As people absorb the fact that the ultralight MacBook Air is aimed at a market that needs less space than the average laptop user, the problem of how to cram your stuff onto it comes into play. Since it comes with two drive options (64GB and 80GB), you do have some say in how much space is available, though the biggest option is still only 80GB.

A few short years ago, we wouldn’t have used the phrase “only” to describe 80GB, but as hard drive space has grown, so has program size and file size. The price we pay for increased functionality and form is a larger data footprint. In other words, technology may be getting smaller, but the data it holds just keeps growing.

Most people who are analyzing the usability of the MacBook Air mention the fact that you won’t get away without a secondary place to put your files. Whether that is an external hard drive, a network server or another computer altogether - you’ll need some extra storage at your disposal. Personally, I think some of the online storage options may be a good solution in place of an physical drive. Amazon S3 and the various third party services that go along with it, iDisk via .Mac, and other companies offer low cost solutions that up until now have bee used mainly for backups, but I don’t see why they can’t be utilized as a floating drive system as well.

One way to save space is to rid yourself of the notion that every file and application currently on your desktop or laptop is essential. Think about what you will use the computer for the most, and focus the applications you keep around that idea. Support your main actions and take on a streamlined approach to your applications folder. Think of this way: how often do you really think you will play Chess, for example, on your MacBook Air? Applications like that can be removed at no risk to your operating system or overall computer function.

If you like and use iTunes and iPhoto, consider leaving them on your spare computer and avoiding them on the MacBook Air. Photos and music files take up an enormous amount of room and are better housed on your desktop or external drive. If you must use these applications, consider seriously weeding the files down to the bare essentials and then repeating the process weekly to keep the stored items to a bare minimum. Keep in mind that movies and videos are another file size culprit and leave those off or keep less at a time as well.

I recommend keeping Windows and BootCamp off of the MacBook air - it uses an enormous amount of real estate as well as a large amount of RAM. Is there really any need to clutter up this machine with that kind of work load when you need the space for other things. I do recommend trimming programs of languages and other extras. Several programs exist to help you pare a program down to your native tongue, but my personal favorite is Monolingual. I used it to clean up my MacBook and my eMac and saved several GB of space on each one in just a few minutes.

Another good utility to prep your files and applications for running on a MacBook Air is GrandPerspective. This gives you a visual representation of what is on your Mac and how much space it takes up so that you can then decide if it is something you can live without. If all else fails, use the Stuffit application to compress files you absolutely have to have, and get in the habit of a weekly purge to your external storage to keep things lean.

Related:

Entry was posted on Friday, February 1st, 2008 at 3:48 pm under Macbook Air.  Print This Post

Read more entries by Leslie Poston.
Stumble It!