Too much stuff, too little space...

So my wife - despite my efforts - is now a complete Apple convert. Nah, it's okay, she likes it and that's great.

My question here doesn't, I suppose, really have anything to do with Macs, but I thought it would help to make it clear up front that we're working with a MacBook Pro here. She got one from work, and has understandably decided to use it as her main computer because it's far better than the one she was using. The only problem we're running into so far is that we've come up against the storage limit on the 256GB SSD, and she has far more in photos and music than the available space will allow.

So what do we do? What do you guys recommend? My personal preference is a desktop, where I have over 3TB of storage (which is already getting full). I have no experience dealing with storage limitations like this.

For the time being, I've transferred her photos to the Mac, since that is the more unique content. My recommendation for her, frankly, would be to ditch most of her music collection. I added her to my rdio subscription a year ago, and she loves it and uses it all the time. At this point she really doesn't need all that data taking up space on her computer...

So what do you folks do? Where do you store the data on the computers that can't hold it all?

How much data does she actually have and which MacBook ?

Same situation. I just got a 1TB external drive. Added bonus to being able to do Time Machine backups to the drive.

NAS.

If the optical drive is rarely used, it can be replaced with a secondary internal hard drive. There are kits available that package the old optical drive in a USB enclosure, and you install the new hard drive into a drive carrier that fits right into the space the optical drive came out of. A traditional hard drive or SSD can be mounted.

There are larger SSD drives available to replace the 256GB, although pricing is not cheap.

At the moment, I do not have the laptop in front of me, but it's 256GB SSD, she has 80GB (and counting) of photos/videos, and 133GB (and counting) of iTunes stuff. That adds up to more than whatever's left on the drive, and even if it didn't she'd get close very soon anyway.

I'm 99% certain that she has the most recent model MBP.


Naturally, this may be the solution, but she's going to use this laptop mostly on the couch, and unless we glue an external drive to the lid of her MBP, I don't think this will work...


Yeah, I thought this might be necessary. Any tips on a VERY EASILY CONFIGURED drive? I don't need anything enormous, 1TB would be fine.

Plus, how does OSX deal with not having access to that content when the laptop isn't at home?


No optical drive. This is the most recent rev MBP.

Your problem isn't OS X. It's each application. Some programs, like iTunes, which famously has its problems, might be more likely to have problems when the external drive or NAS isn't around. Others do better.

For what it's worth, I copied my music collection to Google Play with their uploader. Just barely fit, and had to transcode to high-quality MP3 rather than the original lossless. Still, this makes my full collection available everywhere I go on every device I own, so long as I've got a working network. You might consider something similar to offload the music and save space on the SSD for other things.

If it lacks an optical drive, it's a Retina Macbook Pro. The non retina models still have an optical drive. Which means an SSD upgrade is not going to be a great path here.

I'll post more ideas later.

This Nifty Minidrive product will get you about 64GB of extra storage space, depending on which microSD card you put in it. Fits entirely within the built-in SD card reader slot.

I currently have a number of these elago Nano II compact USB microSDHC card readers . Amazingly compact, the only real limitation is they do not yet fully support microSDXC cards. Up to 32GB with SDHC cards, they work quite nicely.

You can upgrade the SSD on the Retina Pro, but there aren't many options so it isn't cheap:

http://www.ifixit.com/Apple-Parts/MacBook-Pro-15-Inch-Retina-Drive/IF117-000

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Aura_Pro_Retina_2012

And I see ifixit don't actually have any stock of the ones they claim to sell...

Sorry, I may not have been clear and my past biases might have been clouding this part, but I'm not blaming OSX here at all. I have no experience with these limitations on Windows laptops either, so I would fully expect the same problems there, too.


Yeah, sorry, I forgot to mention that. Yes, it's a Retina MBP. She got them to get her a pretty damn slick machine here...


No matter, there's no way in heck she'd be able to go that route. This computer doesn't belong to her, it's a work machine that she's just fortunate to be able to use for personal stuff.

You could go the NAS route, but I believe that would be a bit overkill in this situation, unless you want easy access to the content of the NAS drive from other computers than your wife's Mac as well.

If not, I would simply buy an external drive, this would be the quickest, least-hassle and cheapest option in any case. 2.5" models also don't need an external power adapter ; they draw their power from the USB socket, so no cable clutter as well.

They come in capacities from 500 GB up to 2 TB, so I imagine that would be enough. I particularly like the MyPassport models from Western Digital.

...and is that stuff backed up anywhere? If not, you want an external drive (for Time Machine) at the very least. Today.

Am I right in assuming the Retina MBP has an mSATA SSD inside? If I am wrong, why not simply buy a larger mechanical 2.5" or 1.8" internal drive? Yes, performances will decrease, but it may be worth considering.


I don't. I keep my data in my home server or my office file server, and only a minor part of it is on my laptop. I currently have an 80GB SSD in my work laptop and it is enough. Clearly, that many not work for everybody.

Not quite. It uses what is basically an mSATA drive with a slightly different header. And apart from Apple there appears to be only OWC that actually supply alternative drives.

But as we've now established, it is a work machine and can't be messed with.

On the data front, she needs to decide what data she wants with here at all times, and what she wants just in the house.

For music, iTunes Match is also a possibility. Set up her full normal library on an external drive/NAS and set up Match. Then create a second local library on the laptop to use for just playback.

https://www.apple.com/itunes/inside-itun...rs-and-you.html

I think addressing the music part will take care of the main issue, since thats ~130GB. Photos at 80GB is easy to still just keep local and not mess with multiple libraries.

I personally use a NAS for the main iTunes music library, usually controlled from my Mac Mini. Then my laptop and desktop just use Match. With all the iCloud video playback, I don't have to worry about having space to hold my iTunes TV shows anymore.

Regardless of any connector difference, there simply is no room for a mechanical drive of any size (except maybe those little mini drives the Rio Nitrus or Carbon had?)

That's the SSD in the middle left:

Oops, sorry, I was not paying attention enough.

Interesting. It does look similar to a mSATA in the picture posted by Aaron. Now I am curious: does anyone know why a different connector? It does not look particularly smaller?


Back on topic, besides of course decreasing the amt of data she wants to carry with her all the time, the only other option I see in this case is a small (physically) external USB / Thunderbolt drive to be connected only when needed. Or, to increase portability even more, a particularly large (64GB) pendrive? The Nifty Minidrive and the elago Nano II compact USB microSDHC card reader mentioned above look very nice. Thanks for posting them here, I did not know those.

The connector isn't (much) smaller, but the drive itself is, as you can see in this comparison photo. which puts a 3.5", an SSD and a mSATA drive next to each other. (warning: large pic!)

Sorry, I meant: why a "non-standard" mSATA connector, rather than a standard one, still mSATA? Incidentally, I seem to remember that mSATA refers to the connector itself, and not much to the card size, as mSATA drives already come in different sizes and shapes.

I thought I read that the Apple SSD connector is some sort of custom mini-PCIe variant instead of mSATA. Still doesn't answer the question of why, though. Maybe it's .5mm smaller and that makes all the difference? Maybe the electrical characteristics are required to be different for some reason? Maybe they wanted to kill the third-party upgrade market, forcing you to pay their BTO markup?

I forgot that the 13" retina is a little bit of a different beast, and actually has enough room for a thin 2.5" drive in there where the SSD normally goes. Designing an adapter for the connectors would be a pisser, though.

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Retina+Display+Late+2012+Teardown/11225/1