Max storage capacity card available for SD card slot?

WardC · Oct 31, 2010

OK, here is a question. If you have a 13" 2010 MacBook Air with the SD card slot, and you are looking for a card to expand the capacity of your MacBook Air, what is the max capacity card currently available that you can use in this slot. I hear that they have new cards with capacities of up to 2TB, but are these cards compatible with the SD card slot on the MacBook Air? (SDXC 2TB cards)

Stingray454 · Oct 31, 2010

WardC said:
OK, here is a question. If you have a 13" 2010 MacBook Air with the SD card slot, and you are looking for a card to expand the capacity of your MacBook Air, what is the max capacity card currently available that you can use in this slot. I hear that they have new cards with capacities of up to 2TB, but are these cards compatible with the SD card slot on the MacBook Air? (SDXC 2TB cards)

2TB is just the theoretical max size - the largest SDXC card on the market right now seems to be 64Gb. Anyways, there has been a lot of discussion whether MBA supports SDXC or not, but somone posted an apple forum screenshot when apple support confirmed that it does NOT support SDXC. That would mean it's only a SDHc slot, with a 32Gb max storage size.

I hope the apple support was wrong, but so far everything seems to point at the port beeing SDHC.

WardC · Oct 31, 2010

What about this?

spinnerlys · Oct 31, 2010

WardC said:
What about this?

That is not an existing card, or at least not one publicly available. It is meant to showcase the ability to produce SDXC cards with the ability to hold 2TB one day. Right now, 64GB seems to be the limit.

Even the page you quoted from, while being very obscure in its navigation, only offers 64GB: http://www.sdxcs.com/, though it mentions 2TB again. Hmm.

ReallyBigFeet · Oct 31, 2010

Not a comment about the size of the SD card, but I think your bigger concern is that the SD card will hang out of the slot. For whatever reason, starting with the 2010 MBP line, Apple chose to not give us a SD slot that will take all the SD card. A full 1/3 to almost 1/2 of the card remains outside the unit while it is seated in the slot. This isn't a problem when the MBA is stationary, but if you are like me and are constantly slipping the MBA in/out of a sleeve or a backpack all day long, you run the risk of catching it on something and/or even damaging the card.

I've instead started using a 64GB USB 'mini' plug for flash storage. Currently, this holds my entire extended document library on it. That way, no matter which laptop I carry with me for the day, I just slide this into one of the free USB slots and I'm off and running. I use DropBox for my "active" files, but this type of approach gives me something thats very small and unobtrusive and doesn't stick out as far as the SD card would.

Looks like this when plugged in:

I've experimented with putting my entire iTunes library on here but have encountered a few issues using it that way.

Loonytik · Oct 31, 2010

ReallyBigFeet said:
I've experimented with putting my entire iTunes library on here but have encountered a few issues using it that way.

What issues? Please explain further.....

MikePA · Oct 31, 2010

WardC said:
I hear that they have new cards with capacities of up to 2TB, but are these cards compatible with the SD card slot on the MacBook Air? (SDXC 2TB cards)

Even if it was, you couldn't afford the 2TB SDXC card. A 64gb SDXC card is $350.

Bleh5 · Oct 31, 2010

ReallyBigFeet said:
Not a comment about the size of the SD card, but I think your bigger concern is that the SD card will hang out of the slot. For whatever reason, starting with the 2010 MBP line, Apple chose to not give us a SD slot that will take all the SD card. A full 1/3 to almost 1/2 of the card remains outside the unit while it is seated in the slot. This isn't a problem when the MBA is stationary, but if you are like me and are constantly slipping the MBA in/out of a sleeve or a backpack all day long, you run the risk of catching it on something and/or even damaging the card.

I've instead started using a 64GB USB 'mini' plug for flash storage. Currently, this holds my entire extended document library on it. That way, no matter which laptop I carry with me for the day, I just slide this into one of the free USB slots and I'm off and running. I use DropBox for my "active" files, but this type of approach gives me something thats very small and unobtrusive and doesn't stick out as far as the SD card would.

Looks like this when plugged in:

I've experimented with putting my entire iTunes library on here but have encountered a few issues using it that way.

More information on the USB plug, please? That's got to be the shortest drive I've ever seen.

goodtimes5 · Oct 31, 2010

ReallyBigFeet said:
I've instead started using a 64GB USB 'mini' plug for flash storage. Currently, this holds my entire extended document library on it. That way, no matter which laptop I carry with me for the day, I just slide this into one of the free USB slots and I'm off and running. I use DropBox for my "active" files, but this type of approach gives me something thats very small and unobtrusive and doesn't stick out as far as the SD card would.

I've experimented with putting my entire iTunes library on here but have encountered a few issues using it that way.

