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I am going to buy a MacBook Air soon but wondering how much storage I need.
I'll probably store most of my music on the cloud but load it up using a external passport drive. I will probably save a few photos and lightly use word and indesign.
Is the 128gb version going to be ok for my needs?
MacBook Air
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As you have an external drive, you can store the data that doesn't fit onto your MacBook on it, so 128 GB should enough for your uses. Note that 128 GB aren't too much so, although you shouldn't have any problem, check that you won't need Windows; in this case, you may have storage problems and you should consider 256 GB
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
As you have an external drive, you can store the data that doesn't fit onto your MacBook on it, so 128 GB should enough for your uses. Note that 128 GB aren't too much so, although you shouldn't have any problem, check that you won't need Windows; in this case, you may have storage problems and you should consider 256 GB
Yes, it should be adequate. You will have roughly 120 GBs of usable storage of which about 27 GBs is going to be OS X. In addition you need to maintain about 15 GBs of free space that OS X could use for its various needs. A disk file the size of installed memory will also be created automatically and OS X will always set up a swap space that starts at 64 MBs. This will leave you about 74 GBs if you have 4 GBs of RAM or 70 GBs if you get 8 GBs of RAM.
You can figures out if that's sufficient for your needs for third-party applications and other files you may load onto the computer. On one of my computers I've pretty much included everything I need including lots of applications and a stripped down iTunes library and still have 50 GBs left.
Thanks mende1
I want something light in weight so the Air is a good option but 128gb might not be enough capacity - I don't have loads of music - probably about 35gb worth. Do you think this option will be ok?
I might get Pages and not bother with Word, this could save some space...
Another thing you can do is to store the iTunes library on your external drive instead on the internal disk, so you will save more storage. Anyway, this storage is enough for the files you want to store. Pages will help you to save space because it's a standalone app, instead of Office
The difference between Office 2011 and iWork is 100,000 bytes. The difference between Word and Pages is like the difference between chicken salad and chicken sh*t.
Cheers Kappy
I don't want to overburden my laptop with files - I hope to mostly operate and save in the cloud. I might save my music (35gb) to the laptop but could always save it on ext hardrive.
I have word for mac on disk so I might need to borrow or buy an external cd drive to install it. Unless there is another means?
If you have another Mac or PC, you can use Remote Disc > http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5287 If not, you will have to buy an external optical drive. Any will work with your MacBook
If you don't mind spending the money you can buy Apple's external USB SuperDrive. Of course any other external drive will do. Or borrow someone's computer and clone your DVD installers to USB flash drives.
Keep things to a minimum. You don't want to lug around a DVD drive and an external hard drive just so you can use a computer you bought because it was light and portable. If you are going to lug around nearly two pounds of accessories then you might as well have bought a 13" MBP.
How much memory do I need?
