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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Notebook Hardware
Moving from iMac with 3TB to MacBook Pro with 512GB
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<blockquote data-quote="MacInWin" data-source="post: 1922502" data-attributes="member: 396914"><p>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:</p><p></p><p>[URL unfurl="true"]https://eclecticlight.co/2022/11/23/which-external-disk/[/URL]</p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>Bottom line, it's not "as if it's just on m MacBook" but it's not terribly inconvenient, either.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MacInWin, post: 1922502, member: 396914"] 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: [URL unfurl="true"]https://eclecticlight.co/2022/11/23/which-external-disk/[/URL] 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. [/QUOTE]
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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Notebook Hardware
Moving from iMac with 3TB to MacBook Pro with 512GB
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