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How to expand 13" storage by 32GB (Flush)

M

m0ssie

macrumors newbie
Jun 11, 2012
9
0
I'm haven't got an MBA yet, but I got the same adapter card you did and cut the usb section off flush, and it works fine in my pc. I just took a new razor blade and inserted it in a holder for safety and aligned it and pressed it down across the usb section and rocked it back and forth until it cut through.

When cutting the usb section of this adapter off flush, does it fit the MBA flush? After cutting it the adapter now measures 29.7mm in length. Does anyone know the exact length required for it to fit flush in the MBA?


xaquaticx said:
I have an update...

I bought 3.

I had said the cards I found worked but that was before I cut it.

I cut one flush (removed the entire USB section). It killed the card. At least it appears to have.

I assume perhaps it forms some sort of circuit on the circuit board and part of this goes out onto the USB section, and if it's broken, it ruins the board inside.

I then cut only HALF of it off. It works. But it still hangs out a bit (a centimeter or two, enough to catch when inside my Pelican case). I'm nervous to cut more off. I only have one more try left, plus I wanted to keep one because the USB functionality does in fact work and it's pretty neat to be able to plug it into a USB port if I want to tote my music (what I'm going to store on it) to another computer like my work computer.

Did anyone else here buy one of these? Any thoughts? Has anyone found a way to cut it all the way down to flush and have the WinFos card (the DealExtreme one I got) work? I used scissors also. Maybe a Dremel would've been better? Thoughts?

I guess this supports spending more money on the custom-made solution by makemineadouble, at least we know his card works while flush and is high quality. (makemineadouble I wish you luck, cool idea)
Click to expand...
 
R

rbf1138

macrumors 6502a
Dec 22, 2007
521
62
Got a Lexar 128GB Professional 133x SDXC for $90 last weekend from BH Photo, now showing as Discontinued on their website. Double the price everywhere else...
 
K

k1tt

macrumors newbie
Jun 19, 2012
5
0
makemineadouble said:
Hey all,

Love what you guys have done here and I really needed this for my Macbook Air: 256GB SSD - only 27GB remaining!

Me and my friend have designed something along the lines of what has been done here, and launched it on Indiegogo (a crowd funding website):

http://www.indiegogo.com/The-Nifty-MiniDrive-More-Space-Pretty-Package

I know that our solution is a fair amount more expensive than some of the DIY solutions out there - especially the ones you guys have worked out here! But we wanted to make sure that what we produced was as well made, and as closely matched the finish and quality of the Macbook Air/Pro as possible. We wanted to create something that would last as long as your computer, looked good and was easy to use (/remove!).

If you guys like the idea, any support you can lend to the cause would be greatly appreciated - the working prototypes are being built as we speak and I would expect to ship at the end of the funding period, if not before

Of course ideas/feedback/suggestions are welcome too! You guys are the pros here!!
Click to expand...

Hello! Nice project! When do you re-launch on kickstarter? Didn´t find anything.. cheers, Tobi
 
M

makemineadouble

macrumors newbie
Apr 15, 2012
8
0
k1tt said:
Hello! Nice project! When do you re-launch on kickstarter? Didn´t find anything.. cheers, Tobi
Click to expand...

Hey Tobi - we didn't realise how long it would take to get verified for a kickstarter page! Looks like everything is sorted and we will be launching on kickstarter as of the 1st of July.

:D
 
X

xaquaticx

macrumors regular
Feb 6, 2010
101
0
m0ssie said:
I'm haven't got an MBA yet, but I got the same adapter card you did and cut the usb section off flush, and it works fine in my pc. I just took a new razor blade and inserted it in a holder for safety and aligned it and pressed it down across the usb section and rocked it back and forth until it cut through.

When cutting the usb section of this adapter off flush, does it fit the MBA flush? After cutting it the adapter now measures 29.7mm in length. Does anyone know the exact length required for it to fit flush in the MBA?
Click to expand...

As shown in my photos it's not quite flush, sticks out about 1 or two mm. Less than the Cruzer fit for sure. And about the same prices, only a few bucks more really. However, I tried cutting it all the way flush and killed the adapter. I have a third one I may experiment with but I wanted to keep it for backup also... SO it might be possible to get the adapter I ordered flush but I am not sure.


Also: don't worry makemineadouble and those interested their product.

Apple stupidly messed up again and even in the new retina MacBook Pro the SD card hangs out. So you will have a future market!
 
J

JonLa

macrumors 6502
Dec 22, 2009
378
28
I'm using the cut down cheap Chinese adapter at the moment and I'm wondering how I might test the effect of leaving it permanently "in" is affecting my battery life. I have a 2010 13" Air (C2D) and while it looks like it doesn't affect it, the constant recalculation of battery life is confusing me. Anyone like to give me a concrete answer?

And what about the nifty minidrive? Its designed to be left inside the Air, but will it constantly draw battery power?

