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Using 1TB SDXC Card as permanent storage ?

Yes it is possible. But you shouldn't.

A few years earlier, when external SSDs were too expensive, people used to mimics a SD card as an external storage using the slot in MBA.

But now, external SSDs are cheaper and extremely faster. Keep in mind that SD os SDXC cards have slow data transfer rate. Even the toughest ones won't catch the SSDs offerings.

For instance, the Sandisk's top tier one, the SD Extreme PRO, will achieve 170mb/s but won't sustain it too long. This cards tends to overheat transferring too much files in high speed.

For information purposes, the MacBook Pro 2021 has a internal SSD with 3.200mb/s transfer rate. And it will keep that speed for long periods. Using External SSDs based in USB-C 3 (as Samsung's T5) will achieve 500mb/s, and those based in USB-C 3.2 (as Samsung's T7) will top 1.050mb/s and the ones that uses thunderbolt will transfer files up to 3.000mb/s.

In Amazon.com the 1Tb Samsung T7 drive is around U$130. A Sandisk Extreme Pro 512mb is at the same price tag.

So the question here should be something like that: Would you mind reading/writing files as slow as 100mb/s in 2022?
 
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anjanesh said:
can one insert an 1TB SDXC card and use it like a permanent extended storage ?
Click to expand...
Yes, you can. You could even boot from a SD card if you wanted to.

The problem being that SD cards, even the fastest ones, are much slower than modern SSDs. Even more problematic, SD cards are a lot more expensive as well.

But....

If I needed extra storage, but didn't have the money to purchase something, and I had a SD card sitting around, it wouldn't hurt anything.

Some people say that SD cards are unreliable, but I never had any issues with them.

There could be an issue with the lack of TRIM, which could slow the SD card over time.

Fravin said:
So the question here should be something like that: Would you mind reading/writing files as slow as 100mb/s in 2022?
Click to expand...
There are faster SD cards, 1000MBps+ speeds, just not that fast on the MBPs.

The OP's M1 MBP has the same reader that has been around since I think the 2012 Macs (UHS-II), which only does up to 312MBps @Half duplex or 156MBps @FuLL duplex.

312MBps isn't bad, especially for a general storage option. For booting, I would suspect that it would probably be running half speed @FuLL duplex, so losing significant performance.

Still, I have a few Macs with old SSDs that get slower speeds than that, and they feel fine to me as boot drives. If I was transferring a lot of data regularly, I would (and do) use something faster.
 
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Yes, no, sort of...

... If used microSD cards as "permanent" expanded storage for may years in my old Dell Venue8pro, MS Surface Go, and several Android phones. They've all worked well and have been extremely reliable.

That said, using a standard SD card as permanent storage would only be reliable if, and only if, the card inserted completely and leaves no portion sticking out. If it sticks out there will be issues with reliability as the card gets nudged about as the computer is stored and handled. There are special custom shaped cards that fit flush in various computer models. Transcend has just introduced some for the new M1pro and M1max MBPs. There's a MR article about them here: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/03/03/transcend-jetdrive-expansion-cards-14-16-mbp/
 
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Juicy Box said:
Yes, you can. You could even boot from a SD card if you wanted to.

The problem being that SD cards, even the fastest ones, are much slower than modern SSDs. Even more problematic, SD cards are a lot more expensive as well.

But....

If I needed extra storage, but didn't have the money to purchase something, and I had a SD card sitting around, it wouldn't hurt anything.

Some people say that SD cards are unreliable, but I never had any issues with them.

There could be an issue with the lack of TRIM, which could slow the SD card over time.


There are faster SD cards, 1000MBps+ speeds, just not that fast on the MBPs.

The OP's M1 MBP has the same reader that has been around since I think the 2012 Macs (UHS-II), which only does up to 312MBps @Half duplex or 156MBps @FuLL duplex.

312MBps isn't bad, especially for a general storage option. For booting, I would suspect that it would probably be running half speed @FuLL duplex, so losing significant performance.

