Marie Monforte

Apparently I wasn't clear. I want to buy the "Black Level" Thunderbolt one you recommended, I just want to make sure, before I do, that it won't automatically encrypt my data, like the "Red" Duo USB version does, but instead will let me disable the encryption. I am not able to find anything about data encryption in the description on B&H so I thought maybe you knew about it.

Ok, sorry to open this up again...but I do have one more question. Maybe you answered this in a way that I didn't interpret correctly, but I am wondering about the data encryption. One review of the WD My Duo 3.0 USB indicated there is not option to disable the encryption so that if the PCB connector fails I cannot read my files. I cannot find any information about whether or not the Black Tier Thunderbolt version has a "disable encryption" option or not? And is this a big deal?

THANK YOU Brian!!!

OK wait, I just reread this (for the 3rd time - told you I was slow, haha) and it seems that IF I'm ok with just 6TB per drive, that I should just get the one WD unit you linked...right? I think I can then back that up to the cloud? And still be reasonably ensured my data will be fine as long as I'm under the 6TB? Again, sorry...I need things spelled out real simple-like, haha

Thank you so much for such a well thought-through and informative response! Unfortunately, my budget is definitely under $1000, so I guess I'm going to have to come up with an alternative plan. If you would care to weigh in on what might be a good option for me given my budget constraints, I'm all ears. It sounds like manually managing several 2-4TB hard drives is going to be more realistic?

I just bought a 27"iMac i5 with the 2TB Fusion Drive. (I also upgraded the RAM in-store to 16GB). I'm in the process of cleaning up the file structures of all our family photos and trying to figure out my ideal photo storage and backup system. I would LOVE to have all our personal family photos, plus that current years' client files, in ONE place (not 6 different 1TB drives). I would like this whole system to duplicate itself onto two drives (and backup to the Cloud as well of course). Then, at the end of each year I plan to remove the Client files only and transfer them onto a 2TB external drive, which will then go up on a shelf for the next 3 years or however long I decide to keep it. But I want to be able to leave my personal files on there year after year so I can always easily go back and scroll through them, or use them for projects, or whatever. I also want to leave my computer virtually empty except for business operations files, and then pull only the session I'm currently working on onto the desktop, and then save the images onto the big hard drive when I'm done. So, I started looking into 12TB (2x6TB) options like those offered here: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=WD+12TB+USB+3.0&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search= My husband searched actual transfer speeds and found that there doesn't seem to be much of a real-life difference between the USB 3.0 and the Thunderbolt, so I was leaning towards the USB 3.0 since it's several hundred $ cheaper. (see article in Macworld for reference: http://www.macworld.com/article/2039427/how-fast-is-usb-3-0-really-.html) But one of the B&H reviews on the 12TB model had this to say, (which kind of freaked me out): "1 star: cannot disable encryption...compact, high capacity RAID 1 capable usb3 storage. Warning: Cannot disable the encryption... if the controller PCB fails, your data cannot be decrypted even if the drives are still good" So it seems there are drives out there that offer a "disable encryption" option - trouble is, this reviewer failed to mention which. And I'm not sure I should even worry about that? Long question short - What is your recommendation for storage given my file structure wishes? Please be specific - I am not tech savvy. Thank you so very much! Marie