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PoppyFromNC
PoppyFromNC
Inspiring
October 18, 2023
Question

Storage for Lightroom Classic

  • October 18, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 1273 views

I have a late 2014 27" iMac with a 3TB fusion drive, of which I am using just under 1TB for all my programs/apps.

I currently have about 50,000 photos stored on an external SSD.

I am interested in replacing my old machine with an M2 Macbook Pro, and adding disk space to a new Mac is very expensive and cannot be upgraded.

As my budget is limited, I am wondering if I buy a base M2 Macbook Pro with 16 GB of memory and upgrade to a 1TB SSD if I can run Lightroom Classic off of an external SSD and not worry about running out of space.

I don't do any heavy processing, as I am only an amateur photographer.

Thanks for any help!

 

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    1 reply

    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    October 18, 2023

    Yes, you can put photos and catalog on an external drive. I believe the software itself has to be installed on the internal drive (but perhaps someone with more MAC knowledge can confirm)

    PoppyFromNC
    PoppyFromNCAuthor
    Inspiring
    October 18, 2023

    Thanks for the reply.

    I think you're right. I know the space needed for running LR is fairly small, but I want to make sure that 1TB is enough to run everything else plus those files without filling up. 

    PoppyFromNC
    PoppyFromNCAuthor
    Inspiring
    October 18, 2023

    With catalog and photos on the external drive, there should not be space issues on the internal drive. If your external drive is 1 TB, that may be fine for now, but you either need to include space for growth of the number of photos you have; or plan in your budget to buy a larger external drive at some point in the future. Only you can judge this; you can see how much space photos, previews and catalog takes up now. No one here knows what is on your computer or how much space it takes, and no one here can judge at what rate the number of your photos will grow.


    Thank you! I plan on buying a 4TB external drive which would last me a long time before needing upgrade. It is much less expensive than buying more space from Apple. I was more concerned with having enough overall space on the Macbook to keep from running out since it cannot be upgraded.  Your answer seems to verify that 1TB on board will be enough.

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