Tdaniel40

I am new to the forum. I am shooting with a canon 77d and am an avid amateur just recently returning to the hobby. I am getting ready to buy a MacBook Pro and will be using LR and learning PS (hopefully). I intend to use external drives for photo storage. My question is, what is the best size internal drive to order in my mbp? I know it depends on so many factors, so I’m just looking for what others have experienced. Thanks for helping.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

No one can give you anything meaningful on drive size. I will suggest that you avoid buying those multiple terabyte drives that cost $100. They are junk, and they break.

Better to get a HGST Ultrastar which is designed for grueling datacenter use, and come with 5 yr warranties, then buy a USB 3.1 USB C or Thunderbolt 2 (or 3) - whatever your mbp is equipped with. This will cost twice as much as the junk, but will last 5x longer. Also, I would get 2, not one, because you'd want to backup your work at least to a second drive.

11bravo

Can't speak to a Mac, I use Windows. However, I have a number of HDD's ( if you are talking about HDD's, not SSD's), and find 4TB drives a sweet spot. I LIKED HGST drives until they stopped making them; now I use Western Digital 4TB Red NAS drives (you don't have to use in a NAS). On sale, can find for $100. Buy a pair.

I also buy Seagate 4TB drives (slightly cheaper), but don't trust them enough to keep anything precious on them.

Key is having an enclosure WITH a fan. I've used Rosewill RX358 cases for a decade from Newegg.

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16817182247

So I prefer to build my own external drives so I know what's inside. And the Rosewill case will keep the drive inside cool for hours of continuous access (I provision any new HDD with a long format, then a complete chkdsk, then another surface scan. All in all, about 16 hours for a 4TB drive).

Haven't seen a NEW HGST drive of any form or model in over a year. Anything I see now are refurbished. Seems that Western Digital has COMPLETELY absorbed HGST and done away with the name. A crime against humanity for sure.

If you're talking SSD's, well, prices continue to fall.

Strodav Loc: Houston, Tx

I like your choice of a MacBook Pro. I have a 2016 15" version with LR and PS and it is thin and light and fits in my Manfrotto photo backpack, so I take it on certain shoots. I have collected a few external drives including a Sandisk 1TB SSD for $170, but for hard drives look at the LaCie Rugged STEV2000400 2TB external drive for $170 if your going to bounce your drive around a bit. If for home use look at the WD My Passport for Mac 4TB for about $110.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

👍👍 Excellent advice - couldn’t have said it better.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

Either I am confused or everyone who has responded thus far did not understand your question...

What I interpreted you to ask is "what hard drive should I order in the MacBook I intend to buy?" - is that about right?

All this drivel about external drives has nothing whatsoever to do with what you asked. So to answer the question glibly - get the largest you can. A SSD (solid state drive) has no mechanical moving parts, and so in general can withstand more jostling and abuse than a traditional spinning disk drive - so opt for that. But as for size - at least 512GB to allow for space for the inevitable gaggle of programs you will have (on top of OSX); 1GB wouldn't hurt since there may well be occasions when you will want to download the contents of your camera's card to the laptop, either for processing or backup, while out and about. 2TB might be a bit of overkill, but more memory is never a bad thing.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I always used Win machines - until Microsoft made me mad by the way they pushed Win10, so now I have a Linux machine - but my experience is that you can never get a drive too large, because you never know what additional software you might want to load on it someday.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

You are correct (although “drivel” is a strong word for good advice concerning the external drive that he will purchase) - I misread the OP. IF you intend to store only the OS and Aps on the internal disk, then a 500GB SSD will be more than adequate, BUT if you intend to store data as well, then the answer, from my perspective, is the largest SSD you can afford.

Tdaniel40

Awesome advice re internal MacBook drive size as well as external drive size. Thank you all for the input.

11bravo

My mistake answering about external drives; that's what I get for responding late at night.

For internal, it's what you can afford. I have a Samsung 860 Evo 1TB SSD that replaced a 500GB Samsung, and this is my "travel" laptop. Has a 2nd internal drive bay with a 2GB HDD for photo storage, plus 2 external 2.5 inch HGST 2TB HDD's for backups. I like to keep 3 copies while on the road - drives WILL fail at some time, usually the most inopportune time.

While you may keep data on externals at home, nice to have some spare room for when you and your laptop are away.

For me, storage is like "Field of Dreams" - if you build it, they (data and programs) will come.

sloscheider Loc: Minnesota

The thing to remember about MB Pro's (I have 2) is you can't easily upgrade later on. Get the most RAM you can afford (impossible to upgrade) and then get the biggest SSD you can afford (difficult and expensive to upgrade). I also feel 500 gig should be a minimum. One of mine has the 256 gig and it works great unless I'm doing a 2 day shoot at which point the 80 gig I usually have free fills up fast so I've resorted to external drives at remote shoots... it works but it's one more thing I have to take with and set up.

OnDSnap Loc: NE New Jersey

Samsung Portable SSD's T5's

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Some of you may have missed the question.

"My question is, what is the best size internal drive to order in my mbp?"

It looks like they don't offer hard drives anymore - just various SSDs. They are very small compared with traditional hard drives. The largest is 512 GB.
https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/15-inch

What you should do is buy a drive designed for internal use and then buy an enclosure for it. HGST UltraStar drives are very good. They're "enterprise," designed to work 24/7. I've bought reconditions drives from Amazon, and I've been using them for years. Of course, you never rely on just one drive. You need at least two more as backups.

https://www.newegg.com/d/HGST-Desktop-Internal-Hard-Drives/BrandSubCat/ID-1984-14

Nikon1201

Minimum 1 tb

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

With time everything seems to require more storage, if you are purchasing a new MacBookPro you are already making a significant investment that you want to use for years to come, I would suggest that you purchase the largest SSD drive that your budget will accommodate.