SpaceBear’s Data Storage Solutions in 2025

Ever since Dropbox stopped the unlimited cloud storage for business accounts a couple of years ago, I have been on a journey that has taken me to places I did not know I would go. It has opened me up to a whole world of IT that I did not know I would enjoy so much. Today, I want to share with you the specifics of my storage journey as somewhat of a data hoarder, and leave you with some tips that may help you make a more informed decision on your next data management purchase.

The first thing to consider when it comes to building your personal data storage solution. Do you need 1 TB, 10 TB, 100 TB? If you are anything like me, you will probably not be very diligent in clearing out data you do not need. This could either be from laziness, or thinking that maybe one day you may need this one obscure audio file from 6 years ago. As far as how much exactly you need depends on so many factors:

- Are you actively acquiring more data regularly, like multitracks of shows?

- Do you need this data to be readily accessible, or are you just archiving?

- Do you plan to manage this data regularly, or do you just want a place to keep it out of sight and out of mind but not delete it?

Personally, I can respond yes to every single question because I do all of the above. I acquire data pretty regularly. I need certain data to be readily accessible. I archive a lot. I like to keep everything organized, but also have the occasional time when I just do not have time to go through everything. Fortunately, storage solutions are vast and there is almost certainly a solution for everyone.

Before we go any further, I would be remiss if I did not mention one KEY detail when it comes to data. If you have not heard of the 3-2-1 rule, now is the time to learn. The 3-2-1 rule states that for any data you cannot afford to lose, you must have at least 3 copies of your data on at least 2 different storage mediums, and 1 of them must be offsite.

I know this sounds like a lot to keep up with, but I would say this is only for data you ABSOLUTELY CANNOT lose. This does not have to be for the festival show multitrack that was placed in the middle of a 40 show tour.

So what do I do? Let me walk you through my setup, and then we will break down some more options that may work a little better for you. My setup consists of:

1) 1 TB SSD in my MacBook Pro

2) 2 TB Dropbox Storage Plan

3) 4 TB NVMe M.2 SSD in a Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure

4) 5-bay NAS with 64 TB of usable HDD storage

5) A Backblaze Subscription

6) A smorgasbord of external HDDs and SSDs

That seems like a lot, and it definitely is when compared to the typical user. However, I have learned a lot about myself and my workflow that has brought me here. Let’s break down my thought process.

With the absurd cost of SSD storage on MacBooks these days, I have found that 1 TB is the sweet spot for me. I typically hover around 500 GB used on average. It is preferred to not keep any storage drive full. This gives me overhead where I can hold a few high-channel-count 96kHz multitrack sessions locally if needed, but also is not excessive to where I have a bunch of unused storage on my Mac that will never get used.

Second, part of the 500 GB of storage in use is files that I have downloaded to my SSD from Dropbox. Most of my peers use dropbox. It would make both my life and my peers’ lives more difficult if I did not have a Dropbox account to properly share files. Additionally, I store some key personal and business files on Dropbox as part of the aforementioned 3-2-1 plan. This is both a second storage medium and an offsite copy. I will say that Dropbox is not perfect. There have been isolated cases of data loss and account issues. While I have not personally experienced that happening to me, this is precisely why the 3-2-1 rule exists.

Third, I carry around an Acasis thunderbolt enclosure that allows me to easily swap out NVMe M.2 SSDs as needed. It currently has a 4 TB stick in it. For more info on this setup, see my previous blog post all about this great alternative to the typical Samsung and SanDisk market of external SSDs. As for the use case, this is primarily for my recordings. I can easily move this between record machines and carry many multitrack sessions.

Fourth, we have what is seemingly the most excessive part of my system. I have a Synology 1522+ NAS with 5×16 TB HDDs running in RAID-5. We will talk more about what that specifically means in another post, but for all intents and purposes here, this serves as my “vault” at home for all of my files. This is the bulk of where all my files are stored. It has everything from family photos to Time Machine backups to terabytes of audio recordings I may or may not need. A NAS is a fantastic tool, but it is not necessarily for everyone. More on that soon.

Fifth, we have one of my favorite and vital subscriptions in my life. Backblaze personal computer backup is a $9/month service that will back up a single computer and any direct attached storage drives into their cloud servers. What this means is that you can effectively back up as much data as you own for the price of $9 a month. How this works practically is that their application runs in the background of your machine, backing up all the files that you choose at whatever schedule you select. In addition to backing up your computer’s hard drive, it will also allow you to select any direct attached external storage system such as an external SSD, SD card, or flash drive. This means I can back up my 1 TB laptop AND my 4 TB external SSD. I can also back up every other external SSD I have as long as it has a chance to be plugged in within the year. One thing to note about BackBlaze is that is it a BACKUP solution. It does not work like Dropbox or GoogleDrive. It is not cloud storage, it is for backing up data that you physically own.

Sixth, we have the rest of my random HDDs, SSDs, and M.2 SSD sticks. These are rarely used now, but I do keep them around for whenever I need an extra place to store something. With Backblaze, I do my best to keep all of these backed up as well if I have data on them.

Now let’s get into some tech talk.

As far as the storage solutions I have outlined in my setup, I am using three main types of storage: direct attached storage (DAS), network attached storage (NAS), and cloud storage (Dropbox). Each one offers its pros and cons. Let’s break it down:

- Direct Attached Storage (DAS) — These are any locally attached storage mediums like hard disk drives, solid-state drives, flash storage, etc. They must be connected over protocols like USB, Thunderbolt, SATA, etc. They are purely storage with no other features.

- Pros: Easily portable, affordable, speed potential, and are available in a wide range of storage sizes

- Cons: There is no redundancy, they can only be used by one user at a time

- Network Attached Storage (NAS) — These are more than just storage. They are actual computers dedicated to managing data. They can also serve as more than just data management if the CPU is powerful enough through services like Docker.

- Pros: Highly customizable to the user’s needs, expandable to large amounts of storage data, accessible by multiple user simultaneously

- Cons: Large upfront cost, requires basic networking knowledge, scalability affects not only storage size but also speed of throughput

- Cloud Storage (Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, etc.) — These are the subscription-based services that allow you to store and access your data online.

- Pros: Accessible anywhere in the world with minimal setup, speeds of upload and download are limited generally to your Internet connection, easy to share files with other users, Offsite storage option for the 3-2-1 rule

- Cons: Expensive over time; especially for those storing large amount of data, not an archive solution, for the privacy concerned you technically are putting your data in the hands of a tech company

Each type of storage has its benefits. I, personally, love being able to own the hardware that my data is stored on. It is more secure, easily accessible in my home without the need for internet, and it costs less over time. However, this comes at the cost of maintaining these drives. Drives inevitably do fail. It is up to me to make sure things are up-to-date, healthy, and backed up properly in the event of a hardware failure. Even still, I love using Dropbox and Backblaze for their specific uses. They do not replace one another, but work in tandem for my setup as offsite options.

In the next few blog posts, I will break down more options within each of these categories to help explain what is currently available in each category.