Edit: looking back on the thread I see somebody has already answered this, and I've been testing it myself - a day with the adapter in, a day without, suggests that leaving the SD card in barely affects battery except when accessing the card, whereas leaving a little USB stick in the USB port can draw a bit more.
 
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J

JonLa

macrumors 6502
Dec 22, 2009
378
28
And wow - they've already gone over their goal. I got in with one of the early bird single orders - a snip at 25 dollars. I'm really pleased for them, because the indiegogo site didn't really have the reach of kickstarter. Also - the new non-aluminium design shows that their product is evolving and takes them to a realistic price point.

My 64GB class 10 sandisk SDXC card came today - it's currently living in one of those cut-down adapters from earlier in this thread. I've just reformatted it as Mac-OS so that I can move my itunes library to it and keep it in the Time Machine backups.

And note to anyone considering moving their itunes library or bits off - there's a really neat bit of free software called Tunespan that allows you to pick and choose items from your library and move them to different locations. It basically rewrites the itunes library for you. Ive been using it a lot as I use my Air to convert our dvd library for my wife's ipad, but dont want the itunes files to actually live on the Air - they get moved to an external after conversion.
 
NMF

NMF

macrumors 6502a
Oct 27, 2011
885
21
Oh man, I was weary of the DIY solution (I'm the polar opposite of a handy-man) but for $30 these Nifty enclosures look amazing. Absolutely in for one!
 
L

leecbaker

macrumors member
Apr 7, 2012
30
3
New Zealand
battery tests

JonLa said:
I'm using the cut down cheap Chinese adapter at the moment and I'm wondering how I might test the effect of leaving it permanently "in" is affecting my battery life. I have a 2010 13" Air (C2D) and while it looks like it doesn't affect it, the constant recalculation of battery life is confusing me. Anyone like to give me a concrete answer?
Click to expand...

There are only two likely sources of an increase in power- the card and the reader. I'm pretty confident that Apple would ensure the reader doesn't draw unnecessarily large amounts of power, and someone further up the thread said the card spec is 40mA (at 3.3V), or about 0.13 W. My 2010 MBA13 draws about 7-8W at idle with the screen fairly bright

I tried to get a more concrete answer to this using the power draw measurement. Using BatteryExpert from that App store (I'm the developer), I measured power draw for about 5 minutes without an SD and 5 minutes with an SD while on battery. The card is a Sandisk 8GB SDHC Class 4.

There were some small fluctuations in power consumption while I was measuring- maybe spotlight decided to index something, or something else was going on behind the scenes, but I don't think it was significant enough to affect the measurement. Power draw looked basically the same with and without the card- it's good enough for me.

No SD card:
mba13_no_sdhc.png


With SD card:
mba13_with_sdhc.png
 
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J

jgc

macrumors regular
Feb 21, 2012
202
0
Canada
Well, I just invested $50 in a 64 gb SDXC (not mini, full size). The Kickstarter page is tempting but I'm not sure I want to fork out $25 and purchase a 64 gb micro SDXC as well. If only the IndieGoGo campaign was this successful this quickly I would have definitely pulled the trigger.
 
J

JonLa

macrumors 6502
Dec 22, 2009
378
28
Thanks Lee - that's really useful - my purely amateur tests suggest the same thing. My next investigation is to see whether leaving the card in prevents the Air from going into the deep hibernation that doesn't draw any battery power.

Now off to look at your app...
 
S

Satnam1989

macrumors 65816
Nov 16, 2011
1,200
0
Illinois
Can anyone confirm that when you have a MicroSD card in the slot, after putting the Macbook Air/Pro to "Hibernate" the card is still attached? For example I have a Micro/Mini Sandisk Cruzer Fit 32GB (sticks out no wider than the MagSafe charger) and when ever I drain out my batter on my MBAir, it always gives error that the USB device was not ejected properly and I have to remove and insert again when I boot up first time after the Hibernation. Can anyone verify this doesn't happen with the SD Slot? because otherwise we would have to live with a paperclip for the Nifty Minidrive
 
K

kooskoos1814

macrumors member
Apr 6, 2012
77
0
iMacFarlane said:
I'm a backer! Thinking of using it for Time Machine backups.

Anyone know about how much room a system backup takes, in GB? No media or anything, but all of my xCode source files and documents (about 500MB) will go on the backup.
Click to expand...
Between 1x and 1.5x the size of your HD. On my 128Gb MBA with 30Gb free, it takes about 80 Gb.
 
iMacFarlane

iMacFarlane

macrumors 65816
Apr 5, 2012
1,123
30
Adrift in a sea of possibilities
Well, I mean just to backup the system, not the entire file system. Just the instance of OS X, all the user settings and such, but not media or apps I could just re-download. Just the core OS. And all of my xCode source files (very small, probably half a gig.

So, 80GB seems pretty excessive for that, assuming the OS used to be installable from a DVD . . .
 
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