External for time machine.. Size query..

[MightyWhite]

Hello.

Soon to buy my first mac and not sure what size drive for time machine

I will get the fusion 1tb drive so 1tb with 128gb ssd.

So a 1tb will not cut it I plan to get about a 3tb and on that have space for time machine and the rest of the space for my 1tb of movies..

My question is - if I use this drive as the iTunes movie folder will it look at these files as a part of what needs to be time machine backed up or will it not back up, well, itself?

I guess I am just a bit confused what time machine does..

Sorry if this is a silly question

Also if anyone has any suggestions of a good external drive that would be lovely

Cheers

[Namtaro]

I believe you will have to partition the drive to allow TimeMachine to work and allow storage on the same physical drive. If you do not partition the drive, TimeMachine will 'use' all available storage space on the drive.

TimeMachine will only backup locally stored data. Anything that's on an external, mounted, or networked drive won't be backup.


I've always bought the drive and external enclosure separately so I know exactly what drive I have inside there. Drives failures are pretty much all luck now. Either you get a dud, or you don't and it lasts 10+ years. Just buy one that matches your storage needs (3TB) and has the longest warranty you can afford. Get a USB 3.0 enclosure since the new iMac's supports it and the drive speed won't matter much for a backup drive.

[MightyWhite]

Originally Posted by Namtaro

I believe you will have to partition the drive to allow TimeMachine to work and allow storage on the same physical drive. If you do not partition the drive, TimeMachine will 'use' all available storage space on the drive.

TimeMachine will only backup locally stored data. Anything that's on an external, mounted, or networked drive won't be backup.


I've always bought the drive and external enclosure separately so I know exactly what drive I have inside there. Drives failures are pretty much all luck now. Either you get a dud, or you don't and it lasts 10+ years. Just buy one that matches your storage needs (3TB) and has the longest warranty you can afford. Get a USB 3.0 enclosure since the new iMac's supports it and the drive speed won't matter much for a backup drive.

Thanks for your reply.

So just an internal drive and pop it in an enclosure? Is it that easy?

[Namtaro]

Originally Posted by MightyWhite

Thanks for your reply.

So just an internal drive and pop it in an enclosure? Is it that easy?

Pretty much! Don't buy into the whole 'Mac ready' marketing. Any drive is compatible with Mac's, you just have to format it in Disk Utilities before you can use it.

[MightyWhite]

I was looking at

http://www.lacie.com/uk/products/product.htm?id=10587#a4

Because of its 'mac compatibility' and 'time machine ready' etc...

I had a quick look at enclosures on amazon and they seem pretty cheap (a tenner) not sure if that is what I am after.. Any sexy ones out there? (Probably just Velcro it to the back of the stand though.. )

Anything specific to look for with them or the drive ? 7200 etc.?

Thanks again

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Also 2.5 or 3.5 etc

[Namtaro]

Lacie drives are very 'sexy' indeed. If aesthetics are what you're going for, then by all means get it. Like I said though, don't buy into the whole 'Mac Ready' and 'Time Machine Ready' as any drive is usable on a Mac, you just have to take a few extra steps - formatting the drive which takes less than a minute.

You can, get the same performance in a less expensive drive+enclosure setup. The enclosure you can look for yourself as I don't know what appeals to you visually, but you should be getting a USB 3.0 capable drive for maximum speed. Since this is for a iMac TimeMachine, I'm assuming you won't be moving it much so get a 3.5 drive. You should aim for a 7200RPM harddrive, but the difference for a TimeMachine backup disk is negligible. It's going to be connected to the iMac all the time so the few minutes saved from backing up you won't even notice.