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Upgrade My Macbook Pro Storage

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I sometimes get caught up in the tech specs, thinking that a tiny performance advantage really matters: For most people, the small differences between Solid State Drive (SSD) models just isn't worth quibbling over. In fact, you're more likely to gain more work 'performance' if you bring an apple to your desk so you don't have to leave your workspace just to grab a snack.

The more important performance gain is simply ditching your old and slow traditional hard disk drive found in earlier Apple MacBook Pros (pre-Retina) by moving to an SSD.

The Big Question: Is the Price Right for the Storage Space You Need?

The Crucial BX200 offers great speed and value for an SSD drive.

How to Free Up Storage Space In MacBook Pro: How To Increase or Decrease MacBook Pro Fan Speed: Macbook Air 2017 (MacBookAir7,2) ssd upgrade: iCloud Storage Question: Early 2009 Macbook - Add SSD - move OS: MacBook 12 2015 vs 2016: Asus laptop won't open Toshiba external hard drive: MacBook Pro 2010 dead harddrive, new harddrive not working? Replace the MacBook cover and screw in the ten tiny screws. Switch on your MacBook Pro, go to System Preferences Startup Disk and make sure the SSD is selected. Restart your computer. See, we told you it was easy! Enjoy a faster, smoother MacBook Pro. A new SSD drive for your Mac will make an instant impact. Upgrade the RAM and storage of nearly any Apple computer at MacSales.com. We also provide refurbished Macs, external storage, docks, accessories, and more! Want to upgrade the RAM, graphics card, processor, storage (SSD or Hard drive) or even use an optical drive in a Mac to add an SSD? Check out our guide! Find out which MacBook Pro, MacBook Air.

The cost of SSD storage has finally dropped low enough to make it a reasonable buy for many MacBook Pro owners. Of course, the newer MacBook Pros with Retina Displays all include solid-state flash-based storage, but there's millions of MacBooks and MacBook Pros that still contain powerful processors that are only hampered by slow spinning hard drives. If you use an older MacBook Pro, you can give yourself a nice upgrade with an SSD — plus extend the life of your investment. Wordair 1 7 1 download free.

To start your upgrade process, first you need to determine how much storage you really need right now . . . and what you'll need in the next year or so.

If you don't know how much you're using, you can always launch the Apple Disk Utility app from within the Utilities folder in your applications folder. Select your drive in the upper left and look at the bottom of the app window to learn the size of your drive and how much space you have available. If you have a 500 GB hard drive and you're only using 180 GB, you can likely get away with a 250 GB SSD. If you're using more than 300 GB — lots of photos and videos, for instance — you'll have to buy a 480 GB or larger SSD.

How Fast Is Fast?

Typically, the speed at which your Mac can read data from an SSD will be somewhere around 5x as fast as a traditional hard drive. And the speed at which your Mac can write data to the SSD? At least 2x as fast.What this really means for you is that apps will open and launch with just a single bounce on the dock. You'll rarely see the spinning beach ball mouse icon, making your Mac feel as if it's thinking faster. Apps like iPhoto will feel snappier as you open up events and edit photos. Mail will still download at the speeds offered by your WiFi, but interaction will improve. Your MacBook will wake from sleep faster, plus it'll reboot or launch cold in 15-20 seconds instead of a minute or longer.In short, you'll likely enjoy using your older MacBook or MacBook Pro much more — and if you're like me, you'll wonder why it took you so long to upgrade to an SSD.

Which SSD Should You Buy?

Some SSDs are faster than others, but don't worry about it too much: Figure out how much storage you need and then buy a decent SSD drive that is a SATA III (6 Gbits/s) model at price that matches your budget — the prices of older generation SSD drives slowly drop over time while newer (slightly faster SSD drives with newer encryption) start off at higher prices. I recommend simply picking one of two brands — Crucial or Samsung — that boast consistently good quality and user reviews for Mac owners.

Personally, I'm a fan of the Crucial M500 line because of its outstanding price-to-quality ratio.

