Every child in my custody will have access to a UGreen DXP6800. This NAS (Network Attached Storage) will have 2 NVME drive slots, and 6 hard drive carriage bays. This will be designed to make the most of the resources of the child, and give them absolute ability to expand on their creativity, and assure that their PC will always have a backup they can access to. Now, even though there are 2 NVMEs, and 6 hard drives that would be maxed out, does not mean they will have 8 drives they can access to. Instead, each data pool will be a RAID-1 configuration. This will mean that the NAS will write data to 2 drives at the same time. So two 8TB NVMEs will show up as one 8TB NVME, but when writing to that NVME, the NAS will write to both. If something was to happen to one of the NVMEs that requires replacing, then I will order a new 8TB NVME, and when it arrives, I will replace the defective NVME with the new one. The NAS will then rebuild the new NVME to have the exact copy of information on the working NVME in case a new failure was to happen. The same will apply to the hard drives. This means there will be one 8TB NVME pool, and three 44TB Hard Drive pools. All of these drives will be LAN accessible. With VPN, as long as the child has internet access, they should have access to these drives as if they were in the home LAN.
I would recommend that the 8TB NVME will function like a second drive. This will replace the need for service such DropBox, iCloud, or OneDrive. They can choose to use this drive to synch with a folder in their computer, but considering that their computer will have a 2TB drive, this will be overkill. Instead, if the NVME will function as a second network connected drive, and with NVME performance, they will essentially have 2 drives for their computer. The 2TB drive installed in their computer, and the 8TB NVME drive that they have access too.
One 44TB hard drive pool must be used for backup. Every computer OS should have a backup solution to where it will use a NAS for backing up the computer without needing anything special. Since I will provide each child with a MacBook Air, they will be able to use Time Machine to backup their computer. Since they will have a VPN, they will just need an internet connection to connect to their Time Machine drive. Apple recommends that the entire drive should be used as a Time Machine drive. I did think of this which the child will still have massive amounts of network attached storage, even beyond the backup drive.
As of May 13, 2026 – the largest capacity hard drive I could find is 44TB. This should be more than enough storage. In addition to the backup drive, the child will have access to an additional two 44TB drives that they can do with as they see fit. If they are an artist, they can store their created pictures in these drives. If they are into videography, then they can create their videos, and store the videos in these drives as to not take up precious 2TB OS drive space. And since all drives are RAID-1, a hard drive failure is not the end of the world.
When the foster child is about to leave my custody, we will work together to back up any files they will have on the NAS. This is because they will lose access to this NAS. Needless to say, they can’t take it with them. The night before they leave, they will lose their VPN connection, and therefore will use the guest wifi network to connect to the internet. Once all of this happens, the drives will be reformatted and setup as new drives for the next foster child.