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If I record the screen could I make it

C

cleanair

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 13, 2015
165
0
I have too little space left on my MacBook Pro. When I do a screen recording it stops midway saying that there isn't enough space to record.

If I buy one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Micr...914&sr=8-1&keywords=256+gb+micro+sd+card&th=1

Could the recording be done to the card instead of the internal SSD? Or would I have to move stuff from the SSD to the card to make space for the recording? In other words, is it only possible to record to the internal SSD first and then move to external card or drive, as opposed to recording directly to the card first?

I'm kind of regretting getting the lower GB of SSD when I bought this mid 2014 MBP. What was the price difference?
 
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Could somebody answer this question:

Could the recording be done to the card instead of the internal SSD? Or would I have to move stuff from the SSD to the card to make space for the recording? In other words, is it only possible to record to the internal SSD first and then move to external card or drive, as opposed to recording directly to the card first?
 
Screen recording can be done to whatever you want, even to a remote location over the network. I don’t really understand the question...
 
OP:

If you're "that low" on drive space already, it's time to think seriously of what should stay on the drive, and what should be removed. You should keep about 10-15gb of space "free" at all times, so that the OS "has room to breathe" (i.e., write swap files, temp files, etc.).

Time for an external drive for "extra storage space"...
 
Offload some of the files to iCloud Drive, it's integration with macOS keeps your storage optimised quite well and with a solid internet connection you won't even notice.
 
BrianBaughn said:
What is the size of your hard drive, how much free space is there, and what method are you using to record the screen?
Click to expand...
256 GB of SSD . I's showing 6GB now, but that might be because I have a lot of apps open. It showed 10GB a few days ago and I didn't download any heavy files However it often happens that my capture file is bigger than 10GB so that the recording stops midway. I'm using Screenflow.
[doublepost=1508083350][/doublepost]
SB-MBP said:
Offload some of the files to iCloud Drive, it's integration with macOS keeps your storage optimised quite well and with a solid internet connection you won't even notice.
Click to expand...

I am wary about paying for storage. I thought they only provide 5 gb of free storage which is like nothing.
[doublepost=1508083526][/doublepost]
Fishrrman said:
OP:

If you're "that low" on drive space already, it's time to think seriously of what should stay on the drive, and what should be removed. You should keep about 10-15gb of space "free" at all times, so that the OS "has room to breathe" (i.e., write swap files, temp files, etc.).

Time for an external drive for "extra storage space"...
Click to expand...

At one time when I cleaned everything, I got 20+ GB of leftover space which was plenty for my purposes. But before I know it I'm down to 5GB and I have to clean again, which I am tired of doing and wished that I got the 502GB SSD instead right from the start.
 
cleanair said:
256 GB of SSD . I's showing 6GB now, but that might be because I have a lot of apps open. It showed 10GB a few days ago and I didn't download any heavy files However it often happens that my capture file is bigger than 10GB so that the recording stops midway. I'm using Screenflow.
[doublepost=1508083350][/doublepost]

I am wary about paying for storage. I thought they only provide 5 gb of free storage which is like nothing.
[doublepost=1508083526][/doublepost]

At one time when I cleaned everything, I got 20+ GB of leftover space which was plenty for my purposes. But before I know it I'm down to 5GB and I have to clean again, which I am tired of doing and wished that I got the 502GB SSD instead right from the start.
Click to expand...

Well, naturally enough if you want them to provide you with a service you have to pay them for it. 200GB is £2.49 per month... and it won't be prone to failing like a mechanical hard drive.
 
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cleanair said:
That sounds like an idea.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XWZBM4..._r=5df9ae1a-b219-11e7-99d0-13ffc7607ab1&psc=1

About 50 something dollars for 64GB of additional storage.
Click to expand...

Samsung also makes a 128 GB PRO mSD, if you need more capacity. Both SanDisk and Samsung have 256 GB varieties, but these are TLC-based cards with what I consider to be irritatingly slow write speeds that are even worse in real-world usage than benchmarks suggest. Transcend also makes a MLC-based microSD card with similar write speeds to the Samsung in their Ultimate line.

Alternatively, the Transcend 820 presents an internal SSD upgrade for your MBP (and one without the need for any modifications), although it would obviously be a pricier route. With the 2014 MBPs, IIRC you would get transfer speeds roughly equal to the OEM SSD.
 
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Back to your original question...I'm not sure if directing Screenflow to an external drive solves your problem or not. If the app uses the system drive as a "scratch" disk you may have the same issue.

10GB to 15GB of free space was mentioned but I'd say you need over 25GB free to keep the OS from slowing down.
 
As a rule of thumb you should have roughly 10% of free space on an HD for breathing room (as others have mentioned an HD is not just for file storage, it's also for updates, cached files etc.) There are apps you can install to check what is eating up all your space, it could be old backups or your old iPhoto library (which has since been replaced with Photos) etc.

To answer your question yes in most recording software you can set the 'scratch disk' to anywhere you like, however I think you know the real solution here is free up space or get a bigger HD.
 
rboyd5589 said:
If you gotta ask....you can't afford it.
Click to expand...

