[emester]

Hey all,
 
So at this point in time, I've come to understand storage expansion on via external hard drives, thus giving me the opportunity to actually explore lossless audio beyond just a Tidal subscription. I've essentially been listening music on my Macbook Pro Retina 512GB ('15) in my iTunes library at 320 kbps until now but the prospect of no longer restricting my library to lossy files is very much something I want to do. To get a good idea of how much music I have crammed onto my internal hard drive, I have nearly 1500 full albums at 320 Kbps. With the equipment I am using , what would be some good choices of external hard drive I can store my lossless music on?

 

[tomb]

  Hey all,
 
So at this point in time, I've come to understand storage expansion on via external hard drives, thus giving me the opportunity to actually explore lossless audio beyond just a Tidal subscription. I've essentially been listening music on my Macbook Pro Retina 512GB ('15) in my iTunes library at 320 kbps until now but the prospect of no longer restricting my library to lossy files is very much something I want to do. To get a good idea of how much music I have crammed onto my internal hard drive, I have nearly 1500 full albums at 320 Kbps. With the equipment I am using , what would be some good choices of external hard drive I can store my lossless music on?

Always buy the drive with the most space that you can afford, accounting for the brand/reliability/drive features that you want.
 
Just some quick math, but if you are going to use FLAC from a CD Redbook source, that iTunes library would be around 4 times as large, or about 500 GB.  I would look for a Terrabyte drive at least, perhaps bigger (1.5 to 2 TB) - assuming you have a CD Redbook or Tidal FLAC source for all of those albums.  If not, you can grow with it as you collect the FLAC versions of the albums.  Understand, of course, that converting to FLAC from those 320 kbps files will accomplish nothing.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Hey all,
 
So at this point in time, I've come to understand storage expansion on via external hard drives, thus giving me the opportunity to actually explore lossless audio beyond just a Tidal subscription. I've essentially been listening music on my Macbook Pro Retina 512GB ('15) in my iTunes library at 320 kbps until now but the prospect of no longer restricting my library to lossy files is very much something I want to do. To get a good idea of how much music I have crammed onto my internal hard drive, I have nearly 1500 full albums at 320 Kbps. With the equipment I am using , what would be some good choices of external hard drive I can store my lossless music on?

 
HGST 4TB hard drive, currently $155
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/835056-REG/Hitachi_0S03355_4TB_SATA3_3_5_INTERNL.html
Currently using three of those drives and no issues.
(HGST drives have a good rep for reliability).
 
Of you you think you do not need that much space, get a Western digital blue drive (1TB?).
 
You might consider buying two hard drives and put copies of all your music on both drive, just in case one drive goes bad.
 
Get any external USB hard drive case you like.
 
You can buy external hard drives already in an external case, but you never know for sure what model is used inside the case, until after you buy the external drive and open the case.
So buy the best drive you can and get your own external case.
 
This site should help you with hard drive questions.
http://www.storagereview.com/

 

[tomb]

Actually, I've had Hitachi drives fail before.  'Course, they all fail - eventually.
 
It's just me, but if you are going to get specific, a portable drive makes more sense with the OP's Macbook Pro.
 
Something like this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/965069-REG/western_digital_wdbuzg0010bbk_nesn_1tb_elements_portable_hd.html
This drive is about 4" x 3" and only about 1/2" thick - $55.  Just plug in a USB cable and go ...
 
or this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1140711-REG/wd_wdbbkd0020bbk_nesn_2tb_my_passport_ultra.html
The 2TB version is a little thicker, but that's all - $89.
 
External full-size drives are clunky.  They need an external power supply in almost all cases, are heavy, and not portable.  Better to buy two of either of the ones above and have his own constant backup on a separate drive.  They're really easy to fit into a laptop case, power with the USB, and they're fairly tiny.  His Macbook already has a 512 GB solid-state drive, so a tiny portable hard drive would be a better choice.
 
@ emester - JMHO, but you probably shouldn't be filling up that fine solid-state drive with music files. Better to reserve that thing for software.  You probably should've had a little portable external drive from the beginning.  That's usually one of the first accessories to get with a laptop (or it is with me, anyway).  The portable drive is the next best thing to an iPod/phone, in that you can contain all of your library for very little money on a device just as portable as your laptop.
 
