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How do you deal with the 128GB SSD in the MBA?

D

DisplacedMic

macrumors 65816
May 1, 2009
1,411
1
Mrbobb said:
That's a major limitation.

U maybe able to use an external drive but then u can't sync while on the road until u take the external w you.
Click to expand...

seconded. that's pretty small for a primary drive. unless of course you have regular access to a storage device like a drive or even your phone.

usb3 is pretty darn fast. functionally you can move quite a bit of data relatively quickly...

then the cloud has gotten better and better - i store all of my photos on dropbox. i take a picture with my phone and it gets uploaded to DB and periodically i delete pics off my phone.

i agree with others - most of us have huge music collections, but they do tend to cap out around (whatever i say here people will argue with so i'm jut going to assume you know your own music needs)

the big decision to me between the small and medium ssd ont he 13" mba is whether or not you're going to run a virtual machine. If the answer to that is yes, then definitely you're going to want the 256 imo.
 
T

troy14

macrumors 6502a
Mar 25, 2008
773
130
Las Vegas (Summerlin), NV
MACelmore said:
New member here, hello all! I searched through a few pages on the forum and haven't found anything, so here goes nothing!

Ok, so I'm making the switch from Windows to Mac this weekend (maybe???? I may wait until the refresh).

If I do end up buying this weekend, how do you owners of MBAs with 128GB SSD balance such a small amount of storage? I have a rather extensive iTunes library and a load of pics and documents. Do you move your entire iTunes library to an external HD to free up that much room? When I'll be portable with the Air, I wouldn't have much use for iTunes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...


I'm surprised no one has asked this question yet - why are you getting a Macbook Air?

You mention the 128gb without saying upgraded - so i'm going to assume you're talking about a base 13 MBA. Do you HAVE to have the "extreme" portability of the Air vs a Pro? Especially for a first Mac? Many (but not all) have more than one Mac if they own an Air. That is not to say that many don't use the Air as their only/primary computer, but I see the air more as a travel machine that is very capable of doing work - but not really made for a "main" computer.

I would look into getting a 13inch Macbook Pro (Depending on the $$ you want to spend - maybe a retina if you want to upgrade the SSD). The 13 MBP is not THAT much heavier/bigger than the Air, is equally/more powerful, has user-upgradeable parts (Ram and HD) and good connectivity as well.

The AIR is a great computer but it sounds like you need SPACE and maybe a little POWER since it is your main/only computer.
 
T

thehustleman

macrumors 65816
Jan 3, 2013
1,123
1
MACelmore said:
New member here, hello all! I searched through a few pages on the forum and haven't found anything, so here goes nothing!

Ok, so I'm making the switch from Windows to Mac this weekend (maybe???? I may wait until the refresh).

If I do end up buying this weekend, how do you owners of MBAs with 128GB SSD balance such a small amount of storage? I have a rather extensive iTunes library and a load of pics and documents. Do you move your entire iTunes library to an external HD to free up that much room? When I'll be portable with the Air, I wouldn't have much use for iTunes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

Why is the macbook air instead of the classic macbook pro your choice?

With the macbook air, it's only great but so long, the classic macbook pro has a longer, cheaper, usable life. 4 gigs not enough? Put 8 in, 8 not enough? Put 16. By then there should be 16gb memory modules and you may be able to give it 32gb memory
 
2

2IS

macrumors 68030
Jan 9, 2011
2,938
433
My 128GB drive is getting pretty full and I'm constantly deleting things to keep at least a few GB free, but I also have bootcamp on there. Mine is a 2010 model with a Core 2 Duo. I'm anxiously awaiting Haswell before buying a new machine and when I do, I'll certainly be going with a 512GB option. The whole external HDD is too much hassle IMO.
 
L

LordDeath

macrumors member
Feb 28, 2013
68
83
cppp said:
i use one of these.
you can store a few things on their like virtual machines, photos, music or what ever you want to put on their.

http://theniftyminidrive.com
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1342319572/the-nifty-minidrive


basically it allows you to use your memory card slot as expandable storage.
The nice thing is that it sits flush with the case of the mba/p so you can leave it in their and not ever have to worry about it.


Their is also a cheaper option on ebay aswell which does the exact same job
Click to expand...

Be careful with this. The MBA wont be able to use deep sleep anymore: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT4392
 
seveej

seveej

macrumors 6502a
Dec 14, 2009
827
51
Helsinki, Finland
For some people that will be no problem, for others it's basically impossible. If you could tell us what your current space allocation is, we might be able to help.

RGDS,
 
M

MACelmore

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
116
49
troy14 said:
I'm surprised no one has asked this question yet - why are you getting a Macbook Air?

You mention the 128gb without saying upgraded - so i'm going to assume you're talking about a base 13 MBA. Do you HAVE to have the "extreme" portability of the Air vs a Pro? Especially for a first Mac? Many (but not all) have more than one Mac if they own an Air. That is not to say that many don't use the Air as their only/primary computer, but I see the air more as a travel machine that is very capable of doing work - but not really made for a "main" computer.

I would look into getting a 13inch Macbook Pro (Depending on the $$ you want to spend - maybe a retina if you want to upgrade the SSD). The 13 MBP is not THAT much heavier/bigger than the Air, is equally/more powerful, has user-upgradeable parts (Ram and HD) and good connectivity as well.

The AIR is a great computer but it sounds like you need SPACE and maybe a little POWER since it is your main/only computer.
Click to expand...

I'll be going to grad school this year and moving to Chicago. I'll be mainly taking public transportation from work to school to home. I was looking at the MBA mainly because of its portability and I won't be using much for it. I'm not going to school for anything computer-related, so I'll be using the MBA to write papers, do research for said papers, browsing for fun, and music. Nothing strenuous, so I figured I would save the $300 or so and go with the Air. Maybe I should rethink.

