Upgrade to new computer

[Johnsherry]

Well after 11 years, I'm moving from my 2009 Mac Pro to a 2020 Mac Mini, with a 2 terabyte drive. I'll finally be able to move beyond Logic 10.3. I imagine the most recent Logic won't give me much of a learning curve so my main concern is the way I set up using 3rd party plugins and where to store my projects. On my old Mac Pro I stored my projects on a separate drive and my virtual instrument libraries on a 3rd drive. Any suggestions on how to set up my new Mini. Should I partition the 2T drive? If so, could someone point me to a tutorial?

Here are the specs on my new Mini : 3.2GHz 6‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 4.6GHz)

32GB 2666MHz DDR4

Intel UHD Graphics 630

2TB SSD storage

 

And here's the way I've used the hard drives on my old Mac.

[triplets]

If you have the space, put all the Logic sounds and 3rd party libraries on the internal.

Remember to keep 20% percent free on system drive.

Put the projects on external HDs or SSDs.

I wouldn't use partitions.

[Johnsherry]

Thanks! That's what I needed to know! I'll just pick up an extra SSD.

[facej]

You don't need (or can) partition your internal SSD - you want to add an APFS volume...

 

https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/add-erase-or-delete-apfs-volumes-dskua9e6a110/mac

 

You can limit the space that it can use, but it probably isn't necessary.

 

I can see no reason for working with projects on an external SSD...work on the projects on the internal SSD, move them to an external SSD when you are "done" with them.

 

20% of a 2TB SSD is 400 GB - that's more free space than many Macs have! Disk headroom for a modern Mac should require no more than 100 GB.

 

I like to think of spinning hard drives (HDD) as "analog" disk drives. The new, fancy, "digital" disk drives (SSD) have completely changed the way the underlying software works.

 

Make backups of your SSD(s) every night.!.

 

Just because I am old - the first spinning hard drives that I worked with were 2.5 MB - that's right - 2.5 MB...a pair of 1.44 floppy (well, floppy with proper ED drugs). A 2TB SSD is one *million* times larger

[Johnsherry]

Thank you facej!

[Johnsherry]

I'm wondering though, how to transfer everything over to a single hard drive? How can I best organize Logic Projects and Virtual Libraries from their previous individual hard drives to the single 2TB drive of the Mac Mini?

[facej]

I'm wondering though, how to transfer everything over to a single hard drive? How can I best organize Logic Projects and Virtual Libraries from their previous individual hard drives to the single 2TB drive of the Mac Mini?

Create a folder in your user space called "Other Devices". Copy the contents of each external drive to the "Other Devices"...files will be found in the "Other Devices" folder.

 

If you want to keep the "separate volumes" view of things create a new APFS volume for each of the external devices (named as the device is named) and "clone" the external drives to the APFS volumes. Now you would have all of the "devices" and your workflow would remain as it is.

 

Beware of software that is licensed to a "device" (I did that with my Waves plugins). You need to arrange to get the licenses moved properly...

 

These days I lean towards the multiple APFS volumes solution...now if I could just afford a Mac with an 8TB super-fast SSD

[David Nahmani]

I would keep it simple. Everything on the 2TB SSD. No partitions, no multiple volumes. Just create a "Sound Libraries" folder for all 3rd party sound libraries, and a "My Logic Projects" folder for all your Logic projects. Use an external SSD or HDD for backups.

[Studio162A]

On my new i9 iMac I've placed everything on the internal 2TB SSD: Logic Pro app, projects, and 3rd party sound libraries. It has performed wonderfully.

 

Jim