Full Hard drive Solution?

[Hrothgar]

I've got a 4 year old (I think) 17" macbook pro. The 80gb drive is almost full. I ran a disc utility and it said that the file count was off (by a small number, I think 5). I have noticed some performance problems, but nothing major.

I have a 500gb WD back up drive that I'm using with Time Machine. I was just told that once TM uses this drive, I can't use it for anything else. That is, I was hoping to partition the external in some way and shifting my iTunes library to it to free up space on the internal. Is this not possible?

Also, I understand that if I do move my iTunes library to an external, and try to go wireless from the external, to the mac, to airport express, I will notice a downgrade in both speed and quality. Is that true?

Is my best solution to just put a new, larger drive in the laptop?

I really only use the computer for the Internet, word processing and iTunes, so I don't think I need a new one.

Thanks.

 

[Hellhammer]

HDs are cheap, just get a new HD and be done with it. It will be much easier solution than an external HD.

 

[idea_hamster]

A 250 GB 7200RPM drive is as little as $40 at newegg -- your life will be vastly improved.

Remember that having free drive space is important to OSX's performance since it pages data out of RAM to the disk. If your disk is too full, it will start to affect system performance as well.

I suspect your drive is 5400RPM, and since it's a 17" you don't use it on battery power all that often. If true, you would really benefit from the bump to a 7200RPM disk with little down-side.

And you can use your external time machine disk for other things -- it should show up just like any other network disk in Finder. Just drag some stuff to it and you'll see that you can use that storage space, although it's not always as responsive as the local drive.

 

[Hrothgar]

Thanks. Now for the hard part -- I think I'm capable of replacing the hard drive. If I do, do I just run back-up/restore from time machine to get all my stuff back?

Does it matter what brand of drive I get?

 

[alust2013]

Thanks. Now for the hard part -- I think I'm capable of replacing the hard drive. If I do, do I just run back-up/restore from time machine to get all my stuff back?

Does it matter what brand of drive I get?

Yep, just back up right before you replace it, then boot from your OS X install cd (whichever version you have), format the drive, and restore from your backup.

Doesn't matter too much which brand, although personally, I'm a WD guy. I have a 320GB Scorpio black that is working great for me. Just make sure it's a 2.5" drive that uses SATA and is 9.5mm in height.

 

[Hellhammer]

Thanks. Now for the hard part -- I think I'm capable of replacing the hard drive. If I do, do I just run back-up/restore from time machine to get all my stuff back?

Just reinstall OS X and restore from a Time Machine backup. Another option is to get a 2.5" enclosure and put the new drive in it and clone the old HD to the new one and then do the drive swap.

Does it matter what brand of drive I get?

Not really. All big brands are decent. Just make sure you get good warranty.

 

[Hrothgar]

Thanks again. Another question -- when you all say to boot from the OS X install CD, is that a disc that came with the computer (which in all likelihood, I wont be able to find)?

 

[Hellhammer]

Thanks again. Another question -- when you all say to boot from the OS X install CD, is that a disc that came with the computer (which in all likelihood, I wont be able to find)?

Yes. Your Mac came with two grey install discs, you will need them. If you can't find them, I suggest you get an enclosure for the HD as then you can clone the HD, meaning that you won't need those discs.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Thanks. Now for the hard part -- I think I'm capable of replacing the hard drive. If I do, do I just run back-up/restore from time machine to get all my stuff back?

Does it matter what brand of drive I get?

It does matter, you'll want to ensure the fit is ok. Speed is also important, you may want to deal with slight vibration and get a 7200 RPM drive. Western Digital is one of my favorites. YMMV

 

[mstrze]

May I add?

Do NOT move your iTunes library to a partition on your TM disc. What happens should that disc fail? You lose your backups...no biggie, since you still have your data on the computer, BUT you lose all of your songs, movies and such because this data was not backed up on another drive.

I highly recommend storing your library on an external though. I have had no issues doing it this way for the past two years. Just makes sure you allow iTunes to do the copying for you and not just pull the files over yourself.

I agree with adding a new external. Shouldn't be tough nor expensive.

BTW: www.buy.com was selling 2TB externals within the last two days for around $90 with free shipping.

 

[Hrothgar]

Sorry again -- I searched Newegg, and the only 2.5", 3.0gb internal drives were about $250. Should I be able to find one cheaper? Of course, New Egg doesn't seem to have a customer service number for sales, and Apple wont talk to me because I'm out of warranty.

Are these the enclosures you all are talking about?

 

[Hellhammer]

Sorry again -- I searched Newegg, and the only 2.5", 3.0gb internal drives were about $250. Should I be able to find one cheaper? Of course, New Egg doesn't seem to have a customer service number for sales, and Apple wont talk to me because I'm out of warranty.

What capacity are you looking for? The biggest you can get is 1TB and that should cost around 100$. 500GB and smaller drives can be had for less than 50 bucks.

Are these the enclosures you all are talking about?

That will work, just like this for example.

 

[Hrothgar]

Thanks. I was searching in the wrong place.

 

[Hrothgar]

Well, I got my new hard drive, but now I can't get all the screws out to open up the computer.
Damn Steve Jobs and damn his mock turtleneck.

I'm guessing the Apple care folks at the Apple store wont help me. Do I just take it to the Teck store and pay $300?