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1.5tb replacemend HDD for 2011 MBP ... or other option?

H

Hrothgar

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 11, 2009
530
23
New York
I've got a 750 gb drive in my late 2011 15" MBP.
I've got over 740 gb of data on it.
About 420 gb are audio files.
I've also got about 170gb of "other". I can't seem to figure out what that is.

But I think the best option is to upgrade to a 1 or 1.5 tb internal drive.
I checked New Egg, and it looks like there are no 7200 drives over 1T.
I also see the "SATA 3" and "SATA 6" specification. I'm not sure what those mean.

Im curious whether there are any less expensive and perhaps longer term options. I've got a 3 tb external which I used for both back-ups and storage of old media/photo files. I need my large audio file to stay on the laptop, because I used the laptop as my music server -- streaming through an ATV.
Even if I moved all of my photos off the laptop, I'd only save about 15 gb. (I already moved about 30gb of old photos/videos onto the external drive.)

I have no idea what is making up the remaining 250 gb or so of data. I check my applications, and more are a few gb or less. My downloads and documents folders are only a few gb.
 
Hrothgar said:
I checked New Egg, and it looks like there are no 7200 drives over 1T.
Click to expand...
- There is, but in my experience they are prohibitively expensive. 1 TB 7200 RPM drives are easy to find, though.

I also see the "SATA 3" and "SATA 6" specification. I'm not sure what those mean.
Click to expand...
- There is no SATA 6. SATA III is sometimes written as SATA 600 or SATA 6 Gbps, which can be confusing. Is that what you mean?


Have you considered a smaller SSD as the main drive and replacing your optical drive with a larger conventional hard drive for storage?
 
Last edited:
Probably time machine snap shots

Hrothgar said:
I've got a 750 gb drive in my late 2011 15" MBP.
I've got over 740 gb of data on it.
About 420 gb are audio files.
I've also got about 170gb of "other". I can't seem to figure out what that is.

But I think the best option is to upgrade to a 1 or 1.5 tb internal drive.
I checked New Egg, and it looks like there are no 7200 drives over 1T.
I also see the "SATA 3" and "SATA 6" specification. I'm not sure what those mean.

Im curious whether there are any less expensive and perhaps longer term options. I've got a 3 tb external which I used for both back-ups and storage of old media/photo files. I need my large audio file to stay on the laptop, because I used the laptop as my music server -- streaming through an ATV.
Even if I moved all of my photos off the laptop, I'd only save about 15 gb. (I already moved about 30gb of old photos/videos onto the external drive.)

I have no idea what is making up the remaining 250 gb or so of data. I check my applications, and more are a few gb or less. My downloads and documents folders are only a few gb.
Click to expand...

Try turning off time machine back ups and it should disappear.

Also download Omnidisk sweeper and look at all your stuff it'll give you a great insight into where all your space is going.

If you can do without the optical drive look into replacing it with an SSD for increased speed and storage. (there are many guides online)
 
Are you both suggesting that I replace the drive on the laptop with an SSD, and use an external "conventional" drive for storage?

I know SSD's are faster, but I thought they had much lower storage capacity?

I don't really have the option to keep an external drive permanently hard-wired to my laptop. So, if I moved my audio files off to an external drive, I don't think I'd be able to stream them through to my Apple TV. Unless I'm missing something.
 
No....

Hrothgar said:
Are you both suggesting that I replace the drive on the laptop with an SSD, and use an external "conventional" drive for storage?

I know SSD's are faster, but I thought they had much lower storage capacity?

I don't really have the option to keep an external drive permanently hard-wired to my laptop. So, if I moved my audio files off to an external drive, I don't think I'd be able to stream them through to my Apple TV. Unless I'm missing something.
Click to expand...


......we are both suggesting that you remove your DVD ROM drive, if like many people you haven't used it in years then it is often surplus to requirments.

You can then have an SSD (256gb around $100 and 512gb around $200 http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/191-9968321-3899720?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=mx100) and have both an SSD and your 750gb Hard disk.

You'll have 1.25TB of staorage with a 512gb SSD and nearly half of it will be super fast put all your apps and OSX onto the SSD and it'll but much faster and more fluid to use.
 
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matreya said:
AND if you want to replace the optical drive with your hard drive, then one of these kits is ideal:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDAMBS0GB/
Click to expand...

I did this on an early 2011 MBP using this kit. Comes with very comprehensive instructions and the necessary screwdrivers. It was very very easy to do.

Only one word of caution. Take note of OWC's recommendation for the SSD for your laptop if that is what you intend to put in the optical bay. Choose a 3 Gbps drive not a 6 Gbps drive for reliable operation.

Mentioned just in case the OP does decide to put two SSD's inside.
 
JTToft said:
And if you choose to go this route, remember to install the SSD in the main drive bay and your hard drive in the optical drive bay to ensure stable and fast performance. Don't put the SSD in the optical drive bay.
Click to expand...

