Home storage setup
As I find myself entering the Apple video world, my hard drive storage requirements seem to be increasing dramatically. MP3's are one thing, but MP4's are wholely something else. Especially if you are thinking about putting an entire season of Alias or Battlestar Galactica in your library.
Looking at this from the perspective of a "typical" home user, I find that my 230GB hard drive will be sufficient for the near-term, but not so long-term. Fortunately, I am planning on getting a new computer next year, so I can solve my storage issues then.
OK, now the question at hand, what is a reasonable configuration for typical home use? My requirements are going to be something along the following lines:
1. Desktop computer will be an iMac
2. Need a simple, reasonable backup strategy
3. Want to make sure my Apple TV has ample local storage so I don't have to have the desktop on all the time.
OK, solution is fairly simple.
Desktop - buy the next to bottom iMac in the line next year when it becomes available. Consider either getting a 1TB option (hope it will be an option then) or alternately, get the authorized Apple dealer to replace the small hard drive with a larger one, thus saving the warranty. Store everything on the local drive for simplicity sake. That will be about $1500.
Backup strategy - clearly use Time Machine, why not? With an external hard drive. Desired option is a USB or Firewire RAID system which will give me some redundancy on the backup incase of drive failure. Not the cheapest solution, but gives me access to plenty of storage space. Continue to use my USB hard drives for TM backup until I can make this purchase. I think I can get away with a pair of 1TB drives and a FW/USB RAID system for $450. Perhaps by this time next year, I can get a pair of 1.5TB drives at that price point?
Apple TV - upgrade the ATV internal hard drive to 250GB. Dump all my music and a bunch of movies down there so I won't have to do too much streaming. I can get the 250GB drive and extra cable for about $100.
The challenge/plan here is that I end up have a single master copy of everything on my iMac - the center of my digital universe. The other devices (iPhone, ATV, iPod, etc.) have their own local storage, but are dependencies of your desktop. Hence, I have to concentrate a lot of storage at the desktop and have a reasonable backup system as well. I assume some risk with less frequent off-site backup.
None of this counts the old iMac which the kids will be using. Fortunately for them, I will strip it of material and give them a small USB drive for backup. Once they start building their own libraries, then their storage problems will be their own!
Hard drive manufacturers have to be loving Apple right now. They can sell me something like five or six drives to meet my needs (which aren't through the roof).
Other than a large NAS that everyone can share (which I could transition to with an AEBS in future), see any issues with this setup?
