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What external storage solutions are you going to use with the Mac Studio

Hi all

I'm looking for some advice on external hard drives. I have a couple needs:

1. Regular backup - either SuperDuper to clone my internal drive or Time Machine backups. This might be shared with other computers in my home network (like my wife's, kids, etc.)
2. Regular data access - for all of the photos that I have as part of my Lightroom library

For both of those uses, what kind of drive do I need to buy? For instance, for #2, do I need something fast like a RAID? For 1, is it adequate just to get a standard USB external drive or do I need a Thunderbolt one?

And with backup services like Backblaze, is it even necessary to have a local clone or backup option?

Thanks in advance
 
jclin10 said:
And with backup services like Backblaze, is it even necessary to have a local clone or backup option?
Click to expand...

Heck yes IMO! When my Mac got bricked and I had to reinstall from scratch (Time Machine) I could do it immediately instead of downloading a huge amount of information or having BackBlaze send a drive to me.

I back up locally to an old SanDisk G-Drive and a newer LaCie mobile drive.
 
jclin10 said:
And with backup services like Backblaze, is it even necessary to have a local clone or backup option?
Click to expand...
If you have a lot of video, 500GB+ data, this is very slow and underwhelming. If you have a small amout of files, backup to iCloud.

Otherwise, for local backup, any inexpensive USB drive will work fine. If you don't like relying on one drive, add a second as suspenders to your belt. Nothing fancy or high performance needed. The performance discussion are for real time working file use cases.

I've used WD and Seagate USB drives for backup for decades without issue, besides cable clutter.

Photos don't take much performance. I have a TB enclosure with a few drives for that purpose How much memory do you need.
 
You didn't tell us WHAT SIZE your internal drive is.

Let's assume it's 1tb.

For a SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner cloned backup, I'd suggest a 1tb SSD.
Samsung t7 "shield" is on sale at amazon - just checked:
www.amazon.com

Samsung T7 Shield 1TB Portable SSD - 1050MB/s, Rugged, IP65, for Content Creators - Blue

Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD delivers high performance on-the-go, not matter the terrain. It has an IP65 rating for water1 and dust2 resistance, with Dynamic Thermal Guard to manage heat control. Transfer huge files instantly. USB 3.2 Gen 2 and PCIe® NVMe achieve soaring sequential read/write ...
www.amazon.com

For time machine (which I don't use), I'd suggest a platter-based hard drive at least 2x the size of the internal (for a 1tb internal, 2gb tm drive).

USB3 is "all you need" if it's a platter-based drive.
The t7 shield is USB3.1 gen2.
 
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Doesn't the newer T7s have reliability problems with macs? Or was that just disappointing performance. But SSD is a good choice for working files. My first choice, there are plenty of options.
 
Thanks everyone!

To resurface one of the other questions - I probably have 3-4TB of data (photos, videos, etc.) that I use Lightroom for. I keep the Lightroom catalog on my internal drive but the actual photo and video files on an external drive.

What kind of drive do I need for photo and video files? SSD or conventional platter-based HD (and if so, what RPM?)? RAID (or is that overkill)?

Is there any kind of array that would accommodate my regular storage needs (photo and video files), Time Machine backups and SuperDuper cloning? Or should I get separate enclosures for each?
 
There are enclosures available that will house one to twenty + drives. You would want a TB 3 or 4 enclosure.

Do you intend to edit those videos from external storage. You will want SSD for this.

In my case, I have recent source videos and older ones I don't use much. The recent ones go on SSD, the older ones are archived on larger 7200 rpm drive(s). I divide my videos annually and by subject and put the library on a 4TB SSD. When they start getting to 3TB, I archive them off and reuse the SSD for more current media. If I want to use an archived clip, I pull that into the working library (on SSD).

I have an 8bay OWC thunderbay JBOD enclosure that houses all the drives. Since I'm using SSD I have no need for raid, but do need backup. The working SSDs are backed up to NAS type rotational drives via carbon copy cloner. My media archive drive is mirrored via disk utility. I use another 2TB SSD as a temporary destination device for shared content.

There are dozens of ways to skin that cat. It is easier if you can avoid RAIDs, which make sense for large projects at a media house. Dunno where you fit into the picture.

Video will require the most resources, once you solve that, images are a relatively simple add on.
 
This is super helpful, thanks. Right now it looks like 4TB drives are decently priced. But I will probably outgrow a 4TB drive pretty soon. Is it better to get one big drive, like 6-8TB, or can I just get two 4TB drives and daisy chain them? Also is there such thing as a multiple SSD enclosure, just to keep things tidy?
 
There are RAID modes that put two 4TB drives together so they look like a 8TB drive to the OS. Infact you can put four 2TB drives together and make a 8TB drive. If you change your mind later, however, you generally have to start from scratch, i.e. erase and format the drives. Cost no object, its better to use a large drive, but RAIDs can combine multiple smaller drives into a larger volume. Just have a good backup and recovery plan. RAID0 and RAID5 combines drives and a RAID0 array can be faster than a single large drive.

