Pros & Cons of storing library on mac's SSD vs. storing on external drive?

stan999 · 04-09-2020, 01:02 AM

My Library has reached over 20GB and I was wondering if I should keep Calibre library on my mac or move it to an external drive? Calibre performs just fine however, my data capacity is filling up and Im getting. Would storing a library externally make the Application feel slower? If someone could explain this in a technical manner (0 techie talent) I would greatly appreciate it.

Barbara1955 · 04-09-2020, 02:23 AM

Your MAC could crash. I suggest you back it up. I used an external HD at one time for eBooks Audio Movies & Photos. It crashed took EVERYTHING. Now I use Flash Drives.

stumped · 04-09-2020, 02:54 AM

in normal use, addding, editing...books I doubt you would see any speed difference between an internal drive and an external USB drive. especially if you have usb 3
a one off copy of an entire library to another drive may take a while, but that's not a regular thing
once you have the library in 2 places you should ( as already advised) keep one as a backup. There are various free utilities that will keep the backup in sync, which will work very fast ( only the changes will update)

If you are crazy about speed, put a SSD into a USB3 caddy. Read speeds on those are ~5x faster than internal spinning drives. a 120GB SSD & a good quality caddy is cheap, nowadays. Don't skimp on the caddy, that 5$ generic one may be much much slower than the $10 branded option. In tests. i got read speeds of >400 with that setup, but I had to bin one cheap caddy where the read speed came in at 70, same as my spinning drive. Same SSD in better caddy: 400+
The other nice thing about SSD is that they are silent. If, like me, you can't abide the humming & seek noises that come from old drives, then look at upgrading all your drives. you will never want to go back...[ dunno if you can open up a mac for that though, its easy to do on a windows PC ]

halloleo · 04-09-2020, 03:02 AM

I agree with @stumped: Normal operations on the libary liek adding, editing, even searching books should work fine with internal and extebnal drives.

So for a stationary desktop solution both is fine. But in a mobile laptop situation you need to keep in mind: If the library is on an external drive you can't do anything in calibre without it.

theducks · 04-09-2020, 09:13 AM

Metadata.db is the only thing in a Library that gets read on a regular basis.
Mine has made it to 50M. The number of extra columns (fields) and the length of the comments will affect the size. Covers are NOT embedded in the DB for the same type of reason. It would make it big and clunky.
A Good (no need for a 10K either) spinning drive. Internal mounted is best, but a USB 3 is next best and a USB 2 is fine.

As Stumped said, the only time you need high drive bandwidth, is a full copy.

JSWolf · 04-09-2020, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stan999

My Library has reached over 20GB and I was wondering if I should keep Calibre library on my mac or move it to an external drive? Calibre performs just fine however, my data capacity is filling up and Im getting. Would storing a library externally make the Application feel slower? If someone could explain this in a technical manner (0 techie talent) I would greatly appreciate it.

If you have room in the MAC for a hard drive, get one and move your library to it. Also get an external drive for backups.

DNSB · 04-09-2020, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

Your MAC could crash. I suggest you back it up. I used an external HD at one time for eBooks Audio Movies & Photos. It crashed took EVERYTHING. Now I use Flash Drives.

Or your external hard disk could crash or your flash drive might fail. That's why I use multiple backups for my important data so I have at least 3 copies.

JSWolf · 04-09-2020, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DNSB

Or your external hard disk could crash or your flash drive might fail. That's why I use multiple backups for my important data so I have at least 3 copies.

Yes, three backups is a good idea. But if you can only afford two drives, do that for a start.

And speaking of backups, I need t plugin a drive to do some backing up.

DNSB · 04-09-2020, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Yes, three backups is a good idea. But if you can only afford two drives, do that for a start.

And speaking of backups, I need t plugin a drive to do some backing up.

The problem for me right now is that the 3rd hard drive backup is stored at work. (grandfather/father/son with the newest backup from the weekend taken into work on Monday). I may have to head over there and try to grab the drive without running into anyone.

theducks · 04-09-2020, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DNSB

The problem for me right now is that the 3rd hard drive backup is stored at work. (grandfather/father/son with the newest backup from the weekend taken into work on Monday). I may have to head over there and try to grab the drive without running into anyone.

Put a NAS (or a PC with that drive) at work that you can access from home.
Security against Local disasters

(really) OFFSITE is good to have

ilovejedd · 04-09-2020, 08:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

Put a NAS (or a PC with that drive) at work that you can access from home.
Security against Local disasters

(really) OFFSITE is good to have

May not be feasible if the work network is protected by proxies and firewalls.

I pretty much just use Dropbox and iCloud for offsite backup of select content.

DNSB · 04-09-2020, 10:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

Put a NAS (or a PC with that drive) at work that you can access from home.
Security against Local disasters

(really) OFFSITE is good to have

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

May not be feasible if the work network is protected by proxies and firewalls.

