Managing Multiple External SSD’s - hopefully as 1 Drive.
I currently have 6 external 1TB SSD’s on my iMac. My current plan is to use 3 of the 1TB as data storage for photographs (I designate these as IMAGE VAULT 1, 2, 3, etc) . Three identical SSD’s are back-up copies to those designated BACKUP 1, 2, 3, etc).
Each SSD is filled by date. So as one is filled, another is added. I will rarely need access to older hard drives, but the images on them will be cataloged in my Master Lightroom Catalog. LR needs access to all IMAGE VAULTs.
A 500GB SSD will be used as a scratch disc
Right now, when I boot the iMac, the internal drive, plus 7 external SSD’s mount on the desktop. I don’t need to see the back-up SSD’s unless I need to restore a file from it. And I don’t need to see the scratch disk, but Painter, Photoshop, and Lightroom need access to it. There must be a better way of managing all these without populating the desktop with them. I have had RAID systems in the past, but I would prefer an option through the OS X rather than a third party controller.
Is there a way to have these appear as a single drive on the desktop? Or is there a way to better manage so many SSD’s? As future needs arise, I plan on adding other SSD’s — and probably larger capacities as they becomes less expensive.
iMac Line (2012 and Later)