Not necessary. My SSD is in the Optical running at 6G, the HDD is in the main bay running at 6G.
 
simonsi said:
Not necessary. My SSD is in the Optical running at 6G, the HDD is in the main bay running at 6G.
Click to expand...

But there have been numerous reports of instability using a 6 Gbps SSD in the optical bay. OWC don't recommend it. Yours is working fine but it's not a given. Better the OP is aware of potential issues.
 
steve1960 said:
But there have been numerous reports of instability using a 6 Gbps SSD in the optical bay. OWC don't recommend it. Yours is working fine but it's not a given. Better the OP is aware of potential issues.
Click to expand...

Actually very few first hand reports, most reports on the internet are second-hand reports quoting other reports of reports. As a result most people don't try it. It certainly isn't the case that all such configurations have issues, it probably wasn't ever the case.

There are benefits if it does work, SMS still works on the HDD in the main drive bay for instance.

Worth trying, the drives can always be swapped over if issues...
 
simonsi said:
Actually very few first hand reports, most reports on the internet are second-hand reports quoting other reports of reports. As a result most people don't try it. It certainly isn't the case that all such configurations have issues, it probably wasn't ever the case.

There are benefits if it does work, SMS still works on the HDD in the main drive bay for instance.

Worth trying, the drives can always be swapped over if issues...
Click to expand...

This is what OWC quote on their web site and says its based on testing:

Testing has demonstrated that Apple factory hardware does not reliably support a 6G (6Gb/s) Solid State Drive or Hard Disk Drive in the optical bay of 2011 MacBook Pros (ModeI ID8,1; 8,2; 8,3). If your OWC Data Doubler bundle comes with a 6G drive, you should ONLY install that drive in the main drive bay and utilize the Data Doubler to re-task your existing drive or install a new 3G SSD or HDD in the optical bay. PRE-2011 models can utilize a 6G drive in the optical bay, but will do so at a reduced 3G (3Gb/s) speed.
 
steve1960 said:
This is what OWC quote on their web site and says its based on testing:

Testing has demonstrated that Apple factory hardware does not reliably support a 6G (6Gb/s) Solid State Drive or Hard Disk Drive in the optical bay of 2011 MacBook Pros (ModeI ID8,1; 8,2; 8,3). If your OWC Data Doubler bundle comes with a 6G drive, you should ONLY install that drive in the main drive bay and utilize the Data Doubler to re-task your existing drive or install a new 3G SSD or HDD in the optical bay. PRE-2011 models can utilize a 6G drive in the optical bay, but will do so at a reduced 3G (3Gb/s) speed.
Click to expand...

...and how many units do you think they tested? I'm just suggesting that the evidence I have is that the problem was not solid on the quoted range(s) of MBPs and I suspect was always more variable. Since no proper analysis was ever done we will never know what combination of 3rd party hardware, SSDs, doublers and MBP cables and chipsets caused, or did not have problems.

Mine is an Early-2011 model BTW so it wasn't even as if it was deliberately fixed later in 2011...
 
simonsi said:
Not necessary. My SSD is in the Optical running at 6G, the HDD is in the main bay running at 6G.
Click to expand...

- Right. Well yours is the 13", which is less prone to the discussed problem than the 15" and 17".

Like you said yourself, we don't know which combinations of hardware do and do not cause problems in the optical bay. What we do know is that an SSD in the main bay is guaranteed to work, hence why I recommended using that instead of the optical bay.
 
Samuelsan2001 said:
Try turning off time machine back ups and it should disappear.

Also download Omnidisk sweeper and look at all your stuff it'll give you a great insight into where all your space is going.

If you can do without the optical drive look into replacing it with an SSD for increased speed and storage. (there are many guides online)
Click to expand...

I ran Omnidisk Sweeper. It says that my HDD has only 620 gb of data on it.
Although under the Omnidisk "Drive List," it says the HDD has 671 gb, 25 gb free and a total of 697.

Is this not including the OS? According to my Mac, I've got about 740 gb of data.
If I turn off Time Machine, will I free up space on my HDD?
 
Hrothgar said:
If I turn off Time Machine, will I free up space on my HDD?
Click to expand...

- Possibly. Time Machine keeps a certain amount of local backups by default, which can be deleted by disabling Time Machine. It should be listed as "Backups" in "About This Mac".
 

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Thanks. It shows only 4. mb of backups.
But still 130 gb of "other". I'm guessing a lot of that is the OS?
 
Hrothgar said:
Thanks. It shows only 4. mb of backups.
But still 130 gb of "other". I'm guessing a lot of that is the OS?
Click to expand...

- Some, but not a lot. "Other" is everything that doesn't fit into any of the four other categories, which could be anything really.

I like to use DaisyDisk when I feel the need to sort through my storage. It lays your hard drive out graphically and sorts files and folders by size, allowing you to identify what's taking up your space.
Note that you don't actually need to purchase it. The free version works just fine, but it doesn't allow you to delete stuff (instead you can just right click and choose "Show in Finder" and delete it from there).
 
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