Home media storage solutions

[Stevanos]

Hello All,

I'm having a few thoughts towards setting up a media storage solution for my home.

We have a home office which is basically two Macs, one is a Pro and another is an Air. This home office is in our open plan living room.

We have one TV which has an Apple TV.

I have a large iTunes library and as I am a keen photographer I am keen move my images off my laptop and on to something a bit more robust (I do have a backup running on my Macbook Pro) that saves everything via the web to an off-site location.

I'm looking for a solution that we can wirelessly back-up both our laptops too, but also somewhere we can move movie and music files to play on our TV.

I am probably not sure of what I actually need, but I think some sort of external media harddrive with wifi and USB or even HDMI networking?

Any help would be gratefully received.

[stevoknevo]

Time capsule, available in 2tb or 3tb http://store.apple.com/uk/product/ME177/airport-ti...

[steveatesh]

stevoknevo said:

Time capsule, available in 2tb or 3tb http://store.apple.com/uk/product/ME177/airport-ti...

Ive looked at these before but don't really enough about them - do they offer anything that the WD Passport wireless doesn't in terms of functionality or reliability?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Passport-Wireless-Wi-Fi-Mo...

Or is the premium just because it's Apple?

[clockworks]

It's an Apple device, so it just works. I converted to Apple about 8 years ago, and upgraded my original 500gb Time Capsule to the current model a year or so ago. The HDD in the original one failed, but that can happen with any disk drive. No other problems.
You can add other USB devices to the TC, such as printers or extra disks, and it can also be used as a router.

For me, the most important thing about the current model is that it is incredibly quiet. I think the original one failed because I disconnected the cooling fan!

[Don]

I use an Airport Time Capsule for Time Machine and WiFi. Basic but good storage.

I also have a Synology Diskstation. These are incredible bits of kit. The Rolls Royce of NAS drives. It can do all you want and more.

[Stevanos]

Would there be a solution to backing-up online to the web on either of the two devices mentioned so far?

I like the idea of dumping files on to a device and then allowing that to be backed up off-site via the web?

[Jasandjules]

I have just bought a "my cloud" unit, like this:

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories...

[Zad]

If you don't mind Seagate, there is 5TB for £110 http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00JV1YQY0/

If you want to buy one from a shop, Argos have them in for £10 more (and you get a £10 Argos discount on top of that) www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2465629....

[mph1977]

for true paranoia the answer is a pair ( or more) of RAID NAS devices giving redunadancy in each machine and the second ( and subsequent) one being off site (in different sites)...

if you are less paranoid, some sort of NAs or time capsule , plus cloud storage plus keeping memory cards or DVDs securely ...

[skahigh]

Don said:

I also have a Synology Diskstation. These are incredible bits of kit. The Rolls Royce of NAS drives. It can do all you want and more.

This.

But I also use mine for time machine backups!

[onlynik]

skahigh said:

Don said:

I also have a Synology Diskstation. These are incredible bits of kit. The Rolls Royce of NAS drives. It can do all you want and more.

This.

But I also use mine for time machine backups!

Yup, Synology 1813+ here and it backs up 3 Macs (via Time Machine) and a PC, then uploads to the cloud.