How do you organise your storage?

[rm5]

My plan is to get a Synology server when the time comes.

Why not just build your own? I'm serious, it's like 3 times cheaper if you build your own.

 

[Mike Boreham]

I have to get some external storage, and I have to think how I'll organise it. I'm thinking for example to get a drive just for photos.

Do you guys split your content this way? Like one drive for photos, one for apps, one for music plugins, etc.?

Or do you also mix the contents of your drives?

What's best and what do you recommend?

Laptop or Desktop ? This will make a huge difference to the answer.

Tacking externals on to a Desktop is not a big deal, but certainly is for a laptop.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Laptop or Desktop ? This will make a huge difference to the answer.

Tacking externals on to a Desktop is not a big deal, but certainly is for a laptop.

Desktop (Mac Mini)

 

[PhoenixDown]

Why not just build your own? I'm serious, it's like 3 times cheaper if you build your own.

I had a really nice Windows Home Server … I lost files

 

[HDFan]

My plan is to get a Synology server when the time comes.

Depending on your configuration QNAP can give you better hardware at about the same price.

 

[skyhawkmatthew]

I keep my stuff distributed as follows:

M1 iMac internal 500GB SSD: all the OS stuff, apps, general documents (synced to iCloud Drive), etc.

Samsung T5 1TB USB SSD: Photos library (also synced to iCloud). I have not had any performance issues running Photos off this drive and editing RAW files in an 800GB library. Soon to be replaced with a 2TB T7 when the library starts to get too big soon.

4TB USB HDD: Time Machine, plus X-Plane because it’s enormous and don’t really care if it gets lost and I have to reinstall it.

Synology NAS with 8TB: Plex library, plus archival storage of older stuff I rarely need access to and don’t need to keep on the iMac, such as originals for HDR and panorama stitched images.

2TB USB HDD: partitioned in half to accommodate SuperDuper backups of the iMac and Photos SSD; kept in my mailbox at work.