Mac mini M1 external hub drives and catalog transfer

[Lost-found1111]

I recently purchased a Mac mini M1 (8/512) and I plan to store files and Catalogs on a drive located in a USB-C Docking Hub similar to this. I am weighing pros and cons of M.2 ($$$), SSD, and HDD SATA drives to put in it. 2tb should do the trick. I am concerned about the heat generated by the drives since they will be in close proximity to the M1.  Thunderbolt is just a little $$$ for me at this time. Currently using PSE and Premier 2020. I have about 25k photos and video files which are currently on my Mac mini 2012 that I upgraded SSD's and memory 4 yrs ago. Of course I have multiple external BU's.  After many years this will be the 1st time that I will be working with PSE files stored on an ext drive instead of my main SATA. Recommendations and suggestions welcomed. Thank you for your consideration.                                                                                             

[MichelBParis · Accepted solution]

Hi @Lost-found1111 ,

I am only a Windows user, so I can't speak about Macs except if there has been discussions about Mac issues in this forum.

As I have never read anything about storing the catalog folder in external drives instead of the default location in your computer, I suppose there is no difference with the way it works in Windows. The only warning I have read is that the catalog folder can't be stored on a NAS.

That's something which should be easy to check with a small test catalog. The default location is to be found by the menu Help, System Information. You copy the whole catalog folder on one of your external drives, it will appear in 'custom' location and you check if it works as the original. Maybe a little slower, but for me, I can't notice a difference.

Then, there might be some hardware issues with your docking hub for which Mac users on this forum may help.

I always store my catalog folder in an external drive together with my photo files so that I can work instantly on two different computers by just plugging the external HD to each one alternatively. Recently, I have migrated to a nice new external 1 TB SSD.

The normal procedure to 'move' your catalog and photo/video files to a new drive is the standard full backup and restore you are acquainted with. The catalog folder is moved together with your files. By the way, that procedure is NOT a move, it's a copy, which is much safer in addition to the backup itself. Easy to test on a small catalog.