Photo management

There is a few things going on here. You don’t want a normal solution to the problem. No cloud, no NAS, which is what is typically recommended. So you want something very custom that likely does not even exists but still you wonder why there is no recommended solution. Well simply because you are asking for something unusual. Also I have to make clear that if you use what you call a hard drive as main storage, it ain’t a backup. By the sounds of it, if that drive crashes you lose all your photos? I would urge you to go for the conventional route. Also I am sure Ente can tailor for your storage needs, if if it is bigger than their subscription offering, just reach out to them when you get close to the limit.