Hmmmm what to do? External hdd VS Leopard!

Well I was just given final cut pro from a friend (used to work in video editing, now changed jobs so he no longer uses the software) but unfortunately when I installed it (final cut, motion, livetype, dvd studio pro, soundtrack pro, livetype media) it took up 40gb of harddrive space!

This is on my MBP 2.2ghz with 120GB hdd.

The question I ask is, should I:
A) Buy an external harddrive OR
B) Buy Leopard

I don't have the money to buy both! What would you do, and why? And if you suggest buying a external drive, what would you recommend?

 

wow! 40GB!?!

When I installed Final Cut Pro it took up a couple gigs, but nowhere near that. What are you using Final Cut for? If you really need it for work or school, then I'd recommend an external hard drive, as you'll run out of space quickly when you start editing stuff. I'd recommend the G-Force series from Fantom Drives, or the MyBook from Western Digital.

There's nothing absolutely essential to video editing in Leopard, so that can wait if you decide to keep final cut.

 

I'd say in your case, get the external hard drive first. It seems more important right now, and Tiger is already a really solid and sleek OS (it just looks bad now that everyone's seen Leopard ). Upgrade to Leopard when you get the cash.

 

when you install FCP you can choose not to install certain programs that come with it. The actual FCP is only like 2-4gb

 

external. you might end up needing one anyway if you decide to do a clean install of leopard when you do get it.

 

And when you finally get Leopard, you also already have the external hard drive so you're all ready to use Time Machine .

 

I think an external hard drive would be good for you

A little off topic but since we're talking about HDD space. When you buy a 120GB Macbook Pro. How much space do you actually have when you open the box? Thanks!

 

I don't have a MacBook Pro, but expect about it to be around 110-115 GB (used + free).

My MacBook hard drive, 80 GB, is actually 73 GB (used + free).

 

For me it was slightly over 111GB

 

I also had around 112GB free.

Sam: How does time machine work exactly? Would be great to have the hdd, I think i'd just be really jealous with everyone having leopard and not me! hehe

 

Hehe, I'm not going to be able to get Leopard until November or later anyways, I'm broke .

Time Machine is meant to be an easy-to-use backup and recovery application. So it automatically backs up all your data onto an external hard drive, and then when say you deleted a photo yesterday and now decided you wanted it back, you can open up Time Machine and "go back to yesterday", and retrieve it. Its very fancy .

Read more about it here! http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/features/timemachine.html

 

Well, too bad that we don't have TB hdd's yet