Mac Harddrive, Airpot Time Capsule and backing up help needed!!

[Stupotpot]

Hi everyone!

I've got a 2013 MacBook Air with limited HD space left. I have an Airport Time Capsule which I use to back up my MacBook.

I'm starting to get into Photography as a hobby, and need some suggestions on how to manage an ever growing photo library/backing up etc.

My question is, how easy/difficult is it to use an external drive to store my photo library, still make use of iCloud Photo Library syncing to all of my devices, AND have the external drive backing up to the Time Capsule?

Also, can anyone recommend an external drive for this purpose that won't break the bank? I don't really want to spend to much more than £100/$150

 

[Apple fanboy]

Hi everyone!

I've got a 2013 MacBook Air with limited HD space left. I have an Airport Time Capsule which I use to back up my MacBook.

I'm starting to get into Photography as a hobby, and need some suggestions on how to manage an ever growing photo library/backing up etc.

My question is, how easy/difficult is it to use an external drive to store my photo library, still make use of iCloud Photo Library syncing to all of my devices, AND have the external drive backing up to the Time Capsule?

Also, can anyone recommend an external drive for this purpose that won't break the bank? I don't really want to spend to much more than £100/$150

Cheap as chips these days.
https://www.google.co.uk/aclk?sa=l&...+Storage+-+Hard+Drives+-+External+Hard+Drives

 

[Stupotpot]

Thanks for the suggestion - it does seem a bargain! Do you know if the Time Capsule is comparable with this though?

I get that I can move my photo library to this external HD, but would it still work with iCloud Photo Library?

 

[Apple fanboy]

Thanks for the suggestion - it does seem a bargain! Do you know if the Time Capsule is comparable with this though?

I get that I can move my photo library to this external HD, but would it still work with iCloud Photo Library?

I'm not to familiar with iCloud Photo Library as I don't use it, but you can back up both external and internal drives on your TC I believe.

 

[JDDavis]

Hi everyone!

I've got a 2013 MacBook Air with limited HD space left. I have an Airport Time Capsule which I use to back up my MacBook.

I'm starting to get into Photography as a hobby, and need some suggestions on how to manage an ever growing photo library/backing up etc.

My question is, how easy/difficult is it to use an external drive to store my photo library, still make use of iCloud Photo Library syncing to all of my devices, AND have the external drive backing up to the Time Capsule?

Also, can anyone recommend an external drive for this purpose that won't break the bank? I don't really want to spend to much more than £100/$150

Yep, that's all do-able and pretty easy. Just about any photo editing / DAM software can manage multiple libraries on internal and external HDs. Time Machine can back up internal and external sources. Just search a little bit on the web or Apple Discussions (or this forum) and you'll find easy explanations. For iCloud...don't use it so I'm not sure. Also...go big on the HD. Might as well. If you aren't too worried about size or portability you'll find that the "desktop" class (3.5" I think) HDs are a good bit cheaper than their smaller brothers. I have a MacBook Pro with a SSD. I keep working files on the SSD and then as I'm done I move them to an external HD for storage. All of this gets backed up by Time Machine.

 

[Stupotpot]

Thanks for the suggestions...ill do some googling for the iCloud suggestion!
[doublepost=1453921890][/doublepost]I've come across this, which seems to solve all of my problems! Thanks for the input!

http://9to5mac.com/2015/12/15/how-t...ibrary-external-storage-time-machine-backups/

 

[MCAsan]

First I never keep my library of documents, photos, music, videos..etc. on a laptop. Even with a 1TB SSD, not remotely enough room. I import my photos into the internal SSD, cull, and edit them. When completed, they go into my library which is an external RAID array. Both my Macbook and the RAID array are backed up by Time Machine to a seperate 6TB drive. If I wanted the next step of data availability, I would rotate backups to an offsite location, like a bank box, at least every week. But that is a step too far for me.

 

[Stupotpot]

First I never keep my library of documents, photos, music, videos..etc. on a laptop. Even with a 1TB SSD, not remotely enough room. I important my photos into the internal SSD, cull, and edit them. When completed, they go into my library which is an external RAID array. Both my Macbook and the RAID array are backed up by Time Machine to a seperate 6TB drive. If I wanted the next step of data availability, I would rotate backups to an offsite location, like a bank box, at least every week. But that is a step too far for me.

Yeah, on offsite bank vault may be a little extreme for my needs too!

 

[Stupotpot]

Thanks for you suggestions everyone, I went with a WD My Passport 2TB, which currently has my photo library and entire music collection on it...working like a dream!

Thanks for everyone's input

 

[Gjwilly]

First I never keep my library of documents, photos, music, videos..etc. on a laptop. Even with a 1TB SSD, not remotely enough room.

Just wondering how you handle iTunes and syncing things to your iDevices?
I've got a NAS and I direct iTunes on my laptop to use the NAS to store my library but then syncing to my iPhone or iPad is fairly slow because the media needs to copy from the NAS to my laptop every time I sync something.
I'd love to learn a better way.
Thanks

 

[Stupotpot]

I don't sync my devices to be honest...I use Apple Music, but I've got a huge library from iTunes Match...sorry can't help here!

 

[ChrisA]

First I never keep my library of documents, photos, music, videos..etc. on a laptop. Even with a 1TB SSD, not remotely enough room. I import my photos into the internal SSD, cull, and edit them. When completed, they go into my library which is an external RAID array. Both my Macbook and the RAID array are backed up by Time Machine to a seperate 6TB drive. If I wanted the next step of data availability, I would rotate backups to an offsite location, like a bank box, at least every week. But that is a step too far for me.

If lightening strike a power pole within a mile or so of your house you could loose all your data and the backups. Any device that is plugged into an AC outlet could be destroyed. Same for a house fire. But a common way people loose data now is from theft of the equipment.

I use Time Machine and also have a cloud based backup. I use "Backblaze" but there are others. These guys upload your data continuously and store it redundantly in multiple far away places. The service is cheap about $5 a month.

iCloud is not really a backup service it is live data. A backup service would allow you to restore a file you accidentally deleted for made a bad change then hit "Save". Backup allows you to recover past versions of your data.

I know what you all think "I will never have a house fire, An large serge in the AC line will never happen, no one will ever rob my house, Nothing bad will ever happen, I have never been sick so I will never be sick,....."

If photography is only a hobby then do as you like but if your business depends on the data, think of at least two fool proof off-site backup plans.

 

[simonsi]

Personally I have a TM backup at both home and office (15km apart), and rotate a further copy to my daughter in the UK (far side of the world from Auckland). I also have a bootable clone on a passport drive in my briefcase...

 

[ChrisA]

Personally I have a TM backup at both home and office (15km apart), and rotate a further copy to my daughter in the UK (far side of the world from Auckland). I also have a bootable clone on a passport drive in my briefcase...

Yes that meets the rule of thumb that says you must always have

1. Three copies of the data on three different physical media at all times and
2. Data existing at two different geographic locations

The above is the absolute bare minimum for long term storage.