Need advice on HDD space

Well, my 60GB builtin HDD is kind of getting full. Not really full, some 22GB still available, but I am starting to worry already, since I'd like to play with iMovie and get some photos currently in another machine here as well. Besides deleting unnecessary stuff - I'd recommend Whatsize, really helpful to find big files lying around - I'd like to purchase more real state HDD space, and that's where I need advice.

Basically I am willing to spend no more than US$165 (mind you this things are quite expensive down here in Brazil so take no notice of the high prices). I have three options:

1 - Buy another internal HDD. A 120GB SATA-II HDD can be bought here for the price I am willing to pay.
2 - Buy an external 2,5" HDD. For the same price, or slightly less, I can buy a 80GB external HDD on an USB 2.0 enclosure.
3- Buy an external 3,5" HDD, on USB 2.0. I can go all the way to 250GB if I opt for this route.

I can think of the following advantages and disadvantages to the 3 options:

1 - Pros: No external drives to carry, reasonable space.
Cons: will be left with a 60GB drive laying around with no user. I would have to purchase an enclosure to use it - more than my budget allows, since SATA-II enclosures are hard to find here and more expensive.
2 -Pros: portable external drive, does not need a power brick.
Cons: not much space, not firewire (again hard/expensive to find here) so I can't boot OS X from it, least space for the buck.
3 - Pros: lots of space, allowing me to use as a backup for other machines as well, slightly lower price than other options.
Cons: needs a power brick, less portable - bulky indeed, no firewire again.

Since now it is possible to write NTFS partitions from OS X, I'd be willing to install Windows XP in an external drive (tricky installation, but possible) and have access to a few windows-only games in the Macbook as well (even if I know perfectly well that I'll hardly have time to game) like HL2.

I wonder which solutions you guys have found. I tend to go for the 3,5"HDD, but I'd like more comments and insights.

 

I think you should only go for the 250gb. You can never have too much space.

 

I vote for the 3.5" drive if you won't be needing to carry it around a bunch. The extra space would be nice to have.

I'll throw out another suggestion that you may not have thought about--get a new 2.5 internal drive and put it inside your apple. Purchase an enclosure for your current 2.5" drive. Best of both worlds?

 

Probably the 3.5" is the best.

 

Thats basically the same as option 2, but just swapping them over.

 

I'd certainly make it 1 or 3. For myself, I'd choose 1 provided you think it will give you enough space.

Lots of hdd space is good, but a 3.5" enclosure + brick really is a pain to carry around and make room for. I find that I'm happiest just putting my laptop and some books into a bag and not having to pile in a ton of accessories. On the other hand, if you think you might just leave the 3.5" at the desk the majority of the time, it'd be a great solution. Oh, and remember you can't actually get to the data here without an outlet. No sitting in the middle of the room for you!

 

I agree with Vespoli. Buy a 120 or 160gb driver to replace the one in your Mac and put the "old" one in an external USB or FireWire enclosure.

You can never have too muc dosk space IN you laptop. An external drive is great but adds weight and bulk, it never seems to be round when you need it, and your MAc does not have a lot of spare ports.

One of the things I love about the Mac is being able to develop AND test on multiple target environments. At the moment I can use this one machine to develop/test for OS X, Windows, and Linux. Excellent.

 

Thanks for all the answers. The problem with buying both a bigger internal HD and an enclosure for the old one is that I can't afford it: both SATA-2 HDDs and compatible enclosures are expensive here and hard to find.

 

Yep I agree

 

I say try to get as much HD in your laptop as possible. Externals are a real pain in the neck.

 

Choose option #2, and instead order a 160GB hard drive from the US and have it shipped to Brasil for the same price that you would have spent there on an 80GB one.

 

I'm not sure where "there" is, USB 2 SATA enclosures "here" (in the US) can be had for $20-$30 mailorder. You can always wait on the enclosure and just get the internal now, then as funds permit, recycle you old drive in a new enclosure.

 

Brazil as I said in the first post. But answering both you and gautam3, most dealers such as Newegg won't ship directly to Brasil; even if they did, the custom taxes would bring the price in line with what I'd pay here... an option would be using an intermediary, but it also has its costs and takes a long time. For example, an US$84 250GB MyBook I saw in Newegg would cost me US$159 CIF.