Living with smaller storage

[JonD25]

The WD MyCloud is very basic. If you JUST want storage it'll do the trick. If you want some more advanced features then I'd be looking at a Synology.

If you're set on $200, then I'd pick up the MyCloud. The Synology DS218j is similar price but doesn't include disks so you're looking at probably $350 or so, depending how you size the drives.

This page links to both the WD MyCloud and the Synology at the bottom.
https://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Home-P...ds=wd+mycloud&qid=1565280679&s=gateway&sr=8-2

You mention reliability - you cannot replace the drives on the lower end MyCloud. So if a drive fails I believe you're toast. But aside from that, I've used one briefly (set one up for an acquaintance) and I was impressed. For the money I think they're good.

I'm pretty protective of my data so another expense you may need to consider is an external drive to backup the NAS. I backup my MacBook to both my NAS and to external USB drives, and I also backup my NAS to external drives too. Time Machine to NAS is good, but it's not perfect. Not sure about others but I always like multiple backups.

You may also want to ensure you have wifi with at least AC1300 for the lower end 13" and at least AC1750 for the other Pro machines. Ethernet might be a good idea for the initial backup too. The initial backup to a NAS based Time Machine drive over wifi will be slow (depending how much data you have).

I noticed they have a dual drive MyCloud with RAID 1 for auto syncing the drives. Wouldn't this be sufficient for the actual NAS backup? Obviously I know that doesn't protect me from when I delete files myself since that gets synced, but at least from hard drive failure, yes? The 4TB option (2x2TB drives) seems kinda reasonably priced for that. Plus I could do Time Machine backups to it.

I just remembered my router actually has a USB port that, in theory, should allow me to attach any drive to it and share it on my network? It's an Archer C7. I guess I can research my options with that as well.

Also, as far as backups go, I also have a Crashplan for Small Business running at all times to backup my internal drive as well as my external drives when connected (plus Time Machine and some extra external drives to backup the other external drives... basically I try and follow the 3-2-1 rule). I'm not sure how well it would work backing up a NAS and if I'd have to use my Mac as the conduit between the two or if there is some fancy way I could get it to do it all on it's own without the Mac side, but I feel like maybe at that point it's starting to get into complicated NAS territory that I may or may not wish to dive into like I talked about before.

 

[JonD25]

The op is looking to buy a new MBP and those don't have SD cards so that is not viable option for him

This is correct. Just purchased the 2019 and waiting on it to arrive. I got a USB-C hub with an SD card reader as well as USB 3 ports, but that just all feels really inelegant and cumbersome, whether relying on an SD card and the hub, or the hub and external drives, as I'd have to carry them all around with me on the go. Plus I'd need to get a second drive just to backup the external/SD, and then it's juggling cables and dongles and software syncs and keeping up with when they're synced and not, etc. I'm looking for the most elegant solution, where the storage is just there for me when I need it (as long as I've got internet at least) and I don't have to worry about all that other stuff.

Also, in theory, I REALLY like the idea of iCloud storage the way it works on my iPhone with apps and photos, where everything looks like it's actually there on my phone, readily accessible with standard apps, but the OS is smart enough to know what I likely actually need physically stored on the device and what is safe to offload to the cloud. But still gives me the option to download from the cloud when I need it, seamlessly. In an ideal world, this is what I want iCloud Drive on my Mac to be, and it storing pretty much all my files that way, and it freeing up space intelligently to where the OS doesn't get bogged down with not having free space ever.

I guess I made this thread because that all sounds good, in theory. I just don't know if that's how iCloud Drive on Mac actually and works in a seamless way. So I was looking for both first hand accounts of people who have tried or currently do use iCloud that way, and/or what other people use as alternative solutions. If iCloud does work that way, I'll pay for the 2TB storage in a heartbeat, as it's exactly what I'm looking for.

 

[Howard2k]

I noticed they have a dual drive MyCloud with RAID 1 for auto syncing the drives. Wouldn't this be sufficient for the actual NAS backup? Obviously I know that doesn't protect me from when I delete files myself since that gets synced, but at least from hard drive failure, yes? The 4TB option (2x2TB drives) seems kinda reasonably priced for that. Plus I could do Time Machine backups to it.

Correct on all counts.

I just remembered my router actually has a USB port that, in theory, should allow me to attach any drive to it and share it on my network? It's an Archer C7. I guess I can research my options with that as well.

Yep. I've taken this path too as a proof of concept - to see if a NAS type deployment work for me. To be honest it was crap. I had a Netgear router which was FANTASTIC in all regards, but when I wanted to plug in a drive it was problematic. I would have to reboot the router as it would lose the drive, and it would only access the first partition on the drive, not any subsequent partitions. Also cannot Time Machine in this scenario typically (not sure about the Archer specifically). Security is not as granular etc. I also tried a DLink variant at some point too and the USB access was terrible there too. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but certainly it worked well enough for me to know that from a workflow perspective it would fit my needs.

So it's good to see if NAS is for you - if you use Lightoom you can create a folder on that volume and then move images to that and see how it performs. Just remember that you'll be working off locally cached copies of recently used files so you'll need to try to determine which files are really opening over the network and which files are opening from cache. You can then see if you can stomach the performance hit when you're opening those files over the network. I'm not a professional photographer, I just take pics for fun, but in LR I have a local library and a NAS library. I do all my processing in my local library and then just drag stuff to the NAS based library when I'm done. I can still open it all directly from the NAS within LR, it's just slower.

I would absolutely give this a go if you feel up to it. The Archer C7 is supposed to be decent though I haven't used it myself.

Also, as far as backups go, I also have a Crashplan for Small Business running at all times to backup my internal drive as well as my external drives when connected (plus Time Machine and some extra external drives to backup the other external drives... basically I try and follow the 3-2-1 rule). I'm not sure how well it would work backing up a NAS and if I'd have to use my Mac as the conduit between the two or if there is some fancy way I could get it to do it all on it's own without the Mac side, but I feel like maybe at that point it's starting to get into complicated NAS territory that I may or may not wish to dive into like I talked about before.

Yeah with a "proper" NAS you have a myriad of options there. With the WD MyCloud I don't believe you do. But a USB drive that is stored at a friends house and updated every 3 months might do the trick?

 

[phillytim]

512 GB SD Card on the side and will get a 1 TB card when prices come down.

Oh I urge you to think of something better than risky SD cards - I've had a number of them (brand name premium ones) blow out on me over time; their gold contacts are so prone to scratching, especially each time you slide them in or out of the reader. I wouldn't trust anything less than a USB thumb drive interface.