MacBook FRIED, Bought new MacBook Air Restore Filled all 256 GB

[suzy7677]

Hi,

I have a question about hard drive storage/best options.

My 2014 Macbook Air fried two weeks ago (most likely a power issue, not the logic board, though I am not sure).

I had my files backed up through Carbonite. THIS RESTORE TOOK UP MY ENTIRE BRAND NEW LAPTOP.

I purchased a brand new 2018 Macbook air and restored through Carbonite (my iphotos did not restore ((((((((((((((((((().

THESE are my thoughts, as I am on a budget and would rather not have just dished out $1,300 for a macbook air that no longer has any storage.


1. RETURN this brand new expensive 256 GB Macbook Air.

2. BUY an external hard drive and put the 256 GB Carbonite Restore on that. ( I can even buy a 500 GB, or so)

3. PURCHASE a 128 GB Macbook Air from Walmart for $300. (Or other similarly priced refurbish)


What are your thoughts? I have never used an external hard drive before and I am not quite sure how it works.

This will also free me up some $$$$, so that I can have a computer expert look at my FRIED laptop to see if he can recover those files and PHOTOS for me, and rule out the logic board issue (which is a $495 + repair) and even possibly repair.

Please let me know your thoughts. Is this a bad idea? Do you have a better suggestion? Please let me know. Thank you

 

[honestone]

A couple of questions first, before I recommend some excellent free programs, and an excellent commercial one, along with a discussion about external drives:

1. What exact Mac model do you have?

2. Have you ever done any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs using software?

3. It's good that you are making a backup. A lot of folks come here for help and don't backup! I use SuperDuper! to back up both of my Macs to 2 external devices, and it works very well! The software makes a bootable clone of each of my internal SSDs (my late 2012 Mac Mini has a 256 gig SSD inside of it).

OK, first, you can actually do a lot of disk cleanup on your own. One primary place to look is inside your downloads folder. Another resource "hog" is deleted EMails. When you delete an EMail, it is not permanently removed from your machine. Depending on whcih EMail program you are using, there are ways to have deleted EMails permanently removed. I use Outlook 2016 as my EMail client, and I am constantly have deleted EMails permanently removed. It is easy for me to do it, but I don't know about other EMail programs.

Here are some excellent freeware programs you can use to help you out:

Onyx - Available from here: https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

Rock Solid, has been around a long, long time, and has had many positive reviews. I use it religiously (along with a commercial program entitled Tech Tool Pro). I would not be without either of them. In fact, I will not upgrade to a new Mac OS until there are compatible versions of both of them for the new OS (along with 4 other critical programs that I have). Note that there are different versions of Onyx available, for each different Mac OS. You would need to get the correct version for the Mac OS you are using..

AppCleaner - Available from here: https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

Another stellar performer! As you can see via that link, it will get rid of most stuff associated with an application that you wish to delete.

GrandPerspective - Available from here: http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/

Nifty graphical way to see which files are on your drive. Good way to identify large ones that you might not need.

Malwarebytes - Available from here: https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/

Good to use if you see adware and/or suspect you might have a virus. It also is good to run it every so often, even if nothing is wrong.

ClamXAv - Available from here: https://www.clamxav.com/

More extensive than Malwarebytes in terms of finding viruses. You can use it in demo mode, and it still has just about full functionality.

Then of course you can use Disk Utility to check out your drive and/or do repairs. It's not as extensive as Tech Tool Pro (https://www.micromat.com/products/techtool-pro), Disk Warrior (https://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9qzeqcSF2gIViWp-Ch0NngwsEAAYASAAEgJg7_D_BwE), or Drive Genius (https://www.prosofteng.com/drive-genius-mac-protection-software/), but it gets the job "mostly" done. I use Tech Tool Pro, and in fact it is the only third party one so far that is fully compatible with High Sierra (that's the OS I use on both of my Macs)

However, you need to run it in "isolated" mode. For that, you would boot your Mac into the (Hidden) Recovery HD partition. This link explains how to do that, and what is on that partition:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/ht201314

OK, about drives. I also have a mid 2017 13" MacBook Air, and the internal SSD is actually 252 gig, not 256 gig (talk about false advertising!). For an external device, you can "operate" on them just like an internal drive, ie, Erase, Format, and Partition the drive. I have 2 Samsung 850 Pro 512 gig SSDs inside two nice, slim Orico enclosures, and each of those SSDs have 3 partitions. 2 of the Partitions are for the SuperDuper! backups for each of my Macs, and the third is a "Miscellaneous" one, containing old tax returns, photos, movies, TV series, etc. Those two SuperDuper! partitions are formatted as APFS, whereas the third one is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

If you can afford it, it would be good to get an SSD (it seems like 500/512 gig would work for you, especially if you do some disk cleanup). Samsung SSDs are the best, and currently their model line is 860 EVO or 860 Pro models. You can probably pick up a Samsung 860 EVO 500 gig SSD for about $140 US. An Orico case only runs about $8 to $9 US.

 

[BrianMay]

I have a 2015 MacBook Pro and Time Machine onto a 3 TB external USB 3.0 hard drive. I've had no issues and only once had to recover - it worked perfectly.

The advantage of the 3Tb drive is there is space for oodles of back up. However, I back up manually rather than leave it connected. Usually back up about twice a week.

Hope this helps.

 

[honestone]

I have a 2015 MacBook Pro and Time Machine onto a 3 TB external USB 3.0 hard drive. I've had no issues and only once had to recover - it worked perfectly.

The advantage of the 3Tb drive is there is space for oodles of back up. However, I back up manually rather than leave it connected. Usually back up about twice a week.

Hope this helps.

Do you do incremental backups? Myself, I do not need to, and thus backing up once a week with SuperDuper! suits my needs just fine. Plus, it is easier with a bootable backup to 1) perform a clean installation of either a new Mac OS or the current one, or 2) do a recovery.

But, for some, Time Machine is fine, and it gets the job done. I just prefer an easier way for doing either of the tasks I mentioned above.