when I'm ready to purchase another MBP, etc.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Sounds like you are ready for a NAS.

 

[psywzrd]

Sounds like you are ready for a NAS.

Any recommendations? I don't need anything too crazy because I only have my MacBook with a 1TB drive and my MBP with a 256GB drive. It would house my iTunes library, my Plex library and all of my data basically. And I guess I would need to set my MBP up to be my Plex server.

I would like something that I could back up as well though (to BackBlaze preferably since that is my current "cloud" backup solution); however, my understanding is that you cannot backup NAS devices to BackBlaze and I understand why. Is there a solution that meets all of my requirements here?

 

[Howard2k]

Any recommendations? I don't need anything too crazy because I only have my MacBook with a 1TB drive and my MBP with a 256GB drive. It would house my iTunes library, my Plex library and all of my data basically. And I guess I would need to set my MBP up to be my Plex server.

I would like something that I could back up as well though (to BackBlaze preferably since that is my current "cloud" backup solution); however, my understanding is that you cannot backup NAS devices to BackBlaze and I understand why. Is there a solution that meets all of my requirements here?

I think Plex is going away isn't it? I could be wrong.

I use a ZyXEL which acts as a Time Machine drive, has a media server (DLNA) etc. For iTunes I just dumped my local library on there, so I'm using my NAS to serve iTunes files, but not as an "iTunes Server". My MBPro just opens the files off the NAS. It also can pull torrents for me if I was into that.

I also have my android box, plugged into my TV, pull files off the NAS too, either directly (KODI) or though DLNA. It also

I'm not "sold" on ZyXEL, but I tried a few and this was by far the best one when I picked it up (several years ago). Buffalo Linkstation was the worst. I had problems with my drive and the tech support people were GREAT, but their answer was to buy an external drive enclosure to plug my drives into so that I could reinitialize them, or find a Windows computer to plug the hard drives directly into.

EDIT: I have the NSA-325v2, the current one is the NSA-326.
https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Storage-Remote-Streaming-NAS326/dp/B01BBXMEMQ

Syology are also a good brand. There are plenty of options, just be sure that whatever you buy can act as a Time Machine drive.

 

[psywzrd]

I think Plex is going away isn't it? I could be wrong.

Plex Cloud service is going away, but nothing else. The cloud service has been a disaster since it was launched anyway, so it's not a big loss. If they can ever figure out how to get it to work properly, it would be great.

 

[psywzrd]

Does anyone else have a suggestion for me that will meet my requirements?

 

[cgpd7507]

I’m using a QNAP TS-453b mini. It has (4) bays which I have 4 Western Digital Reds running in a Raid 1+0 configuration. It’s a Plex server and Time Machine backs up to it without a problem. It also has an IDrive App that I back up the whole NAS into the cloud

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/qnap-nas-backup-to-cloud/

 

[leman]

Synology is great (not perfect, but great). Fast, reliable, tons of services you can install. Time machine works like a charm.

 

[Howard2k]

One thing to keep in mind when buying HDDs - you likely won’t materially benefit from the speed of “NAS” drives vs regular HDDs, if at all, but they do apparently run cooler. I don’t use them, but I don’t buy the basement drives either. Well, you know, second cheapest.

I connect to my NAS over wifi so even with 1.3Gb/s wifi, the cheapest drives aren’t the bottleneck in performance.

 

[psywzrd]

What about one of the MyCloud units? Are those any good? I feel like I don’t need anything crazy because I’m probably only going to be using my MBP with it. I need to transfer the data from my MacBook over to it and then I would likely retire that machine since it’s 10+ years old. Then I would essentially use whatever I get as storage for my MBP. Ideally it would house my iTunes library, my Plex library, all the photos and videos I’ve taken over the years, important documents, iTunes backups, etc. If I could get something like that AND have the ability to somehow back it up to a cloud, that’s more than enough for me. A full blown NAS might be overkill for me and too expensive I think.

 

[jerryk]

Synology is my choice for a NAS. They have great software and applications that work well.

I just replaced my older NAS with a Synology. It has worked great. I have Time Machine set up on it as well as regular file shares.

They have applications for everything you want to do and much more, including backup to cloud as well as remote access to the NAS.

