Edit: I realised I wrote quite a bit, for the second question only the last paragraph is revelant
As you can tell from the title, this is a 2 parter.
Originally, it was simple. Macbook and Imac, and a synology which was final destination for files. Both time machined to the nas.
Due to various projects, data expansion, issues i've had with downloading directly to the nas and time machine taking forever on the nas this is no longer the case.
Current setup:
Imac has 2 4tb owc thunderbolt ssds as "work"(hoarding) drives, a samsung 2tb for time machine and a 4tb crucial x9 for photo library.
Macbook has 1 owc thunderbolt as work drive and a x9 4tb for time machine.
The synology is only for files at this point.
I picked up 2 more 4tb crucial X9's to backup the "work" drives on the imac, but I'm starting to think I have taken a wrong approach, having 6 external drives seems a bit silly.
Anyway, I was intending on using time machine with the new x9's but It appears it needs to be double the drive size.
I need the file modifications times to be identical so i was thinking cloning? But maybe it has to be something with a versioning system so the drive isn't always running.
Thanks for any suggestions!