Another vote for an external enclosure and quality drives. I'm using a mid 2011 Mac Mini to run my Plex server (and light home computing needs). I've got all my media stored on a Drobo enclosure full of WD Red drives connected via USB3. Drobo is a proprietary RAID stripe (file level striping not block level striping) and it doesn't offer the performance of traditional RAID arrays, but it handles drives of different sizes with ease. I retired my first Drobo after 8 years not because it failed but because I got nervous that it might fail, plus I wanted to get off Firewire.

I like the security of striped drives because I've got way too much media to back it up (5TB right now with another 4TB available on the array). I also use the Drobo as a target for Time Machine on the Plex server, though those backups are small.

I stream all my content to Rokus on the home TV's, an iMac in the kitchen (love the DVR and live TV support in Plex), iOS devices around the house, and extended family across the country as that's where all the videos of their grandchildren are. USB3 is meeting all our bandwidth needs.

quote:

Suggestion for drives to keep as back ups in the safe?

I have one of these:
StarTech.com USB 3.0 to 2.5” SATA III Hard Drive Adapter Cable w/ UASP – SATA to USB 3.0 Converter for SSD/HDD - Hard Drive Adapter Cable https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H..._api_i_twCsCbB6PDS32

Should I just buy bare drives and store those in anti static bags in the safe?

The Startech cable is great for 2.5 and SSD drives.

Startech (and others) make hot swap trays that can be internal if your have room or external.
You could just eject and store as you see fit.

Either way I always buy bare drives and put them in enclosures but those are normally 3.5" drives not the notebook 2.5 which your Startech cable can work well.
I use quite a few of the Startech external enclosures for backing up servers.


https://www.startech.com/HDD/

Is there a 3.5” drive you suggest for backups that just sit in the safe except when data is being added (maybe once a month)?

Probably just the cheapest one you can find. The described use will probably never wear out the drive, whatever the brand or spec. The mean time before failure is typically measured in tens of thousands of hours.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Is there a 3.5” drive you suggest for backups that just sit in the safe except when data is being added (maybe once a month)?

Really most anything but for what spinners I still use its all Western Digital.

I would use WD Black at minimum.
I use Red Pro for my client server backups (and NAS units) or Gold but that might be overkill.
Gold for any actually regular data on servers.
Other would work but sounds like Black is a good low cost vs performance option.
Red is not bad either but only 5400rpm.

If you feel brave you could wait for a sale at Best Buy and get an 8 TB WD white drive for $130, or a 12 TB drive for $180. In December, the Best Buy for Business price for the 12 TB was about $163.

The best I can tell, these are HGST drives. You have to learn how to shuck them. Guitar picks work the best.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?fe...utu.be&v=7XyUHcaJLLE

Whatever you do, pay careful attention to make sure you do not stress the sata connection on the drive when you put it into your desktop. If the cable is short, it is easy to shear the connector off the back of the drive.

Wow that's a great deal!

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
Wow that's a great deal!

Actually I meant 8 TB and 10 TB, not 12 TB. Slickdeals has had many threads on this. Up until about a year ago, WD put actual 5400 RPM Red drives in their easy store 8 tb drives. They stopped that, and for a time the white drives had 128 mb cache, now most have 256. One can use crystaldiscinfo to decode the actual WD model number before removing the drive from the enclosure.

The actual model numbers for the WD easystores are unique to the Best Buy models, but the specs only match up with current HGST models. The drives feature the latest sata power standard, which is not an issue for current Synology NAS models.

https://www.hgst.com/sites/def...r-Disable-Pin-TB.pdf

The downside is this is only a good deal if you do not need the 3 or 5 warranty. Lots of people buy a Synology NAS on sale then use the drives for home media servers.

Generally Best Buy has had the sales about once every month or two.

I have been reading about these NAS things and found that Synology’s NAS operating system is a free download.
https://youtu.be/Axbwf5qNRVs

I have an old PC that the HD died awhile ago.
Figure I could put 2 new drives in the machine and add a hot swap bay for back ups.

Could be a fun little project with no added cost over the drives I need to buy anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

I have an old PC that the HD died awhile ago.

Could be a fun little project with no added cost over the drives I need to buy anyway.

Sounds like a nice no risk project.
Most NAS units require little processing or memory anyway so just a competent HD should suffice along with a good supported network card or cards.