Sufficient storage and file management on iMac with 245.11 GB HD

No, it's not really adequate storage especially if you intend to use the computer for music, storing photos, movies or other popular uses. It would be VERY wise to buy 2 EHD's one for your Time Machine backup ( Back up your Mac with Time Machine ) and the second for additional storage. Before you ask, no you cannot use 1 External Hard Disk for Time Machine and also for storage. Why, because when the HD dies (eventually all HDs die) you will not only will have lost your backup but the original data!!!!!!!!!!!

If you intend to use the external drive for storage of your photo's library (and/or music movies) then follow the link below to learn how to do this:

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac

If you want suggestions on good quality External Hard Disks then navigate to www.macsales.com. For your Time Machine backup I'd suggest an OWC Mercury Elite Pro, at least a 2tb model. For your additional storage I would recommend the following:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB5ENVU02/

It's generally recommended that one strive to maintain a minimum of 80-100 GB of free space to facilitate optimize system and application performance.

If you get an external SSD drive you can copy the usually larger folder, Photos and Music, to the external drive and run the libraries from there. Be sure to test the libraries on the EHD to make sure they operate as intended before you erase them from the boot drive. Only delete the contents of the Pictures and Music folders and not the folders themselves if you go that route.

Hi,

I think 62.43GB free space is good enough, though if you have or you are considering to get external HDD/SSD, bigger the better, you can move the big files, such as Photos library, Music library, and movies to external drive and delete them from internal drive for including free space.

You must remember that external drive is on or auto position of external drive switch before the iMac start up and when you start up the applications for the first time which libraries you moved on external drive, you need to click application icons + option key to select the libraries of applications.

Or you can use iCloud instead of external HDD/SSD if you have good enough iCloud space.

“Sufficient “ is entirely your decision, based on your needs, your usage trends (and app and macOS trends), and your budget.

The amount of storage purchased is a tradeoff with the amount of storage management effort required later.

I wouldn’t personally select a 256 GB Mac, as I would not fit. I have whole lot of data, and a whole lot of photos and video, and would prefer to avoid deleting chunks of data, and scattering the rest around onto add-on storage.

Other folks can fit into 256 GB just fine. But it can be more work, and it’ll mean shuffling files around, and deleting data.

As examples of some bigger usage requirements encountered, macOS 12 required 26 to 44 GB to upgrade, while macOS 13 requires 25 GB, and macOS 14 wants around 14 GB.

You’ll also want external storage of two or three times the internal storage capacity too, for Time Machine backups. Hard disk storage works fine, here. Why added storage? The only way to mark data as being valuable is with backups.

What exactly do you mean when you are asking "what File Management do i use? " If this is your first Mac then you first need to learn how to navigate Mac OS. There are thousands of YouTube tutorials however I'd start by familiarizing yourself with the fundamentals, Apple does the best job if you are switching from a PC in

Mac - Mac Does That - Switch to Mac - Apple

If you want to get much more in-depth learning Mac OS go to:

Mac User Guide - Apple Support

You don't mention which version of Mac OS is installed on your computer, so if you don't know click the Apple icon in the upper left corner and then select "About this Mac" and it will provide important information about your machine including the version of Mac OS installed.

Your welcome.

You're welcome. 👍

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