Still, I have a few Macs with old SSDs that get slower speeds than that, and they feel fine to me as boot drives. If I was transferring a lot of data regularly, I would (and do) use something faster.
Click to expand...
I just came across this MR article, and need to correct my post. It appears that the SD card slot is limited to 250MBps:
forums.macrumors.com

SD Card Slot in New MacBook Pros Supports UHS-II With Speeds Up to 250 MB/s [Updated]

Apple has confirmed to The Verge's Dan Seifert that the SD card slot built into the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models supports UHS-II, and while this could theoretically allow for read and write speeds of up to 312MB/s with USH-II SD cards, Apple has since confirmed that the reader...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com


I was thinking about it, and it make sense though. UHS-II has a max theoretical speed of 312.5 MBps, but with overhead, that is about 250MBps real world speed.
 
dwig said:
They've all worked well and have been extremely reliable.
Click to expand...

I don’t know exactly how this came to this thread. I said that SDs are expensive and slower than external SSDs.

SD cards are proven to be tough enough. The XD ones (that small ones) are indestructible and can keep data written to it in severe situations.
 
Fravin said:
You gotta be kidding…

Never heard about one that goes beyond 300mb/s. And I know what I mean.
Click to expand...
SD Express cards. Expensive, but fast. They can be used in older drives like the MBPs, but at the slower speeds.


dwig said:
They've all worked well and have been extremely reliable.
Click to expand...
Fravin said:
I don’t know exactly how this came to this thread. I said that SDs are expensive and slower than external SSDs.
Click to expand...
I could be wrong, but I think this was directed at the OP, not in response to your post.

It is useful information, as there are plenty of posts on this forum and else where saying that using an SD card for storage purposes in not recommended due to reliability issues.

I personally never had issues storing stuff on SD cards, but I think in the long term, the lack of TRIM support could cause slowdowns on a SD card.
 
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Someone wants to buy a 16" MacBook Pro 2021 model from either apple.com/in or from a reseller like Maple which gives almost $200 discount and credit-card cash back.
Selecting 2TB (instead of the default base of 1TB) is coming to an extra ₹40,000 which is roughly $523 more.
While SanDisk's 1TB Extreme (170 MB/s) is ₹35k which is about $460.
Hence the original question.
 
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anjanesh said:
Someone wants to buy a 16" MacBook Pro 2021 model from either apple.com/in or from a reseller like Maple which gives almost $200 discount and credit-card cash back.
Selecting 2TB (instead of the default base of 1TB) is coming to an extra ₹40,000 which is roughly $523 more.
While SanDisk's 1TB Extreme (170 MB/s) is ₹35k which is about $460.
Hence the original question.
Click to expand...
With that small % of a price difference you are FAR better off just going 2TB SSD.
 
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Juicy wrote:
"You could even boot from a SD card if you wanted to."

I don't believe it's possible to boot from either SD cards or USB flash drives any longer (with the most recent versions of the Mac OS). Older versions, yes, but the latest... no.

Seems I tried to install either BIg Sur or Monterey onto a flash drive, and it "just wouldn't do it". However, when I switched to an actual "hard drive", the install went right through.

SD cards might be fine for some data storage, but I wouldn't expect them to match the utility of a good platter-based drive or SSD.
 
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Fravin said:
With that money, you can buy 2 Samsung’s T7 2Tb at Amazon (u$229 each).
Click to expand...
Every time someone suggests this, I get a little grumpy. Not everyone wants this storage to be something you plug in and carry around with you.
A flush fit SD card / Micro adapter is currently the only way to meaningfully increase storage on these Macs without buying it that way if you want a wire-free setup. Don't get me wrong - I personally have a portable external SSD available for when I need it, but it's not my preferred option.
 
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SD cards are not a good option for long-term storage. They’re volatile compared to an SSD or HDD. Actually I’m not even necessarily a fan of SSDs for long-term archival storage because of the whole “electron leakage” issue with SSDs—spinning drives or DVDs are probably best for that, as long as you spin up the drives every couple years or so.
 
spinning drives or DVDs are probably best for that, as long as you spin up the drives every couple years or so.

You are right. For long term storage the HDD is the best solution.

If you can afford, there are certain DVD drives and disks certified for long term storage (1.000 years). Do you know Them?
 
So about 6 months ago, BasQi announced that they were going to update their StealthDrive for the MacBook Pro 2021 14" ... however they have not at this point, and it's nearly August. I have their product from the 13" MacBook Pro, however it doesn't support the higher speeds so using it for file transfers and useful storage is way too slow.

Has anyone found a similar product that will function since it appears that the Baseqi product isn't actually coming.

Thanks!
 
