Do you really need to keep all time machine back-ups?

[a-m-k]

Wouldn't all of them eventually take up your internal hard-drive space? I had just backed up to reflect the latest system upgrade, and there are many back-ups. Are they all needed if things were added.

I'm not sure, what is your preference? I back-up only when I add new updates, or add new itunes songs. So is it really necessary to keep months worth of older back-ups?

Thanks.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

//shrug

I just give TM 2x the size of my disk and let it have fun (as well as a bootable copy).

 

[bigjobby]

Not sure what you mean but time machine backups would only really suck up space on your external backup drive.

If you only surf on your MBP, then ad-hoc backups might be fine. However, if you work with your MBP then scheduled incremental backups can be very useful.

What happens if you've accidentally lost a file but remember seeing it a few months back at a particular location? Solution: Time machine (if its still on there).

What happens if your internal drive dies? Well you can recover everything from the last backup. If you ammended/created any documents or files after the last backup, then you will obviously lose it. If you only backup on an ad-hoc basis, you will most likely lose more.

Also, having an archiving solution can also be very useful especially if you're limited by internal disk space.

I personally prefer and recommend scheduled incremental backups (eg. TM default). 'Better safe than sorry' is the name of the game... always!