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Sorry.... but what a mess. =) Your step sounds like a lot of what my clients come to me with, then I set them up. I didn't really understand your least sentnace breakdown....
Heres my Qs.
Assuming you keep boot drive separate from storage... is 1 TB enough?
I don't see a need for separate drives for images + general storage... with those combined, what do you feel like is enough storage for both of those + room grow? But for discussions sake, if you did have those separated, images + "stuff" what would be a comfy size for each of those drives?
EDIT: assuming a little noise is OK since you have been living with a MP, correct?
Backup is kinda irrelevant at this point in the discussion.
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btfc wrote:
Depending on speed, age, etc. you might drop the 2TB drives into something like this:
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MED3ER0GB/
Of course, newer, larger HDDs are pretty affordable now.
That enclosure can be purchased with no drives included and you can add your own -- OR it can be purchased with drives already installed, up to 36TB.
I bought one of these (along with two 2TB drives) nearly eight years ago to use as a RAID 1 server for my digital music library. It is still in service today. My music collection to date numbers just under 28,000 songs yet only occupies about 900 MB, so I've pressed the drive into secondary service as a backup server for various software titles for which I do not possess physical media.
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What kind of work do you do? How much storage space do you need to do your work for a month? It might be a good idea to move some data offline if you don't need it frequently.
Your SSD should comfortably fit your apps and perhaps what you're currently working on.
I was about to say how many TB you needed on a drive for a single storage drive but I was uncertain how many times I should count 'general storage'.
Anyway, SSD for apps and maybe current work too, an external drive for additional storage. 8TB or more?
And then you need a backup system. Either another external for time machine or a cloud backup or both.
8TB external drives regularly go on sale for $120. Perhaps grab two.
---
A few months back I snagged a 12TB for $175
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“ 8TB external drives regularly go on sale for $120. Perhaps grab two. “
High quality 6-8TB HDDs seem to be a sweet spot.
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Just $$ is not enough. $$$ and up.
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From our gracious sponsor:
6.0TB Compact USB 3.1 Gen 1 Solution $249
Only gen 1, but that’s still 5 Gb/sec (theoretical). And makes a stylin match for the Mini!
Edit: OWC says up to ~200 MB/sec, which would be >1.6 Gb/sec. (may be drive-limited).
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prymsnap wrote:
[quote=jdc]
So what did you decide?
Haven't pulled the trigger on storage options yet but will continue to apply the great insights from the forum. The reminder that a drive slated for back-ups only doesn't have to be blazingly fast: that will be a money-saver. Also will consider one larger back-up HDD vs. the rag-tag collection I have now (although I still worry about having too many eggs in one basket. Yes, I also have cloud back-up).
Don't forget to consider RAID 1 when developing your back-up plan. It essentially provides an onsite backup of your onsite backup. Two 8TB or 16TB drives in the enclosure discussed earlier in the thread will service you well for many years.
