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macfreak101

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 6, 2012
163
0
Hey Guys I'm a new mac user
I need help with time machine
I wanted to know how time machine works and what all does it back up?
I have 2 hard drives one is of 1TB and one is of 320gb

In the 1TB hard drive i store all my music videos and work stuff it is windows formatted
The 320gb hard drive is mac formatted and I was thinking of making a partition on it one with 250gb for time machine and the remaining 70 gb for mac softwares and files. The ssd of my mac has a capacity of 256gb. I have read for time machine you need at least 2x the space of your ssd on your external hard drive but i don't understand if my ssd is only 256 and can store files worth 256gb why do i need double the space? Secondly if I choose to use the complete 320 gb for time machine will that be okay or even if i choose to partition it to 250gb for time machine will that be fine too? Or will I need to format my 1TB hard disk out of which currently only 300 gb is empty and partition that to 500 gb for time machine?

I'm really confused every tells me to use time machine but do I need it? And what does it exactly do?

Your input will be really appreciate thanks
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,438
43,345
You need 2x the storage because Time Machine takes continual hourly backups and those deltas can certainly chew up your space. I'd recommend a drive dedicated to backing up your data.
 
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