Curious to know what Mac users use for external storage in general for home use? I currently have a 2012 MBP and waiting for Apple to release the new Apple silicon before I buy. I also have an original Drobo connected to my Mac via FireWire that’s been great over the years. Unfortunately when I upgrade my Mac, I’ll need to upgrade my external HDD due to lack of FireWire connectivity. Are NAS systems really worth the extra cost? iCloud can stream photos and videos to all my devices and I can get a much cheaper external HDD that can connect directly for a fraction of the cost of a NAS. What am I missing?
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Need for NAS at home
- Thread starter bigjay33
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I have a Synology DS1513+ since 2013. I have 3x4 TB HDDs in RAID 5 (8TB accessible). Enterprise grade HDDs.
At that time back in 2013 cloud storage was expansive. ICloud now provides 2 TB for 12.99CAD/month which is nice, but you won’t get the speed of a local NAS. New ones are even in 10gbps networking, while you are limited by your internet speed connection with iCloud. There are certain thins you can’t do with iCloud, like running a VM on the NAS, Time Machine backup server for all Macs in the house, block storage, iSCSI targets, etc (enterprise grade features) or even working on a remote file.
External HDDs cannot be networked. IMO, one cannot consider an external HDD as a storage device. It’s a backup one, not more, because the failure rate of these external HDDs is very high.
If it’s only for storage, go ahead with iCloud. If you require the ultimate "live" performance for working on files, get a Thunderbolt HDD (but consider an additional backup solution or avoid external when possible, get a bigger internal SSD which is far more performant). If you need networked shared storage, get a NAS.
At that time back in 2013 cloud storage was expansive. ICloud now provides 2 TB for 12.99CAD/month which is nice, but you won’t get the speed of a local NAS. New ones are even in 10gbps networking, while you are limited by your internet speed connection with iCloud. There are certain thins you can’t do with iCloud, like running a VM on the NAS, Time Machine backup server for all Macs in the house, block storage, iSCSI targets, etc (enterprise grade features) or even working on a remote file.
External HDDs cannot be networked. IMO, one cannot consider an external HDD as a storage device. It’s a backup one, not more, because the failure rate of these external HDDs is very high.
If it’s only for storage, go ahead with iCloud. If you require the ultimate "live" performance for working on files, get a Thunderbolt HDD (but consider an additional backup solution or avoid external when possible, get a bigger internal SSD which is far more performant). If you need networked shared storage, get a NAS.
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I’m interested in the same question, because I’ve seen NAS on places like Amazon but they always seem so expensive.
I currently use multiple USB drives directly connected to either my Windows Surface Pro via the dock, or just straight USB to my Mac mini.
My Windows computers do most of my work, whilst the old External HDD attached to my Mac is purely for the Time Machine function. The Mac mini has 1TB of its own, but that’s mostly just a local copy of the bulk of my Microsoft 365 cloud.
I don’t use my external drives on the network. I do watch shows on my TV via a media box, but I generally use a 1TB portable drive for that. I fill it up every few months from my Surface drives and I’m good to go.
I’ve never had any trouble with my external drives - they generally get replaced when an affordable one of higher capacity comes along, but I’m still using old 1TB/1.5TB USB2 drives for some things. I use older drives to backup the newer ones, depending on capacity. For example, I mirror a 4TB and 3TB drive to an 8TB for backup but, so far, I’ve not needed the backup.
I guess it all comes down to what you need the space for.
I currently use multiple USB drives directly connected to either my Windows Surface Pro via the dock, or just straight USB to my Mac mini.
My Windows computers do most of my work, whilst the old External HDD attached to my Mac is purely for the Time Machine function. The Mac mini has 1TB of its own, but that’s mostly just a local copy of the bulk of my Microsoft 365 cloud.
I don’t use my external drives on the network. I do watch shows on my TV via a media box, but I generally use a 1TB portable drive for that. I fill it up every few months from my Surface drives and I’m good to go.
I’ve never had any trouble with my external drives - they generally get replaced when an affordable one of higher capacity comes along, but I’m still using old 1TB/1.5TB USB2 drives for some things. I use older drives to backup the newer ones, depending on capacity. For example, I mirror a 4TB and 3TB drive to an 8TB for backup but, so far, I’ve not needed the backup.
I guess it all comes down to what you need the space for.
This is the most unsafe thing ever. I can't remember the countless number of people who called me back in the days I was tech because their external hard drive got corrupted, dropped, or broken for whatever reason.
Having them in secured in a NAS, not moving, not disconnecting, NAS being plugged into a UPS and safely unmount the RAID array when power goes down, is the safest way to keep data. There are even safer systems line UnRAID or ZFS on Linux with software RAID to which you are not tied to a controller, but it's the same principle.
