Posts: 4,046
Threads: 716
Joined: May 2025
Reputation:
0
I am always, always out of space. It's mostly my photographs.
If I do an aftermarket HD upgrade, do I risk AppleCare coverage? Are their prices for an upgrade outrageous?
Is anyone storing all their photos in the "cloud" somehow? I really want access to my entire iPhoto collection, but am willing to access it remotely somehow. Is there a solution like that?
Posts: 13,418
Threads: 602
Joined: May 2025
Reputation:
0
The "cloud" is too slow and expensive if you have over 100GB+ of data. I'd just upgrade to a 500GB drive, or the 1TB if you have a unibody.
Posts: 41,879
Threads: 3,652
Joined: May 2025
Reputation:
0
If I do an aftermarket HD upgrade, do I risk AppleCare coverage? Are their prices for an upgrade outrageous?
This is getting to be one of those questions for which we need an MRFFAQ.
Apple now considers the hard drive to be a user-upgradeable part, and they've even made it scandalously easy to do.
Just buy one of these cheap 500 giggers we keep seeing here every day, watch yourself one of the many videos available online to see how to do the swap, and enjoy.
Posts: 31,861
Threads: 708
Joined: Jun 2024
Reputation:
0
A lot of the cloud storage sites have limits on monthly transfers. If you do not need an optical drive, some laptops can be converted to two hard drives. It is easier to carry an external hard drive than an external optical drive.
Posts: 1,986
Threads: 146
Joined: May 2025
Reputation:
0
I store pretty much all my photos & videos "in the cloud" on Phanfare.com. I have about 50 GB stored with them.
It costs $50 a year for unlimited, full resolution storage and photo sharing.
They have a great iPhone app and also support the wi-fi SD card Eye-Fi for direct uploads as well. They also make a Mac desktop app, but you can also use their iPhoto plug-in to upload photos.
Posts: 7,301
Threads: 463
Joined: Jan 2022
Reputation:
0
Do you absolutely need all those hundreds of GBs of photographs stored on the boot drive of your laptop? Your MBP's internal HD? A large-capacity small-profile 2.5 USB powered external HD seems like a pretty obvious and convenient solution. Like a 500 GB WD Passport, or something of that nature.
It's not clear why it's mandatory that hundreds of GBs of photographs be stored on the MacBook Pro's internal HD. Other options are available. It must make backup a slow process, for example, and if you have that much important data on your boot drive, you're probably having to back up to a safe location constantly.
The boot drive doesn't have to be the camel that carries everything, a fast, light boot drive can be an advantage. Even if you do have a gigantic boot drive installed on your laptop, you're not required to fill it to the max. Half full is good, it's faster that way. Let an external HD do the massive storage duty.
Posts: 5,338
Threads: 670
Joined: Dec 2021
I just kept my photos on a drive attached to my Airport Extreme base station until I recently bought a 500 GB drive for my 2008 MBP (non-unibody). That was convenient when I was in the house, but sucked if I was traveling - although I was able to use Back to my mac - slowly. I'll be upset if it affects my AppleCare, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. If push comes to shove, I'll slip the old HDD back in before I take it for service.
Posts: 8,684
Threads: 273
Joined: May 2025
Reputation:
0
You do have a backup, right? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Even if you do, why don't you move all the photos to a DVD or two (3, 4, 5, etc.) and take those with you? You could even organize them on the DVDs. Why must you make this process harder than it has to be? ? ? ?
:banghead:
EDIT: spelling correction . . . actually, a typing correction!
Posts: 11,240
Threads: 1,205
Joined: Jun 2024
I always, always expand my boot drive because that's what gets backed up routinely (hourly via Time Machine and twice daily via SuperDuper). I wouldn't trust my photos, especially, to an external drive that I would have to wind up wondering, "when was the last time I backed that up?"
As ridiculously cheap as replacement HDs are these days, it'd be relatively painless to get (a) a replacement internal drive and (b) an external backup drive. (Regardless of your upgrade path, BACK UP YOUR DATA as soon as possible.)
Post the info on your particular MBP model (year, etc.) so we can help you figure out what you're able to get. (i.e., if you can afford it, get the biggest HD you can put in there -- because when might you say "no, I don't need extra storage space..." (and upgrade the RAM as long as you have it open))
