Macbook Pro Bootcamp Storage Woes: External drive?

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Macbook Pro Bootcamp Storage Woes: External drive?

Hi lovely helpful people!

I have a 2013 macbook pro retina. I stupidly chose to have an entry-level model with less storage which I can't upgrade, but I installed windows through boot camp anyway! I had to do this because I need Qiqqa, a referencing program for my PhD that only works on Windows (dammit).

I partitioned as much space on the windows side as I could, but my software (and all those **** PDFs and stats programs, google drive etc) are taking up ALL my storage on the windows partition. If I buy an apple external hard drive can I get it to use windows software on the windows partition? Or should I just buy any old drive? Can I even do this?

Would I be better off using paralells or vfusion instead?

Help I'm befuddled!😊

Thanks!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, iOS 7.1

Posted on Apr 9, 2014 7:32 PM

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Answer 1

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Apr 9, 2014 8:06 PM in response to Laulamoo

256 or 512 HD? How big is your windows partition? I can't imagine that you're using up +200gb on PDFs and programs

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Answer 2

Laulamoo Author

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Apr 9, 2014 8:18 PM in response to Laulamoo

Just to elaborate, its only 128GB in total...the windows partition is 50gb (it can't get any bigger without hurting the precious mac side!)

Really tiny amount of space. That was what was on offer unfortunately and I just didn't think to upgrade it because my previous 2010 macbook pro came with 256 so I literally assumed it was the same for the retina...

Totally my own fault, but I'd still like some help! 😊

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Answer 3

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Apr 9, 2014 9:10 PM in response to Laulamoo

You can (google) disable hibernation and reduce your page file to 1024 or disable it entirely. Depending upon your ram, this should free up decent space, ie 8gb ram creates a 8gb hibernation file.

To your question, are you trying to install windows apps into an external?

How much free space is on your OSX side? I'd reconsider setting different partition sizes unless both OS are full.

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Answer 4

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Apr 10, 2014 7:42 AM in response to Laulamoo

Will it work if you were to run Windows as a VM?

I just picked up a nice USB3 250GB pocket drive that is affordable $160.

You can install your programs and use the external device, and it is light and small and gets around 90MB/sec which should be fine using it for programs and data. you could have NTFS and use some of it as HFS+

MyDigitalSSD 256GB PocketVault

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E3WWFD6/

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