Upgrade My Macbook Pro Storage Upgrade

Here are three can't-go-wrong options available from Amazon.com:

  • Crucial BX200 — 240 GB, 480 GB, or 960 GB
  • Crucial MX200 — 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB
  • Samsung 850 EVO — 120 GB, 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB or 2 TB

One more thing — when you go to install your SSD, you'll need some tiny screwdrivers. If you're lucky, you can use a cheap set, but if you find a stubborn screw, you'll wish you spent five or six dollars extra for one of these:

How to Upgrade SSD on MacBook Pro and Air

If you're looking for a bit more detail on the upgrade process, check out these guides:

What About Using Your SDXC Card Slot for More Mac Storage?

If you want more on-board, nearly built-in storage — but don't want to actually remove your existing hard drive — you have two good options, both of which are tiny flash-based drives in the shape of camera memory cards. They plug into the SDXC card slot on your MacBook Pro, and they work with all MacBook Airs and Retina MacBook Pros that have SDXC card slots.

The TarDisk Pear system is a tiny drive that you can combine with your built-in drive to create a single 'fused' storage system on your MacBook Air or Pro.

For all intents and purposes, the Transcend JetDrive Liteacts like a little USB thumb drive — but it fits flush into the SDXC card slot instead and appears on your Mac like an external drive that is always on, always available. It appears as a separate storage option to your Mac's operating system. Quite handy.

The TarDisk Pear system, on the other hand, also uses the SDXC card slot but it combines with your built-in storage to form a single 'fused' drive. If you want a near-permanent — but easy storage solution for your MacBook Air or Pro — the TarDisk Pear system might be your best bet.

Of course, if you use your SDXC card slot for loading photos, you can pick up a small USB-based card reader like the Kingston Digital MobileLite G4 Card Reader to easily load photos and video off of your SD camera cards through a USB port.

It's recommended that you keep at least 15-20% of your Mac's memory free to keep it running smoothly. Optimizing storage is an efficient way to do this. But there are also several other steps you can take to free up space on MacBook Air, Pro, or any other macOS device. Doing these routinely will ensure you don't face any storage issues and are able to make the most of your system. So let's have a look.

12 Easy Ways to Free Up Space on MacBook Air or Pro Running macOS Catalina

#1. Delete Large Files on your Mac

Instead of deleting a hundred small files and images, first of all, let us go for the big fish.

  1. Click on the Apple logo from the upper left and select About This Mac.
  2. Now, click on Storage and then click on Manage.
  3. Click Documents. Mostly, this is where the big files are. Here you will see the video files, ZIP/RAR files, etc. By default, the biggest files are at the top. Select one or hold the command key and select multiple files
  4. Finally, click on Delete from the bottom right and confirm.

#2. Remove iOS and iPadOS Backups

  1. Click on the Apple logo from the upper left and select About This Mac.
  2. Now Select Storage tab and click on Manage.
  3. Click iOS Files from left sidebar
  4. Select and

Related:How to Find iPhone Backup Location on Mac & Windows Meta 1 8 – music tag editor.

#3. Delete Unwanted Applications

You can delete Mac applications in various ways. You may follow the above steps, click on Applications, and remove the large ones.

#4. Clear Cache to Free Up Space on Mac

  1. Be in Finder and click on Go from the top menu bar
  2. Click Go to Folder.
  3. Type or copy-paste ~/Library/Caches
  4. Delete the files from here that are taking the most space. You may even delete everything. With normal usages, these files and folders will be recreated by macOS.
  5. Next, click on Go again and then Go to Folder. Now type or copy-paste /Library/Caches
  6. You may delete files from here too. After this empty the trash and restart you Mac

#5. Remove Old Downloads

This comes down to what you are willing to keep and what you are happy to let go of. Nowadays everything is online in the cloud. Thus there is no point in storing too may videos, music, etc. on the local storage.

  1. Click on the Finder icon (leftmost) from the Dock
  2. Click Downloads and remove unnecessary files from here, by right-click and selecting Move to Trash.

You may also right-click and sort by size to quickly locate and delete the biggest files first.

#6. Compress Folders and Files

If you have many images and word files that you rarely use, but can not delete, then it is a handy idea to compress them. Here is how to zip and unzip files on Mac.

