Hard drive almost full. Upgrade or external?

[jbachandouris]

My mid 2010 has 56GB left from 250GB. Too many movies/Doctor Who episodes in HD. I found an eBay seller listing refurbished Apple 500GB 7200RPM drives for $75. The listing claims a 5 year warranty.

So, upgrade internal or buy and external and use streaming when I need a movie (WD my book or Time Capsule). SSD's are great, but the capacity I'd need is too expensive.

I don't have the money to upgrade to a newer Mac and this one works fine.

 

[heisenberg123]

My mid 2010 has 56GB left from 250GB. Too many movies/Doctor Who episodes in HD. I found an eBay seller listing refurbished Apple 500GB 7200RPM drives for $75. The listing claims a 5 year warranty.

So, upgrade internal or buy and external and use streaming when I need a movie (WD my book or Time Capsule). SSD's are great, but the capacity I'd need is too expensive.

I don't have the money to upgrade to a newer Mac and this one works fine.

im always a bigger fan of upgrading internal I like to always have my movies and music with me

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152291

this is what i currently have in my MBP works great

 

[T5BRICK]

My mid 2010 has 56GB left from 250GB. Too many movies/Doctor Who episodes in HD. I found an eBay seller listing refurbished Apple 500GB 7200RPM drives for $75. The listing claims a 5 year warranty.

So, upgrade internal or buy and external and use streaming when I need a movie (WD my book or Time Capsule). SSD's are great, but the capacity I'd need is too expensive.

I don't have the money to upgrade to a newer Mac and this one works fine.

Buy a new drive from Newegg. You can get a brand new 2.5" 750GB 7200RPM drive for $100. They'll work great in your MBP.

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im always a bigger fan of upgrading internal I like to always have my movies and music with me

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152291

this is what i currently have in my MBP works great

This Samsung drive is also a great choice.

 

[Dark Void]

You don't need an "Apple" drive, just get a new one from Amazon, Newegg, or a retail store. Some reputable brands are Samsung, Seagate, Toshiba, Western Digital, etc.

 

[Bilalo]

My mid 2010 has 56GB left from 250GB. Too many movies/Doctor Who episodes in HD. I found an eBay seller listing refurbished Apple 500GB 7200RPM drives for $75. The listing claims a 5 year warranty.

So, upgrade internal or buy and external and use streaming when I need a movie (WD my book or Time Capsule). SSD's are great, but the capacity I'd need is too expensive.

I don't have the money to upgrade to a newer Mac and this one works fine.

Movies and series i say external as internal drives get screwed more often than external, and this way you have mobility of videos as well as a better chance of not dropping water on an external but a higher on dropping fpon ur lappy and and external <3

 

[T5BRICK]

Movies and series i say external as internal drives get screwed more often than external, and this way you have mobility of videos as well as a better chance of not dropping water on an external but a higher on dropping fpon ur lappy and and external <3

Accidents are one of the reasons you should be backing up your internal drive.

 

[mykelala01]

Buy a bigger drive from Amazon, Newegg etc. Install a 2nd drive like, optibay or Data doubler. Buy external Drive for movies you want to archives that you know you are not gonna watch real soon. Buy a external drive case for your 250 GB drive. So you have a backup of your OS.

 

[BigMoo]

It really comes down to are you going to want to carry around an external hard drive if you don't have to? I put my original HDD into an external enclosure and it works fine for me for music and videos. Then again, other people seem to have a problem with having to lug around the external drive. Either way you go, you can't choose wrong.

 

[Ledgem]

My mid 2010 has 56GB left from 250GB. Too many movies/Doctor Who episodes in HD. I found an eBay seller listing refurbished Apple 500GB 7200RPM drives for $75. The listing claims a 5 year warranty.

Don't buy hard drives from eBay. As long as your drive is a 2.5" SATA drive, it will work in your computer regardless of who makes it.

So, upgrade internal or buy and external and use streaming when I need a movie (WD my book or Time Capsule). SSD's are great, but the capacity I'd need is too expensive.
This partly depends on your usage style. Are you frequently on the road, or is your living arrangement not amenable to having an external drive(s) sitting around? If so, upgrading the internal drive may be worthwhile. Otherwise, 3.5" ("desktop") hard drives are cheaper than 2.5" ("laptop") hard drives for the same storage capacity.

If I'm going to travel somewhere I may load up on a few more videos, but my internal hard drive is basically dedicated to work-related things. My photos, the majority of my music library, videos, and the rest of my "digital life" is stored on external hard drives.

 

[tcphoto]

You have no backup system in place? I'd upgrade the internal to an SSD and buy an enclosure and convert you current drive to an external. If your budget allows, I would buy another external to use with Time Machine. Better safe than sorry, hard drives fail at the worst possible time.

 

[Benbikeman]

See my sig for my answer.

I love having all my music and movies with me when I travel, plus as a temporary measure while away you can backup working documents from one internal drive to the other.

 

[heisenberg123]

See my sig for my answer.

I love having all my music and movies with me when I travel, plus as a temporary measure while away you can backup working documents from one internal drive to the other.

nice 2TB inside, I don't have the big of a library

To me its silly to have to always think ahead to what movies or music i might want

sure I only need 1 movie at a time but I also would not gain anything by having a smaller hard drive either

I have absolutely no issues with the 30-40 seconds boot time of a normal hdd , music and movie files open instantly so where would a person like me even benefit from a SSD? the 12 seconds you sometimes have to wait for a program to open?

 

[thatoneguy82]

Oh man 250GB?! I just upgraded my 500gb internal storage drive to 1TB on my MBP (2010 model) since my main drive is only a 256GB SSD. Anyway, the upgrade was worth it and it was cheaper than I thought. I had a 1TB passport drive that was more expensive and was hardly used. But this upgrade is much more convenient and efficient.

 

[MaxPower72]

buy a new drive, a refurbished one isn't worth, today's prices are so low that $100 can get you a very good deal and you don't have to worry about the life span of the drive

 

[heresjohnny]

Upgrade the internal drive.

1) Your 250GB drive is certainly very slow compared to a recent 7200RPM 750GB drive. You'll see a noticeable improvement in day to day behaviour with a fast modern drive.

2) Unless your computer is stationary, external drives are inconvenient. Even small ones. Internal is way more convenient.

3) Your 250GB drive is probably 2.5 years old now. That is approaching mid life.


NOTE: New drives can and do fail. Always make sure you have adequate backups.

 

[yusukeaoki]

I personally love optibay.
Main bay makes is faster to boot and optibay with 1TB storage.

I also use 3 external drives in RAID.
2TB+2TB+3TB totaling at 7TB.