Hi,
Following on from the news about the new Mac Pro being designed for external devices, I'm expanding my external storage system (adding 2x4tb external rather than internal drives) and going to have the following:
Storage Drives:
4tb Media (Videos, Music, Aperture Photo Libraries)
(4tb copy of Media)
2tb Documents (work)
(2tb copy of Documents)
500gb Time Machine (Version'ed Backup of MacBook)
500gb MacBook Pro (Internal HDD)
Continuing on in future years I can simply buy another couple of drives and either migrate some old data or create a new drive such as "Documents 2" and "Documents 2 Copy"
Q1:
Is the 500gb drive enough to backup my 500gb MacBook's drive? I have 3 spare drives, 1tb WD Desktop drive, 500gb Lacie Porsche design portable and 250gb Lacie Porsche design portable. I will be using one for a new Samsung TV which will record to the HDD via USB. The other for a TM backup of my main macbook as shown above. Would it be best to use the 500gb for my TM and 1tb for my TV+ or the other way around?
Q2:
Is the best way of backing up the external drives to use software to copy them to another duplicate drive as shown?
Q3:
What is the best backup software to create a straight duplicate of the external drives assuming thats the best method?
Options:
Carbon Copy Cloner - Costs but seems ok
SuperDuper - Costs but seems ok
Chronosync - Unnecessary versioning of files
OS X Automator - I could simply create an automator which sync the drives on a schedule? e.g. every 3 hours
Lacie SilverKeeper - Free and seems ok
Other manufacturers software such as WD or Seagate?
It seems to me that I simply need some way of synchronising both the storage drive and its copy on a schedule and that backup software is unnecessary as I will be using Time Machine for the internal drive? Wouldn't it just be the most reliable and easiest thing to create an OS X Automator Sync or use Lacie's SilverKeeper?
Q4:
Since my MacBook only has 2 USB slots and I will need to attach 4 USB sockets (5 drives as the 2x 2tb drives are a single enclosure). Would a couple of USB hubs be ok for this or are they a potential problem for connection reliability of the drives? Does it matter which USB hub to get? I was thinking of using 2 usb hubs on my mac to improve speed when accessing multiple drives. Would it be best to connect my 2 copy drives and the tm drive to one hub and then the storage drives to the other. Or would it be best to keep each storage and copy together? I'm thinking of speeds whilst accessing/backing up a drive, i.e. would it be faster for the data to go from one hub to the other, or through the same hub? or does it not make a difference?
Q5:
On a side note, I would like to easily switch the 4tb media drive between my TV (to watch/listen easily) and my Mac (to add content). Are USB Switch Boxes ok to use or are they a potential reliability problem? I dont see any other way to allowing both access of the drive as using a NAS does not allow the TV to play the content properly (much better direct playback via usb)
Thanks,
Luke.
Following on from the news about the new Mac Pro being designed for external devices, I'm expanding my external storage system (adding 2x4tb external rather than internal drives) and going to have the following:
Storage Drives:
4tb Media (Videos, Music, Aperture Photo Libraries)
(4tb copy of Media)
2tb Documents (work)
(2tb copy of Documents)
500gb Time Machine (Version'ed Backup of MacBook)
500gb MacBook Pro (Internal HDD)
Continuing on in future years I can simply buy another couple of drives and either migrate some old data or create a new drive such as "Documents 2" and "Documents 2 Copy"
Q1:
Is the 500gb drive enough to backup my 500gb MacBook's drive? I have 3 spare drives, 1tb WD Desktop drive, 500gb Lacie Porsche design portable and 250gb Lacie Porsche design portable. I will be using one for a new Samsung TV which will record to the HDD via USB. The other for a TM backup of my main macbook as shown above. Would it be best to use the 500gb for my TM and 1tb for my TV+ or the other way around?
Q2:
Is the best way of backing up the external drives to use software to copy them to another duplicate drive as shown?
Q3:
What is the best backup software to create a straight duplicate of the external drives assuming thats the best method?
Options:
Carbon Copy Cloner - Costs but seems ok
SuperDuper - Costs but seems ok
Chronosync - Unnecessary versioning of files
OS X Automator - I could simply create an automator which sync the drives on a schedule? e.g. every 3 hours
Lacie SilverKeeper - Free and seems ok
Other manufacturers software such as WD or Seagate?
It seems to me that I simply need some way of synchronising both the storage drive and its copy on a schedule and that backup software is unnecessary as I will be using Time Machine for the internal drive? Wouldn't it just be the most reliable and easiest thing to create an OS X Automator Sync or use Lacie's SilverKeeper?
Q4:
Since my MacBook only has 2 USB slots and I will need to attach 4 USB sockets (5 drives as the 2x 2tb drives are a single enclosure). Would a couple of USB hubs be ok for this or are they a potential problem for connection reliability of the drives? Does it matter which USB hub to get? I was thinking of using 2 usb hubs on my mac to improve speed when accessing multiple drives. Would it be best to connect my 2 copy drives and the tm drive to one hub and then the storage drives to the other. Or would it be best to keep each storage and copy together? I'm thinking of speeds whilst accessing/backing up a drive, i.e. would it be faster for the data to go from one hub to the other, or through the same hub? or does it not make a difference?
Q5:
On a side note, I would like to easily switch the 4tb media drive between my TV (to watch/listen easily) and my Mac (to add content). Are USB Switch Boxes ok to use or are they a potential reliability problem? I dont see any other way to allowing both access of the drive as using a NAS does not allow the TV to play the content properly (much better direct playback via usb)
Thanks,
Luke.