Building A Storage Strategy

[tjdaugherty]

I am planning on buying a 13 MBA, i5/8/128 and was looking for tips maintaining a manicured HD. I have cloud storage at home, use iTunes Match, but am interested in other ideas on keeping things stored on my HD to a manageable size.

Thanks

 

[GGJstudios]

This may help: Freeing up drive space in Mac OS X

As far as music is concerned, one method is to have one iTunes library, with your favorite music stored on your internal drive, so it's available when you're mobile, with the remainder stored on an external drive.

How to split a single iTunes library over two or more media locations​

 

[jmoore5196]

I've been wrestling with the same challenge - my iTunes Library is about 260GB - since I bought my 2012 11" MBA.

I've decided to handle it via brute force ... when I upgrade to the new MBA, I'll buy a 512GB model.

I've discovered that I really hated traveling with the most portable laptop on the planet and a USB 3 drive to hold my media. Even a very thin USB drive (I have a G-Drive Slim) is just something else to carry.

There's a good deal of wisdom in moving your iTunes Library to another drive if you don't want to splash for a larger SSD. Having done just that and tried to live with it for a year, I'm going for the long-term solution.

Admittedly, this is a first-world problem.

 

[PDFierro]

I think you need 256GB if you want to do this, but that's just me. With 128GB, you'd be storing the absolute minimum. At least with 256, you can get a little comfortable.

 

[palpatine]

I've been wrestling with the same challenge - my iTunes Library is about 260GB - since I bought my 2012 11" MBA.

I've decided to handle it via brute force ... when I upgrade to the new MBA, I'll buy a 512GB model.

I've discovered that I really hated traveling with the most portable laptop on the planet and a USB 3 drive to hold my media. Even a very thin USB drive (I have a G-Drive Slim) is just something else to carry.

There's a good deal of wisdom in moving your iTunes Library to another drive if you don't want to splash for a larger SSD. Having done just that and tried to live with it for a year, I'm going for the long-term solution.

Admittedly, this is a first-world problem.

Google Music, iTunes Match, and even Dropbox could hold your media. I try and stay as far away from that storage hog as possible. iTunes goes on my external drive, and if I need something while I am away from home, I download it. I don't think it is necessary to lug around a drive all the time.

It sounds like you have traded money for convenience. That isn't a first-world problem, or an uncommon solution. I prefer to spend my money elsewhere, because I don't see it as especially inconvenient.

@ OP
I've got 54.31 GB free on a 128 GB drive. It's no big deal if you are tidy with your data. I have several terabytes of data in my external drives, so it isn't as if I could put everything on a local drive anyhow. You'll manage if you want to.

 

[jmoore5196]

Google Music, iTunes Match, and even Dropbox could hold your media.

I haven't traded money for convenience quite yet! I'm about three weeks away from ordering my 2013 MBA.

I look back now and cannot imagine how I survived without Dropbox ... I now have challenges managing the 100GB I rent from them each month! That's all business-related files; I would not think of paying to store media. I even cringe at the $25 annual fee for iTunes Match.

I've been quite happy with the USB 3 drive, but it's another thing to remember and take along. The real story, for me at least, is how well my 11" MBA is serving as a desktop machine. Coupled to my 27" TBD, it chews through CS6 projects without a hiccup. And that's the 2012 version! I imagine the 2013 model will be even smoother.

 

[TheRealDamager]

I've been wrestling with the same challenge - my iTunes Library is about 260GB - since I bought my 2012 11" MBA.

I've decided to handle it via brute force ... when I upgrade to the new MBA, I'll buy a 512GB model.

I've discovered that I really hated traveling with the most portable laptop on the planet and a USB 3 drive to hold my media. Even a very thin USB drive (I have a G-Drive Slim) is just something else to carry.

There's a good deal of wisdom in moving your iTunes Library to another drive if you don't want to splash for a larger SSD. Having done just that and tried to live with it for a year, I'm going for the long-term solution.

Admittedly, this is a first-world problem.

Why do you need 260GB of music with you at all times?

 

[palpatine]

I haven't traded money for convenience quite yet! I'm about three weeks away from ordering my 2013 MBA.

I look back now and cannot imagine how I survived without Dropbox ... I now have challenges managing the 100GB I rent from them each month! That's all business-related files; I would not think of paying to store media. I even cringe at the $25 annual fee for iTunes Match.

I've been quite happy with the USB 3 drive, but it's another thing to remember and take along. The real story, for me at least, is how well my 11" MBA is serving as a desktop machine. Coupled to my 27" TBD, it chews through CS6 projects without a hiccup. And that's the 2012 version! I imagine the 2013 model will be even smoother.

Hahaha. How committed are you to paying all that money to carry your music and media with you 24/7? You don't pay Google to store your media you know. It is free, streamable, easy to use, and convenient.

I agree that the 2012 MBA is nice. I've got a 2013 MBA and I am seeing slightly LESS speed. I am not pleased about this and I am contemplating returning it. However, the battery life is fabulous, as advertised.

 

[jmoore5196]

Last time I checked, Google Cloud Storage was not free above 15GB. If you have new information, please enlighten me!

I'm not carrying around 260GB of music ... I think I have 6GB, actually. The other 250-odd gigs are movies, television programs, etc.

I work hard when I'm on the road, and I want what I want at hand when I want it. Time is money, guys ... assuming everyone has oceans of time in which to find and download files (even for leisure) is tantamount to many Windows users assuming that cost is the deciding factor in the computing experience.

 

[TheRealDamager]

Last time I checked, Google Cloud Storage was not free above 15GB. If you have new information, please enlighten me!

I'm not carrying around 260GB of music ... I think I have 6GB, actually. The other 250-odd gigs are movies, television programs, etc.

I work hard when I'm on the road, and I want what I want at hand when I want it. Time is money, guys ... assuming everyone has oceans of time in which to find and download files (even for leisure) is tantamount to many Windows users assuming that cost is the deciding factor in the computing experience.

If you insist on having a crazy amount of music and movies with you at all times, then this storage situation likely wont work for you. I think a more reasonable position would be to put, I don't know, 75GB of stuff on your machine that you might actually listen to or watch.

 

[jmoore5196]

If you insist on having a crazy amount of music and movies with you at all times, then this storage situation likely wont work for you. I think a more reasonable position would be to put, I don't know, 75GB of stuff on your machine that you might actually listen to or watch.

Reasonable indeed, were not my MBA already within 70GB of capacity with work-related apps and files. When I'm on the road, I run three companies off my MBA. I guess I could jettison CS6 for movies, but that's not a tradeoff I'm willing to make.

I'm not sure how you define "crazy amount" but when last I checked, a 100GB HDD was the same physical size and weight as a 500GB HDD. The amount really isn't the question ... lack of space is.

I did try putting 50GB of movies on my MBA, but always found something I wanted or needed missing at inopportune times.

 

[TheRealDamager]

Reasonable indeed, were not my MBA already within 70GB of capacity with work-related apps and files. When I'm on the road, I run three companies off my MBA. I guess I could jettison CS6 for movies, but that's not a tradeoff I'm willing to make.

I'm not sure how you define "crazy amount" but when last I checked, a 100GB HDD was the same physical size and weight as a 500GB HDD. The amount really isn't the question ... lack of space is.

I did try putting 50GB of movies on my MBA, but always found something I wanted or needed missing at inopportune times.

I say "crazy amount" because, say, 25GB of music is a LOT of music. Way more than most people would listen to in a month or two. And then just put the rest of your music in MusicMatch and you can download new stuff as you need it.