How can I upgrade MacBook Pro disk space?
I have a fairly new MBP with a 256 GB SSD. I am running out of disk space now. Most of it is being used by Pictures and Music and I have done all the cleaning I could.
What's the best way to upgrade the space on the MBP?
- Go to Apple Store and ask them to upgrade to 512 GB?
- I was wondering if I could hook up a 1 TB NAS to the network and mount it and try to move some folders to that drive?
You could probably go with your 1st option from an Apple Service provider or DIY, but Apple doesn't upgrade storage on any shipping Mac. The last one to offer that was the Mac Pro which had no-tool, user swappable hard drive bays.
Your 2nd option will tie your laptop to the network providing the NAS for full operation. You would want an iSCSI initiator for the fastest storage, but NAS would be just fine for large files and folders you access infrequently.
I propose a third option: external storage.
I taped a 1TB SSD to the lid of my MBP. Not that attractive but very effective. Thunderbolt is the fastest DAS (direct attached storage vs network attached storage) but USB 3 is no slouch either.
Be sure to tape the connector and cables as well to prevent jiggle disconnects.
I didn't care about the looks. Consider this a proof of concept (tape is enduring nearly one year :-) So there is enough room for improvement. But I'm very happy with this solution. I travel daily with this setup with all my music and stuff.
Pictures of opened lid
If you are not using a SD Card every time :
http://www.amazon.com/TarDisk-256GB-Storage-Expansion-MacBook/dp/B010R82CP0
or you have a lot of really fit usb drives
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-128GB-Flash-SDCZ43-128G-G46/dp/B00YFI1EBC/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1451481182&sr=1-1&keywords=ultra+fit+usb
If a 128 GB upgrade would be enough for now, and you don't regularly use your SD card slot, then a 128 GB Micro SDXC card plus a suitable adapter is probably the most cost-effective and convenient option. If you need more than 128 GB, buy 128 GB and wait for bigger cards to get cheaper ;-)
Another option would be to use a wireless external hard drive, some of which have rechargeable batteries so you can use them on the move - this is one more gadget to carry around, but doesn't need you to have anything physically plugged in to your MacBook.
An alternative approach, if it's music and photos or video that are taking up the space, is to look into how you could use cloud services such as iTunes Match or Apple Music, iCloud Photo Library, Flickr etc. to store your music and photos, and then keep only a subset actually on your device - possibly at lower bit rate or resolution than the originals to reduce the size.