Continuing the discussion from 654: Data Storage in 2022:
Welcome @James1 !
You’re looking for a NAS (pronounced naz, rhymes with snaz) (I have been corrected that this is pronounced ‘nass’, rhyming with ‘sass’ in enterprise environments), Network Attached Storage.
There are tons of options depending on your skill level, amount you want to spend, etc.
Cheap (US$100), moderately technical
- Synology DS120j. You can also use their NAS Selector to figure out what you need.
Cheap, technical
- Raspberry PI running Linux (maybe TrueNAS) with drives attached. How-to tutorial here.
Cheap (US$120+), least technical
- A used Mac Mini with a drive attached or installed, such as from OWC Sales. Turn on File Sharing and you’re basically done.
Inexpensive (US$180), probably not technical
- Something like a Western Digital personal cloud setup. But for my money, I’d go with a Synology over any of the drive manufacturer’s offerings.
Most of these options can do more than just provide backup space, such as serving video to devices, etc. but that’s a whole other can of worms to get into.
General advice: these are your backups, stick with brands that you see mentioned here and in other forums, and brands that people complain about the least.
From the suggestions above (and there are other intro systems), things get more expensive, and/or more technical.