This article is about how to get your large files off your main computer hard drive and onto some external network storage that is more reliable, longer-term, and doesnât take up precious space on your laptop or desktop computer. Apple donât make an external storage solution but I found Synology have some great devices.
I upgrade my Mac computer about every 3 years. Each time I do itâs a bit like moving house -Ã lots of stuff moves with me that I probably donât need but Iâm not ready to throw it out yet.
I just purchased a new Mac mini, à but the particular SSD that Apple chose to use in the Mac mini isà very expensive. à A 1 TB hard disk on a new Mac Mini costs an extra $1280.à Thatâs a lot to pay for an SSD just for storing files. To make matters worse you cannot upgrade the SSD drives in the new Mac Mini.Ã
Dec 13, 2018 Hereâs how you can do it: Perform the above steps to map the network drive. Open System Preferences (the silver and black icon with the gear in the middle, somewhere around the center of the dock). Select Login Items and uncheck the lock icon in the bottom left. Drag the network drive.
Enter the NAS?
Many businesses have a different approach to storage, Ã they use what is called network attached storage (NAS). Ã This is an external hard drive that sits outside of your computer and is accessed over the network. Itâs a bit like an external thumb drive but itâs on the network so itâs always available from any computer. If you upgrade your computer you donât have to transfer the data across, Ã it will still be on your NAS.Ã
NAS storage is that it is much slower than a hard drive. Think of it as being more like a filing cabinet or bookcase. Ã Itâs primary role is STORAGE and sharing with other computer.Ã
With the purchase of my new Mac Mini Iâve decided itâs a good time to transfer the bulk of my data over to a network attached storage device.
Hereâs what I purchased:
1. A Synology DiskStation DS218j â NAS box AU$247
This is the external box that will hold my hard drives and attach them to the network. This particular box has two hard drives in it. Exactly the same data is on each hard disk so that f one of the hard disks fails I donât lose my data. You can get a 4 drive system that is faster and more secure, but 2 was plenty for me.
I could have also gone with Qnap or another brand, but I picked Synology after doing some research on what works well with a Mac computer.
2. Two Seagate 4TB Iron Wolf drives AU$157 each
It seems like the sweet spot for robust but affordable drives for NAS storage are the Seagate Ironwolf Pro or Western Digital RED NAS. You can spend a lot more, These are in the middle price range yet are more reliable than the standard consumer drive.Ã
I went with Ironwolf because they supposedly work better with the Synology NAS. I chose 4TB drives because that seemed to be the sweet point at the moment in terms of TB per dollar. The two hard drives are in parallel so 2x à 4TB drives still only giveà me 4TB in total.Ã
3. A BR700ELCD CyberPower UPS AU$139
The icing on the cake was to buy an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). If our power fails this little device signals to the NAS to shutdown and supplies it with power for 30 seconds while it shuts down.
This shopping spree set me back AU$700 in total, but this is a lot less than the $1280 for 1TB on the Mac Mini. Plus I now have 4TB of storage not 1TB. Itâs now external to my computer, Ã so I can easily access it from other computers in the home, which means all my computers can have a smaller SSD in them.Ã I can use it for Time MAchine backups of my main hard disk. Plus I wonât need to transfer data across from it should I upgrade my computer in the future.
Setting it all up.
I donât want to describe in detail how to set it up, the instructions are pretty self-explanatory. But hereâs a few a tipsâ¦
Nas For Mac And Windows
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