Comments, please ...

We are thinking about getting a laptop. Some macbooks have an internal CD / DVD drive and others do not. I've been told that the hard drives of macbooks with internal
CD / DVD have moving parts and are more delicate than the newer macbooks without internal drives because the newer hard drives do not have moving parts.

Is this so and how much of a difference does it really make?

Our desktop uses 10.6.8 and we use the mac mail program that came with it (4.6) If we use the same e mail provider and the same address on both desktop and laptop,

1. Will mail collected on either the desktop or macbook show up on the other or must it be collected on each computer?
2. If e mail is deleted from the desktop will it also be deleted from the macbook?
3. If the answer to #2 is Yes, is there a way to delete the same mail message from the desktop but not the laptop?

Thanks
Bob

Hi Bob,

CD/DVD drives and hard drives are two different things. The current trend in laptops is to eliminate CD/DVD drives. It saves space, is one less mechanical part to fail, makes the laptop lighter, and trims the cost of manufacturing. The question is - do you need one? If you want to watch DVD movies on your laptop then right now the only new option left is the MacBook Pro 13" non-retina model or you can purchase an external DVD drive.

Hard drives are used a lot to designate the internal storage where the operating system is located plus other programs, data, etc. There are two types of internal storage currently used in laptops.

The first type is the traditional mechanical hard drive. This has platters and a moving arm that accesses the data on the platters. This type of drive can be thought of as delicate because mechanical means moving and eventually the parts will wear out. Also, when they were originally put in laptops, they were more prone to shock issues because if the data arm was moving or not "parked” it would hit the platters and damage them. Today’s new drives are vastly improved and I haven't heard of issues like that for years.

The second type is the SSD or solid-state drive. It has no moving parts, is blazing fast, more reliable, and way more expensive.

So, if you want lots of storage for say tons of videos, go with a mechanical hard drive. If you want a blazing fast computer (provided you get adequate memory - 8GB or more) but not as much storage but more reliability, get an SSD.

As for email -

1. Mail will download on both computers. Once you open the mail program, it goes out and begins the download. It is possible that if you read and delete an email on one computer, it will not show up on the other computer if the second computer has not already downloaded it before you deleted it on the first computer. It depends on how your mail server is set up. I have a Live and Gmail account. With both I will see emails come in on my MB Air that I have read and deleted on my iPad or iPhone and they will disappear on the MB Air as they come it. It is weird to watch. But with my work email, they all come in on all my devices regardless because of the type of email server. I could go into detail but this is the basics.

2. Once an email is downloaded by the email program it is there to stay until you delete it. Deleting on one will not delete it on the other. Sometimes I wish it would.

3. See #1 & # 2

I hope I explained this clearly - if not let me know!

Lisa

mickibob said:

We are thinking about getting a laptop. Some macbooks have an internal CD / DVD drive and others do not. I've been told that the hard drives of macbooks with internal
CD / DVD have moving parts and are more delicate than the newer macbooks without internal drives because the newer hard drives do not have moving parts.

Is this so and how much of a difference does it really make?

Click to expand...

Apple laptops models from 1989 thru 2012 used "mechanical" rotating hard drives. Laptops with "spinning" hard drives were (and still are) around for 25+ years...and have not all of a sudden become delicate.

With that being said. If you are thinking about purchasing a brand new Apple laptop...there is only one model MacBook Pro that comes with a "spinning" mechanical hard drive...and that's a 2012 model (still being sold).

FYI...Apple did away with spinning hard drives & DVD/optical drives at the same time. So the 2012 MacBook Pro I mentioned has both. But any newer model MacBook Pro's do not have a DVD drive or a spinning HD.

- Nick