Storage solution for loads of data

[Martinpa]

Hi,

My current setup includes just too many external hard drives, and the management of those is driving me insane (and makes me not want to use my computer for things like photo editing, cause it's just a mess).

Ideally, I'd want one place where I could have:

• Time Machine Backups
• Offline Media Library (music, videos, photos,...)
• Lightroom library with all my photos
• Raw media from video editing projects

I was thinking of going the RAID 5 route, so there'd be a layer of protection while using as much of the hard drive space available. Of course, I'm also trying to stay budget conscious... Any recommendations? Alternatives?

 

[Bigwaff]

Any recommendations?

First, TM is for back ups. You should have separate TM external drive. Second, RAID5 requires at least three disks. Not sure how that is “using as much of the hard drive space available”.

 

[wilkyconsultants]

NAS w/RAID 5. With 4TB drives, you’d get 12TB usable out of 16TB (4 x 4TB) as example, Synology and QNAP. You could go JBOB but you would need to back it up if you can't afford a disk hit.

 

[Martinpa]

Second, RAID5 requires at least three disks. Not sure how that is “using as much of the hard drive space available”.

We’ll RAID 1 mirrors the data of one disk onto one or more other disks for redundancy. So with two disks, only one is “usable” for data... RAID 5 does it in a way where you can use a larger ratio of the total amount of disk space for data. From what I get at least. Thought I was clear.

 

[Martinpa]

NAS w/RAID 5. With 4TB drives, you’d get 12TB usable out of 16TB (4 x 4TB) as example, Synology and QNAP. You could go JBOB but you would need to back it up if you can't afford a disk hit.

Curious, why a NAS over a RAID enclosure?

I don’t have any experience with NASs… I don’t have Ethernet in that room, would I use the lan port to connect to my iMac directly, rather than the USB? On Synology’s website, they’re funneling me to the DS423, for reference.

 

[Chancha]

A NAS especially from Synology or QNAP, has software pre-installed that massively help your management issue, which was your initial reason to upgrade. A vanilla DAS, even with RAID, will just behave like a single disk, where the responsibility of maintaining and backing up are still on your hands. The NAS also typically uses a more robust filesystem meant for, well, file sharing, and has various fail-safe in file integrity that your vanilla DAS does not have.

There are draw backs of NAS especially for newer users. For one it simply does not behave as smoothly as a DAS, it is always treated as a network share (unless you do massive customization to make it not so). The other is the speed is capped by your network. But with modern Macs having 10GbE option, and a PCIe card for a NAS is getting quite cheap, this part is now solved. That said, the iMac is the one desktop Mac that Apple somehow doesn't let you choose 10GbE, so you will have to use thunderbolt to go above 1Gbps.

 

[Martinpa]

A NAS especially from Synology or QNAP, has software pre-installed that massively help your management issue, which was your initial reason to upgrade. A vanilla DAS, even with RAID, will just behave like a single disk, where the responsibility of maintaining and backing up are still on your hands. The NAS also typically uses a more robust filesystem meant for, well, file sharing, and has various fail-safe in file integrity that your vanilla DAS does not have.

There are draw backs of NAS especially for newer users. For one it simply does not behave as smoothly as a DAS, it is always treated as a network share (unless you do massive customization to make it not so). The other is the speed is capped by your network. But with modern Macs having 10GbE option, and a PCIe card for a NAS is getting quite cheap, this part is now solved. That said, the iMac is the one desktop Mac that Apple somehow doesn't let you choose 10GbE, so you will have to use thunderbolt to go above 1Gbps.

My file management issues stem, I think, from having to plug and unplug several drives for different use cases. It also doesn’t help that some of those drives sometime eject themselves for seemingly no reason, which discourages me from using those, and I end up using other drives for files that should go on those. Having just one “thing” connected is gonna be the biggest help, I think. Could go for just an enclosure without raid at all, but figured adding a layer of protection would be wise. Also from a quick search, I’ve found raid enclosures that are far cheaper than the NAS I see on synology’s website. But NASs come up all the time, so maybe I’m missing something big.