I currently have a late 2011 MBP with 500 gb storage. I’m considering buying a 2020 MBA 256 gb ssd? Is the 256 gb adequate or should I upgrade to 512 gb? I have about 57 gb available on my 2011.
Keep in mind macOS requires at least 20GB of free storage space on the boot drive so that macOS can operate properly. Plus SSDs perform & last longer if there is some empty space on them.
Also keep in mind when you upgrade to a new version of macOS it require even more free storage space. Due to the universal Big Sur installer to support both Intel & M1 Macs the requirement of free space can be as high as 35GB to 40GB for the upgrade and I would expect the same to be true for the next release of macOS next year as well.
I think you really need a 1TB SSD or you need to start storing items on external media since you are closing in on the limits of a 500GB SSD (depending on how much more you will be storing over the next five years or so). Just make sure you are backing up the external media as well as your boot drive. FYI, it is impossible to recover accidentally deleted data from an SSD plus an SSD can fail at any time without any warning signs.
Keep in mind macOS requires at least 20GB of free storage space on the boot drive so that macOS can operate properly. Plus SSDs perform & last longer if there is some empty space on them.
Also keep in mind when you upgrade to a new version of macOS it require even more free storage space. Due to the universal Big Sur installer to support both Intel & M1 Macs the requirement of free space can be as high as 35GB to 40GB for the upgrade and I would expect the same to be true for the next release of macOS next year as well.
I think you really need a 1TB SSD or you need to start storing items on external media since you are closing in on the limits of a 500GB SSD (depending on how much more you will be storing over the next five years or so). Just make sure you are backing up the external media as well as your boot drive. FYI, it is impossible to recover accidentally deleted data from an SSD plus an SSD can fail at any time without any warning signs.
A GB is a GB so the difference would be 500GB - 256GB = 244GB.
If you currently only have 57GB of free space on your 500GB drive then you are using 443GB of space. If you plan on keeping the 443GB of data then there is no way it will fit on a 256GB drive.
Then you have far more than a 256 GB SSD can hold. So unless you want to delete or store externally a lot of your data, get the larger drive.
Very good information. Thank you.
whats the difference in terms of storage between a late 2011 MBP 500 gb and a 2020 MBA 256 gbs ssd?
