genocolo Loc: Vail and Gasparilla Island

I have close to 600 gb of photos and videos on a ssd drive which I use with my 2015 MacBook Pro with only 256 gb hard drive. Is there an advantage to transferring all photos and videos to new computer or should I continue to use the external?

alvin3232 Loc: Houston, TX

Well
For me, I would keep the data on an external drive and have it also backed up. Your data is important, and stick with the external drive. If your MacBook ever failed all data on your external drive is safe.

Al

genocolo Loc: Vail and Gasparilla Island

Good point. I am wondering if having them all on the computer would make managing and editing them materially faster. The Mac will be backed up on carbonite and an external.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I would keep them on the external drive. It doesn't matter how large a drive you get in a new computer, it will fill up eventually and since the new MacBooks are non-upgradeable you will have to place them onto an external drive sometime in the future. Why not just leave them there?

Speed is not a big problem. When you go to edit a photo, there's a little time to load it, and the editing process takes much more time than that. It's the program that needs the fast I/O, not the data.

Just Fred Loc: Darwin's Waiting Room

The transfer speeds between external and internal drives these days is on par with internal drives. I have a 4TB external SSD attached to my new-ish (Dec. 2022) M2 MacBook Air and an additional benefit I derive from this setup is that I can take the drive and connect it to my older M1 MacBook Pro.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

You should have anything of importance on at least two drives, preferably on three.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

I would keep my pictures on TWO separate drives, as drive failure is a disaster. I also use external drives for storage.

sueyeisert Loc: New Jersey

I keep my photo on my MacBook then backup on an external drive. I reason where ever I take my computer I have my photo, but my backup is at home and I don’t have to carry an external hard drive with me.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

The principal reason to have a large amount of internal storage is to reduce the need for extra RAM (or unified memory on a Mac). The less RAM (or unified memory) you have, the more space on your startup drive is needed to function as "virtual memory".

The 16GB memory, 1TB SSD combination is the performance "sweet spot" for lower end Macs. It gives MacOS and applications a decent amount of "breathing room" to stretch out and run efficiently.

If you get an M2 Mac, I would still keep using an external drive for storage. Leaving about a third to a half of the SSD on a MacBook Air empty is a great way to keep it speedy. All computers will slow down some as the startup drive fills up.

My son has an M1 MacBook Air with 8GB memory and 512GB SSD. I have exactly the same machine with 16GB memory and 1TB SSD. He has to shut down all other applications to edit video. I can leave some open. He has to store most of his files externally. I don't usually have to do that, but I do keep at least 400 GB of my SSD empty. For large video projects, I'll store all files on an external SSD.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

My M1 has 16GB and a 512 SSD. I don't process video, and it works fine. Someday, we'll look back on those specs as quaint.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

512 is plenty if you use it wisely. An external SSD can extend that significantly. If it’s Thunderbolt 3 or 4, it can be the startup drive, with negligible loss of performance.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

If I did everything wisely, I'd be a millionaire living in paradise.

MrPhotog

There is a distinct advantage to continuing doing what you have been doing. Keep your pictures and videos on a separate hard drive. Or two. Or three. (However much backup you like!)

Should you get a new computer just plug in your drive and you are ready to go. Don’t waste time moving old files you rarely use onto a new computer.

If you have just one external drive now, shop for a second. Then some weekend plug both of your external drives into your computer and copy everything from the old drive onto the new one to create a backup.

The transfer speed on the newer Macs is incredibly fast if you have the right cables.

I bought a pocketsize (half the size of my cell phone) 2 tb solid state hard drive at Costco last year for $89. This year there will probably be better deals. These small hard drives can go anywhere, so there is no reason to leave them at home. Leave the backups at home.