Running out of space on my hard drive...

[chioschick]

I have a 4 year old MBP 15', 250 GB - which I use primarily as storage and synch device for my iPhone, iPad and iPods. I like to have all my data in one place - but now I'm running out of space on my hard drive. I guess, I have several options:
- add an external drive
- buy a new Mac Book
- buy a Mac Mini
- ?

What would you do?

And - in case I'm going for the external drive - which kind of data is best stored there - iPhoto or iTunes media?

Looking forward to your advice!
Best, Christine

 

[simsaladimbamba]

To find out, where you hard drive capacity is being used, you can use the following free applications:

• DiskInventory X
• OmniDiskSweeper
• JDisk Report
• GrandPerspective

Maybe try a combination of several.

Anyway, you could replace the existing HDD with a bigger one and use the old for backups (which I hope you already do to some extent).
Or you go the Optibay route and add another HDD.

MacBook, MacBook Pro: Replacing the Hard Disk Drive, transferring data to the new HDD

the guide includes:

• 0. Identify your MacBook or MacBook Pro
• 1. Getting a new HDD
• 2. Guides to replace the internal HDD with a newer one
• 3. Transferring data from the old HDD to the new HDD
• 4. Using the optical disk drive (ODD) slot for placing an SSD or HDD inside the MB/P (OPTIBAY)

​

Or you get any external Firewire 800 or USB 2.0 HDD you want and store your iTunes and iPhoto library there. You can even use a mobile 1 TB HDD for that.

 

[chioschick]

Thank you!

Thanks a lot, simsaladimbamba!

Silly me, I wasn't even aware I could change the HDD! That's definitely the option I will go for.
Looking at your manual, I'll probably engage our local Apple service provider - I think that is a safer bet...

Again, thanks a million!

 

[0dev]

Replacing the HD on MBPs is really easy AFAIK, plus it doesn't void your warranty (though since this computer's a few years old I'm guessing that expired already anyway). Hard drives are quite cheap too, you can get a 1TB drive for about £120

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Looking at your manual, I'll probably engage our local Apple service provider - I think that is a safer bet...

Again, thanks a million!

If it is the pre-unibody model, then probably yes. If it is a Unibody model though, replacing the HDD is quite easy, as long as you can use a screwdriver.

 

[blueroom]

Buy a Synology NAS.

 

[chioschick]

Thank you all!

I'm typing this on my MacBook which now holds a 1TB HDD. Yeppeeeeyyyyy