Backup Solution for ever expanding media...

[khakilad]

Hello,

I could do with a bit of help with regards to my music and video collection.

What I have:

iMac 27 inch, 2011 with 256GB SSD & 2Tb HDD
Macbook Pro 256SSD (Running Plex)
iPhone 4S 64Gb
2 x Apple TVs running Plex
Drobo with 8Tb Storage

The problem is that I have around 120Gb of music which is stored on the SSD of the iMac which works great and is not a problem, however I have nearly 1.7TB of Movies stored on the iMac HDD. This streams via Plex to all my other devices. I have a back-up plan with the Drobo, but I’m about to throw it through the window as it constantly doesn’t connect or runs into other various issues. I’m just wondering if anyone can provide a backup solution for my nearly 3TB of data that would be fast (unlike the Drobo) whilst also maintaining the Plex system on the iMac. Eventually I’m going to run my media off a Mac Mini instead of the iMac being on all the time (3.4 i7, 16Gb Ram, 256+2Tb, 2Gb Graphics……using lots of electricity) but was wondering what would be the best device for backing up.

Thanks in advance.

 

[blevins321]

I'd take a look at Synology. It's a NAS-based system that works very well with Macs. It supports Time Machine, too. Search for "DS411j Honest Review" for a software-oriented review of its capabilities that I wrote earlier this year. The 411j is their 4-bay home-oriented unit. They've released a couple models since March that have higher processing and transfer capabilities. HERE is one of them.

 

[mpovolo]

Hello,

I could do with a bit of help with regards to my music and video collection.

What I have:

iMac 27 inch, 2011 with 256GB SSD & 2Tb HDD
Macbook Pro 256SSD (Running Plex)
iPhone 4S 64Gb
2 x Apple TVs running Plex
Drobo with 8Tb Storage

The problem is that I have around 120Gb of music which is stored on the SSD of the iMac which works great and is not a problem, however I have nearly 1.7TB of Movies stored on the iMac HDD. This streams via Plex to all my other devices. I have a back-up plan with the Drobo, but I’m about to throw it through the window as it constantly doesn’t connect or runs into other various issues. I’m just wondering if anyone can provide a backup solution for my nearly 3TB of data that would be fast (unlike the Drobo) whilst also maintaining the Plex system on the iMac. Eventually I’m going to run my media off a Mac Mini instead of the iMac being on all the time (3.4 i7, 16Gb Ram, 256+2Tb, 2Gb Graphics……using lots of electricity) but was wondering what would be the best device for backing up.

Thanks in advance.

I have a Synology DS211J and I thinks its fantastic.

 

[Panch0]

Backup devices don't really have to be super high performance. I have a 2nd gen Drobo (with FW800), connected via firewire to my iMac. It is perfectly fine as a BACKUP device. It is also fine to stream video FROM, but trying to use it as a direct target for Handbrake encodes for example is hopeless.

How is your Drobo connected? Network/USB2/FW800?

Once you have a backup of your video library, it isn't going to change very often (only when you add new files). So, after surviving the pain of backing up your 1.7 TB of video, ongoing incremental backups will be small and relatively painless.

I also have a Synology NAS and a Time Capsule by the way. I use the Time Capsule as a Time Machine target for my MBP and the NAS as my iTunes Media library location.