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The original was posted on /r/datahoarder by /u/Greged17 on 2023-08-15 04:07:50+00:00.
Hi, fellow data hoarders! I just discovered this sub and read through some of the Wiki and FAQs and learned have a pretty poor understanding of things. My technical knowhow only goes so far (and it's not that far). I'm concerned that the way I am doing things is not great and am seeking help/advice.
I have a collection of movies/TV that right now that is a little under 8TB total. I have been growing this collection for probably the last 15 years or so. During this time, I have exclusively used external hard drives to house all my stuff, with no backups or copies (pause for cringing). Over the years, I have replaced HDs as my size demands increased. My current external hard drive is a WD MyBook 16TB. I have a plex server for all my TV & movies on this drive. I also have a 5TB WD Elements portable that I keep other things on (projects, laptop backup, misc. overflow stuff to save space on my desktop), and an older 2TB MyBook that I keep an archive of mostly sports games/highlights on. I have them plugged into my MacBook Air M2 (2022).
I know that not having a backup of my media library is really dangerous, and the more time I spend on this sub, the more I'd like to fix it. My question is, what is your recommendation of how to optimize my setup? Would a NAS be the best thing for me, and if so, what even is it (ELI5)? Or is it as simple as getting another large external to house the backup? Or do I go the cloud route?
Thank you for your help!