How are you handling smallish SSD with largish media library?

[pinkoos]

I'm trying to figure out if there is an optimum setup for, say, an Air or retina Macbook Pro with a smallish size SSD (128GB for example) when one has a considerably larger media library filled with 100s of GB of music, photos, videos and iOS apps.

The no-brainer option is to just use an external hard drive for the media library, but then one is tethered to said hard drive in order to access the media (kinda defeats the purpose of a laptop). Other options I've seen mentioned before include SD cards, USB flash drives, cloud storage ala iTunes Match (obviously just for music), etc.

Let's say, for example, that one uses a large capacity external USB drive (750GB to 1TB). With your laptop on the desk and the USB drive connected, this is not a problem. However, when using the laptop around or away from the house and either trying to access content or load new content, how would one handle this situation?

What if I load some new apps from the iOS App Store when I'm disconnected? I know they will just get stored in the local iTunes library on the laptop. But, is there a way to automate transfer from the laptop's SSD to the external hard drive when that drive is reconnected?

In other words, is there a way to do this without too much thinking involved? Without having to remember to transfer this or that once the laptop is back on the desk and the external hard drive is reconnected?

Thanks.

 

[ethereal45]

Spotify for music and a wireless hard drive + Apple TV for all content.

 

[pinkoos]

Spotify for music and a wireless hard drive + Apple TV for all content.

Could you elaborate a bit? Wireless hard drive?

 

[RedRallyeZ]

I recently bought a Mac mini to handle media storage, but prior to that I just used a USB 3.0 drive for my 700GB of movies. I did not find it to be very obnoxious at all.

 

[Orlandoech]

External and airport

 

[ajanini]

I'm using a WD USB 3.0 1.5 TB External HD. This setup is perfect for me.
The size of the external HD is minimal. It's not a hassle at all IMO.

 

[Freyqq]

external hard drive

 

[mslide]

iTunes match + external drive

 

[jbsmithmac]

if you want access to your itunes music library while on the go, there are options for network attached hard drives that will allow you to connect to them anywhere you have an internet connection.

Basically the hard drive has a small server within it, and assuming your ISP allows it you can configure your mac to connect to this "cloud" storage securely and access your library.

Of course if you have another machine at home you could turn that into a mini server and do the same.

 

[efirmage]

You could get this:

http://theniftyminidrive.com/

along with a 65 gb micro SD.

Not the MOST cost effective, but it's a pretty streamlined solution. That + an external HD for the really big files you don't need all the time should do the trick.

 

[hawon]

You could get this:

http://theniftyminidrive.com/

along with a 65 gb micro SD.

Not the MOST cost effective, but it's a pretty streamlined solution. That + an external HD for the really big files you don't need all the time should do the trick.

+1. I have all my music (55gb) in SD card all the time and all my movies in external drive. I copy it to my rMBP whenever I need it.

 

[blueroom]

A Synology NAS holds my media & backups.

 

[wonderspark]

WD 2TB My Passport USB 3.0 external. So small and convenient! Inside, I just have a 256GB Crucial M4.

 

[Justinhub2003]

When i first switched to a 256GB SSD I found it a bit of an adjustment.

I wanted local storage but realized I couldn't keep it all. I copied my entire itunes library to a Western Digital MyBook Live and kept a streamlined itunes library on my Macbook Pro.

I then started using spotify for the majority of my music (which helped with local storage on my phone too) and typically only kept artists that werent online on MBP SSD.

For Pictures, I consolidated down to just my best albums and moved the rest to the WD Mybook live.

Through just changing a few habits, like adding every single photo from my camera to my Mac even if it was junk and learned to use online storage and media, I was able to maintain about 50GB free on my 256GB SSD.


That said, I wanted to run a bootcamp partition to just mess around with Windows 7, so I just recently bought a Samsung 840 500GB SSD, which lets me live the best of both worlds. Tons of files on my local machine and really fast performance.