Cheapest Way to Upgrade Your Macbook Pro SSD Drive

Who would pay $1400 for a 2TB SSD drive upgrade on the 13" Macbook Pro? I know I wouldn't, and I didn't, I just got the $200 512GB upgrade which isn't big enough for video editing.

So I had two huge issues with my 2017 top of the line 13" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, the only upgrade I didn't max out was the hard drive. Issue one is not enough SSD space to edit my videos with Final Cut Pro X, so I have to always use an external drive. I was using the Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB and 5TB drives, but using the included USB 3.0 to USB-A cable with a USB-A to USB-C adapter does not work well. Any movement from the laptop or hard drive will disconnect the fragile USB-C connection and it will corrupt the session. This happened almost every time I used it, one time losing 3 hours of editing!

Issue two is that my Panasonic GH5 files are too much for this powerful laptop to handle without stuttering during playback. Seriously? It works fine on my iMac at home, I had this issue with my 12" Macbook so I sold it to upgrade to this Macbook Pro.

I was just about to give up and sell this laptop for about an $800 loss and spend another $2000 on a big heavy Windows laptop with 32gb ram and 2TB SSD. But I didn't want the extra weight, Windows, and to have to pay for and learn Premiere. So I kept searching for a solution to these problems.

My first idea was to velcro the drive to the cover so it wouldn't move and disconnect with any movement, and to throw out that USB-A cable and adapter and to get an USB 3.0 to USB-C cable. I thought putting a larger drive on the lid wouldn't be ideal since it may not stay open with the weight. So then I found the Oyen Digital Shadow Mini 2TB SSD Drive which looked perfect. Fast SSD and small and lightweight. Oyen Digital was kind enough to send me one to test out on my last Europe trip and it worked out perfectly!

Then I found out about proxy files, I don't know why it took me so long, I guess you really have to be specific in searching. The proxy files are about 25% of the size of the original files, so during playback there's no stuttering. I guess people do this with 4k footage as well with other cameras. Such an easy solution, but I almost lost and spent so much money because of this.

Now I'm finally (almost) happy with my MacBook Pro, I can edit without these two issues. However the wifi only works about 25% of the time, I even bought a wifi dongle and that works maybe 60% of the time, so I don't know what is wrong with it, but that's another video.

Check out the Oyen Digital SSD drives here on Amazon
(any purchases help me out with a tiny commission)

Shadow Mini External 2TB USB 3.1 Portable Solid State Drive SSD
https://amzn.to/2N1tn5q

U32 Shadow External 2TB USB-C (3.1 Gen 2) Portable Solid State Drive SSD
https://amzn.to/2PMyUeP

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