Storage/Backup Strategy

[kman11]

I've been reading all the great threads on storage and backup strategies, but I'm not overly computer savvy when it comes to peripherals so just looking for some guidance on my particular situation. My current setup is the following:

2011 iMac - 1 TB HDD
Seagate GoFlex 1.5 TB External HD (Time Machine Backup for iMac)
2012 MacBook Air - 128 GB SSD
Seagate 250 GB External HDD (Time Machine Backup for MacBook Air)
Backblaze Online Backup for both iMac and MacBook Air

My current issue is my iMac HDD is at 80% capacity. The contributors are: iTunes music library (~60 GB music, ~80 GB movies), Aperture photo library (~80 GB), iMovie files (~250 GB), and other stuff (Logic files, etc). All of these will continue to grow over time and I expect to be out of HD space on the iMac in maybe another year or so.

I've been looking at various options mentioned on this forum and have been considering a few different solutions: 1) a WD My Book Duo 4 TB (or something similar) to use one drive for storage and the other for backup or 2) an external drive for storage with NAS or TC for backup (could also backup Macbook Air too) or 3) just two external drives - a 2 TB for storage and a 3 TB to backup the other drive and the internal drive.

I'm thinking the last option might not be the most elegant, bit maybe would be simplest and cheapest. I could then leave the internal drive for just projects I'm working on at the moment then move them to the external drive when completed. I'd also just continue using a separate backup drive for the Macbok Air. I like the idea of a wireless backup solution so I don't have to think about connecting the MBA every week or so, but I'm concerned about the reliability of TC and the complexity/cost of a NAS. Desk space isn't an issue.

I guess I'm just looking for opinions from other iMac users who have storage issues to get their opinions on this and to see what worked for them. Thanks for reading.

 

[NMF]

I'd go with two externals personally. The NAS and RAID set-ups are still too expensive for my tastes.

Now, the more important question you need to ask yourself is: have you ever gone back and watched one of those movies a SECOND time after initially watching it the first time? Too many people take the hoard mentality with digital media and end up spending hundreds (or thousands) on super elaborate storage solutions. In reality... you probably don't need most of that stuff. I use the "one-and-done" system unless I'm positive that I'm going to watch something again. If I'm iffy I just delete it. If I ever find myself in the situation where I want to watch something I used to have then the Internet is always there to download something again (hint: this never happens).

 

[robgendreau]

I agree. You need to figure out a workflow with this stuff.

Are you planning to do a media server type thing?

Much of the backup of files like these involves archiving. You put a copy somewhere and you're done. That's often easier (and cheaper) to deal with than say a database that has to be constantly backed up.

So just put a copy somewhere when you take in this stuff, and for that an external works great. And you can get several and store offsite. It's kind of low-tech in that it's like using giant floppies, but very cost effective and flexible. Aperture is really great in this regard in that you can split up libraries and merge them and so on.

Rob

 

[kman11]

I'd go with two externals personally. The NAS and RAID set-ups are still too expensive for my tastes.

Now, the more important question you need to ask yourself is: have you ever gone back and watched one of those movies a SECOND time after initially watching it the first time? Too many people take the hoard mentality with digital media and end up spending hundreds (or thousands) on super elaborate storage solutions. In reality... you probably don't need most of that stuff. I use the "one-and-done" system unless I'm positive that I'm going to watch something again. If I'm iffy I just delete it. If I ever find myself in the situation where I want to watch something I used to have then the Internet is always there to download something again (hint: this never happens).

Thanks for the advice. The movies are for my kids that they watch through an Apple TV, so most have been watched numerous times although there are a few I could probably delete. The other thing is I have iTunes match but haven't taken advantage of storing my music in the cloud.

----------

I agree. You need to figure out a workflow with this stuff.

Are you planning to do a media server type thing?

Much of the backup of files like these involves archiving. You put a copy somewhere and you're done. That's often easier (and cheaper) to deal with than say a database that has to be constantly backed up.

So just put a copy somewhere when you take in this stuff, and for that an external works great. And you can get several and store offsite. It's kind of low-tech in that it's like using giant floppies, but very cost effective and flexible. Aperture is really great in this regard in that you can split up libraries and merge them and so on.

