by It doesn’t matter how big they can build internal hard drives or SSDs; our data needs are getting bigger by the day. And while external USB or Thunderbolt drives are reasonably affordable and easy to use, for maximum portability and minimum clutter, most people prefer internal storage. That’s where The MiniDrive comes in. It’s a modified SD card–sized adapter designed to hold a micro-sized card and sit flush with the chassis of your MacBook for extra, semi-permanent storage.
Using The MiniDrive (not to be confused with a similar, more expensive product by Nifty) is simple enough. Slide a microSD card into the slot, and insert the whole thing into your Mac’s SD card slot. Since it’s designed to sit flush in the slot, you have to be careful to insert MiniDrive quickly and firmly to properly seat it, since pulling it out to reinsert it is something of a chore.
Just add microSD to increase your Mac’s internal storage.
Once mounted, your microSD card acts like any other drive connected to your Mac. You can use it to store files, or even as a Time Machine volume if you reformat the card as a Mac volume. Of course, the speed is limited to the speed of your microSD card, so if you’re planning on using the MiniDrive as a repository for large files or media, you should probably spring for the fastest microSD card you can find.
Depending on how you plan to use The MiniDrive, it’s either an amazing idea or a bit questionable. Many microSD cards come with a free SD-sized adapter, which does essentially the same thing as The MiniDrive. The only difference is that The MiniDrive fits fully into the slot, so you can leave it in place in a MacBook and not worry about breaking the card when you pack up your laptop.
Since there’s nothing sticking out of the card slot, removing The MiniDrive is a bit of a pain. You have to thread an included piece of very thin wire through a small opening, and use that to pull The MiniDrive out of your Mac. It’s inconvenient, and you’re sure to lose the wire sooner or later. On the other hand, if you’re removing the card frequently, you should probably just stick to a regular-sized SD card in the first place.
According to TheMiniDrive.com, the product was designed in response to Nifty’s MiniDrive, which sells for twice the price; obviously this is a product with a definite market. We just wonder if even $20 is too much to spend. The makers of The MiniDrive have been promising a $6 version, but with no updates in over a year, and the $20+ versions selling via Amazon, we’re not sure how realistic that is.
The bottom line. It’s the cheapest way to increase your on-board storage, but TheMiniDrive still feels more expensive than it ought to be.
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