I bought a laptop for work, non-upgradeable 256GB drive, but it’s so much better than my clunky old home machine I think I’ll keep it at home and use the old one at work.

So far so good, but the home machine has about half of its 1Tb drive full of photos (backed up to Dropbox).

I could put those on an external drive I guess, not the end of the world to have to connect it every time I download the camera, or want to find a photo.

Any tips for minimum faff? Or just stick with the old clunker?

non-upgradeable 256GB driv

Why is it “non-upgradeable”?

indeed. never heard of an non-upgradeable one.

what’s the model #?

options are usually.

– bigger laptop HD
– go full SSD.
– bigger laptop SSHD (thats actually a hybrid HD/SSD)

Keep the files in the cloud and access them from there

You have a few options:

1) Does dropbox back up stored files? If so, you can simply rely on that and browse through the web interface when you want to access them. If it’s archived pictures, then you might as well do this as you won’t be accessing them all the time. The only risk is if they are accidentally deleted somehow. If dropbox has a read-only setting or some kind of file history setting then you should be ok. Also dropbox could go out of business, so you’d have to scan the T&Cs to see what happens.

2) NAS on your network – these are cheap nowadays, and you can map a network drive so your computer sees a z:\ drive that you can use as if it’s a normal drive. This will only work in your house (ok so some can be accessed remotely but it’s always going to be slow). You could do what I am planning to do and copy any recent photos you want to work on to your local drive and copy them back when you’re done.

3) Check if the laptop can be upgraded by opening it up – most can.

4) Portable external drive. If you are at a desk there’s really no penalty to doing this. Again you might wish to copy parts of it to your local drive if you want to work on them or access them somehow when you are not at home. Only issue with this is is when you are sitting on the sofa a dangling portable drive is a right pain.

In all cases having both dropbox and a local copy is important. The local copy will save you if dropbox goes tits up; the dropbox copy will save you if your house burns down or your computer gear gets robbed.

indeed. never heard of an non-upgradeable one.

Well – I’ve just got an MS Surface, and whilst it IS upgradeable, opening the case is difficult and risky.

Store A4 documents as A5 to save space.

NAS sounds kind of what I’m looking for, Molgrips. For Dropbox to sync your stuff to the cloud, it needs to be stored locally AFAIK. I’ve enough local space to sync, say, this year’s photos, and just leave the rest on both DB and the external drive.

Pretty sure a SSD upgrade is a back-to-the-factory job.

Pretty sure a SSD upgrade is a back-to-the-factory job.

Does it have screws on the underside? Then bollox to returning it to the factory for a new SSD HDD.. come on what make/model is it? You’ve gotten us interested

For Dropbox to sync your stuff to the cloud, it needs to be stored locally AFAIK.

It has a web interface which, if it’s anything like google and onedrive, will let you access and upload files without the app or local storage.

I’ve just split my photos into yearly lightroom catalogs. I can use one drive web interface to download and upload one year at a time OR using the app select one year to sync.

HDs and SSDs are just a plug-in job (provided the contents are copied over), so if you can open it up you can upgraded it. SSD manufacturers include disk cloning tools and instructions with their drives.

come on what make/model is it? You’ve gotten us interested

£5 says it’s a MacBook Pro

what make/model is it?

Macbook Pro 15″. If it’s not a warranty voider, I’ve already got a 750gb SSD going spare

very sharp Doris!

Is that the one that is glued in?
Google drive allows selective sync same as Dropbox you don’t need to hold the files but you’d be mad not to. Use the old laptop as source.

For Dropbox to sync your stuff to the cloud, it needs to be stored locally AFAIK

No it doesn’t.

You upload what you want through the web page and then select which folders you want to sync locally on your hard drive.

1-2tb external drive. Under USB3 accessing it is really fast.

Is that the one that is glued in?

Bloody hell. Really?

If your going to carry around extra drives how are you backing them up. How much do you really need to store though? Laptops need what you need to carry around. Keep the rest safe.

Edit have a Google as to how it’s put in there some were glued I think.

Can you not plug a USB portable drive into your WiFi hub? I know a lot of the ones we looked at when buying our newest one had that facility, and its predecessor did as well, except you needed some crappy software on the PC to access it. Latest one just appears as a drive on the network.

Oh, and you can connect to the Wifi hub mounted drive from anywhere. Once you’ve done a couple of extra set up steps.

My photo library is catalogued on my HDD, and syncs with Dropbox, then with the external whenever it’s plugged in. Happy to carry on that way tbh; it works and I can get my head around it. I was only thinking of keeping the MBP as it’s a nicer bit of hardware to use.

