Hi everyone,
I started shooting RAW (now mostly RAW + JPG) 2 years ago and processed all my photos in Aperture in one library on a Macbook Pro.
Since HD space went low, I started to move old projects as referenced files to a Mac mini. So that all edited files are referenced and all non edited/processed photos are in managed on the Macbook.
Both Macs are backuped via TimeMachine.
The Mac mini has a 128GB SSD + 500 GB HD setup.
Now even the Mac mini is out of space and my Macbook needs “air” to breathe too.
So what I am looking for is a storage solution for the ever growing image library and therefore I'd like to hear your tips, ideas and experiences.
I'd like to have my main Aperture library on my Macbook Pro without any external hard drives attached, since I like to edit pictures on my couch without too much clutter. So adding more external hard drives while editing isn't an option.
The question is how can the Mac mini organize all the files? Do you guys use a RAID drive attached? If yes you'll need the same space again for a backup.
Or do you use a multitude of USB hard drives?
I don't know where to go next. Should I buy more USB drives? I don't like the idea of a NAS Server since I already have a Mac mini for such services.
In addition I need to have everything backuped as well.
How are you handling those questions?
I don’t have a central “server” like your Mac Mini. I have one master USB drive that is USB powered. It is 1TB. I sync that to three additional drives relatively frequently. I have one master library on my master drive. It is a managed library with over 40,000 images. When I sync the master drive to the backup copies, I make sure Aperture is not running. This insures the library is in a quiescent, stable state.
I use ‘rsync’ in a Terminal window to sync the master library to the backup drives. It only migrates differences between the master and backup copies.
$ rsync -av –delete /path/to/master.aplibrary /path/to/backup/drive/
Works perfectly. Costs nothing. And USB powered drives can easily be used while you sit on the couch editing. My drives support USB2 and USB3 so they are plenty fast. It also allows me to attach the master library to any system and edit images in the library.
When I have new images to process, I create a new library containing only those images. I do all of my processing, rating, apply all my metadata and keywords, etc. Once complete, I open the master library and import the library of new images. Once imported into the master library, I move the new images to where I want them in the master library. Then I sync the master library to the backup copies.
If I ever lose the master library disk, any of the backup disks can become the new master library disk and I buy a new backup disk.
Photographer | https://www.walterrowe.com | https://instagram.com/walter.rowe.photo