I want to set up a basic home network

Using the Mac Mini as a media device is quite popular and for most users, represents the ideal way to handle media on their network if they do not already have a desktop designated for that purpose. It takes up very little room, and you can add an additional hard drive or two to the Mini as required, if you need more storage.

Plan to connect the Mini directly to your router using a wired Ethernet connection. That way, other Macs will avoid having to make a double hop using wireless to reach the Mini.

What we mean by this is that if the Mini connects to the network using wireless, then other Macs connecting using wireless first have to send the signal back to the main router, then the main router has to send the signal back out to the Mini. Two hops....twice the time required so things slow down a lot.....and double hop also doubles the chances of an error occurring as well.

Same for the Apple TV if you decide to use it. Connect it using a wired Ethernet connection directly to your main router, and avoid the temptation to try to hook it up using wireless.

Even better......everything on the Mac Mini and the drives attached to the Mini can be backed up automatically using Time Machine to the Time Capsule. You can also back up other Macs to the Time Capsule as well, with 4 or 5 probably being the practical limit for most users, unless you add another Time Capsule.

This all depends on what image application that you will be using. It will work fine for an iPhoto Library. I don't use Aperture, but assume that it would work as well. Don't know.....if you are using Photoshop or Lightroom.

You have to be careful when you share an image library, since only one user at a time can be running the application. In other words, you cannot have iPhoto open on two different Macs and have both users able to view or edit images at the same time.

The new Photos application in Yosemite might be better as far as sharing. I have not checked it out yet.

Before you make any major moves, post in the iPhoto support forum, Aperture forum, Photos etc to make sure that what you want to do will be supported.

Really the bigger question is how do i get the data onto the Mac mini?

You would drag the iPhoto Library in the Pictures folder from the Mac that you are using now for iPhoto to the Pictures folder on the Mini. This will replace the iPhoto Library on the Mini.

Apple is going to deactivate iPhoto at some point, since they introduced Photos, but I don't think anyone knows when this will occur, or what the consequences might be when this happens. You might want to use Photos instead of iPhoto to make sure that you won't be left out in six months, or a year, or whenever Apple pulls the plug on iPhoto.

Same process for the iTunes Media Folder that I linked earlier, except that it will go do a different location.

You really do need to post in the appropriate support forum...iPhoto....iTunes....etc. for specific instructions on exactly what you want to do.

I think at this point iPhoto should be considered a dead-end product since Apple is clearly moving to the Photos app. I don't have that much experience with it yet but it clearly is intended to integrate well with its iOS counterpart.

I don't think you will have any trouble moving the data to a Mini but be sure to ask the resident Apple geniuses about it.

Time Machine will definitely back up the Mini to any eligible Time Machine destination, be it a locally connected hard disk drive or one connected to an Extreme or TC.

But like many apple users, if it just works with little maintenance, automatic backups and the ability to add more apple devices seemlessly, then I am willing to pay for it.

That more or less summarizes Apple's secret to success...

😁 You're welcome.

I Will admit, I just skimmed the post but I didn't see mention of any off site storage. I'm all for backing stuff up to a NAS, or a USB drive...but

what if your house suffered anything such as a fire, tornado, etc? What if someone broke in and stole all of your electronics?

then you lose your primary and your backups.

I suggest you look at crashplan.com. You can have unlimited backups for about $60/year. I currently have well over 1 TB. The client runs on my computer constantly backs up.

it is easy to restore data too. You can restore a particular version of a file. For example, if you wanted to get the copy of a document that you saved 6 months ago, you can download that copy. If your at a family members house, and you want to retrieve a file, you can log on and download it.

for roughly $5/month it's worth it to have peace of mind.

my strategy is to have all of my computers in the house backup to external storage here AND to crashplan.com