Dealing with 128gb on a 2018 Mini

[weezin]

Hi All - A few years ago I found an amazing deal on a 2018 base model Mini and I bought it (like, REALLY good deal). I knew the 128gb drive was limiting, so I purchased a 1TB external SSD with a Thunderbolt enclosure and attached that to the Mini permanently. Following some advice I read, I set the "home folder" to be on the external SSD and tried to put most stuff on there to save space on the internal.

Well, after a few years, I'm constantly getting "low space" warnings regarding the internal 128gb internal drive and its driving me nuts. I'm constantly having to go in an delete stuff, move stuff, etc and I'm sick of it

I'm wondering what I can do here, short of buying a new machine (the M1 is tempting, but I'm not ready yet). The simplest (?) solution seems to be to boot entirely from my external SSD, instead of the split setup I currently have. However, I'm not sure how I'd reconcile all of my files that are currently split between the internal drive and the external drive all onto the external drive. Any advice there?

Are there any other options short of buying a new machine?

 

[now i see it]

Ideally the small fast built in drive would contain only the OS. Everything else gets copied to the external.

It is a pain though in regards to home folders.
What I ended up doing is only storing my current project on the internal drive. Everything else went to the externals.
128GB is plenty big for that.

 

[Matty_TypeR]

I would plug in an external drive to back up all your files, re install your osx version to internal drive. then clone it to your external TB drive with Superduper or what you choose, leave internal drive as is, boot from external TB drive. copy all your files back to thunderbolt drive and leave internal drive as fresh install.

The config I use is as above, even have win 11 on 2nd external TB drive and use bootcamp too with Egpu. built in drive never gets used as you can't replace that if it fails.

As you can see 2 external TB drives, one with Mac OSX Monterey and one win 11 I swap between both in bootcamp and don't use internal drive at all. To get bootcamp on external drive you first have to use internal drive to create boot camp install of windows. You then use reflect to clone external TB drive with Win 11. then delete boot camp from internal drive so its back to fresh install of OSX and leave it that way. you now have 2 external drives with OSX and Windows 11 or 10 which ever you prefer.

 

[weezin]

Thanks guys.

@Matty_TypeR - I forgot to mention that I back up my Mac (both internal drive and external SSD) to Time Machine via a Time Capsule. Is there a way that I can use that to re-configure the arrangement?

The challenge as I see it with what you suggested for me:

I would plug in an external drive to back up all your files...

...is that I have files spread across multiple drives, and even applications installed on both the internal and external drives. I'm not sure how to handle making sure that I get all files appropriately. That's why I'm wondering if Time Machine can help in any way. Thoughts on that?

 

[Matty_TypeR]

Time machine across several drives would be a nightmare, I would spend the time backing up your files yourself and in future just use one drive for back ups like an external usb or another TB drive.

 

[weezin]

Thanks, I get that.

I'm poking through my hard drive usage and am finding that there are 10GB of files in my internal drive -> Application support, even though the majority of my apps are located on my external drive. The folders that are taking up the most space and for apps on the extnernal drive.

Is there any way around this? All in all, this Application Support folder is taking up 10GB.

 

[locovaca]

I ran a split setup on a Mac Mini 2014. Time Machine does work, but the caveat is that to do a restore it has to restore in the exact same split configuration as it was backed up. I found that out when I moved to my Mini 2018 which only had the internal SSD.

 

[weezin]

I ran a split setup on a Mac Mini 2014. Time Machine does work, but the caveat is that to do a restore it has to restore in the exact same split configuration as it was backed up. I found that out when I moved to my Mini 2018 which only had the internal SSD.

Ah, bummer. Okay well that solves that!

 

[jackerin]

I decided to run the entire OS from an external Samsung X5. It gets pretty warm but so far it's held up fine, and down the line I'm thinking of trying to open it up and upgrading. The internal drive only holds the original OS install for troubleshooting.

 

[djc6]

Try OmniDiskSweeper - it should tell you where space is being consumed on 128GB drive:

Omni Labs — OmniDiskSweeper, OmniWeb, and OmniPresence - The Omni Group

Creators of Mac, iPad, and iPhone productivity software. Proud to bring you OmniFocus, OmniOutliner, OmniGraffle, and OmniPlan.

www.omnigroup.com

I'm always struggling with iphone/ipad backups consuming vast amounts of space on root drive.