----------
LordDeath said:
Be careful with this. The MBA wont be able to use deep sleep anymore: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT4392
Click to expand...

Thanks for this. I'll look into it. Very interesting.

----------
seveej said:
For some people that will be no problem, for others it's basically impossible. If you could tell us what your current space allocation is, we might be able to help.

RGDS,
Click to expand...

I'm currently on a Samsung RV711, its HUGE (17 in) and heavy. Which is why I'm so attracted to the Air. My arm hurts carrying this thing now haha. I'm currently using 67 GBs, but its Windows... I have no idea where most of that is being used.
 
M

MACelmore

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
116
49
Ok guys, after listening to some of you on here and doing some research (i.e. reading reviews and comparisons), I decided to at least go to the Apple store and test the Pro and the Air out side by side.

And I'm now the proud owner of the Retina Pro!!! Pretty excited about it, it was just the most logical decision, especially with the educational discount.

Thanks for all of your input.
 
T

thehustleman

macrumors 65816
Jan 3, 2013
1,123
1
MACelmore said:
Ok guys, after listening to some of you on here and doing some research (i.e. reading reviews and comparisons), I decided to at least go to the Apple store and test the Pro and the Air out side by side.

And I'm now the proud owner of the Retina Pro!!! Pretty excited about it, it was just the most logical decision, especially with the educational discount.

Thanks for all of your input.
Click to expand...

Congrats, i hope you maxed out the memory because the retina Pros have it soldered in so it's impossible to upgrade it.
 
M

MACelmore

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
116
49
vix2000 said:
I've been looking at these, as I asked earlier are these worth the big price difference to something like a seagate or western digital nas?
Click to expand...

I'm also wondering this!

And as a secondary question, why is it so important to backup your Mac? That seems to be a primary focus of alot of Mac users. Are Macs more prone to losing your info or am I just hyper-focused about this switch so I didn't heed the warnings when I had a PC?
 
T

troy14

macrumors 6502a
Mar 25, 2008
773
130
Las Vegas (Summerlin), NV
MACelmore said:
I'm also wondering this!

And as a secondary question, why is it so important to backup your Mac? That seems to be a primary focus of alot of Mac users. Are Macs more prone to losing your info or am I just hyper-focused about this switch so I didn't heed the warnings when I had a PC?
Click to expand...

Backing up your data is (usually) important no matter what OS you're using.

If you have important (family photos, vacations, thesis, research, etc) files on your laptop (especially a laptop!) and you lose it.. you are out of luck! Hard drives (well you do have a SSD now) fail, computers get lost, stolen, liquid spilled on them, dropped, anything can happen. Computers/hard drives/etc are replaceable but those files/memorys etc are not!

A time capsule is only worth it if you're willing to pay for it. You are paying the Apple premium for a product that works, works well, and is just plug it in and forget about it (theoretically). You can get other things that do the same for cheaper.

I know the retina MBP is an awesome machine, beautiful display, but, it seems like it didn't really solve your problem with the storage. It still only has the same 128gb SSD that the Air had.....unless you plan on leaving somethign plugged into it for storage? You could've gotten the Air and saved some $$ unless you HAD to have the screen (which is understandable)
 
MacLadybug

MacLadybug

macrumors 6502a
Jun 6, 2008
633
28
Why Back UP?? Always Back up!!

Years ago when I was in the PC world, I was in the process of organizing all of my photos from a trip to the UK. The plan was to organize and then back up. I was hurried, not thinking, copied everything to the PC, cleaned off my SD cards for use and before I could back up to an online photo site I planned on burning DVD's of the photos (I said this was years ago)... Long story longer the drive malfunctioned and every photo I had was lost. I took the computer to a recovery technician, nothing was salvaged. Shortly thereafter I entered the world of Apple.

Lesson learned... back-up everything always. I use the cloud for IOS data and my trusty Time Capsule for everything on all my macs. If one mac dies the stuff is on another mac or Time Capsule. I'll never let that happen again.
 
raniel

raniel

macrumors regular
Jan 2, 2011
152
190
Ph
Buy a NAS, store the media files / large files there (music, photos, etc). Then use a cloud service for the files you might need on time.
 
Seamaster

Seamaster

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2003
1,133
198
Time Capsule is great for backup and wifi networking, but it's a lousy external storage solution.
 
M

MACelmore

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
116
49
troy14 said:
Backing up your data is (usually) important no matter what OS you're using.

If you have important (family photos, vacations, thesis, research, etc) files on your laptop (especially a laptop!) and you lose it.. you are out of luck! Hard drives (well you do have a SSD now) fail, computers get lost, stolen, liquid spilled on them, dropped, anything can happen. Computers/hard drives/etc are replaceable but those files/memorys etc are not!

A time capsule is only worth it if you're willing to pay for it. You are paying the Apple premium for a product that works, works well, and is just plug it in and forget about it (theoretically). You can get other things that do the same for cheaper.

I know the retina MBP is an awesome machine, beautiful display, but, it seems like it didn't really solve your problem with the storage. It still only has the same 128gb SSD that the Air had.....unless you plan on leaving somethign plugged into it for storage? You could've gotten the Air and saved some $$ unless you HAD to have the screen (which is understandable)
Click to expand...

I decided to go with the MiniDrive that plugs into the SD slot. I went with the MBPr because with the educational discount the difference was so small, I couldn't justify NOT getting it. Plus, I could buy now and not fret over the upcoming Air update :D
 
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