macbook pro 500gb upgrade into new mbpr 256gb

[joker07x]

Advice needed:

I currently own a mid 2012 macbook pro non retina with 4gb ram and 500gb harddrive with about 50gb of free space remaining

I want to purchase the early 2015 macbook pro retina with 8gb ram and 256gb flash harddrive.

I own a 1tb external harddrive that i use to backup my macbook . can i freely migrate that backup into my new macbook despite the fact that i only have 256 gb

what would be the best option? im not sure if i have to opt for the 512 gb or if theres an alternative....

thank u

 

[PieTunes]

Is it a Time Machine backup?
[doublepost=1462753066][/doublepost]Also is the size of the backup you'd be restoring equal to or smaller than the 256gb capacity of the new MacBook?

 

[brewmonkey]

Advice needed:

I currently own a mid 2012 macbook pro non retina with 4gb ram and 500gb harddrive with about 50gb of free space remaining

I want to purchase the early 2015 macbook pro retina with 8gb ram and 256gb flash harddrive.

I own a 1tb external harddrive that i use to backup my macbook . can i freely migrate that backup into my new macbook despite the fact that i only have 256 gb

what would be the best option? im not sure if i have to opt for the 512 gb or if theres an alternative....

thank u

If you're using Time Machine to back up your MBP to an external drive, then you can use Migration Assistant on the new rMBP to use that Time Machine backup as a source to restore data to the new one. However, if your Time Machine backup is really ~450GB, the new rMBP's 256GB drive will not be big enough to accommodate that.

 

[joker07x]

i gotta take a look at the backup to see exactly how much the file is but is there a way to see which exact folders contain the audio/ movies because most of my music is in itunes and according to them i have less than whats being reported on this screenshot
[doublepost=1462754618][/doublepost]also have no clue what "other" is anyone know how i can find that out?

 

[brewmonkey]

i gotta take a look at the backup to see exactly how much the file is but is there a way to see which exact folders contain the audio/ movies because most of my music is in itunes and according to them i have less than whats being reported on this screenshot
[doublepost=1462754618][/doublepost]also have no clue what "other" is anyone know how i can find that out?

The user folder should contain Music and Movies folders where that stuff is stored by Apple programs.

As for the 'Other' category:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202867

Do you have a collection of MKV/FLAC video/audio files (or other file types the Mac doesn't know about)?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

i gotta take a look at the backup to see exactly how much the file is but is there a way to see which exact folders contain the audio/ movies because most of my music is in itunes and according to them i have less than whats being reported on this screenshot
[doublepost=1462754618][/doublepost]also have no clue what "other" is anyone know how i can find that out?

Space is space, you can't fit 450gb in 256gb that simple, you can store things you don't need on the computer on externals to keep from filling up your SSD but you need to keep about 10% of that free for optimum performance.

 

[jashic01]

When you use migration assistant to restore from backup, you can choose to ignore certain files to reduce space. Once you restore, you can then restore the remaining files onto a backup drive such as a USB drive. Just make sure you're on the same Mac OS X version on both computers when you do this.

 

[iShater]

IIRC, upgrading the hard drive is a pain in those systems. I am in a similar boat with my current system that is a 256GB. I reorganized and moved photo libraries and stuff to external (and backup) since I don't use them as often. That gave me breathing room. But having to worry about space is honestly a drag. Go for a 500GB, you should never "downgrade" the space you use.