#7. Empty Trash Automatically

  1. Right-click on the Trash icon in the dock (the rightmost option)
  2. Click Empty Trash and confirm

To empty Trash automatically:

  1. Click on the Apple logo from the upper left and select About This Mac.
  2. Now, click on Storage and then click on Manage.
  3. Click on Recommendations from the top of the left sidebar
  4. Click Turn On for Empty Trash Automatically.

Macbook Pro Ssd Upgrade

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Many times, GBs of files pile up and are stored in the Trash, thus occupying significant space. It is better to empty it regularly.

#8. Use iCloud to Store Documents

It is best to use iCloud to Store docs etc. on Mac if you have a paid iCloud plan that gives you more than 5 GB of online storage. Here is how to use iCloud to Store Documents.

  1. Click on the Apple logo from the upper left and select About This Mac.
  2. Now, click on Storage and then click on Manage.
  3. Click on Recommendations from the top of the left sidebar
  4. Click Store in iCloud.
  5. Review what all will be stored. Uncheck if you wish to exclude photos, messages, desktop, and documents. Finally, click on Store in iCloud.
Upgrade

Many times, GBs of files pile up and are stored in the Trash, thus occupying significant space. It is better to empty it regularly.

#8. Use iCloud to Store Documents

It is best to use iCloud to Store docs etc. on Mac if you have a paid iCloud plan that gives you more than 5 GB of online storage. Here is how to use iCloud to Store Documents.

  1. Click on the Apple logo from the upper left and select About This Mac.
  2. Now, click on Storage and then click on Manage.
  3. Click on Recommendations from the top of the left sidebar
  4. Click Store in iCloud.
  5. Review what all will be stored. Uncheck if you wish to exclude photos, messages, desktop, and documents. Finally, click on Store in iCloud.

Monthly menu planner template for mac. You may also, enable iCloud Photos from System PreferencesApple IDiCloudPhotos or the Preferences of the Mac's Photos app.

#9. Optimize Storage Automatically

  1. Click on the Apple logo from the upper left and select About This Mac.
  2. Now, click on Storage and then click on Manage.
  3. Click on Recommendations from the top of the left sidebar
  4. Click on Optimize next to Optimize Storage. Now, all the movies and TV shows you have watched will be automatically removed.

Upgrade Macbook Pro Retina Ssd

#10. Delete Attachments from Mac Mail App

Upgrade My Macbook Pro Storage Containers

Following these steps, you can delete the attachments that have been saved locally on the Mac from the mail app. Depending on the number of emails you receive, this data can be huge.

  1. Be in Finder and press and keep holding the Option key. Now click on Go from the top menu bar
  2. Click Library.
  3. Now, Click on Containers.
  4. Go to com.apple.mail.
  5. Click on Data.
  6. Select Library.
  7. Now, click on Mail Downloads.
  8. Select all folders and delete them. Or open the individual folders, see the content, and delete the unnecessary ones.

Even if you delete from here, the attachments are still in your email that you can view or download anytime. Further, you may also choose to stop the Mac Mail app from downloading attachments.

#11. Remove Duplicate Files using Third-Party Apps

Duplicate files are a big headache and unnecessarily occupy space. We have a list of some of the best mac cleaner apps that can help you delete duplicate files on your Mac.

#12. Use External Drives for Large Infrequently Used Files

Macbook video format. https://ameblo.jp/flaminelchib2/entry-12649457141.html. Do you have data that you do not use much but can neither delete them nor store them in the cloud? Well, consider investing in an external drive and move infrequently used large files to it.

Signing off…

Can I Upgrade My Macbook Pro Storage

These were some of the easiest ways to free up space on your MacBook Air. It's a good idea to do these steps every now and then to keep your system performing well. Are there any other Mac tips you're looking for? Let us know in the comments below and we'll help you out.

You may also like to take a peek at:

The founder of iGeeksBlog, Dhvanesh, is an Apple aficionado, who cannot stand even a slight innuendo about Apple products. He dons the cap of editor-in-chief to make sure that articles match the quality standard before they are published.

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