How much space for a Time Machine HDD?

[LoneWolf121188]

Just curious, how much space does a typical time machine backup take up? Also, can it back up my NTFS windows partition, or just my HFS+ partition?

 

[jabrowntx]

Just curious, how much space does a typical time machine backup take up?

Depends on how much data you're backing up 🙂 If you backup the whole boot drive you'll need as much space on the backup drive as you have data on the boot drive. The best advice is to buy the biggest drive you can afford so you can keep backups for longer periods of time.

Also, can it back up my NTFS windows partition, or just my HFS+ partition?

Not sure about this one, but I suspect the answer is no.

 

[LoneWolf121188]

Depends on how much data you're backing up 🙂 If you backup the whole boot drive you'll need as much space on the backup drive as you have data on the boot drive. The best advice is to buy the biggest drive you can afford so you can keep backups for longer periods of time.

Really? It doesn't do any sort of compression? Thats slightly disappointing...

 

[jabrowntx]

Doesn't seem to use compression but someone else may know more about that than I do.

 

[mojohanna]

As I understand it, it is infinite. The only thing limiting it is how far back you want to take your back ups. You can also decide what apps you do and don't want to back up therefore giving you more space for data.

I have 80g main drove with a 250 BU for time machine. The whole 250 is dedicated to TM so I can currently pull stuff from way back in Nov.(when I installed Leopard)

 

[Jasoco]

I have a 250GB HD in my laptop that I backup to a 500GB external. With the way I actually use my computer, I don't see myself really filling it up any time soon. I will probably end up with years of available changes in the end.