Best way to store/play/access music.

Detroit_Waves · 1 May 2012 at 01:17

Hey guys,

Looking for some help! I recently upgraded to a Macbook Pro at the start of the year to get rid of my old windows desktop. All of my music was stored on this desktop, which amount to about 75GB worth of music. I buy around 7-8 CDs or vinyl a month so its constantly growing. Everything is played via iTunes.

What is the best way to store this. Will having it stored all on my Macbook slow it down at all? There is 500GB built in. I want to keep the machine running as smoothly and as quickly as possible, so I don't want to store it on there if its going to be a problem. If I won't notice any difference in the speed of the machine, or any problems, then I will obviously just keep it all on there?

Failing this, I will obviously look to keep the music off the laptop, whether on an external drive, or via iTunes Match.

Can anyone offer advice on the best route to take. Thanks!

likwid · 1 May 2012 at 09:18

As long as you have the space available on your macbook drive then of course you can copy it there, that's what it's for. This won't have any impact on performance. Just don't fill the drive completely; leave 10% or so free space.

shanestatham · 1 May 2012 at 10:46

You paid for the Gigs so use them lol

Alternativly buy a 2nd HDD just for Media, i assume with Macs you can use exteral storage?

theheyes · 1 May 2012 at 16:26

Store it on the laptop - the space is there to be used and it won't slow down the system. Its a bit of a myth that the more disk you use the slower the computer becomes. I also suggest buying an external drive and keeping your music backed up.

Detroit_Waves · 2 May 2012 at 12:01

Thanks guys.

It seems the way forward is to keep it on my Macbook then. At least then I always have it wherever I take my laptop without having to worry about bringing anything extra. I don't really store much else directly on my laptop so I don't have any concerns about filling it up. Luckily, everything is backed up on an external drive, and I bunch of DVDs!

Deleted member 77746 · 2 May 2012 at 12:14

theheyes said:
Store it on the laptop - the space is there to be used and it won't slow down the system. Its a bit of a myth that the more disk you use the slower the computer becomes. I also suggest buying an external drive and keeping your music backed up.

Don't do this. Especially how you have 75 GB's worth, if the laptop breaks that's it you have had it.

I would look into some central server based device like the HP ProLiant server (Home Based Kit) with a raid storage solution or some sort of automatic sync app on the server to ensure everything gets backed up on another drive. A little bit more of a cost to you but atleast it will be safe.

lamboman · 2 May 2012 at 17:16

mrbell1984 said:
Don't do this. Especially how you have 75 GB's worth, if the laptop breaks that's it you have had it.

I would look into some central server based device like the HP ProLiant server (Home Based Kit) with a raid storage solution or some sort of automatic sync app on the server to ensure everything gets backed up on another drive. A little bit more of a cost to you but atleast it will be safe.

That's a lot of hassle to go to just to keep some music safe. By this logic we shouldn't store anything on a laptop. Not saying that I disagree with you, but we can't always live in a world of crazy precautions, and buying a server just to backup a computer is a bigger investment than it needs to be!

I'd suggest, for absolutely anybody, an external 1TB drive for Time Machine backups, at least. Heck, if you have a Mac desktop, plug the drive into that, share your drive, and set up Time Machine to backup onto that, so you won't need to constantly plug the drive in.

kilohawk · 2 May 2012 at 17:21

I constantly find that when my MBP's drive gets to around 70GB free, it slows down considerably, apps take longer to open, and safari is very sluggish,
but i have only 250GB and its old, so you shouldnt have any problems

Deleted member 77746 · 2 May 2012 at 17:36

lamboman said:
That's a lot of hassle to go to just to keep some music safe. By this logic we shouldn't store anything on a laptop. Not saying that I disagree with you, but we can't always live in a world of crazy precautions, and buying a server just to backup a computer is a bigger investment than it needs to be!

I'd suggest, for absolutely anybody, an external 1TB drive for Time Machine backups, at least. Heck, if you have a Mac desktop, plug the drive into that, share your drive, and set up Time Machine to backup onto that, so you won't need to constantly plug the drive in.

75GB is a lot to loose and not keep things backed up. Maybe a time machine would be better than a server but still something to consider.

Detroit_Waves · 2 May 2012 at 23:57

mrbell1984 said:
Don't do this. Especially how you have 75 GB's worth, if the laptop breaks that's it you have had it.

I would look into some central server based device like the HP ProLiant server (Home Based Kit) with a raid storage solution or some sort of automatic sync app on the server to ensure everything gets backed up on another drive. A little bit more of a cost to you but at least it will be safe.

Are you saying this however, just to avoid losing everything in case of the worst? No other reason?

To be honest, every couple of months I make a back up of my music onto an external drive, and just do it by hand. Its a bit a hassle, but nothing that kills me you know. All of my music is physical anyway, so if I were to lose anything I could just take the last back up from my external hard drive, and rip the most recent CDs again.

lamboman · 3 May 2012 at 13:50

mrbell1984 said:
75GB is a lot to loose and not keep things backed up. Maybe a time machine would be better than a server but still something to consider.

Not saying not to backup, as quite frankly if you're doing anything above "slightly important" you should be backing up. Just that a server is a really expensive way to go about it.

I suggest the Time Machine backup just as a way to backup the whole system. In reality, I'd back up the iTunes library file by itself, then exclude it (as well as the Steam Application Support folder if you use Steam) from Time Machine, as suggested by Detroit_Waves.

bloodiedathame · 3 May 2012 at 22:13

Or you could use Apples could music service (iForget the name), upload all your music (yes this would take a while) and not worry about having it on your laptop as it'd be streaming from their servers (downside would be if you had no internet).

I have about 50Gb music in my iTunes and I use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup to two separate drives.

Detroit_Waves · 4 May 2012 at 23:10

It definitely looks like the way forward is to keep all the music on my mac, as even with growth, there will still be plenty of space as everything else important I usually keep off my mac anyway on an external hard drive.

Then aside form this, making my usual backups, one directly for music only on an external hard drive, and then once a year, I will back it all up onto a bunch of DVDs!

Deleted member 77746 · 5 May 2012 at 13:08

Detroit_Waves said:
It definitely looks like the way forward is to keep all the music on my mac

Last person said that to me lost 400GB's worth of data. Good luck. Drive failure.

tribz · 5 May 2012 at 15:04

Time machine is fantastic. When my friends Macbook died, we got a new one with the later OSX Lion and then restored the last time machine backup. It put everything back including apps, settings, photos, music ... the lot! We were pretty impressed with how simple it was.

Detroit_Waves · 6 May 2012 at 02:44

mrbell1984 said:
Last person said that to me lost 400GB's worth of data. Good luck. Drive failure.

As I have said though, if I was to suffer a drive failure, will at any point in time, have a minimum of 98% of my music backed up on an external hard drive. The 2%, would be around in its physical form anyway, so it would take me no more than an hour to put that 2% back on. Not enough to deter me I don't think.

Deleted member 77746 · 6 May 2012 at 10:21

Detroit_Waves said:
As I have said though, if I was to suffer a drive failure, will at any point in time, have a minimum of 98% of my music backed up on an external hard drive. The 2%, would be around in its physical form anyway, so it would take me no more than an hour to put that 2% back on. Not enough to deter me I don't think.

Alright, so you answered your own question then? Good.

Detroit_Waves · 7 May 2012 at 01:39

Well, it was others here who were able to answer the question for me. Fortunately, it wasn't the back up of my music I was concerned about, but the best way to store and access it. Luckily, it seems on my laptop is the easiest and most convenient way