 
EDIT: 'Course, you could go with an SSD portable/external drive, too - but they are very expensive compared to the traditional drives above.  I've never had dropout issues on my Seagate Free Agent Go's (meaning you don't need the extra speed of SSD for music) and all of my music collection is on them (I have several).  I understand Seagate drives do not have as good a reputation as they used to have, but like I said in the first line above, they all fail eventually.  You should be prepared for that.

 

[PuterPro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by emester 

Hey all,

 

So at this point in time, I've come to understand storage expansion on via external hard drives, thus giving me the opportunity to actually explore lossless audio beyond just a Tidal subscription. I've essentially been listening music on my Macbook Pro Retina 512GB ('15) in my iTunes library at 320 kbps until now but the prospect of no longer restricting my library to lossy files is very much something I want to do. To get a good idea of how much music I have crammed onto my internal hard drive, I have nearly 1500 full albums at 320 Kbps. With the equipment I am using, what would be some good choices of external hard drive I can store my lossless music on?

 

Hi emester!

 

I'm a Computer Tech for 35 years, electronics repair 47. Been down the road and all ... 

 

Well, the ultimate storage setup involves two backups. 

 

Fact is, hard drives fail. SSD's fail. Computers suffer glitches. Power surges happen. The universe in general does everything in it's power to help you lose your data.

I've even seen a TRIPLE redundant system fail (don't ask... it was ugly for the guy).

 

You've amassed a lot of music, and have probably spent MANY hours on your library. You need to protect it. Best setup involves you spending some of your hard earned cash. (SURPRISE!! 

 )

 

That's the bad news. Now for the good - prices of late have dropped a bunch, it's a great time to jump in.

 

Many of the more knowledgeable people are putting small (or not so small) NAS setups in their house. Don't know your tech level, so I'll try and be simple.

 

A NAS is a Network Attached Storage. The simplest is just a drive in a box connected to your WiFi router (most have Ethernet ports for this). It allows all in your house to access it (including tablets and Phones), and if you have a modern Audio Receiver, you can stream music to it directly (nice benefit).

That's great, but it suffers from the problem of "single point of failure", just like an external drive attached to your Macbook, it's just not SAFE!

 

The ideal setup is a small NAS with TWO drives in it. They are setup in what's called a "Mirror" - both drives save the SAME data simultaneously.

When (note I didn't say "if") one drive fails, you replace it and the system automatically re-mirrors the new drive to match the good one. NO DATA LOSS!

 

This is actually simpler than it sounds, but if you're not really technically inclined, you certainly have a buddy who is... {Grin} One box that does this and is pretty inexpensive is the Synology DS216se, running about ($149 US) on Amazon these days. THAT PRICE IS WITHOUT ANY DRIVES! It's for the box.

 

A step up (if your budget allows) is the Synology DS216play,(about $249 us) or (my preferred) QNAP DS251 (about $280 US).

 

All of these require drives, so you can get 1TB or 2TB or whatever (I have a large NAS with 6 X 6TB drives). The "go to" drives are the Western Digital (WD) RED series drives. Don't try to "cheap out" with the Green series (less $$), the RED's are designed specifically for NAS use, there are MANY internal differences. The RED series also have a longer Warranty.

Just trust me on this one, I know.

 

The drives do NOT add up. If you Mirror two 1TB drives (Tech term is RAID 1) they equal 1TB, not 2TB. There is a "RAID 0" that ADDS them, but it's NOT safe. One failure and your data's GONE.

 

One last point (and you thought you were done, eh? LOL)

 

Remember what I said at the start? You need TWO backups. Well, you can either keep your music on your Macbook if you have the room, and use the NAS as backup (by the way, they ALSO allow you to use them as a iOS Time Machine backup, so it will ALSO backup your Macbook Pro automatically!) Might consider two 2TB drives in the NAS.

 

Second choice, if you're un-trusting of equipment like I am (too many years of people crying on my shoulder) you can get a small 2TB external drive that hooks to the NAS (they all have USB ports for this) and backs IT up. 

 

Triple redundancy, for both your Music, (and time!!) AND your Macbook Pro!

 

Whew! I know it's a lot of info, but if you really want to protect your system, THIS is the way to go, with or without the extra external backup.

 

If you can possible afford it, do it this way, you'll light candles to me if you ever crash. 

 

All the Best,

PuterPro

 

[emester]

The NAS setup does sound very interesting and intriguing, but my router in my parents' house is a bit far from where my room is. Also i'm planning on taking my FLAC library up to college with me so the NAS setup might run into complications. 
 
