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Your MBP Storage & Backup solution

Y

yamamr

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 10, 2010
12
0
Toronto, Canada
I'm thinking of doing an upgrade and reconfiguring my storage-backup setup of my Santa Rosa MBP (mid-2007) w/ 160GBHD (almost filled). I'm pondering with the idea suggested by the Mac Performance Guide that it's the best to separate the OS & apps with the data in two different physical drives and to use a separate drive for manual backup.

=> 1 internal drive for OS & apps + 1 external drive for data/scratch volume/ time-machine backup via eSATA + 1 external drive for complete backup via eSATA

Doing so I'd need 3 new drives and lose some mobility with my data even though I mostly use the MBP like a desktop for graphics & rendering work and light video editing.

If I only get 2 drives I can save some $ for a RAM upgrade from 2GB to 4GB+.

1. What's the best set up for me?
2. How do you guys store your OS, Apps, and data?
3. How do you set up your backup solution (Time machine only VS time machine + a dedicated backup drive)?

Any help is appreciated:)
 
I wouldn't bother with separating them, instead I'd just get a larger hard drive and then put your current hard drive in an enclosure. If you can afford it, get another hard drive for backup. But with the original internal hard drive, that should last you for a bit as a backup hard drive for your most important files.
 
yamamr said:
Too bad that I need the optical drive for work.
Click to expand...

gotcha well before that I had two external drives. One for manual backups, files folders etc and stuff I didn't need on the main drive.

Then I had a 2nd external HDD that I used purely for time machine backups. I left this at home and only backed up maybe once or twice a month.

Newegg has a couple 640GB 2.5" HDD with coupon right now ranging from $65+. Could always partition it, use one partition purely for time machine and the other partition for your manual stuff and just have the one drive to carry.
 
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9630/5.0.0.732 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

I store all of my files on a server I keep wired into my network. I custom built the server running windows server 2008 with 3tb of redundant disks and upgraded my home network to gigabit and 5ghz wireless N. I use ssh to access the files while on the go. No problems so far and macbook hdd stays empty :)
 
aznguyen316 said:
gotcha well before that I had two external drives. One for manual backups, files folders etc and stuff I didn't need on the main drive.

Then I had a 2nd external HDD that I used purely for time machine backups. I left this at home and only backed up maybe once or twice a month.

Newegg has a couple 640GB 2.5" HDD with coupon right now ranging from $65+. Could always partition it, use one partition purely for time machine and the other partition for your manual stuff and just have the one drive to carry.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Wait what optibay are you using? Does yours come with a free USB optical drive enclosure like this one from MCE?

In any case, I'd still have to lug around an enclosure so I probably would still use an large mobile hard drive instead of an optibay since it costs less per se.
 
iBookG4user said:
I wouldn't bother with separating them, instead I'd just get a larger hard drive and then put your current hard drive in an enclosure. If you can afford it, get another hard drive for backup. But with the original internal hard drive, that should last you for a bit as a backup hard drive for your most important files.
Click to expand...

True...why waste the original drive? Thanks:)
 
bperrella said:
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9630/5.0.0.732 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

I store all of my files on a server I keep wired into my network. I custom built the server running windows server 2008 with 3tb of redundant disks and upgraded my home network to gigabit and 5ghz wireless N. I use ssh to access the files while on the go. No problems so far and macbook hdd stays empty :)
Click to expand...

Whoa, I can picture how nice this set-up is but this should be an overkill for my use. Btw with ssh, do you access your files over the net like idisk?
 
yamamr said:
Thanks. Wait what optibay are you using? Does yours come with a free USB optical drive enclosure like this one from MCE?

In any case, I'd still have to lug around an enclosure so I probably would still use an large mobile hard drive instead of an optibay since it costs less per se.
Click to expand...

I bought from ayagroup, the caddy was $20 and I bought an eclosure for $13, $40 total after shipping so cheaper the MCE either way. Do you use your ODD more or less? But if you use your ODD a lot I'd rather carry an HDD around externally than the ODD, but for me, I rarely use the disc drive.
 
aznguyen316 said:
I bought from ayagroup, the caddy was $20 and I bought an eclosure for $13, $40 total after shipping so cheaper the MCE either way. Do you use your ODD more or less? But if you use your ODD a lot I'd rather carry an HDD around externally than the ODD, but for me, I rarely use the disc drive.
Click to expand...

Didn't know the Optical enclosure is dirt cheap!
Can you tell me which caddy you got for your MBP on ayagroup? Can it be installed in a pre-unibody MBP? Thanks!
 
I'd suggest maybe getting 2 external portable drives that run off firewire/usb ports. i have 2 of them myself.
One is a time machine back up plus additional storage. and the other is a straight SuperDuper clone drive. A "just in case" drive if i need to boot from it if my comp goes down.

But i also have other redundant back ups at home, but for portability, i use those drives.
 
yamamr said:
Whoa, I can picture how nice this set-up is but this should be an overkill for my use. Btw with ssh, do you access your files over the net like idisk?
Click to expand...

It sounds like overkill, but it really wasnt very costly.. I started out with 2 1.5tb drives and slowly added another two. got the windows server license free from my school, and built the server itself for under $200. I can access the files over SSH through any ssh client with SFTP capabilities. if you use windows home server instead of server 2008 you can also access the files through a very nice web interface. Im usually not a windows fan, but Windows home server is an amazingly powerful piece of software.
 
Mac7 said:
How would one go about to accomplish this?
Click to expand...

get your external HDD, disk utility to create two partitions and bam.. set your time machine to use one of the partitions. and the other one will just simply be an external hdd partition for you to drag files off of, copy etc.
 
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