Powered External Hard Drives- which one?

[rob-nikon]

I've noticed that may iMac internal hard drive is nearly full (only 100GB left on a 1TB drive). As I can't replace the internal drive with a larger one as I have the 2013 slim 21 inch version I need to look at external drives. Currently I keep all my previous years archived photos (2012-2015) on the internal drive and have the current years images (2016) on an external hard drive so can quickly swap between the iMac and a laptop. I then use two WD external USB drives for backups (one for time machine and one backing only the photos using carbon copy cloner).

I'm thinking of moving the archived images to a powered external drive (something in the region of 4TB) and getting a second powered external hard drive so I can backup the new archived image external drive using CCC. I still want to keep the current years (2016) external drive and the time machine back up, the only problem is I will then be needing 4 USB ports for the four external hard drives and 1 USB port for my graphics tablet. The problem being the iMac only has 4 usb ports. My questions are:

1/ What powered USB hard drive would you recommend (I've thought by thunder port external drives but they seem to expensive to be an option)
2/ Is there a powered hub that you can plug in both an external WD hard drive that allows data transfer and a graphics tablet?

What have others done when you have filled the internal iMac hard drive?

 

[gramps]

What about something like THIS - I have one similar for my Windows laptop and it's very flexible to use, just slot the drives in and out as needed.

 

[Jim_Tod]

If you're going down the powered route then why not look at NAS type arrangement- doesnt have to be usb.

Some of the external powered drives allow usb plug in to that, recognised for backup also.

Personally wd mycloud arrangement and usb backups.

 

[gremlin16]

Just before Christmas I bought a 4tb WD my cloud from Amazon. Not very dear, and it gives me both USB and network storage!

So, I can backup all my machines and phones to it, and access all the files from all the above anywhere I have an internet connection.

Bloody brilliant.

I also have a second backup, a WD 2tb external drive, and a 1tb WD my passport drive as external storage for my iMac.

I'd be happy with just the 4tb my cloud device if I had to chose just one. Very pleased with it.