Hard Drive and Storage Quandary

[GarrettB]

Lo Mac Folks,

I have a shiny new SR MacBook which I absolutely love and adore, and would not have purchased without the sagacious advice dripping from these forums.

That said, there is still an issue I do not entirely understand.

Ultimately, my MacBook will be my primary computer as I segue away from my desktop PC. The poor inundated Mac will have to hold lots of text, PDFs (not so bad), my music and my photo collections (bad). Since my MacBook was the base model I have only a measly 80GB at the moment, but I need everything and anything backed up on an easy to use system. Ideally, TimeMachine. Here are my resources:

I have a fairly old 180GB External Drive. It's so far been used as static storage but can cover my bases for Time Machine for the time being. If I choose to upgrade my MacBook, I'll probably make the plunge for a 200GB drive. Can I still use the smaller 180GB drive to cover the not necessarily full 200GB internal drive?

When I upgrade, what can I do with the base model 80GB laptop hard drive?

If, in the future, I buy a desktop Mac (assuming I never just went for a monitor, keyboard and mouse supplement on my MacBook) would I want to invest in a single large external drive for both computers, or two separate, smaller external drives for backups?

P.S. If I divide my internal hard drive for the purpose of Windows (VM, Bootcamp or Parallels) how does that fit into the whole scheme of things?

P.P.S. What kind of cable do I need to get my MacBook display on an external monitor? And what kind of jacks?

Thanks!

 

[EricNau]

I do not believe you should have any problems using a time machine drive smaller than your internal - just be aware that it may fill up quickly (depending on how full your internal drive is, of course).

You could place the old (80 GB) internal drive in an external enclosure, allowing it to function just as any external HD would (attaching it to your macbook via either USB or Firewire, depending on the enclosure).

If you use BootCamp, just make sure you allocate enough space for each OS (if you have a 200 GB drive, it shouldn't be hard).

As for your last question, that would depend on the monitor. Do you have a certain monitor in mind? In either case, you'll need to buy an adaptor: either a mini-DVI to VGA, or a mini-DVI to DVI.

 

[GarrettB]

Is it worth it to keep anything in static storage on an external hard drive? For example, instead of maintaining my photo collection on the internal drive, should I just set iPhoto/LightRoom to work off of an external to save space?