Macbook Pro 15 late 2013- Nifty slot reader and 400GB MicroSD - Bootcamp

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Level 1

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Macbook Pro 15 late 2013- Nifty slot reader and 400GB MicroSD - Bootcamp

I have a Macbook Pro 15"/ late13 and I am also running bootcamp on it quite a lot .

Like most mac users I was suffering from limiotes SSD capacity (256gb) , So I bought a Nifty card reader to be seated inside slot and I also bought an expensive 400gb MicroSDXC to use similar as internal SSD.

Since I back and forth between Windows and Macos via bootcamp , my question is , what is the best format I can use to be able to read/write on both side and also be able to see all files on both sides ?

Is it possible I partition the Micro Sd cards in 3/4 ways and format differently for each part ? maybe silly question !

I am also thinking to use this as time Machine , I already have an external 2TB card and was using that for Time Machine but it's not aas convenience , do you think if it's a good idea ? My main SSD is 256GB .

Well, another question , Nifty MiniDrive stated on their package " ad up to 128gb " , however when I insert the cards inside and put into slot , it shows all 393GB on both MAC/WINDOWS part , so why they have stated that ? is it some problem that might occur when card gets to 128gb ?? ohh /well complicated I guess.

I appreciate if you shed some light , specially about Formating ,as I kep the card still empty to be sure about the format I am going to use.

Thanks

PS : if you're not familiar with Nifty it's just a Micro Sdxc card reader which seats nicely and neatly inside Macbook pro card slot .

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Aug 23, 2019 12:41 PM

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Answer 1

Roxham7 Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 28, 2019 2:38 PM in response to Roxham7

Update : I contacted Nifty and it seems after apple removed slots from MBPs ,they are not active in the business anymore ,however still selling their product, but no website or customer services ! I even contacted Amazon Nifty on another country but message stays unanswered .

However I am using Nifty with 400GB extreme pro on both macOS and Windows 7 and 10, and if you do a little adjustment , you'll be fine. , it is my experience so far :

I partitioned my 400GB in 2 parts , to use half for Windows/bootcamp and use 2nd part on my OS , but because I needed to have access to all my files on both Windows and MacOS , so I formated both to exFAT .

Regarding mounting card slot ,it works fine on both OS/W ,as long as you prevent your device to go to sleep , which in that case I changed all my power setting to Hibernate instead of sleep .

I believe when device goes to sleep , card slot reader also goes to sleep but it won't perform when back up.

I checked this on both macOS and Windows ,and same problem occurred however there is a fix when you are on macOS part which you can find on this link and in order to that you need to use command prompt to mount the card , but I couldn't find anything for Windows so far .

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8152173

So all in all I am happy . it's not a big deal for me to lose the sleep option and I actually prefer Hibernate anyway but if it's a concern for you and you find the solution please write down here , so me and others also could learn from it .

Thanks

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Answer 2

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 23, 2019 12:53 PM in response to Roxham7

You can try exFAT format for the drive and test it. If the drive specification mentions "up to 128Gb", you should confirm with Nifty their official response to your specific question.

For Time Machine, it is better to have an external drive.

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Answer 3

Roxham7 Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 28, 2019 2:50 PM in response to Roxham7

Another quick hint , if you let your laptop goes to sleep , Slot/reader disappear , but instead of full reboot you also can use hibernate to bring it back .

Of course still not how it should perform, but for the time being an alternative for complete reboot is better and quicker .

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Answer 4

Roxham7 Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 23, 2019 5:31 PM in response to Roxham7

Thanks for response.

Problem is ,I cannot find any address/email from Nifty But I believe lots of Macbook pro owner (older models with card slots) , has experience with Nifty as they were very popular ,Thanks again

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