 

[Howard2k]

What about one of the MyCloud units? Are those any good? I feel like I don’t need anything crazy because I’m probably only going to be using my MBP with it. I need to transfer the data from my MacBook over to it and then I would likely retire that machine since it’s 10+ years old. Then I would essentially use whatever I get as storage for my MBP. Ideally it would house my iTunes library, my Plex library, all the photos and videos I’ve taken over the years, important documents, iTunes backups, etc. If I could get something like that AND have the ability to somehow back it up to a cloud, that’s more than enough for me. A full blown NAS might be overkill for me and too expensive I think.

I set up a friend’s MyCloud unit. I was really impressed. It was a great price and worked very well. As you mentioned as the features are limited compared to other units, but for the price... I don’t believe you can upgrade the drives at a later date, but I could be wrong. Anyway, for a basic NAS, I was impressed.

I also backup my NAS to an external drive every month. Cloud backup is good if you have versioning.

 

[psywzrd]

I set up a friend’s MyCloud unit. I was really impressed. It was a great price and worked very well. As you mentioned as the features are limited compared to other units, but for the price... I don’t believe you can upgrade the drives at a later date, but I could be wrong. Anyway, for a basic NAS, I was impressed.

I also backup my NAS to an external drive every month. Cloud backup is good if you have versioning.

I’ll have to do some research to see if I can back it up to a cloud as well. If I’m going to be moving all of my data off of my computers and onto a MyCloud, I need to be able to back it up to a cloud somehow.

And I’m looking into Synology as well because it can be backed up via Backblaze’s B2 service. It might be a little too complicated for my needs though.

 

[jerryk]

I’ll have to do some research to see if I can back it up to a cloud as well. If I’m going to be moving all of my data off of my computers and onto a MyCloud, I need to be able to back it up to a cloud somehow.

And I’m looking into Synology as well because it can be backed up via Backblaze’s B2 service. It might be a little too complicated for my needs though.

You might also look at Amazon's AWS Glacier cloud backup services. It is very cheap to backup, and great if you just want to be sure you have everything backed up and would not need immediate data recovery. Most NAS devices support Glacier. I am planning on using it to be the backup for those kid photos, important documents, etc. that I don't want to lose if the house burned down.

 

[Howard2k]

You might also look at Amazon's AWS Glacier cloud backup services. It is very cheap to backup, and great if you just want to be sure you have everything backed up and would not need immediate data recovery. Most NAS devices support Glacier. I am planning on using it to be the backup for those kid photos, important documents, etc. that I don't want to lose if the house burned down.

Thanks - good tip on Glacier, I'm going to look at that too.

 

[psywzrd]

So I'm still struggling with this. I've been doing a lot of research and I can't seem to find a great all-encompassing solution for my problem. Going with a Synology Diskstation, a MyCloud or even a simple external HD will work for my storage needs of course but then there's still the issue of backing that up to the cloud (that's a must for me because I just don't trust local backups by themselves and there's always the additional fear of theft, fire, etc). Having a MBP with such little built-in storage is obviously complicating things because I can't store everything I want on it and then just back that up to my Time Capsule via CCC and use Backblaze for my cloud backups.

All I want to do is get all of my data off of my MacBook and onto some type of external HDD, NAS etc and then retire that machine. Then I want to take the important data off of my MBP and merge that with that important data from my MacBook so that I can still easily access all of it from my MBP while ensuring that all of that data is also backed up to the cloud and can be retrieved somewhat easily and quickly in the event of a hardware failure of some sort. I feel like this shouldn't be that complicated but it's proving to be more difficult than I expected.

 

[duervo]

Backing up Synology to BackBlaze:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/synology-cloud-backup-guide/

Backing up Synology to Amazon Glacier:

https://www.ceos3c.com/cloud/synology-nas-glacier-backup-ultimate-guide/

Backing up WDC MyCloud Mirror to Amazon S3 (Note: Only MyCloud Mirror products support cloud backups. The lower end MyCloud units do not, and will require command-line tweaks by the user to get it to work, which will not be supported by WDC if they have to call them for help. Also, MyCloud Mirror does not officially support BackBlaze):

https://www.wdc.com/content/dam/wdc...assets/eng/user_manual/4779-705145.pdf#page57

 

[jerryk]

So I'm still struggling with this. I've been doing a lot of research and I can't seem to find a great all-encompassing solution for my problem. Going with a Synology Diskstation, a MyCloud or even a simple external HD will work for my storage needs of course but then there's still the issue of backing that up to the cloud (that's a must for me because I just don't trust local backups by themselves and there's always the additional fear of theft, fire, etc). Having a MBP with such little built-in storage is obviously complicating things because I can't store everything I want on it and then just back that up to my Time Capsule via CCC and use Backblaze for my cloud backups.

