PLEASE HELP: Which Mac To Buy For File Storage?

[benshive]

Thinking of your other thread(s).... your 2011 Mini would make a nice file server. Turn on file sharing with SMB and it will be available on your network for both Macs and PC's. It could also be "headless" without a screen or keyboard, and you could manage it with screen sharing. This is what I'm doing with my 2012 Mini.

You could then finally replace the 2011 Mini with something newer for everyday computing needs.

I use my Raspberry Pi 3 for this. Not because I really have any files worth storing on it but because I thought it'd be fun to set up

 

[BeautifulWoman_1984]

Sure, time machine can do this. Open the time machine preferences and press the options button. That will show a list of everything that time machine is *not* backing up. If your external drive appears on that list, select it and press the minus button to remove it from the exclusion list.

IIRC, in the past your external disks were automatically added to the exclusion list. But I don't think that is the case anymore. I have time machine backing up an external disk on the Mac that I got last summer, and I don't think I had to do anything for that to happen.

To confirm that it works, open a window to your external disk, then click the time machine icon in the menu bar (looks like a little clock) and choose "enter time machine". You should be able to browse through all the backups for the external disk.

Thank you for your reply Boyd!

I didn't think Time Machine could backup files and folders that weren't installed inside a Mac machine like an internal HDD in a iMac or Mac Mini...

Is Time Machine the best backup solution to backup files and folders that are stored on external USB HDD? I've never tried this before.

 

[Dozer_Zaibatsu]

Thank you tee cup, but I just want to backup my files locally and I do not want to use the cloud.

The cheap solution would be an external Western Digital Hard Drive. 4TB USB3 can be had for ~$100. I used these for a medical school for instance, in which they were constantly filming 12-hour surgeries.

For Linux and Windows, format the whole drive as NTFS and you should be good. Since Mac is not involved, fyi, Mac can read and copy from NTFS, but cannot write to it without installing some extensions.

If you want to keep a format which can be read and written to by any OS, format it as exFAT. Just keep in mind, depending on your Linux distro, you'll often have to install exFAT support for Linux, which is usually available in any distro software store. I think newer kernels should have support for exFAT built in right away.

 

[BeautifulWoman_1984]

Thank you for your replies Hallux and Hobowankenobi!

Is it possible to use Time Machine to create my own local backup solution?

I've got a mix of Windows 10 PC's and a Mac here... so it's not 100% Mac...

 

[xraydoc]

Thank you for your replies Hallux and Hobowankenobi!

Is it possible to use Time Machine to create my own local backup solution?

I've got a mix of Windows 10 PC's and a Mac here... so it's not 100% Mac...

Time Machine is Mac-only. Period end. No way to make Time Machine work on a Windows PC. Zero. No chance. But if you search, there are similar products for Windows. You can, however, use a network drive to use as a target drive for both Mac and Windows backups. But they will be kept separate on the network drive.

 

[gnasher729]

Mac Mini + 10 port hub + 18TB hard drive plugged into each port. 180 TB. 180 TB should be enough for everyone. (Someone will post that back to me in 10 years time )

 

[BeautifulWoman_1984]

Time Machine is Mac-only. Period end. No way to make Time Machine work on a Windows PC. Zero. No chance. But if you search, there are similar products for Windows. You can, however, use a network drive to use as a target drive for both Mac and Windows backups. But they will be kept separate on the network drive.

Thank you for your reply Xraydoc!

I know there are many backup solutions for Windows, but Time Machine has been amazing for me. Time Machine is probably one of my favorite Official Apple made Apps!

My problem is: I don't know which backup solution for Windows I can trust... Microsoft has a backup feature in Windows 10 Pro but I've used this and it's REALLY lacking compared to Apple's Time Machine...

 

[hallux]

@BeautifulWoman_1984 that really depends on your expectations for the backup system. I'm not sure there is one for Windows that matches what TM does on a Mac. I know Acronis TrueImage was a popular backup app years ago, I don't know how it rates recently. The folks at www.Windowscentral.com might have some insight on this.

 

[BeautifulWoman_1984]

@BeautifulWoman_1984 that really depends on your expectations for the backup system. I'm not sure there is one for Windows that matches what TM does on a Mac. I know Acronis TrueImage was a popular backup app years ago, I don't know how it rates recently. The folks at www.Windowscentral.com might have some insight on this.

Thank you for your reply Hallux!

It's really amazing how much I miss not being able to use Time Machine on my Windows 10 PC's...

Backup is so important and Time Machine has been perfect for me.

 

[GSWForever8]

Get the Mac mini if you want a desktop or the MacBook Air if you want it to be portable. Make sure to get a display on the Mac mini. All Macs start with 256gb ssd, except for the iMac, which has a 1tb fusion drive. However, those are soon to be outdated, and the baseline iMac has a really terrible 7th generation intel dual core i5. Instead, you should get a RAID storage sold at Apple. These can go up to 16 terabytes and some are thunderbolt 3 compatible.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Get the Mac mini if you want a desktop or the MacBook Air if you want it to be portable. Make sure to get a display on the Mac mini. All Macs start with 256gb ssd, except for the iMac, which has a 1tb fusion drive. However, those are soon to be outdated, and the baseline iMac has a really terrible 7th generation intel dual core i5. Instead, you should get a RAID storage from Apple. These can go up to 16 terabytes and some are thunderbolt 3 compatible.

Trolling...or out of touch?

• Fusion drives were painfully outdated about 3 years ago, maybe more.
• Suggesting buying any Intel Mac today—except for somebody with specific legacy software—is questionable at best.
• RAID storage from Apple? What mythical product are you referring to?

 

[GSWForever8]

Trolling...or out of touch?

• Fusion drives were painfully outdated about 3 years ago, maybe more.
• Suggesting buying any Intel Mac today—except for somebody with specific legacy software—is questionable at best.
• RAID storage from Apple? What mythical product are you referring to?

They sell it on Apple. Check it out.
I don’t remember recommending it...
I didn’t know they were that outdated, so thanks for letting me know!

 

[hobowankenobi]

They sell it on Apple. Check it out.
I don’t remember recommending it...
I didn’t know they were that outdated, so thanks for letting me know!

If you are referring to 3rd party RAID arrays....yes, the Apple store has some options, but they are not Apple products. Your phrasing sounded like one should be looking for Apple storage, which does not exist. Just wanted to clarify for anybody looking.

G-RAID, which got bought up by Western Digital, is one of several Mac RAID options. Other popular options include: Promise, CalDigit, and Areca. There are others, including in-house stuff from OWC (which bought Akitiio), Highpoint, Accusys. Some of OWC's stuff is bundled with SoftRAID software (including RAID 5 and 6) instead of a hardware RAID controller....which is actually pretty good for general purpose storage.

 

[BeautifulWoman_1984]

Thank you for your replies!

Thank you for your reply Xraydoc!

I know there are many backup solutions for Windows, but Time Machine has been amazing for me. Time Machine is probably one of my favorite Official Apple made Apps!

My problem is: I don't know which backup solution for Windows I can trust... Microsoft has a backup feature in Windows 10 Pro but I've used this and it's REALLY lacking compared to Apple's Time Machine...

Any help with my questions here would be appreciated!