Moving from iMac with 3TB to MacBook Pro with 512GB

[Pcpacker]

Happy Thanksgiving to all!
I have a 10 year old 27 inch iMac with the 3TB internal drive and it has over 2TB of used storage. It has main computer and stores all of the family videos, photos, and files for years. I have it backed up to a WD 5TB external drive using Time Machine.

The iMac is so old now it won’t run the new OS and therefore won’t install the newest versions of pages, numbers, etc. So they don’t stay updated like they do on my iPad and iPhone. I can work around that by using iCloud.com on the desktop but it’s not ideal.

So, I want to get a MacBook Pro and an external monitor and use it as a mobile and desktop solution but the storage upgrades put it out of my budget. Are there good ways to use external SSDs so the macbook pro acts like a 4TB desktop when at home but is just a 512 GB mobile solution? I’ve been watching videos about creating a bootable disks but I don’t quite see if it solves my problem.

Thank you!

 

[lclev]

Sure! You buy a hub (I recommend OWC Thunderbolt Hub - I have tried all the cheap ones!) and when you are home attach your MBP to it. The hub can connect your monitor(s) and drives. Or you can just attach the monitor directly to the MBP using the HDMI port or one of the USB-C ports.

Creating a bootable disk is not necessary - not sure why you would want to. If you close the MBP, add a bluetooth keyboard and mouse - now you have your desktop.

If your old iMac is still able to boot and be reliable you can always use it for storage.

Lisa

 

[Pcpacker]

Sure! You buy a hub (I recommend OWC Thunderbolt Hub - I have tried all the cheap ones!) and when you are home attach your MBP to it. The hub can connect your monitor(s) and drives. Or you can just attach the monitor directly to the MBP using the HDMI port or one of the USB-C ports.

Creating a bootable disk is not necessary - not sure why you would want to. If you close the MBP, add a bluetooth keyboard and mouse - now you have your desktop.

If your old iMac is still able to boot and be reliable you can always use it for storage.

Lisa

Thank you for your quick reply! I understand being able to connect to monitors and external SSDs but I need to get my storage from my iMac onto an high speed external drive and have it run as if it’s just on my MacBook internal drive.
On top of that I would love to continue to use my Time Machine to back it all up automatically.
I don’t know if this is possible.

 

[MacInWin]

I need to get my storage from my iMac onto an high speed external drive and have it run as if it’s just on my MacBook internal drive.

It depends on your definition of "as if it's just on m MacBook." The internal drive interface speeds are blindingly fast, particularly if you get a new MBP with Apple Silicon. The external drive will never be that fast. Even with a very quick interface and a super fast SSD external drive, the speeds are just not there. Here is a recent article comparing things for you:

Which external disk?

Overall summary of a year’s testing external hard disks and SSDs ranging in cost from $50 to more than $200 per TB. Which is best?

eclecticlight.co

You can see that the Apple internal speeds are close to 7,000 MB/s, while the fastest external is about 2,800 MB/s.

In addition, the external drives will be a different location from the internal. I suspect you right now have all of that data stored in /Users/<<your account>>/Documents. By storing it on external drives, they will be at different locations, depending on the mounting point selected by the OS. So, you will have to navigate to those external drives to get to the various files you have stored on them. Now, some of the navigation can be handled by the applications that you are using. For example, Photos can store the photoslibrary file on any drive and as long as that drive is attached when you launch Photos, it will open that library. Not all apps are that accomodating, although most will "remember" where the files it has used recently were when they are last saved and navigate there to open them next time.

Bottom line, it's not "as if it's just on m MacBook" but it's not terribly inconvenient, either.

 

[NSMacGuru]

MacInWin's comment is right on. Do take the time to give thought to how it's all going to work. I'm in the same situation (constantly). My internal drive on my 2017 model iMac 5K is full to the gills, and I'm loathe to take it apart to do the hard drive upgrade (though now would be the time, since the warranty has run out and that Fusion drive is a POS).

When you launch Photos, you can select which Photos library you're going to use. So if you move the existing photo library to an external drive, you'll need to launch Photos with the OPTION key pressed, in order to select that drive. If you do not use OPTION, then Photos will create a new photoslibrary in your laptop's /Pictures/ directory, and you'll forever be wondering which one is which. Pain in the butt. And of course, if you launch Photos without your external drive connected, ditto, it will create an empty library. So there's some thought to procedure here that you'll need to ingrain.

Given the number of external drives and the need for others in the home to have access to shared material (principally the photos and videos collected over the years), I'm leaning toward picking up a NAS (Network Attached Storage) that can be shared by all. But they're a bit pricey....

 

[MacInWin]

When you launch Photos, you can select which Photos library you're going to use. So if you move the existing photo library to an external drive, you'll need to launch Photos with the OPTION key pressed, in order to select that drive. If you do not use OPTION, then Photos will create a new photoslibrary in your laptop's /Pictures/ directory, and you'll forever be wondering which one is which. Pain in the butt. And of course, if you launch Photos without your external drive connected, ditto, it will create an empty library. So there's some thought to procedure here that you'll need to ingrain.

Actually, you can set the default library in Photos/Preferences, and that will be the one that opens, as long as it is available. So you don't have to use the Option opening as you have described unless you have multiple Photos libraries and want to pick between them. But, if the default library isn't there because the external storage isn't mounted, then Photos will create a new one, with no images in it, and make that the default. You can reset the default once the external is mounted, and it will remember it until it's not there, again.