Nifty MiniDrive to expand drive space

[MarkCollette]

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Nifty-MiniDrive/345487028804355

What do you guys think of using SD cards in general to expand the MacBook Air's drive space, and specifically this Nifty MiniDrive, that uses a micro SD card, but makes it all flush with the side, instead of how a regular SD card sticks out quite a bit.

I find that with large media files, I'm not really writing to them or changing them much at all. I slowly add more music, movies and TV episodes, and once in a while move the videos off to an external 1 TB drive. So I'm not too worried about the SD card wearing out or anything. I think that once 128 GB cards come out, this might be really useful. Right now my 64 GB card barely holds my music collection, so I still have to plug in my external drive a lot. It's just kind of annoying how much the full sized SD card sticks out. It can get in the way of some USB keychains too.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Does the Facebook link only work for Facebook users? It wants me to register there to watch the content. ****** site.

Here is a site, where no one needs to register and probably learn the same: http://www.indiegogo.com/The-Nifty-MiniDrive-More-Space-Pretty-Package?c=home

 

[LukeSpringUK]

This looks great. I'll definitely be supporting it. I think they're putting it on KickStarter in July.

 

[sarah11918]

Does the Facebook link only work for Facebook users? It wants me to register there to watch the content. ****** site.

I had the same issue, and had to google to find the other link, too. Facebook links are not your friend!

It's too bad the 11" doen't have an SD slot, or I'd seriously consider this.

 

[MarkCollette]

I found them on indiegogo, but didn't use that link since it's moving from there to kickstarter. Here's there website, that only shows some images and links to their facebook and twitter pages.

http://www.niftydrives.com/

 

[LukeSpringUK]

I'm quite surprised this hasn't been created before, considering how long the Air's been out. It's a shame it's so far away from production. I'll keep an eye out for their KickStarter page. A 64GB storage expansion would be great.

 

[skuid87]

This is a fantastic idea! I want one!

What would be the performance on this kinda thing though? I wouldn't expect it to be anywhere near as fast as the MBA's internal SSD.

 

[deeddawg]

I'm quite surprised this hasn't been created before, considering how long the Air's been out.

It's been done, more as a "make your own": https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1206894/

Credit to LeakedDave:


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

[kristoffer4]

Seems like an interesting idea.

 

[oneMadRssn]

Someone who has actually done this should confirm/deny this:

I understood that an SD card in the SD slot (similar to a USB thumb drive) will draw power the entire time, unlike the internal SSD which sleeps when not in use. Therefore, having one in there constantly will measurably hurt battery life.

 

[falterego]

They posted this a couple months back. Link.

Someone else in that post I believe did the math on SD card power draw and pointed out that it was minimal. Link

 

[asattwanger]

Kinda cool. Will look it more in a bit