I am planning on buying a 64 GB MacBook Air, and I was just wondering how much space is free after an installation of Mountain Lion. I don't put much on my computer, so I don't want any replies saying I should just get the 128 GB model.
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64 GB: How much is free after ML Install?
- Thread starter justein
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ML bare = 8 gig + your applications & data.
What typically takes lots of space are your iTunes library and Windows related stuff (if any).
I have ML + Office + Chrome + Firefox and a few others, running on 18 gig taken. No Windows, No iTunes, no videos. All that big stuff are on my desktop server.
What typically takes lots of space are your iTunes library and Windows related stuff (if any).
I have ML + Office + Chrome + Firefox and a few others, running on 18 gig taken. No Windows, No iTunes, no videos. All that big stuff are on my desktop server.
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I have 64 gigs on my MBA (really kinda small for me but it does the job) and when I first for my MBA, with a fresh install it had about 52 gigs available (though after my iTunes library, and other apps I've installed I have only about 30 gigs left)
BTW your drive isn't going to be exactly 64 gigs. It will be more like 60GB or 59.5GB or something.
If you get a new machine with just the OS, plus iLife and iWorks apps, that will use about 20GB of space.
If I got the 64gb MBA I would treat it like my iPad. Only my playlists on it and that's about it. The only difference would be that I'd have to (in school) have Office 2011 on it. I don't think it would be too limiting.
I look at it from a perspective of "if you give me more space I'll use it but if I didn't have it I won't miss it. I currently have 500gb on my MBP but really only "use" about 30-40gb with the rest being movies stored on it. If I had the MBA I'd use external storage.
I look at it from a perspective of "if you give me more space I'll use it but if I didn't have it I won't miss it. I currently have 500gb on my MBP but really only "use" about 30-40gb with the rest being movies stored on it. If I had the MBA I'd use external storage.
For some strange reason, when I read this, I thought of Agent Smith interrogating Morpheus in The Matrix.
Haha, pretty much. I'm no virus but if you give me 1TB of space I'll fill it with something. But I could probably just as easily live with 64GB of space.
64GB leaves about 8GB
With all the standard apps, updates, and OS, you have about 50 GB then VM, I would say don't get anything less that 128GB, why?
One day you might want to copy 20GB worth of WHATEVER from a flash drive or something. You might need video capture space even who knows.
In general even if you have a 1 TB regular HD you still want to keep around 100 GB FREE minimum, in case the OS pulls it's weight or some APP does just to get something done. If you don't have that space if you PUSH the system for a minute it might get slow or even crash...
trust me don't get 64GB, unless all you want is the Apple Eco-system... i.e.:
Safari, Mail, Contacts, Calendar, iPhoto, etc...
If all you want to do is that, you can get by with 64GB
EOL
With all the standard apps, updates, and OS, you have about 50 GB then VM, I would say don't get anything less that 128GB, why?
One day you might want to copy 20GB worth of WHATEVER from a flash drive or something. You might need video capture space even who knows.
In general even if you have a 1 TB regular HD you still want to keep around 100 GB FREE minimum, in case the OS pulls it's weight or some APP does just to get something done. If you don't have that space if you PUSH the system for a minute it might get slow or even crash...
trust me don't get 64GB, unless all you want is the Apple Eco-system... i.e.:
Safari, Mail, Contacts, Calendar, iPhoto, etc...
If all you want to do is that, you can get by with 64GB
EOL
Man, I was feeling crowded on an 80GB hard drive back in 2004. I could never survive on 64GB (still contemplating whether 256GB is feasible), but everyone has different needs.
Also worth keeping in mind is the Nifty microdrive option that lets you use your SD card slot as a semi-permanent storage addition -- that would double your storage. The 11" air doesn't have the SD card slot, though, IIRC.
If you need occasional extra space to snag something off a thumb drive, that's what external drives are for (and they're CHEAP now too). If you start doing video work, get an external 7200RPM (or SSD if you can afford it) with Thunderbolt -- these days, with USB3 and thunderbolt, internal vs. external doesn't make nearly the difference it did 3-4 years ago.
I do agree about keeping some space free on your drive, though. Your OS uses it for "virtual memory" and if you have less than about 10GB for it to play with, it's liable to lock up under load. If you do serious graphics/audio/video/3D/anything else with huge files or high memory requirements, you'll need significantly more free space (the 100GB mentioned above).
Also worth keeping in mind is the Nifty microdrive option that lets you use your SD card slot as a semi-permanent storage addition -- that would double your storage. The 11" air doesn't have the SD card slot, though, IIRC.
If you need occasional extra space to snag something off a thumb drive, that's what external drives are for (and they're CHEAP now too). If you start doing video work, get an external 7200RPM (or SSD if you can afford it) with Thunderbolt -- these days, with USB3 and thunderbolt, internal vs. external doesn't make nearly the difference it did 3-4 years ago.
I do agree about keeping some space free on your drive, though. Your OS uses it for "virtual memory" and if you have less than about 10GB for it to play with, it's liable to lock up under load. If you do serious graphics/audio/video/3D/anything else with huge files or high memory requirements, you'll need significantly more free space (the 100GB mentioned above).
If you use it for nothing but travel and never store anything big on it you don't have to worry about space. I would never advise getting a 64 GB model as your primary machine though