I combined a NAS and an SSD for the ultimate MacBook backup strategy
I store most of my documents in the cloud, but not everything is stored there. So when I wanted to factory reset my MacBook, I turned to my homelab to back up my Apple computer. Here’s how I did it and why I think you should use your hardware the same way.
Local storage was perfect for a short-term Time Machine backup
Nothing beats blazing-fast local storage.
For 2026, I wanted to start with a new installation of macOS on my MacBook Pro. The last time my primary MacBook was restarted was when I bought it in 2021, so it’s definitely about time.
The problem with starting fresh this time is the fact that I didn’t have another laptop to reference during setup or when installing apps and other stuff. When I set up my M1 Max laptop in 2021, I still had my 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro to look at – I just wouldn’t have that capability this time.
So, before wiping the drive and reinstalling macOS, I decided to make a Time Machine backup. Although I plan to back up the laptop to my NAS in the future, I needed something much faster than my 2.5Gbps network to back up the laptop initially. That’s when I turned to my Thunderbolt dock which holds a 2TB SSD.
You don’t need a Thunderbolt dock for this, but having a USB SSD that can read or write data at 1000 MB/s or faster is much better than the 250 MB/s maximum I get on my 2.5 GB/s LAN.
The initial backup, approximately 800 GB in size, was completed in just a few hours. While Thunderbolt and NVMe drives can certainly read and write faster than that in bursts, in the real world, backing up 800GB of data via Time Machine in an hour or two really isn’t bad at all. My NAS estimated several hours for the same task.
8/10
- Ports
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10
- USB power supply
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Yes, up to 140 W
The Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock is a high-performance docking station that can support three 4K displays at 120Hz. It also offers ultra-fast data transfer speeds of up to 120Gbps and expands storage with SSD capacity of up to 8TB.
My NAS is where I dumped the files I wanted to access quickly after the restore.
Accessing files wirelessly is extremely convenient.
While I was doing Time Machine backup to my external SSD, I was still running my NAS. Files and folders that I knew I would want to access fairly quickly after restoring, I went ahead and migrated over the network to my storage server. This would allow me to stop them without having to go into Time Machine.
The files I placed on my NAS were relatively small in nature and their transfer was completed fairly quickly. In addition to not having to access Time Machine, having the files on my NAS instead of a physical disk meant I could access them from anywhere in my house simply by mounting the NAS on my laptop.
What is NAS (Network Attached Storage)?
A NAS is useful for sharing a storage pool between multiple computers or users on your local network.
Of course, connecting over my 2.5Gbps network would make the transfer pretty fast, all things considered, but for the smaller configuration files I needed for Antigravity or Xcode, I wasn’t worried about the speed. I really wanted to access these files without having to plug in a drive, and my NAS gave me exactly what I was looking for.
Long term, I will configure both of my MacBooks, as well as my wife’s iMac and her MacBook to back up to the NAS via Time Machine. When I’m not trying to do a backup and restore in one evening, I can wait a day or so for the initial backup to take place, then let the backup continue running in the background afterward.
Using a NAS as a Time Machine target is also convenient, as is storing files on the NAS. My MacBook will continue to backup to Time Machine even if it’s not plugged into my desk. Yes, it will then be slowed down if it was hardwired, but it still happens, and a slower save is better than no save at all.
I couldn’t imagine not having my homelab to help me back up my computers.
Homelabs also have practical uses.
I never thought my homelab would have been as functional as it was when I was backing up and restoring my laptop. Usually my homelab only meets my self-hosting or DIY needs, but it’s nice to see it pick up the slack and be useful in other ways as well.
After using my homelab to back up my laptop, I’m looking for more convenient ways to use my homelab. Keeping Time Machine backups for my wife and I is just one of my homelab’s handy ways, but it can do so many other things that I just have to figure them out.
8/10
- Processor
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Intel N95
- Memory
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8 GB DDR5
The TerraMaster F4 SSD is an all-SSD NAS that supports up to four 8TB NVMe drives. Coming with 8GB of DDR5 RAM and the Intel N95 processor, this NAS is actually user upgradeable with up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM. The built-in 5Gbps Ethernet port also supports 2.5Gbps and 1Gbps networking, and there are USB 3 10Gbps Type-A and Type-C ports on the back for plugging in other peripherals, like hard drives or SSDs.
If you have a homelab only used for self-hosting, think about other ways it can be useful. Having a remote backup target for your computers is extremely convenient and, although basic, I haven’t really used my homelab for much. I will discover new uses for existing materials, and I look forward to finding other ways to use the materials I already have.