I pretty much just use Dropbox and iCloud for offsite backup of select content.

You know that guy in the IT department who spends his time playing with the network and hardware (servers, switches, firewalls, etc.)? Do you think he would have many problems with setting up a personal backup that could be accessed from home? Other than the lack of desire to be the "do as I say, not as I do" type...

Hmmm... install the backup device preferably in the DMZ. Set up a firewall rule allowing traffic to that address from one external IP address, all other packets get bitbucketed. Disallow any traffic from the LAN side to make it harder to detect from the inside.

As for select content? I use some cloud backup for that but my current collection of external 8TB HDs are my main backup device.

stumped · 04-10-2020, 01:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

Put a NAS (or a PC with that drive) at work that you can access from home.
Security against Local disasters

(really) OFFSITE is good to have

the " house burns down" scenario is why I have a cloud backup,
though accessing that, if the house had burned down, would not be my 1st priority

ilovejedd · 04-10-2020, 04:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DNSB

You know that guy in the IT department who spends his time playing with the network and hardware (servers, switches, firewalls, etc.)? Do you think he would have many problems with setting up a personal backup that could be accessed from home? Other than the lack of desire to be the "do as I say, not as I do" type...

Lol, I don't even know if our IT department handles that in-house or if it's been contracted out. For that matter, I don't actually know where our IT department is physically located.

theducks · 04-10-2020, 05:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stumped

the " house burns down" scenario is why I have a cloud backup,
though accessing that, if the house had burned down, would not be my 1st priority

Nope:

Folk here in Ca that got burnt out years ago are STILL waiting to get rebuilt (or paid) . (I would say more, but then this would need to move to that forum )

Some things can never be replaced. I can't count the number things I frequently use that are over 50 years old (and many have no current equivalent)

04-09-2020, 01:02 AM	#1
stan999 Member Posts: 21 Karma: 24 Join Date: Jul 2019 Device: none	Pros & Cons of storing library on mac's SSD vs. storing on external drive? My Library has reached over 20GB and I was wondering if I should keep Calibre library on my mac or move it to an external drive? Calibre performs just fine however, my data capacity is filling up and Im getting. Would storing a library externally make the Application feel slower? If someone could explain this in a technical manner (0 techie talent) I would greatly appreciate it.

04-09-2020, 02:54 AM	#3
stumped Wizard Posts: 3,305 Karma: 10259306 Join Date: May 2016 Device: kobo forma, Kobo Libra, Huawei media Tab, fire HD10, PW3 HDX8.9,	in normal use, addding, editing...books I doubt you would see any speed difference between an internal drive and an external USB drive. especially if you have usb 3 a one off copy of an entire library to another drive may take a while, but that's not a regular thing once you have the library in 2 places you should ( as already advised) keep one as a backup. There are various free utilities that will keep the backup in sync, which will work very fast ( only the changes will update) If you are crazy about speed, put a SSD into a USB3 caddy. Read speeds on those are ~5x faster than internal spinning drives. a 120GB SSD & a good quality caddy is cheap, nowadays. Don't skimp on the caddy, that 5$ generic one may be much much slower than the $10 branded option. In tests. i got read speeds of >400 with that setup, but I had to bin one cheap caddy where the read speed came in at 70, same as my spinning drive. Same SSD in better caddy: 400+ The other nice thing about SSD is that they are silent. If, like me, you can't abide the humming & seek noises that come from old drives, then look at upgrading all your drives. you will never want to go back...[ dunno if you can open up a mac for that though, its easy to do on a windows PC ] Last edited by stumped; 04-09-2020 at 02:59 AM.

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04-09-2020, 02:23 AM	#2
Barbara1955 Non-Techy Posts: 4,455 Karma: 15499273 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: WV---USA Device: Samsung Cell Phone & Amazon Fires & Kobo eReaders	Your MAC could crash. I suggest you back it up. I used an external HD at one time for eBooks Audio Movies & Photos. It crashed took EVERYTHING. Now I use Flash Drives.

04-09-2020, 03:02 AM	#4
halloleo Groupie Posts: 156 Karma: 12649 Join Date: Feb 2020 Device: iPad	I agree with @stumped: Normal operations on the libary liek adding, editing, even searching books should work fine with internal and extebnal drives. So for a stationary desktop solution both is fine. But in a mobile laptop situation you need to keep in mind: If the library is on an external drive you can't do anything in calibre without it.

04-09-2020, 09:13 AM	#5
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 30,440 Karma: 58055868 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Metadata.db is the only thing in a Library that gets read on a regular basis. Mine has made it to 50M. The number of extra columns (fields) and the length of the comments will affect the size. Covers are NOT embedded in the DB for the same type of reason. It would make it big and clunky. A Good (no need for a 10K either) spinning drive. Internal mounted is best, but a USB 3 is next best and a USB 2 is fine. As Stumped said, the only time you need high drive bandwidth, is a full copy.