Juicy Box said:
Yes, you can. You could even boot from a SD card if you wanted to.

The problem being that SD cards, even the fastest ones, are much slower than modern SSDs. Even more problematic, SD cards are a lot more expensive as well.

But....

If I needed extra storage, but didn't have the money to purchase something, and I had a SD card sitting around, it wouldn't hurt anything.

Some people say that SD cards are unreliable, but I never had any issues with them.

There could be an issue with the lack of TRIM, which could slow the SD card over time.


There are faster SD cards, 1000MBps+ speeds, just not that fast on the MBPs.

The OP's M1 MBP has the same reader that has been around since I think the 2012 Macs (UHS-II), which only does up to 312MBps @Half duplex or 156MBps @FuLL duplex.

312MBps isn't bad, especially for a general storage option. For booting, I would suspect that it would probably be running half speed @FuLL duplex, so losing significant performance.

Still, I have a few Macs with old SSDs that get slower speeds than that, and they feel fine to me as boot drives. If I was transferring a lot of data regularly, I would (and do) use something faster.
Click to expand...
Would they be ok for storing music files? My music library is bit over 1 TB and I’d like to get it off my M1 MBP’s SSD.

External SSD’s don’t work for me as I move around a lot with my laptop. An SD card would work, though,
 
Yonkec said:
Absolutely, and that's probably an ideal usage case for such a card.
Click to expand...
How about running a video game off of one? I was thinking of putting the new baldurs gate 3 on one since it is a 150 gig game.
 
The advantage of this is that you wouldn't have to carry around an external SSD, and wouldn't lose any ports. If data speed isn't a concern to you, there's no reason not to give it a shot. Convenience does matter sometimes.

There is the concern of lower endurance on SD cards. If you're doing a lot of write-heavy tasks, they might not be suitable. High-endurance cards do exist and can handle a lot more abuse, but their random write speeds are worse (might not matter if you're not doing things that are particularly speed sensitive).
 
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OK wanted to chime in here, having a spiffy new 2024 14" M4 Pro MacBook Pro -- my previous MacBook was the 2011 15" MacBook Pro. When I came upon the Transcend "JetDrive" -- I really was just looking for a dust cover for my new MacBook as, from past experience, the SDXC slot gets pretty crapped up. I'm not sure if they've improved this with the current generation MacBooks -- or if they even can -- but having a 1TB drive function as a dust cover is a nice added bonus.

THAT IS -- if the thing itself doesn't prematurely wear out the port. Not having anything to prevent dust from getting inside is one thing -- but having something stuck in there, 24/7 pushing against the contact pins?? Would that not wear out the pins? There are reports of people's JetDrives failing --- I wonder -- is it really their JetDrives or are the pins in their SDXC port permanently warped from not being able to spring back to their resting position?
 
I ended up getting these from Amazon
  • BASEQI UHS-II Aluminum microSD Adapter for 2021 M1 MacBook Pro
  • SanDisk 1.5TB Ultra microSDXC UHS-I Memory Card with Adapter

I've been using the SD card daily for 8 months to play music from my music library without issue. Well, a few times it mounted as "Music 1" instead of "Music" , which caused Backblaze to complain, but that is the extent of the issues.

The extra storage it freed up has been a lifesaver!
 
theanimaster said:
OK wanted to chime in here, having a spiffy new 2024 14" M4 Pro MacBook Pro -- my previous MacBook was the 2011 15" MacBook Pro. When I came upon the Transcend "JetDrive" -- I really was just looking for a dust cover for my new MacBook as, from past experience, the SDXC slot gets pretty crapped up. I'm not sure if they've improved this with the current generation MacBooks -- or if they even can -- but having a 1TB drive function as a dust cover is a nice added bonus.

THAT IS -- if the thing itself doesn't prematurely wear out the port. Not having anything to prevent dust from getting inside is one thing -- but having something stuck in there, 24/7 pushing against the contact pins?? Would that not wear out the pins? There are reports of people's JetDrives failing --- I wonder -- is it really their JetDrives or are the pins in their SDXC port permanently warped from not being able to spring back to their resting position?
Click to expand...
I would assume the a slot designed to hold SD cards would be good at holding them. If Apple did a shoddy job building them, we'd probably see a lot of complaints. But if they did, warranty or AppleCare repair is your friend.
 
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