What class microSDHC card are you using? Is class 2 adequate? I am also interested in the issues that you had running iTunes off of it.

goodtimes5 · Oct 31, 2010

Bleh5 said:
More information on the USB plug, please? That's got to be the shortest drive I've ever seen.

http://www.amazon.com/elago-Mobile-microSDHC-Memory-Reader/dp/B002HGFKR8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288558229&sr=8-1

That's what I just bought. Am looking for a reasonably priced microSDHC card now.

bowlerman625 · Oct 31, 2010

ReallyBigFeet said:
Not a comment about the size of the SD card, but I think your bigger concern is that the SD card will hang out of the slot. For whatever reason, starting with the 2010 MBP line, Apple chose to not give us a SD slot that will take all the SD card. A full 1/3 to almost 1/2 of the card remains outside the unit while it is seated in the slot. This isn't a problem when the MBA is stationary, but if you are like me and are constantly slipping the MBA in/out of a sleeve or a backpack all day long, you run the risk of catching it on something and/or even damaging the card.

I've instead started using a 64GB USB 'mini' plug for flash storage. Currently, this holds my entire extended document library on it. That way, no matter which laptop I carry with me for the day, I just slide this into one of the free USB slots and I'm off and running. I use DropBox for my "active" files, but this type of approach gives me something thats very small and unobtrusive and doesn't stick out as far as the SD card would.

Looks like this when plugged in:

I've experimented with putting my entire iTunes library on here but have encountered a few issues using it that way.

Oh yeah! I just bought one of these yesterday (a smaller capacity though) for use with my new MacBook Air. It's amazing how tiny it is!

It's a Lexar ECHO ZE USB drive

CaoCao · Oct 31, 2010

WardC said:
OK, here is a question. If you have a 13" 2010 MacBook Air with the SD card slot, and you are looking for a card to expand the capacity of your MacBook Air, what is the max capacity card currently available that you can use in this slot. I hear that they have new cards with capacities of up to 2TB, but are these cards compatible with the SD card slot on the MacBook Air? (SDXC 2TB cards)

Current SDXC cards go up to 64GB, the MBA can use all SDXC cards

zub3qin · Oct 31, 2010

Is a SD card or one of these aforementioned USB mini-drives actually usable with the MBA?

How fast are they? Fast enough for you to keep your iPhoto library on it? Or is it all spinning beachballs with these things?

Also, how much $$ are these things roughly?

Stingray454 · Nov 16, 2010

zub3qin said:
Is a SD card or one of these aforementioned USB mini-drives actually usable with the MBA?

How fast are they? Fast enough for you to keep your iPhoto library on it? Or is it all spinning beachballs with these things?

Also, how much $$ are these things roughly?

I bought one of those mini-usb drives (32Gb) yesterday. Works like a charm, and hardly noticeable when it's plugged in (though mine has a blue led that flashes when accessing data - somewhat annoying tbh).

I got 20Mb/s writing to the drive and faster when reading, and that's good enough for me. I think the device stated 16Mb/s write speed as max, and 30Mb/s for reading, but OS X showed me number in excess of 20Mb sustained speed when writing

It was a bit costly, converted from local currency about $150 USD.

Corax · Nov 16, 2010

For 32,- I bought a Class6 16GB SDHC Kingston Ultimate card.
It's okay, but data transfer read/write was faster on my iMac than it is on my Air.

Boston007 · Nov 16, 2010

Awesome

This is a great idea. I use DropBox for my "active" files but this is an excellent addition.

I can also just plug it in my Mac Pro when needed for backups, OR backup over my network.

I guess the problem would be to remind myself to backup

Thanks for the info!

Glaxx · Nov 23, 2010

ReallyBigFeet said:
I've experimented with putting my entire iTunes library on here but have encountered a few issues using it that way.

Can you elaborate on the problems you've had with iTunes on here? I've been looking at doing this as well, or some other solution similar to this.

foiden · Nov 23, 2010

Stingray454 said:
It was a bit costly, converted from local currency about $150 USD.

That's not a bad performance for a USB. I was more worried that USB would be a lot slower than that. Someone actually did confirm working with a SDXC 64GB card on the MBA13. So it looks that external (but petite) options are there, and much better than tugging a drive with you since it hardly increases the footprint of the device.

wenjun88 · Jul 21, 2011

MBA 2011 support 64GB SDXC?

Looking alternative storage for my MBA 2011. An SD would be perfect as it is hidden inside the slot, unlike USB. Does current mba model support 64GD SDXC?

kilonet · Jul 21, 2011

ReallyBigFeet said:
Not a comment about the size of the SD card, but I think your bigger concern is that the SD card will hang out of the slot. For whatever reason, starting with the 2010 MBP line, Apple chose to not give us a SD slot that will take all the SD card. A full 1/3 to almost 1/2 of the card remains outside the unit while it is seated in the slot. This isn't a problem when the MBA is stationary, but if you are like me and are constantly slipping the MBA in/out of a sleeve or a backpack all day long, you run the risk of catching it on something and/or even damaging the card.

I've instead started using a 64GB USB 'mini' plug for flash storage. Currently, this holds my entire extended document library on it. That way, no matter which laptop I carry with me for the day, I just slide this into one of the free USB slots and I'm off and running. I use DropBox for my "active" files, but this type of approach gives me something thats very small and unobtrusive and doesn't stick out as far as the SD card would.

Looks like this when plugged in:

Image

I've experimented with putting my entire iTunes library on here but have encountered a few issues using it that way.

Wow I think ill consider this for my new 11".

Max storage capacity card available for SD card slot?

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