OT - Computer Memory Backup

[hokoman]

First time I have posted an OT subject (I think)... My wife and I have multiple computers, ipads, etc. All of our desktops are cluttered with photos and other misc. things. I was looking at the Apple Airport Time Capsule.

Does anyone have any recommendations where we can easily dump our photos and free up our computers. Unfortunately, we have 3 Macs (I'm getting a surface pro for my next computer purchase)...

I would prefer removable storage so that if we do end up filling it, I can just archive a disc of sorts and not an entire console.

TIA.

[Likes2ridefar]

Sync the iPad's wirelessly to one Mac and use a solid state portable drive if less than 500Gb or so is required. If more then go for a 2-3TB external drive.

Never been a fan of wireless drives as they are just too slow.

[yngpunk]

I know you said you're considering a portable hard drive type device, but I'd recommend also looking into online backup such as CrashPlan, Carbonite, etc. which eliminates the need for a back up of your back up if you plan to delete the files from your computers.

[biker72]

I bought a Western Digital 1.5 terabyte hard drive and a USB docking station. (http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-BlacX-eSATA-Docking-Station/dp/B001A4HAFS)

With this docking station you can easily swap in another hard drive.

[carpediemracing]

How much data do you want to back up?

If it's not too much you can backup on an external drive. You can do the time machine back up that comes with Macs. I haven't recovered from a Time Machine backup so I don't know how effective it is.

Because I haven't recovered from Time Machine I use multiple external drives, basically multiple mirrors (duplicates). I copy just certain folders. Because I do a lot of video editing (my bike clips) I have multiple 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB external drives. I bought them in pairs and they are all basically mirrored external data-only drives.

I have larger drives for full backups (using Time Machine) so a 2TB drive to back up the 1.5TB external + the 0.5TB internal drive. I disconnect the Time Machine drives unless doing major work.

I CarbonCopyCloned (https://bombich.com) the hard drive so I have a second bootable drive (mirror image of the drive as it is when you CC it). That's for having a bootable machine, I wasn't concerned with my own data when doing this. The second reason I did this was to install a 500GB drive internally, or, I think one has a larger drive, I forget.

Hope this helps.

[Jaq]

Build a home server. It's no more challenging than building a PC, and pretty fun if you've got any geek in you. And there are any number of tutorials, such as the one below.

It's better than having a bunch of drives in a box (tho technically, that's exactly what it is). You can store all your data and media on it, access it from anywhere in the house (or remotely), etc.

http://youtu.be/ICblwRtUito

[dpk501]

I used to do hard drives, then they crash. I do carbonite and icloud only now.