Gtanzer

I am looking to have access to all my photos no matter where I go, so I can edit them as though I am at home, like a server. And a backup at home.
At the moment I have several drives on my desktop, and want to streamline them. I tried a few cloud drives but didn’t like them.

I am currently using Mac, my photo drive is formatted so I can read it both on Mac and PC. But the PC format can’t use time machine backup.
I use backblaze to backup externally

I was looking at synology DS418, but do I really need a Nas system, and then what drives to buy. Then I thought why not just buy a Mediasonic 4-bay, from Amazon and SSD for the main drive and a 7200 drive for backup. Currently I have about 6gb of data and photos and future looking to do video. For personal use. And having the ability to access, edit or upload photos. And be budget friendly.

I’m so indecisive I’ve been trying to figure out this for over a year. I thought you amazing people might offer a better solution, of how I can best do this?

gmontjr2350 Loc: Southern NJ

I'll be watching this one. The choices are plentiful and there is no single correct solution. It'll boil down to what best fits your needs.

George

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

The Mediasonic is just a hard drive enclosure that connects to your computer physically, you still need to expose it to the internet. I’d think that would be much easier with a NAS or easiest would be to just use a cloud service.

vanderhala Loc: Los Angeles, CA

Will watch this too . I am master of procrastination.
I also want others to view/download videos (music) of their performances I recorded at a chamber music workshop .
One remark: 6 Gb is nothing : I assume you meant 6 Tb?

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

We use Windows, so I just set the privileges for each computer to see the others and share folders.
How, I forget, as I only have to do this when I get new computers and re-learn how to do it each time.
Our desktop has all the "master" files/data and is backed up monthly, plus the cloud (immediately).
We've no need to access the desktop from outside the house, like when on vacation.

When on vacation, all the daily images go on my laptop. When we get home, I'll either copy them to a FOB and put that in the desktop or simply put the cards in the desktop to transfer the images. Copying large amounts of data to the desktop over encrypted WIFI is so much slower than using a FOB or just inserting the cards to transfer.

I've no need to install a "server system".

Jerry G Loc: Waterford, Michigan and Florida

A portable hard drive or ssd is probably the easiest solution. I have all my photos and lightroom catalog on an external drive and use another external drive for backup. I take the drives with me and plug them into either my desk top or laptop I always have access to my photos along with my any work in progress.

neillaubenthal

If you want to edit the home images while not at home …That’s do-able but you’ll need either a static IP or a DNS forwarding service and likely a commercial internet account for larger up,old speed from home. Otherwise LR web will do it all from the Adobe cloud but fewer features than LR Classic and bandwidth on the road is an issue. The portable drive solution works…just take it with you and have backups done at home and on the road by other portables…drawback is what happens when your library and catalog exceed that drives capacity.

I use a hybrid solution. Catalog, current year originals, and Smart Previews for all live on a 2 TB SSD normally attached to Mac Studio at home, older year originals on a RAID attached to the studio. For travel…dismount SSD and detach and take it with me along with a second and third one (Samsung T7) for backups. Smart Previews let you view and edit the only at home originals if needed.

At home the SSD gets backed up to several other drives and it and the RAID get backed up to BackBlaze. I use CarbonCopyCloner to do all my at home backups and have a task group that just gets turned off while traveling since the SSD isn’t attached to the Studio.

Gtanzer

Yes it is 6TB and growing

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Sorry, I didn't address the "wherever I go" problem because
if I'm away from the house, I have no need or desire to do anything with any files on the home desktop.

Magaliaman Loc: Magalia, CA

I can offer this information, as I had a Synology NAS system that I used to access files remotely, as well as provide redundant back up for my Desktop and laptop. I Felt everything was great untill the Camp Fire burned everything to a crisp in Northern California. I lost virtually everything, Every File, Every Picture, the works. Moral of the story, a NAS system is GREAT, but its not a substitute for an offsite back up for all your files. Just saying

-Gary

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Lightroom. (AKA Lightroom Mobile). Stores your stuff in the cloud so you can access it wherever you have an internet connection.

Not Lightroom Classic, which is all local.

Hip Coyote

I second the Adobe idea. Adobe has a cloud service that you can do what you are talking about. And instead of setting up your own server/ nas/ flux capacitor or whatever I suspect you can also use Dropbox as a regular drive for photos, have access anywhere internet is avail. Back that up and you should be good to go.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

The advantage of a commercial solution is that if for some reason the server quits while you are away from home, there is a professional there to restore service quickly. i.e. the commercial solution will be more reliable then the home built one.

Note that having your stuff in the cloud does NOT prevent you from having a backup locally. It just might have to wait until you get home.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

In addition to having an off-site DR copy (which is REALLY important), you make an excellent point. If your power glitches or your server/storage goes down for some other reason, it’s very unlikely that you have the facility to reboot your server remotely.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Although you can sync Lightroom Classic to your cloud account.