before I repartition my HDD, how much space will i need for Carbon Copy backup?

[TheNorthWaves]

I have an external HDD currently formatted in two partitions for my windows laptop and my mac mini to back up to. I got a used powerbook and want to use Carbon Copy to make a bootable image/backup using this same extl HDD - ie: I need to reformat and make three partitions (one for manual backups with windows laptop, one for time machine on mini, one for carbon copy on the powerbook).

I am aware that Time Machine uses a fair bit more space for its recurring backups than the actual amount of my HDD (ie: it backs up 90 gigs worth of data and over time it turns into a 140gig backup).

So to the question: The HDD in the powerbook is 60 gigs. Should I just set aside 50-60 gigs on a new partition for backups?... or does carbon copy do something like time machine, where it takes up more space for the backup than the actual files do? I just don't want to reformat this all wrong. Thanks!

 

[bijou]

CarbonCopy needs at least the same size of the hard drive being cloned, and then I'd add a couple of more gigs to have some breathing room. Just remember to not have anything else located on that partition, as it will erase and install on whatever is on there during the process.

 

[JNB]

CCC and SuperDuper! will make clones (not proprietary format backups), so the amount of data stored on the clone will always be exactly the same size as the data being cloned. You shouldn't need to exceed the size of the drive being cloned. No additional overhead required (at least not in the case of SD).

In SuperDuper's case, once the initial cloning is complete and SmartBackups (basically, just differential backups) are being done, you can use the same partition for other stuff as well, no problems.