In essence, what would be the considered sweetspot between storage space, dependability, price, performance and ease of use?

 

[PuterPro]

Quickie reply (in the middle of something) ... I'll check back later for updates.
 
The actual size of the NAS is fairly small - about the size of two hard covered books, so you can take it to College pretty easily.
 
You can use a cheap router or Ethernet "switch" (about $20) in the Dorm to connect your laptop and the NAS.
 
The distance is of no concern in the house, it works through the network that's already there. You park the NAS next to the router and plug her in. Done.
 
Well, you do have to follow a setup, but they have them pretty easy these days, used to be a beast! LOL!
 
PuterPro

 

[tomb]

You can buy 3 or 4 times as many portable drives for the price of one NAS, maybe more.  If you're willing to use File Explorer to manually copy new files over from one drive to the next, you don't need a NAS.  There are many other things a NAS does besides serving as a file repository for a laptop.  You'd be wasting money if all you bought the NAS for was to store music files.  Besides, your MacBook can go anywhere.  What are you going to do if all of your music is on the NAS, but you carry your laptop somewhere else?
 
A portable hard drive simply plugs into a USB port on your MacBook.  No mess, no fuss.  Want to back it up?  Hook up another portable hard drive to one of the other USB ports (or through a small, portable hub) and copy your music files from one drive to the other.  You can even use the software that comes with some of the drives to Sync the two drives, or use something like RichCopy to quickly only copy what's new from one drive to the other.  You can do this in your car, at Starbucks or at home - wherever your laptop can go.  Storing a couple of portable drives in your laptop case is about like adding two packs of cards to your case.

 

[SHFT]

However when you use a NAS you have redundancy of all the data you have, when you use RAID1 you have two disk who are an exact copy of each other all the time.
If your portable disk goes down and your last backup is 10 days ago, you lose a lot of data. In terms of portability the NAS obviously loses but I rather have my music somewhere safe.

 

[PuterPro]

  You can buy 3 or 4 times as many portable drives for the price of one NAS, maybe more.  If you're willing to use File Explorer to manually copy new files over from one drive to the next, you don't need a NAS.  There are many other things a NAS does besides serving as a file repository for a laptop.  You'd be wasting money if all you bought the NAS for was to store music files.  Besides, your MacBook can go anywhere.  What are you going to do if all of your music is on the NAS, but you carry your laptop somewhere else?
 
A portable hard drive simply plugs into a USB port on your MacBook.  No mess, no fuss.  Want to back it up?  Hook up another portable hard drive to one of the other USB ports (or through a small, portable hub) and copy your music files from one drive to the other.  You can even use the software that comes with some of the drives to Sync the two drives, or use something like RichCopy to quickly only copy what's new from one drive to the other.  You can do this in your car, at Starbucks or at home - wherever your laptop can go.  Storing a couple of portable drives in your laptop case is about like adding two packs of cards to your case.

Hi Tomb!
I agree completely! Two drives and a quick copy for backup works, and is much cheaper.
 
The OP originally asked about storing his music externally on a single drive. It wasn't until later that the "Going to college" thing popped up. For a stay in one place solution, a NAS is the safe solution.
 
There are many other things a NAS does besides serving as a file repository for a laptop. ...  What are you going to do if all of your music is on the NAS, but you carry your laptop somewhere else?
 
Again, you're right. A NAS does do many other things. Including streaming files via the internet. Any place he takes his Macbook (like Starbucks) will likely have internet access, no?
He ~could~ access his music remotely while it's safe on his NAS and not subject to hard drive crashes or theft of his laptop bag, like it is if he's got it on his laptop with it all "safely" copied to a pair of external drives THAT HE CARRIES WITH HIM.
One good smack of said bag and the data's gone, Then there's theft. Looked at the theft rates of laptops on a college campus lately? You don't want to know. It's a BIG problem. (You listening emster? 

)
 
Yes, a NAS could be stolen (most have a Kensington Lock port so they can be bolted down) but that's a lot less likely than the laptop.
 
Yes, a two drive solution works, and is indeed cheaper, but it certainly is not safer. It also requires that any time he puts new music on his machine that he backs it up to the second drive manually.
 
In my many years as a Tech, I've found people do NOT remember or want to be bothered with backup.
They just don't do it in the real world. "Oh, I'm in a hurry right now, I'll backup tomorrow." College students are ALWAYS in a hurry, (often to get to a party, eh?) LOL!
 