Rob

Thanks. You're probably right in that I could probably store some of this stuff somewhere and forget about it. I haven't tried splitting aperture libraries but will look into it.

 

[CaliforniaBlond]

Storage/Back Up Strategy

I am having some issues with storage and backup as well. I have both a desk top PC and a new laptop Mac Book Pro. I have nearly filled up one external drive from the PC. I bought a new Seagate GoFlex thinking that I could continue to back up both computers to this new external drive. I am having issues with the Mac Time Machine back up and read that I need to reformat for the mac OS. But this GoFlex was supposed to be able to handle both. I wanted to bypass the GoFlex software used for the backup and just go to goflexhome.local and drag and drop files or use Time Machine to automatically back up the mac. The time machine back up didn't work and I have a bunch of nonsense files that I can't read or access.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? Spending way too much time unsuccessfully trying to decipher instructions!

Thanks,

 

[jobsfnby]

I am having some issues with storage and backup as well. I have both a desk top PC and a new laptop Mac Book Pro. I have nearly filled up one external drive from the PC. I bought a new Seagate GoFlex thinking that I could continue to back up both computers to this new external drive. I am having issues with the Mac Time Machine back up and read that I need to reformat for the mac OS. But this GoFlex was supposed to be able to handle both. I wanted to bypass the GoFlex software used for the backup and just go to goflexhome.local and drag and drop files or use Time Machine to automatically back up the mac. The time machine back up didn't work and I have a bunch of nonsense files that I can't read or access.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? Spending way too much time unsuccessfully trying to decipher instructions!

Thanks,

You won't be able to use Time Machine and backup the PC because Time Machine requires a disk format that is only useable/readable by Macs as far as I know.

Here's an article that discusses more on using a hard drive for dual PC & Mac use: http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39...format-an-external-drive-for-windows-and-mac/

 

[savvybass]

Backup speed problem

Having just purchased a WD My Passport Studio 1TB drive, I hooked it up to my 15" MBP/2.66GHz Core i7/8Gb Ram/500GB HDD/OSX 10.6.8/FW 800 connections.
My initial backup transfer speed was ~2GB over the first hour.
I would have expected the transfer of ~28GB-54GB in that hour.

Any suggestions please?

 

[banndowfl]

I have a Seagate 2T exHD..... in trying to export from Aperture to the exHD, I am asked "export versions or Masters"? I know this is elementary but I want to save to the exHD and then delete (?) from my macBook Pro..... and I would hate to lose any of my images. I have had the alert that I am drasticaly running out of disk space...... Also, how can I tell if the export was indeed successful...... mac 101, I know.........
Thanks for your suggestions...... I know everyone here is Smarter than a Third Grader.....LOL..... me...... well, not really......

 

[savvybass]

Having just purchased a WD My Passport Studio 1TB drive, I hooked it up to my 15" MBP/2.66GHz Core i7/8Gb Ram/500GB HDD/OSX 10.6.8/FW 800 connections.
My initial backup transfer speed was ~2GB over the first hour.
I would have expected the transfer of ~28GB-54GB in that hour.

Any suggestions please?

What a disappointment! In almost 2 months, not a single reply to my request for help from this "expert" forum. Just goes to show I guess.

Thanks.

 

[murphychris]

It is possible to build a nested RAID 10 with Disk Utility. It is extremely non-obvious how to do this, so the link is for an Apple knowledge base article on this.

RAID 1 is used for mirroring, for redundancy. You create two or more RAID 1 arrays. Then you stripe those arrays into a single array. Hence RAID 10.

The result is a single disk icon that aggregates the storage capacity of multiple disks, while also providing redundancy in the face of a disk failure. The redundancy is important *NOT* as a backup, but because restoring larger than single disk storage from a backup takes so long, during which time the storage isn't fully available.

As for RAID/NAS being expensive, well at a certain point of storage, it is the way to go. If you have to share the storage, you'll want a NAS. The data is much safer not being directly attached to a working computer, which if it has a power failure or crashes will cause some kind of corruption to the storage array (either to date or the file system or both). And with a NAS based RAID, you gain some efficiency of RAID 5/6 instead of only RAID 1 which requires that you have double the disk drives for redundancy.

Basically, you either learn about NAS products as an increasingly necessary appliance that you need to be familiar with, or stop acquiring so much content than needs to be stored!