Question on Updating

i have a 60gb macbook. its partitioned into two. 30gb each. the other half is mac os and is windows xp. now i only have 12gb on my mac and 10 on my windows. now if i keep on updating my mac, will my mac HD fill?

pao2pao16 said:

i have a 60gb macbook. its partitioned into two. 30gb each. the other half is mac os and is windows xp. now i only have 12gb on my mac and 10 on my windows. now if i keep on updating my mac, will my mac HD fill?

Click to expand...

Yes, if you continue to add data, the partition will eventually fill. It will not "spill over" onto the XP partition. When you partition a drive with a second, NTFS partition, that partition is not accessible from OS X.

how long do you think? about two years now the updates will conquer 5gb or something??

oh another thing. i plug my power supply while the battery is also plugged in. do i need to remove the battery to avoid overcharging it?

pao2pao16 said:

how long do you think? about two years now the updates will conquer 5gb or something??

Click to expand...

If you only do updates, I would imagine it would take a very long time to reach capacity. But I would imagine that you'll want to add new software and save documents and other data. If that's the case, that amount of space could fill up very quickly.

pao2pao16 said:

oh another thing. i plug my power supply while the battery is also plugged in. do i need to remove the battery to avoid overcharging it?

Click to expand...

Your computer has circuitry to avoid overcharging the battery. It is safe (and recommended) to leave the battery installed at all times.

While it is safe and recommended to leave the battery in, do you think it could extend the batteries life by storing it in a refrigerator at 40% charge while have the computer plugged in?

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm

I'm referencing the first graph with temperature scale.

My thought process was - no point in having the battery in if it's not going to be used while have the computer plugged into an outlet for long periods of time (~5 days). If it's not going to be running, I could store it in a more "hospitable" environment.

Thanks.

binom_nom said:

While it is safe and recommended to leave the battery in, do you think it could extend the batteries life by storing it in a refrigerator at 40% charge while have the computer plugged in?

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm

I'm referencing the first graph with temperature scale.

My thought process was - no point in having the battery in if it's not going to be used while have the computer plugged into an outlet for long periods of time (~5 days). If it's not going to be running, I could store it in a more "hospitable" environment.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

I'm not going to argue with someone's website that claims to be an expert in the subject. Do what you think is best and makes sense depending on your situation. Just know that it is safe to leave your battery in your computer at all times and that it will not overcharge. It will also last a very long time, perhaps much longer than a battery that is being discharged frequently.

I certainly would question the wisdom of storing a battery in a refrigerator where it stands a chance of being exposed to moisture, among other things.

Valid points. I came across that website in another post and wondered if it would be ideal. Thanks.

binom_nom said:

Valid points. I came across that website in another post and wondered if it would be ideal. Thanks.

Click to expand...

In my opinion, battery life is finite regardless of how you store and use the battery. It's just a question of how long it will be before the chemical reactions in the battery are no longer effective. I can tell you that I've owned several laptops and in normal usage (just leaving the battery installed and discharging it on a semi-regular basis), all of my batteries have had a usable life of about 2-3 years.

I also work as a network admin for a large company where we have several hundred laptops. In many cases, I've seen batteries maintain a usable life for 5+ years in situations where they were constantly charged.

Thanks, cwa107. You've, at least partly, explained why my five yr old thinkpad's battery lasts about a half hour!

iKitten said:

Thanks, cwa107. You've, at least partly, explained why my five yr old thinkpad's battery lasts about a half hour!

Click to expand...

That's pretty typical in my experience. Usually the battery's capacity will slowly dwindle to next to nothing after some time. In my experience, it's rare that the battery will just give up the ghost and be completely unusable.