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how much added storage do you have on your mini ?
- Thread starter MacMiniUpgrader
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I...I...I can't even...
How? Why? What do you do with that much data? How do you manage so much data!?
Ha... =) I'm retired but I have three serious hobbies. Photography, CAD work & Rendering of stills & animation video from Solidworks or Cinema 4D. This takes up some serious space. I also have a large collection of Music and Blu-Ray rips. Blu-Ray rips are up to 50GB each with no re-encoding, which is what I like, pure original quality.
Yes, it's a lot of data that I can not afford to lose so I am a stickler for backups. About half my data storage is dedicated to backups. It makes me sleep better at night.
Call me Crazy... Steve say's thats okay...
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Can I ask a bit more about your Mac and NAS set up? We have some huge libraries in Aperture that we're obviously going to need to deal with somehow in the near future... We have a 8TB synology nas, but haven't put much on it yet. I started to move over home movies and then realized maybe I needed to format the nas a particular filesystem rather than the default?
I use the standard ext4 file system with no issues. There is a newer file system called Btrfs that has some more advanced features but either will work fine for storing mac files.
Here's a little info from Synology describing the different file systems. HERE
P.S. I to am in the process of converting 18 large Aperture Libraries over to Lightroom. Losing about 5 years of edits in the process. Apple got me good this time, but I won't let it happen again. They convinced me to dump my 5,1 Mac Pro and build a custom PC Workstation.
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2018 mini with:
1 tb ssd boot/app drive
10 tb 5400 external for files, home movies, educational movies, scans
10 tb 5400 external time machine
I still have my Windows 7 with:
500 ssd boot/app
Six 4 tb data and syncback pro drives for a total of 24 tb
1 tb ssd boot/app drive
10 tb 5400 external for files, home movies, educational movies, scans
10 tb 5400 external time machine
I still have my Windows 7 with:
500 ssd boot/app
Six 4 tb data and syncback pro drives for a total of 24 tb
I will play along 
![Screen Shot 2019-03-10 at 6.30.51 PM.png]( "Screen Shot 2019-03-10 at 6.30.51 PM.png")
I have a 3rd drive plugged in, Samsung T5 500GB dedicated for Windoze so it’s not showing for Apple storage.
I have a 3rd drive plugged in, Samsung T5 500GB dedicated for Windoze so it’s not showing for Apple storage.
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So far I have 256GB internal, and a WD Black 1TB + a 250GB EVO 860 in an Akitio storage bay. Haven't started transferring all my music/photos to my Mini externally yet, one of these days I'll do that. Also have to start ripping my Blu-ray and DVD collection, so a lot more storage is in my future.
![Screen Shot 2019-03-10 at 7.48.09 PM.png]( "Screen Shot 2019-03-10 at 7.48.09 PM.png")
52 Tb plus a 1Tb internal SSD.
That's 2 12 Tb drives, plus 4 6 Tb drives and a couple of 4tb drives.
Sounds more impressive than it actually is, I'm trying to consolidate storage from the miscellaneous 6 and 4Tb drives to the 12Tb ones, which are in a nice Akitio enclosure. Once I do that, I'll retire the older drives.
That's 2 12 Tb drives, plus 4 6 Tb drives and a couple of 4tb drives.
Sounds more impressive than it actually is, I'm trying to consolidate storage from the miscellaneous 6 and 4Tb drives to the 12Tb ones, which are in a nice Akitio enclosure. Once I do that, I'll retire the older drives.