Can you not plug a USB portable drive into your WiFi hub?

This appeals, have to check the router model when I get home to see if it’ll do it.

Edit: Router looks like it’ll connect to an external drive, so if I can figure out if it’ll then sync to Dropbox then it’s a goer.

very sharp Doris!

I’ve got one myself, thought it sounded familiar 😉

I use an external HDD for my audio files and iTunes library. But these days I find myself plugging it in increasingly little. I have my tunes on a computer upstairs and just Plex them over wifi to my stereo.

If you’ve got a Mac desktop computer (I’ve got a Mac mini) you can just plug an external drive into it, share it, and access it very easily that way. Not quite a NAS setup as your computer doesn’t treat it as ‘local’ but fine if you just want to grab stuff from it once a week.

I keep thinking of getting something like one of these too, but I just haven’t got round to it (and probably won’t!) but they look handy… http://uk.transcend-info.com/Apple/jetdrivelite/

Check out synology nas devices with built in dropbox sync.

Alternativly, try boxfiler to sync from external drives.

Can you not plug a USB portable drive into your WiFi hub?

Ours can do this technically but it’s a bit shit. Dedicated NAS is better, and pretty cheap these days.

Our old nasty router did it badly and unreliably, current one its almost as fast as the NAS or the server.

Using existing hardware is always cheaper than getting new. And a decent NAS is going to cost a bit once you’ve got drives etc, and pretty over the top for documents and photos (if the router is passably good at it, ours is).

Qsync Silent NAS. Lovely bit of kit.

Ps. Looked here?

Has it got an SD card slot? I bought a high capacity and fast SD card for my laptop to increase the capacity and it works really well. No faff as it’s always plugged in.

256GB is not a small amount of storage, backup stuff you want and delete anything you are not using on a regular basis, presumably most of it

256GB is not a small amount of storage

It is and it isn’t; with about 36mb per RAW file, it soon disappears. But your point is spot on – no need to have years’ worth of photos always to hand – they could live on an external drive and dropbox, and just sync the last 6 or 12 months.

Looking into NAS though. If it’s foolproof, I might be tempted. Router hasn’t recognised any drive I’ve plugged into it yet, though to be fair might be a format issue or something.

nd you can connect to the Wifi hub mounted drive from anywhere. Once you’ve done a couple of extra set up steps.

While technically true. Your limited by internet speed. Id never like to be reliant on my home internet to get a file…..It barely works when I’m in the house.

Yeah don’t be fooled. Accessing files via NAS or the router will require them to be uploaded via your home broadband, and your upload speed is likely to be much slower than your download speed. For us it’s only 750kbps. A single 36Mb raw file is going to take a while at that rate.

How much does 1Tb cost on dropbox?

Think it was 99* a year, the usual providers were all about the same price at the time

*€ I assume but can’t remember

USB 3 flash drives are ridiculously cheap now. I have a 128GB one hosting VMs that cost me £20. It works an absolute treat wit VMWare workstation.

128GB Sandisk usb3 dongle. It is tiny, about the same as any other mouse adaptor. And 128 GB is half of what you have already!

Not quite sure about the reliability of these for long term storage. You might have to get a decent one, preferably that supports trim if these things do.

Yep I’d only be using external storage as a temp measure, as soon as your back pop it onto something like a nas and the cloud.

If your laptop has a SD card slot, you can get low-profile card (or card readers for micro-SD) that can live in there and give a bunch of extra storage. I have a BaseQi one with a 128GB microSD which is handy as an extra space for duplicating things for backup, or for bulky things like videos to watch.

You might have to get a decent one, preferably that supports trim if these things do.

Trim is part of the AHCI command set. To the best of my knowledge SD cards and USB pendrives don’t support Trim as they aren’t AHCI devices. (If I’m wrong, this is a relatively new addition to the SD / USB interface specs that I’m not aware of.)

[quote=”molgrips”]Yeah don’t be fooled. Accessing files via NAS or the router will require them to be uploaded via your home broadband, and your upload speed is likely to be much slower than your download speed. For us it’s only 750kbps. A single 36Mb raw file is going to take a while at that rate.[/quote]Good points I’m running 50 up and 50 down at the moment. So i get really rapid service. One reason i upgraded the router, to make use of some of the more advanced features of fibre and our new service provider. Massive difference from the “broadband” we had before.

Cougar, whilst trying to find out about U3 capable SD cards some articles seemed to hint at trim for these devices, but I can’t seem to re-find it. You are likely right for cheap/older devices though.