That's not entirely true. Just because someone asks the price of something doesn't mean they can't afford it. Some people are just smart with their money and buy what they need rather than buying the higher model just for the sake of having it.
 
ZapNZs said:
Alternatively, the Transcend 820 presents an internal SSD upgrade for your MBP (and one without the need for any modifications), although it would obviously be a pricier route. With the 2014 MBPs, IIRC you would get transfer speeds roughly equal to the OEM SSD.
Click to expand...
Would that be more expensive than if I bought the larger SSD version from the start?
 
cleanair said:
Would that be more expensive than if I bought the larger SSD version from the start?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure as I forget what my 512 OEM costed me over the base 256 in 2014 with my 15. It's not going to be super cheap, but it's still only several hundred dollars and now we finally have another option for this that is designed to work without requiring modification or resulting in system changes.

If deleting some of the files currently on your system's current internal SSD isn't a practical option for you, and relocating some of them to an external or remote cloud storage still is not practical for your needs, an internal SSD upgrade is really going to be the treatment that fixes the root cause, rather than treating the symptom IMO. If it boosts your productivity, it might be worth the cost?
 
They are reasonably good budget drives IMO.

If you want to use it for Mac and PC without 3rd party software, you have FAT32 and ExFAT. Both are not very good, and on Macs ExFAT is extremely vulnerable to corruption caused by improper ejection/sudden power loss (where as FAT32 is still somewhat vulnerable, plus it is so old is has several major limitations.) Definitely keep an additional copy on a HFS or NTFS drive if the files are important!
 
Wow, if they are vulnerable to corruption I guess it would be best to just use the Mac only version?
Can Mac only format be used with Windows just for reading not write?
 
cleanair said:
Wow, if they are vulnerable to corruption I guess it would be best to just use the Mac only version?
Can Mac only format be used with Windows just for reading not write?
Click to expand...

No macs can read windows file format but not the other way round as far as I can tell. Have you got time machine turned on? making local backups to your SSD? this can take up a lot of space. Try turning time machine off and rebooting this may free up some space.

As for extra storage I like a simple usb stick from sandisk they can just stay in a port and barely stick out at all, they are also remarkably fast.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01BGTG2A0/ref=twister_B01K1ILU5O?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
 
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cleanair said:
Wow, if they are vulnerable to corruption I guess it would be best to just use the Mac only version?
Can Mac only format be used with Windows just for reading not write?
Click to expand...

You can read a Mac (HFS+) drive on a Windows machine with HFS Explorer, which is free. Alternatively, a Mac can read NTFS (but not write to it without enabling NTFS write support, which is an experimental and unreliable feature that is presumably disabled by default for this reason*.) (The lack of a cross-compatible journaled file system between Mac and Windows is one of the biggest weaknesses I consider both platforms to suffer from - and I think it is just plain sad that Microsoft and Apple still have not been able to reach some sort of agreement to allow each OS to read the other's native FS.)

Depending on whether you use Mac more or Windows more, you could use HFS+ and a Windows add-on to read or read/write to HFS+, or NTFS and a Mac add-on (like Paragon, Fusion, Tuxera) to add read/write ability to NTFS. Both HFS+ and NTFS are journaled file systems with proven records.

If you choose to use ExFAT, it is IMO worth keeping a clone of the ExFAT volume on either a NTFS or HFS+ volume.

(*NOTE - with High Sierra and APFS, I am unsure whether macOS still has the ability to read NTFS and/or still has the hidden experimental NTFS write support tucked away, or how well either feature works on any version of High Sierra.)
 
Ok I definitely do use Mac more because I only have a Macbook right now but was thinking of buying a 4k Windows laptop later on.

My WD Cloud just failed a couple weeks ago and I'm thinking of buying this... https://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canv...96528&sr=1-6&keywords=portable+hard+drive+2tb

I had the 4TB WD Cloud. It had the disadvantage of having to connect to it each time I restart the computer, but being able to watch movie lying down without any external having to connect to it was convenient. It also worked with both Windows and Mac just fine without any additional support needed...

Too bad I just had a bunch of things stored there without actually having opportunity to use it! What's the point of having external storage when they fail unexpectedly... Seems like a waste of money. Are there any external drives that don't fail? Maybe external SSD is the answer.

But a 2TB SSD is 800 dollars. 2 of them would be 1600 dollars. I guess it helps to be rich.
They say have a back up drive, but what if both of them goes out of order at once? You would need back up of that back up... and have 3 external HDD having the same content.
 
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cleanair said:
. Are there any external drives that don't fail?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, no - all HDDs and SSDs (and SD cards, flash drives) and all storage mediums will eventually fail. When they fail can vary quite a bit, and accurately predicting when they will fail is quite difficult.

Because of this, one should really have three or more versions of their important files, using two or more different backup methods, stored in two or more separate locations. If that sounds like a pain, it's because it is. Numerous Apps/Services can help automate the process to some extent.
 
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