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The NAS could automatically do this without any user manipulation, a lot more systematically, scheduled.
The majority of my external drives are primarily for backup purposes and, if they’re not then they have their own backup. Incidentally, my external drives don’t “move” so the risk of being dropped is zero.
With my Surface Pro having 512GB SSD, and access to cloud storage, critical files are backed up to cloud (which are then copied back to local on the Mac mini’s internal 1TB). External drives are primarily for media files, but may also have some older backups on them. Been doing this for quite some time now.
My primary interest in NAS is that I’m accumulating a number of these drives, and so I seek a more effective/efficient solution. The cost is what gives me cause to hesitate - finances prohibiting my ability to invest in better solutions right now. Even an empty NAS is pretty pricy, then the drives for it of any sensible capacity are more than I’ve paid for my regular external drives. I'd need to see a major benefit to my current system before I could take steps down the NAS path.
If you say so.....
To have work in the field for long, I've seen too many horror stories with that methodology.
To have work in the field for long, I've seen too many horror stories with that methodology.
I have the following external drives:
- OWC ThunderBlade V4 8TB
- OWC ThunderBlade V4 8TB
- OWC ThunderBlade V4 4TB
These 3 drives are all daisy chained and connect to my system via a single TB3 cable - used for video editing with FCPX and storing FCPX libraries I need to refer to often.
- Glyph Atom Pro 2TB
Used as a backup drive to my main MacBook (SuperDuper & Time Machine).
- QNAP TVS-817T Nas - 8 Bay Nas filled with 8x6TB WD Red drives in RAID 6
This is used as a backup for all my data on my editing drives, as well as a general storage drive to all other laptops used by my family. Each family member has their own account and their own mapped drive to the NAS for storing their data.
Also used for PLEX and a couple of other services.
The NAS is connected to a 10GBe switch, and my main system is also connected via 10GBe, so I get high speed data transfer directly to the NAS (useful when backing up large FCPX libraries etc!).
- 10TB WD My Book USB 3.0 HDD
Connected directly to the back of the NAS. Used as a scheduled backup for data stored by other members of my family. In essence, its a backup of a backup that I can unplug and store elsewhere!
- Samsung T7 2TB
- Sabrent Rocket Nano Rugged 2TB
Both the above are surplus. Still new in boxes and will be going up for sale as I just don't need them!
The only thing I have that's cloud based are some work files (Office365), and my Apple Cloud account, where all my families iPhones back up to. I could secure my NAS for remote access, but honestly I prefer all my files to be local....
- OWC ThunderBlade V4 8TB
- OWC ThunderBlade V4 8TB
- OWC ThunderBlade V4 4TB
These 3 drives are all daisy chained and connect to my system via a single TB3 cable - used for video editing with FCPX and storing FCPX libraries I need to refer to often.
- Glyph Atom Pro 2TB
Used as a backup drive to my main MacBook (SuperDuper & Time Machine).
- QNAP TVS-817T Nas - 8 Bay Nas filled with 8x6TB WD Red drives in RAID 6
This is used as a backup for all my data on my editing drives, as well as a general storage drive to all other laptops used by my family. Each family member has their own account and their own mapped drive to the NAS for storing their data.
Also used for PLEX and a couple of other services.
The NAS is connected to a 10GBe switch, and my main system is also connected via 10GBe, so I get high speed data transfer directly to the NAS (useful when backing up large FCPX libraries etc!).
- 10TB WD My Book USB 3.0 HDD
Connected directly to the back of the NAS. Used as a scheduled backup for data stored by other members of my family. In essence, its a backup of a backup that I can unplug and store elsewhere!
- Samsung T7 2TB
- Sabrent Rocket Nano Rugged 2TB
Both the above are surplus. Still new in boxes and will be going up for sale as I just don't need them!
The only thing I have that's cloud based are some work files (Office365), and my Apple Cloud account, where all my families iPhones back up to. I could secure my NAS for remote access, but honestly I prefer all my files to be local....
Knowing my luck, now that I've put words to my lack of issues, everything will fail tomorrow. ?
Have you thought about relegating your old 2012 MBP as a file server,cups print server, and itunes server as well as a VPN server) all in one? The 1Gbps Ethernet connection is fast enough (you get around 80MB/s) xfer rate and you can allow it to connect to your newer Apple silicon Mac. I use my Mac Mini 2011 for just this purpose and the i5 processor is more powerful than those NAS CPUs which are meant for conserving energy anyhow and allows me to backup my Google Drive and serves all my computers. It is also currently connected to my Drobo RAID and my Netgear RAID boxes as well as my PowerMac G5 server for legacy support of my older PowerPC applications that I still use -- mainly sound studio stuff and has enough oomph to do that better and has better flexibility than a NAS and I can control my Mini from any of my Linux, Windows 10 and Macs through screen share/VNC with a better response rate.
