DKay

Q: Which Macbook?

I currently have a White unibody Macbook 13 inch mid 2010 8gigs Ram and a rapidly filling 1T internal HD. It serves me well. To avoid having to start again each time I've bought a new Macbook I've always just dumped the entire contents of my old Macbook into each successive new one. I currently have my HD split to form 2 virtual HDs, so that I can still run old Software on one running 10.6.8 and more current stuff on 10.8.5. I can see trouble looming when I need to upgrade to my next Macbook, because a) you can't get Macbooks any longer, only Macbook Pros and b) because logically I would need a 2T HD to hold all the present stuff and as far as I can tell - there is no such new Macbook. The new ones mostly seem to have flash drives which are woefully small for my needs. What to do now  this HD is almost full?

MacBook (13-inch), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3), 2011/12

Posted on Mar 9, 2015 7:31 PM

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Q: Which Macbook?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Mar 9, 2015 7:34 PM in response to DKay
    Level 10 (271,406 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 9, 2015 7:34 PM in response to DKay

    Put everything on a large external drive or get rid of stuff you don't ever use or hardly ever need.

  • by DKay,

    DKay DKay Jun 14, 2015 4:58 AM in response to DKay
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 14, 2015 4:58 AM in response to DKay

    Wound up buying a two terabyte int. drive for about £75 pounds and swopped it out (after cloning it) with my 1T HD. Working exactly like my earlier drive did, without any snags so far. Popped the old drive into a case purchased for $2.99. 

  • by Mike Sombrio,

    Mike Sombrio Mike Sombrio Jun 14, 2015 5:07 AM in response to DKay
    Level 6 (17,234 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jun 14, 2015 5:07 AM in response to DKay

    That's all well and good but unless you follow Kappy's advice what are you going to do with all of that data when you buy a new  laptop? Another thing, with as much data as you have I sure hope you're backing up regularly with Time Machine.

  • by Lexiepex,

    Lexiepex Lexiepex Jun 14, 2015 5:27 AM in response to DKay
    Level 6 (10,497 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 14, 2015 5:27 AM in response to DKay

    Remember that you cannot run 10.6 and later to 10.9 when buying a new MBP. That means that everything that you need to run in 10.6 will not run anymore, because 10.6 will not install on the later MBPs. I suggest you keep one that has 10.6 running and keep using that for these old apps. Use the new one then for evrything else.

    Lex

  • by DKay,

    DKay DKay Jun 14, 2015 6:22 AM in response to Lexiepex
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 14, 2015 6:22 AM in response to Lexiepex

    Running 10.8.5 - Lion  - Didn't upgrade further because I want to retain 100% useability of all my apps. A further upgrade would render many of them obsolete. I plan to buy whatever the most recent Macbook will allow me to slot in this 2T drive without complaint if the 2010 model dies. That said - It could be that if I bought a brand new laptop and simply let all my old data slide the sky wouldn't fall... but until I'm faced with the problem I'll procrastinate and save money while at it. And yes I also have a 2T ext for TM backup (overdue but due to be done soon)

  • by Lexiepex,

    Lexiepex Lexiepex Jun 14, 2015 6:33 AM in response to DKay
    Level 6 (10,497 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 14, 2015 6:33 AM in response to DKay

    A new mac will be delivered with Yosemite and will not run anything lower !

    The problem is real for apps that needs 10.6 or lower because it needs the PowerPC Architecture.

    Most apps that run on MountainLion (10.8) will probably have updates for the newer Yosemite OS, but you better check this before...

    Lex

  • by DKay,

    DKay DKay Jun 14, 2015 7:02 AM in response to Lexiepex
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 14, 2015 7:02 AM in response to Lexiepex

    Same old - buy new hardware - buy new software - buy new software - buy new hardware - peddle faster happiness just around the corner

  • by Lexiepex,

    Lexiepex Lexiepex Jun 14, 2015 7:10 AM in response to DKay
    Level 6 (10,497 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 14, 2015 7:10 AM in response to DKay