Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Appropriate Partition size for TimeMachine backups?

K

kman79

macrumors regular
Original poster
I have cary an external HDD with me at all times for my MBP, it houses documents for school and a copy of my iTunes Library. It's a 160GB drive, and I'm wondering what would be an appropriate size partition to use as a Time Machine Volume? I haven't seen it discussed and I'm wondering if I've missed the discussion.

Also, can I copy the Time Machine Backup created on this external drive to another drive at home for safe keeping?

Any help on this is greatly appreciated
 
Well obviously it's a question of what you can spare and what you need.

I haven't used TM, but I assume that you can choose to only back-up certain components, like e.g. your user-folder. So, find out what the size is of what you want to back-up and try to find space for a partition of that size, taking into account that your files will grow over time.

Stuff I wouldn't back up is your applications, your system-files, and your media-files, all of which can be re-installed or re-downloaded. The rest — text, pref-settings, etc. — shouldn't take much more than 10 gigs.
 
I heard somewhere that it's good for it to be twice the size of your main drive. however, the less space you have, the less backup you can have, meaning it won't go as far back in time. also, it only tracks changes to files, so if you don't change your files that much, it won't take up much past the original ammount on your main drive.

so you just have to decide.
 
I appreciate the replies guys.

Time Machine reports initial back up is slightly less than 16GB, I'll give it 30GB and go from there. All my school work is on my MBP and copied nightly to my External back home, so everything in My Document folder is the only thing I really treasure. I appreciate the advice.

Anyone know if I can duplicate the backup file from one external and use it on another?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back