[FrankHudson]

A few answers from my side of K&G's latest questions:

The DAWS I use to record (ProTools and Logic X) make it easy to move sessions to another drive. ProTools creates a folder with a subfolder containing the audio files. Logic Pro seems even more idiot-proof. The session is just one big file containing the whole thing.

I periodically move my old sessions off the working drive and store them elsewhere.

RAID is instant in the sense that the duplicate is made as the file is written. Great for pros or businesses where any data loss could have external, objective consequences. But expensive. Time Machine is a cheaper way to get a "I won't look more than a few hours work if a drive fails" solution. You can use a slower but bigger and cheaper mechanical hard drive for Time Machine with little practical penalty in my experience.

You mentioned orchestral VIs. I did a one-year sub to East/West stuff when they offered a sale this spring. Their current "Hollywood Opus Edition" orchestral stuff is huge. I use a 1 TB SSD for my VI sample libraries and with what I had already it would far exhaust that. Hollywood Orchestra is nearly a TB of content just by itself.

Now of course that sort of VI sample library storage need isn't a factor for almost any people here on the AGF. And my 1 TB external drive had a lot of VI sample libraries on it that kept me going for a couple of years. But if you are really looking for high-quality full orchestra (not just a string quartet ala "Yesterday" or small group like Nick Drake's records) just know that you'll need to store the sample libraries. If you know exactly what orchestral instruments you'll be using you can get by with less, but I compose based on a "now what should I add next" walkabout a far amount of the time. External storage is cheaper than Apple's internal, and the Mac Studio has lots of ports to hook up external drives -- a good thing, my 2018 Mac Mini looks like a junk drawer will all the stuff hanging off it.