 

[Fishrrman]

The small internal SSD should have:
- The OS
- Applications
- Home folder (but in a "stripped down" form)

By "stripped down", I mean just the basic home "folder" itself (and some items that normally reside there but don't consume space).

Large libraries -- such as movies, music and pictures -- should be kept on an external SSD and "referenced" by their apps. Easily done.

This will give you the advantage of fast booting from the internal SSD.
But now you have two drives to back up. (not really a problem).

If this is really gettin' to you, perhaps it's time to take a good look at either a Mac Studio or perhaps see if an m2 Mini gets announced next week...

 

[weezin]

I decided to run the entire OS from an external Samsung X5. It gets pretty warm but so far it's held up fine, and down the line I'm thinking of trying to open it up and upgrading. The internal drive only holds the original OS install for troubleshooting.

That's good to know, thanks!

Try OmniDiskSweeper - it should tell you where space is being consumed on 128GB drive:

Omni Labs — OmniDiskSweeper, OmniWeb, and OmniPresence - The Omni Group

Creators of Mac, iPad, and iPhone productivity software. Proud to bring you OmniFocus, OmniOutliner, OmniGraffle, and OmniPlan.

www.omnigroup.com

I'm always struggling with iphone/ipad backups consuming vast amounts of space on root drive.

I have Disk Inventory X and Daisy Disk that I've been using. Here's what Daisy Disk shows:

When I dig in to Users -> Library, I see this:

Seems like a lot of space being taken up in the Containers and Application Support sections, especially considering almost all of my apps are run off of my external SSD.

The small internal SSD should have:
- The OS
- Applications
- Home folder (but in a "stripped down" form)

By "stripped down", I mean just the basic home "folder" itself (and some items that normally reside there but don't consume space).

Large libraries -- such as movies, music and pictures -- should be kept on an external SSD and "referenced" by their apps. Easily done.

This will give you the advantage of fast booting from the internal SSD.
But now you have two drives to back up. (not really a problem).

If this is really gettin' to you, perhaps it's time to take a good look at either a Mac Studio or perhaps see if an m2 Mini gets announced next week...

That makes sense, but I think I'd still be running into issues. See screenshots above. And that's with all my apps on an external SSD.

I have a hankering for a base model Studio, but can't afford to spend that on a machine right now. It would simplify my setup in more ways than one though!

 

[Boyd01]

I have a hankering for a base model Studio, but can't afford to spend that on a machine right now.

Probably not the solution you're looking for, but FWIW there are a surprising number of 2018 Mini's in the refurb store right now with SSD's larger than yours.

Refurbished Mac - Mac mini

Save up to 15% on a refurbished Mac mini. Tested and certified by Apple including a 1-year warranty. Free delivery and returns.

www.apple.com

 

[weezin]

Probably not the solution you're looking for, but FWIW there are a surprising number of 2018 Mini's in the refurb store right now with SSD's larger than yours.

Refurbished Mac - Mac mini

Save up to 15% on a refurbished Mac mini. Tested and certified by Apple including a 1-year warranty. Free delivery and returns.

www.apple.com

I saw that! I think that if I'm going to upgrade, it will need to be to an M processor at this point.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Topics like these make me so frustrated that Apple won't simply build in an NVMe slot (either as primary or just for additional storage).

There would be no slowdowns or drawbacks at all. They've simply chosen to lock it all down for their own profiteering reasons...and in the process made somewhat consumer hostile products on a topic like this.

Daisy chaining external storage all over the place, on a desktop machine, really sucks as a solution.

 

[weezin]

Topics like these make me so frustrated that Apple won't simply build in an NVMe slot (either as primary or just for additional storage).

There would be no slowdowns or drawbacks at all. They've simply chosen to lock it all down for their own profiteering reasons...and in the process made somewhat consumer hostile products on a topic like this.

Daisy chaining external storage all over the place, on a desktop machine, really sucks as a solution.

I am very much with you on that. No reason not to do it, other than to lock you in and make you pay more. Really sucks!