External Drive Recommendations Please

[neverknowu]

Hi There,

I'm looking for some recommendations on external hard drives.

Things I'm looking for:
-Raid 10
-Hot Swappable

Things I need:
-Can use mainly with my PC, but also have access with a Mac computer
-3TB to 6TB hard drives

I would like this to be network accessible. However, I feel like it will suffer with speed and accessibility in only being able to connect via Ethernet. Also wondering if I have a Thunderbolt port if anyone knows if a TB 1 or 2 would be compatible to a TB3 enabled PC? (I know this is a separate question, but I'd love to know if anyone has had experience with this) Is there an adapter/way to make a normal storage array also a network array?

This is mostly for backups of a extremely large number of photographic images. My dream is to get the tens of thousands of photos organized via Lightroom and have access to them. Also, I work with video sometimes. I don't plan on using this to be able to access 4k video files (those I'll have locally to work with) but access to HD video files.

I don't have a ton of money to put down on this (love to keep the actual unit under $500), but I don't want to cheap out and get something I'll regret later.

 

[FireWire2]

You can have a a driver-less RAID
http://www.datoptic.com/ec/usb3-esata-four-tray-less-jbod-raid-enclosure.html
Connect to your PC and share via Samba, so you mac can see it and access via network, it's a bit slow

If you need to access the data fast. You can do it
On you Mac load the https://secure.avangate.com/order/checkout.php?PRODS=4556449&QTY=1&CART=1&CARD=1 - cost you about $31.00
Disconnect from PC and connect DIRECTLY to your Mac via USB3.0, you should be able to access your data FAST