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How do I break my hard drive addiction so I can switch to an Air?

lightmyway

lightmyway

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 11, 2007
96
165
I use a 250GB Macbook, and it's hard drive is full. I'd love to switch to the 11-inch, 128GB Air but it seems like I can't give up the storage space (and I don't want to pay the extra $300 for for the 256GB option).

iTunes takes up the majority of my hard drive, chock full of music and iOS apps. Will iCloud help my problem? Will the "cut the cord" iOS5 features help? Any other solutions that would allow me to live comfortably with even a sub-100GB hard drive so I can switch without stress?
 
The simple way is to store your iTunes library on an external HDD.

I keep a tiny iTunes library on the Air and leave the rest on my Mac Pro.
 
Are you sure it's mostly music? I've found that many people keep tons of installation files and other junk on their computers and run out of space fairly quickly. Clean up your downloads folder if you haven't. That's usually where this stuff is kept.
 
Download Daisy Disk if you aren't sure where the memory is going. Two big options are to keep music library on external disk or to use icloud. However, iCloud will still keep a local copy of your files. You can get a 1TB internal hard drive that will fit an MBA however, so that should be fine for you unless you NEED SSD.
 
jbg232 said:
Download Daisy Disk if you aren't sure where the memory is going. Two big options are to keep music library on external disk or to use icloud. However, iCloud will still keep a local copy of your files. You can get a 1TB internal hard drive that will fit an MBA however, so that should be fine for you unless you NEED SSD.
Click to expand...

No you can't. The MBA uses Blade SSDs only.
 
dubAdub said:
Don't do it. You'll end up cursing the machine if it's only got half the storage you're currently using, iCloud or not.
Click to expand...

Does iCloud support streaming? I thought it's mostly a recovery method.

Anyway, I agree with your advice because a lot of people try to convince themselves that SSD speed is more important than immediate availability of files when/where you need it. But this idea that we should lug around DVD drives, external HDDs or dongles defeats the purpose of buying an ultra portable machine. Compromises are expected for a tablet but making compromises for a full powered (and full priced) computer is backwards.

I'm loving my 11" Air but after coming from a 500GB 7200rpm MacBook Pro then I definitly feel limited by not having all my files on hand (no more VM, no BootCamp, no games and my iTunes library and Aperture referenced files are all on an external drive) so now I'm viewing this setup as a temporary until SSD prices drop because I feel I really need 320GB minimum.
 
don't pay for an outside cloud service. Just make your home, connect a couple hard drives to your router, and you don't have to worry about not having access to it.
 
a $90 1TB portable HDD is ur savior.
only carry necessary files with the Air, leave other stuff on the external disk.

i used a 80g intel ssd b4 this air. 128g seems too big to me:)
 
So much old school thinking in this thread. I suppose you'll get with the times eventually, you old geezers... :)

If all that space really is music:

Use Spotify for your music needs. If Spotify doesn't have your music, use Amazon or Google's respective cloud music solutions.

Easy.
 
Esquire1 said:
So much old school thinking in this thread. I suppose you'll get with the times eventually, you old geezers... :)

If all that space really is music:

Use Spotify for your music needs. If Spotify doesn't have your music, use Amazon or Google's respective cloud music solutions.

Easy.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately high speed Internet access is not as ubiquitous as some would have you think. With data caps and spotty 4G service, I want my stuff with me. I can't rely on being somewhere with wifi all the time.
 
Seagate goflex drives (among others) are USB/fw bus powered external drives that can fit in a jeans pocket. USB is available now and TB to FW800 adapters are reportedly coming soon from Sonnet technologies. Keep it in your laptop bag and you'll always have up to 2 Tb at your disposal.
 
What about a Time Capsule and a Macbook Air 128GB? You could keep only rated songs or favorites on the SSD and the rest would be server accessible over wireless.
 
find a nice rugged external usb hd, duct tape it to the bottom of the macbook air, problem solved
 
sugarsync allows you to upload your music and stream it. it is also, of course, a great backup service.

why do you need your music on your device 24/7? don't you have an ipod? you'll want to get one, because it will help conserve your battery and enable you to make the transfer easily.

external hdd are teeny now. i have an mbp, but it is pretty much empty. i think i am using about half of the hdd at this point. i could go less.
 
res1233 said:
Are you sure it's mostly music? I've found that many people keep tons of installation files and other junk on their computers and run out of space fairly quickly. Clean up your downloads folder if you haven't. That's usually where this stuff is kept.
Click to expand...

Get daisy disk and see where that stuff is coming from
 
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