I am like you waiting for what Apple has in place for the road map in regards to Apple silicon Macs. So when I do get an Apple Silicon Mac, I can easily slot into my computing framework that supports all legacy connections. I run also a Linux and a Windows 10 system and both can access my 2011 Mini server. So it is very versatile at least for me and I don't need to get the Synology or use QNAP NAS unless all I am looking for is lower energy conservation. But the Mini is also energy efficient as well and so does your MBP.
Hope this helps.
When you already have the hardware it’s fine.
But transforming a laptop into a file server.... I doubt it’s a good idea.
I had a Synology NAS at one time, but retired it eventually and I had the same thought as you did in the past. But I found that I had to invest in a lot more expensive Synology model with enough processing power in order to duplicate the services I wanted that I could duplicate with an Intel Mac and it ended up me saving more with my Mini that the $1000 Synology NAS that would match its performance. The OP has the hardware and the Drobo unit to do it now and can eventually turn it into a file server when the OP gets the Apple silicon Mac. It's another option/choice the OP can make, which was what I was suggesting. NAS was popular at one time, but people had been home brewing NAS using Linux OS and using Intel hardware either with a laptop/desktop that makes turn-key NAS not as the only option as it once touted or necessitates having.
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I still find that having a laptop as a file server in a production environment (even if it's for home) is not a good idea.
A file server doesn't need CPU power. My 2013 Synology has an Intel atom with 4 GB RAM and all my services are running fine (VPN, DNS, DHCP, File server over EXT4 filesystem, name it ...)
A file server doesn't need CPU power. My 2013 Synology has an Intel atom with 4 GB RAM and all my services are running fine (VPN, DNS, DHCP, File server over EXT4 filesystem, name it ...)
Thank you all for the responses. Looks like I have a lot of options. I did see someone on YouTube talk about loading OSX server on his 2008 MB and used as a server. My 2012 MBP still works pretty well but it does not support Big Sur so I figured now is the time to upgrade when the new Apple chips come out. I’ll probably keep it as a back-up. In regards to NAS, looks like Synology is the big dog. I wish Drobo improved their software and speed. I love that I can use all different size drives and it all just works.
I think UnRAID has a way for doing this. But it’s always better to have same size HDDs.
I think Synology does it too, but only in JBOD. You lose redundancy.
Or just install windows on an old PC, turn off windows auto update and use it as a NAS:
Life is simple as that.
NAS barebone using old PC hardware is cheap.
The expensive ones are HDDs.
Life is simple as that.
NAS barebone using old PC hardware is cheap.
The expensive ones are HDDs.
Running something on Windows as important as file server ?
Better die from anxiety right now.
Windows and Macs in networking are going through a speed revelation now with 10G networking! YouTube some 10G networking and be amazed at the speeds!
I have a Synology 216j, and two 4tb drives. It's mostly just photos and an archive of some writings. It sits unobtrusively out of the way, and holds my Time Machine backups too. So long as my house doesn't catch fire or is burglarized, it's a good solution.
I'd like to one day have it automatically back up to AWS, but until then a simple backup to a hard drive kept in a fireproof box is sufficient for my needs.
I'd like to one day have it automatically back up to AWS, but until then a simple backup to a hard drive kept in a fireproof box is sufficient for my needs.
100%
Its made such a difference for me in my home office when it comes to passing data back and forward to my NAS etc
NAS systems provide the following:
* Pool multiple drives together so they appear as a single storage entity
* Provide redundancy so you can replace a faulty drive without taking the storage offline (this functionality does not eliminate the need for a proper backup; it just allows folks to keep working when a drive is being replaced).
* They can provide better performance depending on various factors
* Attached directly to your network so multiple users can easily access the storage at the same time and without having to depend on a certain PC/laptop being left on.
* Some NAS systems also allow you to run other services (e.g. Plex) on them.
* Provide a way to expand your storage as it fills up.
If you don't need any of that, and by far most home users don't, then a NAS system is not worth the cost. If you can get away with something as simple as a single, external drive connected to your Mac then just go that route. Some folks will lead you to believe that you need a very expensive NAS or server with enterprise grade drives when a simple consumer grade external drive could do the job. Keep it simple. Just make sure you have a proper backup regardless of whatever solution you go with (e.g. get 2 external drives, which will still be much less than the cost of a NAS, and use one as a backup, ideally offsite).
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