All I want to do is get all of my data off of my MacBook and onto some type of external HDD, NAS etc and then retire that machine. Then I want to take the important data off of my MBP and merge that with that important data from my MacBook so that I can still easily access all of it from my MBP while ensuring that all of that data is also backed up to the cloud and can be retrieved somewhat easily and quickly in the event of a hardware failure of some sort. I feel like this shouldn't be that complicated but it's proving to be more difficult than I expected.

I am not sure why any of these NAS devices cannot meet both your short term and long term goals.

Here is what I would did with my NAS when I recently upgraded my MBP.

• Copied my /Users/myname folder from old Mac to the NAS (300GB or so). I wrote the data onto a new share on the NAS called my OldMachine
  
• Mount OldMachine share on my new MBP.
• Copied certain folders and files from OldMachine to new MBP

I reinstalled by base apps (Office 365, Xcode, Anaconda, etc). Then I am reinstall apps on the new MBP as needed. This eliminates a lot of cruf that had built up (i.e. Apps and associated data I tried once and never again used, ...)

On the NAS I have a Time Machine share (which is size limited so it does not eat up all NAS storage) and file shares for photos, documents, work items, etc. A subset of these file shares are what I will have automatically backup to the cloud.

 

[jerryk]

One thing to keep in mind when buying HDDs - you likely won’t materially benefit from the speed of “NAS” drives vs regular HDDs, if at all, but they do apparently run cooler. I don’t use them, but I don’t buy the basement drives either. Well, you know, second cheapest.

I connect to my NAS over wifi so even with 1.3Gb/s wifi, the cheapest drives aren’t the bottleneck in performance.

I agree they are not a bottleneck, but the NAS drives are often bit slower than standard HDDs. WD "Red" (NAS) drives spin at 5400 RPM, instead of 7200 RPM for "standard" drives. But that gives them a few advantage in the NAS scenario. First, they are quieter. Which is good because a lot of people want their NAS to serve PLEX, iTunes, or other media and keep them right next to their TV or stereo system. Second, they generate less heat and have no issue being left on 24 X 7 for years. But, the NAS will like spin down the drives when not in use to save power and eliminate any disk noise.

I waste my NAS since I don't do much stuff with it, but it apparently can transcode video for Plex and other media services on their own. Also it can run VMs that a developer can use to run Windows, Linux, servers. I only use mine for basic file serving and Time Machine backups and soon cloud uploads, but they can do so much more.

 

[Howard2k]

I waste my NAS since I don't do much stuff with it, but it apparently can transcode video for Plex and other media services on their own. Also it can run VMs that a developer can use to run Windows, Linux, servers. I only use mine for basic file serving and Time Machine backups and soon cloud uploads, but they can do so much more.

I wouldn't call that wasted. You're still getting plenty of use out of it by the sounds of it. But yeah some of them are remarkably capable, more than a simple slow disk on a network. I also run a torrent client and a media service (DLNA) on mine. There are a bunch of packages that I've never bothered to really look at too. I suspect in terms of capabilities mine is somewhere in the middle of the road. It's an older unit (now) but relatively advanced for its time. Every module that is active is consuming memory and CPU of course, so I keep mine pretty bare bones. I actually even deactivate the DLNA server unless I need to use it. I use the DLNA server for streaming to my Oculus, but my Android (for TV) I just read everything over SMB. Neither scenario is perfect, but both are pretty damn good.

 

[Naimfan]

Just get a Transcend Jetdrive Lite to put in the SDXC card slot.

Oh, wait . . .

 

[Howard2k]

Just get a Transcend Jetdrive Lite to put in the SDXC card slot.

Oh, wait . . .

How much is a 4TB SDXC?