The bays of most enclosures now days can mount either SATA SSDs, 2.5 form factor drives, or 3.5 drives.

I'd look through the OWC catalog of enclosures to get a better idea of what may fit your needs. I believe they have several guides. There are so many variables thats its hard to offer advice over the interweb.
 
I have used Western Digital HDDs for backups since about 2007. My current primary is 8 TB. My second backup is 4 TB and I'm not sure what the size of the third is. I keep 3 backup drives and, when one goes, I buy a new one and add it to the rotation. My next will probably be 12 TB. These drives are nowhere near as fast as SSDs but they are a lot of storage for cheap.
 
jclin10 said:
This is super helpful, thanks. Right now it looks like 4TB drives are decently priced. But I will probably outgrow a 4TB drive pretty soon. Is it better to get one big drive, like 6-8TB, or can I just get two 4TB drives and daisy chain them? Also is there such thing as a multiple SSD enclosure, just to keep things tidy?
Click to expand...
I have my photos on Samsung T7 and video on a separate T7. These then back up via Time Machine to my LaCie 2 big which is in raid 0 and then I have an older LaCie 2big which does a back up very couple of weeks of them as well.

I like the t7 because it’s so quiet. Before the T7 I just kept them all on the LaCie 2 big and it was only when I got the t7 that I realised how noises the LaCie is that I switched to the T7 as my daily
 
I have two drives, both self build.

- Acasis (TBU401E) 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure with a Samsung 980 Pro 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen 4 M.2 SSD (Tests in Blackmagic on a mini M2: steady at W:2800+ MB/s, R:2700+/- MB/s)

- Qwiizlab M.2 NVMe and SATA External Enclosure, USB-C 10Gbps, SSD Rugged IP66 Dust and Water Resistant with a Leven JPS600 2TB PCIe 3D NAND NVMe Gen3x4 PCIe M.2 2280 SSD with Heat Sink (Tests in Blackmagic on a mini M2: steady at W:905+ MB/s, R:895+/- MB/s)

I use the Acasis for my Lightroom/photoshop/illustrator db.
The Qwiizlab I use as an external boot OS for my iMac
And for time machine backups of both I use 5TB external HDD's

At first I got a SanDisk 4TB Extreme PRO Portable SSD and it failed on me within a month after which I did some digging and found that many people were having issues with the SanDisk's (sometimes they work great but the chance of sudden failure is not what I need).
 
jihwoanahn said:
Hello everyone, since this topic exists - I'd like to ask a question without making a new thread somewhere else.
I also got a Mac Studio with M1 Max and 2TB SSD, and looking for something like 2 or 4TB of external NVMe drive.

But for some reason, most of Thunderbolt 3 enclosures I find on Amazon says they support up to 2TB of storage (ones like ORICO or Sabrent) and I don't see that limitation written in enclosures for USB 3.1/3.2 Type C ones.
I was wondering does limitation really exists for Thunderbolt enclosure? I believe OWC Envoy EX doesn't seem to have any despite being TB3 enclosure. If possible, I kinda want to stay away from USB 3.1/3.2 enclosure, to get the maximum speed as much as possible.

My primary use for this external drives will be loading virtual instruments sample libraries such as Kontakt, SINE player and etc.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
I have a Acasis (TBU401E) 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure (can house up to 8TB) USB-C with a Samsung 980 Pro 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen 4 M.2 SSD (Tests in Blackmagic on a mini M2: steady at W:2800+ MB/s, R:2700+/- MB/s)
 
Dear experts,:)
  • What 8TB SSD’s would you recommend to employ with OWC ThunderBlade?
  • Does it make sense to use PCIe 4.0 drives?
  • What 1.0M (39") Thunderbolt Cable would you recommend?
  • Any 8-12 Bay enclosures similar to OWC ThunderBlade?
Please chime in!:)
 
"What 8TB SSD’s would you recommend to employ with OWC ThunderBlade?"

There aren't many and I wouldn't recommend ANY of them.
They're all too expensive.
 
Baja63 said:
I ordered a M1 Max Mac Studio with 1TB of storage. I’m wondering what others are going to use for external storage. I’ll be doing video editing 4K video so will need some kind of additional working space.
Click to expand...

For photography and video editing on my M1 Max Studio, I have…
18TB 7200rpm Enterprise drive stuffed in an OWC Aluminum Mercury Pro Elite USB-3 case (x2) - back-up storage

2TB 2000MB/s NVMe stuffed in a USB-C case (x2) - for active jobs

I archive the final work to 2019 Mac Mini with a pair of 14TB 7200rpm drives in the same cases as the 18TB drives.
 
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