Need help with my File storage setup!

[Bsrz]

So I have recently been thinking about my file storage and backup system currently a super high tech 2tb external HDD.
currently I store all my movies TV shows games music software etc on the drive and plug and play from my gaming pc, home theater pc and macbook pro.
I use each pc for a different type of file EG: macbook pro for my music / video and photo editing, home theater pc for my movies and tv shows, and my gaming pc for games of course.

I was wondering if there is a better solution, instead of me having to constantly move the drive around whenever I want to use these files or swap / backup files.

someone mentioned to me that I should look into network storage, really not sure what this is, I don't want a drop box type solution, what i would like is something along the lines of a large HDD that can stay in one play and be accessed by all 3 pcs at the same time.

so if I want to play a movie on my home theater pc its already hooked up, if I want to play a game I can copy the game from the external HDD to my gaming pc and play, if I want to backup my music I can just copy the files from the mac to the drive without having to constantly move the drive around from each pc.

if you took the time to read all that thank you and I hope it made sense
so any ideas would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[mishra]

Couldn't explain it better than that really...
[video=youtube;-1L_2G6rLI0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1L_2G6rLI0[/video]

... as someone suggested you do need a NAS solution. Plenty to choose on the market. This video is NETGEAR branded.. but any other will do (Synology, QNAP, DROBO). Price is the limit

edit: not sure you meant by saying "if I want to play a game I can copy the game from the external HDD to my gaming pc and play"...
You should install games on your gaming PC hard drive instead, so it's always there.

Same is for your music projects on your mac. All library of music should stay on NAS. Current projects (you want to take with yourself), should be duplicated on your mac hard drive. You do need to remember to back them up to NAS from time to time. Unless you make music only at home.. then keep everything on NAS.

 

[Bsrz]

Couldn't explain it better than that really...
[video=youtube;-1L_2G6rLI0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1L_2G6rLI0[/video]

... as someone suggested you do need a NAS solution. Plenty to choose on the market. This video is NETGEAR branded.. but any other will do (Synology, QNAP, DROBO). Price is the limit

edit: not sure you meant by saying "if I want to play a game I can copy the game from the external HDD to my gaming pc and play"...
You should install games on your gaming PC hard drive instead, so it's always there.

Same is for your music projects on your mac. All library of music should stay on NAS. Current projects (you want to take with yourself), should be duplicated on your mac hard drive. You do need to remember to back them up to NAS from time to time. Unless you make music only at home.. then keep everything on NAS.

Thats awesome just what I was looking for, cant believe I haven't heard of this solution before.

would this be a good starter nas - http://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-Cloud-Pe...8&qid=1419090594&sr=8-1&keywords=my+cloud+4tb ??
if so I might pick one up to test it out and then look into getting a better one after xmas.

 

[mishra]

This one is not so good I'm afraid. It's got only one hard drive. If that drive fails (and it's more like "when" rather than "if") then you don't want to loose all your data! Unless you will have a solid backup to another device.

A smart idea is to get a RAID'ed NAS. One that come with at least 2x hard drives. If one drive fails, you don't loose data, as it's also stored on the other drive at the same time. You still need additional form of backup.

In your case I would get a NAS with 2x 3TB drives = it will give you only 3TB of usable space.. but it will protect you again lost data if one drive fails. Then simply use your old 2TB USB hard drive to copy data from NAS -> your USB drive once a week, or so. You can schedule it. This way you should be good to go.

I would recommend to research this thoroughly and avoid impulse buy ... Decide what you exactly need and how you gonna set this up, then buy equipment.

How much exactly data you have?

 

[Bsrz]

This one is not so good I'm afraid. It's got only one hard drive. If that drive fails (and it's more like "when" rather than "if") then you don't want to loose all your data! Unless you will have a solid backup to another device.

A smart idea is to get a RAID'ed NAS. One that come with at least 2x hard drives. If one drive fails, you don't loose data, as it's also stored on the other drive at the same time. You still need additional form of backup.

In your case I would get a NAS with 2x 3TB drives = it will give you only 3TB of usable space.. but it will protect you again lost data if one drive fails. Then simply use your old 2TB USB hard drive to copy data from NAS -> your USB drive once a week, or so. You can schedule it. This way you should be good to go.

I would recommend to research this thoroughly and avoid impulse buy ... Decide what you exactly need and how you gonna set this up, then buy equipment.

How much exactly data you have?

about 2tb right now with a few other large files on a separate 1tb hdd. I will look into the 2 HDD setup and I will look into it a bit more before I buy, I do like the idea of it tho.