2012 2.6ghz i7 quad mini here, used primarily for video/audio editing.
original Apple 256gb internal SSD with Mountain Lion for my expensive legacy software
1tb external Samsung T3 SSD with Sierra as primary boot drive
5tb external hard drive for video projects
5tb external hard drive for everything else
Everything backed up continuously to the cloud with BackBlaze
two additional 5tb hard drives for local backup with Carbon Copy Cloner
additional 2tb hard drive for local backup of the 1tb external SSD
original Apple 256gb internal SSD with Mountain Lion for my expensive legacy software
1tb external Samsung T3 SSD with Sierra as primary boot drive
5tb external hard drive for video projects
5tb external hard drive for everything else
Everything backed up continuously to the cloud with BackBlaze
two additional 5tb hard drives for local backup with Carbon Copy Cloner
additional 2tb hard drive for local backup of the 1tb external SSD
Do you also post on reddit /r/DataHoarder? Massive respect for keeping the old ways alive...
Also why is your NAS not showing up? I am about to setup my old Mini 2012 as a domain controller and file server for my home and I am trying to figure out best practices for auto-mounting a drive (outside of domain policy).
I'm old school for sure...
Network drives don't show in the "About This Mac" dialog window. They do show in the Finder's sidebar though.
[MOD NOTE]
A number of off topic posts were removed. Please be respectful and stay on topic.
A number of off topic posts were removed. Please be respectful and stay on topic.
This is my Final Cut Pro machine. I have a 1TB SSD for FCPx scratch/work. I have a 2TB external for storing video source, audio clips and ‘parts’. The T5 is new and I’m not yet sure how I will use it. I also have a 4TB external drive for Time Machine backups.
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I can't take a screenshot as all the info wouldn't fit... but here's my setup.
I have a 2018 Mini with a 1TB drive built in
Then I have a 2TB Samsung EVO 860 as an external fast media drive (has my Lightroom library on it among other bits)
I then have a 6TB WD drive which acts as a time machine, set to backup both my Mac Mini and the 2TB Samsung media drive
For out an about I have a 2TB and 1TB WD Passport drives but I use them less nowadays so they don't find themsevles hooked up to my mini much.
In addition to the above, I use a Drobo with 16TB of Seagate Iron Wolf drives (2x6TB and 2x2TB) which I used to backup second-tier media as well as to provide a backup of my backup drive and store things like movies, unused raw files etc.
I have a load of older time machine drives that I stores as a matter of principle that equate to around 12 TB but those aren't used much anymore though some are hooked up on the same USB Hub as some of the other drives.
I have a 2018 Mini with a 1TB drive built in
Then I have a 2TB Samsung EVO 860 as an external fast media drive (has my Lightroom library on it among other bits)
I then have a 6TB WD drive which acts as a time machine, set to backup both my Mac Mini and the 2TB Samsung media drive
For out an about I have a 2TB and 1TB WD Passport drives but I use them less nowadays so they don't find themsevles hooked up to my mini much.
In addition to the above, I use a Drobo with 16TB of Seagate Iron Wolf drives (2x6TB and 2x2TB) which I used to backup second-tier media as well as to provide a backup of my backup drive and store things like movies, unused raw files etc.
I have a load of older time machine drives that I stores as a matter of principle that equate to around 12 TB but those aren't used much anymore though some are hooked up on the same USB Hub as some of the other drives.
After my 5.1 died i moved my data over to a synology nas. I have room for around 16tb on there.
On my mini (2014) i just keep apps and stuff i'm working on now on a 512gb ssd.
Just hoping the new mac pro will not cost one kidney and a liver so I replace my old mini.
On my mini (2014) i just keep apps and stuff i'm working on now on a 512gb ssd.
Just hoping the new mac pro will not cost one kidney and a liver so I replace my old mini.
I'm just on the stock 256GB SSD in the new Mini and a 1TB Seagate External HDD for backup and then my actual content lives on iCloud 200GB plan.
I have the standard 128GB SSD that I have my Mojave on with my Apps. And then all my Music, Photo libraries and large files are stored on the Samsung T5.
thanks again to everyone making this thread live! you all have such interesting usage / storage needs
I have 18TB NFS storage on my home server. Does that count? I haven't plugged anything into my new Mini yet, but I'm sure that'll happen. What are my best storage options with Thunderbolt? I have four empty ports and nothing but dreams.