Tomorrow never comes.
 
I'm always running into Clients who, even after we've setup a automatic backup solution, NEVER check it to see if it's working, then are shocked when they crash and the most recent backup was 8 months ago.
(I literally had this happen to a Client a couple months back.) 
 
Perhaps the "two drives and a quick 'RichCopy' " works for you, but for most people, in the real world, it just doesn't. Heck most couldn't figure out what a RichCopy was, or how to use it, besides, he's IOS. But I get the point.
 
All of this is automatic in a NAS, and the music CAN be accessed on the road, or a small amount of a current playlist kept on the internal drive for those "off the grid" moments.
 
Which are getting pretty infrequent these days, especially on a college campus, or any of the bars and coffee shops surrounding them.
 
Both answers to his problem are right. One is cheaper and relies on his constant action to backup every time his music changes, the other is more $$ but infinitely safer, and automatic.
 
My music changes a lot, and even I have to work to keep on top of backups, so I use a NAS with a backup drive. Today's backup programs even have Email or Text messaging to warn if a backup fails.
MUCH more automatic, and infinitely safer for a college guy on the run.
 
"OH, but a NAS requires a lot of Tech skill to setup!"
 
Well, in today's NAS solutions, it's easy enough for someone of college age who grew up with computers to figure out.
Besides he's on a college campus, I suspect he'll have just a FEW friends who could puzzle it out, eh? 

 
 
So:
1. Two drives = cheap, but manual.
2. NAS = much safer, able to be used for things like Time Machine backup and Internet streaming, but certainly more $$.
 
Both are solutions. He'll have to figure out which works for him, but at least he's got the choices now!
 
All the best, PuterPro

 

[PuterPro]

  However when you use a NAS you have redundancy of all the data you have, when you use RAID1 you have two disk who are an exact copy of each other all the time.
If your portable disk goes down and your last backup is 10 days ago, you lose a lot of data. In terms of portability the NAS obviously loses but I rather have my music somewhere safe.

+1 My point exactly. (And much more briefly!!) 

 

[tomb]

NAS boxes fail, too.  I know - one refused to recognize a new network after I moved and LinkSys said the best I could do would be to replace it.  It mattered not one iota that the drives were still good.
 
So, no offense guys.  Yes, I have a new NAS, now (not LinkSys!), but I'm not in love with their capabilities, either.  It all goes to crap sooner or later.

 

[PuterPro]

  NAS boxes fail, too.  I know - one refused to recognize a new network after I moved and LinkSys said the best I could do would be to replace it.  It mattered not one iota that the drives were still good.
 
So, no offense guys.  Yes, I have a new NAS, now (not LinkSys!), but I'm not in love with their capabilities, either.  It all goes to crap sooner or later.

Yeah tomb, I hear THAT! 

  I'm sure THAT was tragic! That's why I suggest an external backup of the NAS. crap happens.
 
That they fail is true, but a NAS box has a lot less failure rate than some external hard drive bouncing around in a college guy's bag!
SSD's (Solid state drives for you newbies, no moving parts) have gotten to very low failure rates, and you can knock 'em around pretty good without failure, but above 256GB they get expensive (Samsung has a 2TB that goes for $650 currently!)
 
Most time you can save the data by replacing a failed NAS, ~sometimes~ even across brands (not usually likely tho' - low % there).
 
Not much of a Linksys fan myself. Netgear is not that great either. I like QNAP and Synology. QNAP seems a little better made, but of course you get to pay for that, as usual...
 
PuterPro

 

[SHFT]

NAS boxes fail, too.  I know - one refused to recognize a new network after I moved and LinkSys said the best I could do would be to replace it.  It mattered not one iota that the drives were still good.

So, no offense guys.  Yes, I have a new NAS, now (not LinkSys!), but I'm not in love with their capabilities, either.  It all goes to crap sooner or later.

Fair enough but when you use a classic RAID1setup you can just put those disks in the new device without dataloss.

I crashed two portables drives before I learned my lesson. Losing 1TB of data is not a fun experience.

 

[vcoheda]

i have used for years without issue the WD My Books. right now, i am using 2 6TB drives. one is primary; the other is backup. although i will probably switch to 2 8TB drives this year.
 
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01B6BN0Q2/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2YADNISV13GRR&coliid=I1TSGTH8BB1H58&psc=1