All full up - ADVISE PLEASE!

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Hi there,

I've got a MacBook Pro with a 120Gb HD and it's almost full. I've got about 3-4Gb of space left. I know it's bad to run so low but there's not much I can do. I have backed everything up but I'm reluctant to delete things as it's mainly photos and videos taking up the bulk of the space.

Please can someone advise me as to what I should do - I can't afford to buy a new larger capacity MBP and transfer. Can I upgrade my current MBP? Is there anything else sensible I can do? I've pretty much slimmed down my HD as far as it can go with all the tips and tricks.

Please help. I can't put anything else on my laptop.

Thanks

Shark
 
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Can you provide the details of you MBP (model, year, specs), it may help members give you effective suggestions.

Most MBP's have user upgradable hard drives and you can get some decent sized 5400 RPM hard drives for cheap (if you are going to space rather than speed)
 

pigoo3

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Hi there,

I've got a MacBook Pro with a 120Gb HD and it's almost full. I've got about 3-4Gb of space left. I know it's bad to run so low but there's not much I can do. I have backed everything up but I'm reluctant to delete things as it's mainly photos and videos taking up the bulk of the space.

Please can someone advise me as to what I should do - I can't afford to buy a new larger capacity MBP and transfer. Can I upgrade my current MBP? Is there anything else sensible I can do? I've pretty much slimmed down my HD as far as it can go with all the tips and tricks.

Please help. I can't put anything else on my laptop.

Thanks

Shark

Firstly...you can most definitely remove some or most of those photos & videos from your MacBook Pro's hard drive if they're backed up. If it makes you feel better...make two external backups of those files. Burn them to a CD or DVD for backup purposes.

There's really no need to have EVERY file you have present on your internal drive if you don't use them often.

Second. You can most definitely upgrade your MacBook Pro's HD...very easy to replace.

HTH,

- Nick
 
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you can get an external hard drive... 1TB usually cost around $70 to $100 in amazon
 

CrimsonRequiem


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MBP 2.3 Ghz 4GB RAM 860 GB SSD, iMac 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 32GB RAM, Fusion Drive 1TB
you can get an external hard drive... 1TB usually cost around $70 to $100 in amazon

Best answer yet. Just because your HDD is full doesn't mean you have to go out and buy a new computer. The same goes for if the HDD died.

Just buy a new HDD and put it in there, just make sure you purchase the right one or else it won't fit.

An external HDD is probably the best way to go about this.

I would also suggest for photos that you burn them to a CD/DVD which pigoo3 already mentioned. Another way to go is to upload them to some online storage place.
 
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Buy a 500gb hdd for 50bucks from newegg and throw it in your computer.

Guides on ifixit.com

Any 2.5inch drive should do. (Aslong as its not bigger than 9.5mm but that should only by 1tb drives and some 750s)
 
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Buy a 2.5" HDD like others have said, also get an external enclosure for it.

Put the disk in the enclosure, use carbon copy cloner to backup your existing drive to this home-made external drive.

Take the drive from the MBP and put it in the enclosure and vice versa.

Once you're happy your new disk is working out for you, format the 120gb , now external, disk and copy your photos and videos to it as a backup.

Happy to provide links to further info if required
 
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Thanks so much everyone for the great advice. I didn't realise I could get my internal hard drive upgraded. I have a 15" MacBook Pro 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo - Purchased December 2006 so not a unibody.

I would value any advice on a good drive. Can I get larger than a 500gb, as I heard it wasn't wise for my MBP?

I was looking at:

Western Digital 500GB Scorpio Blue 5400RPM SATA-300 8MB
or
Seagate 500GB Momentus 7200.4 2.5" SATA-300 7200rpm 16MB

Any thoughts?
 

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