how much space for time machine?

[Epiphron]

Hi guys i was wondering how much space should i partition for my time machine backups on my 500 GB external drive. I currently use about 120 GB of my 320 GB internal MBP hard drive. Would 350 GB be enough for my time machine backups? Or more or less. What did you guys do?

 

[alust2013]

I'd say that would be enough for a time machine backup. You may not even need quite that much. I think time machine typically takes up about 1.5x what you have on your drive, so, say 180GB. But you will probably want some room for expansion, so I'd say at least 250GB would be a safe amount.

 

[RedReplicant]

I'd say that would be enough for a time machine backup. You may not even need quite that much. I think time machine typically takes up about 1.5x what you have on your drive, so, say 180GB. But you will probably want some room for expansion, so I'd say at least 250GB would be a safe amount.

Why bother partitioning it? You can make the whole drive a time machine and still store stuff on it.

 

[Corndog5595]

Why bother partitioning it? You can make the whole drive a time machine and still store stuff on it.

possibly for windows compatibility.

 

[RedReplicant]

Good point

 

[Epiphron]

i'm thinking about partitioning it so that time machine won't eventually take up all my space. i want to always have some space guaranteed later on. but partitioning it for window compatibility is a good idea! how would i do that? format it to fat32 right? but i don't see that option in disk utility.

thanks alust, but just to be on the safe side for more time machine backups is 300 GB fine?

 

[snaky69]

i'm thinking about partitioning it so that time machine won't eventually take up all my space. i want to always have some space guaranteed later on. but partitioning it for window compatibility is a good idea! how would i do that? format it to fat32 right? but i don't see that option in disk utility.

thanks alust, but just to be on the safe side for more time machine backups is 300 GB fine?

I have a 500gb External right now, and I haven't bothered partionning it. Time machine stores your data and preferences, as well as software(basically, everything but the OS). So basically, whatever space you're currently using on your hard drive minus the OS. Add maybe 50gb on top of that to be safe. You can always repartition later if you need to.

 

[alust2013]

i'm thinking about partitioning it so that time machine won't eventually take up all my space. i want to always have some space guaranteed later on. but partitioning it for window compatibility is a good idea! how would i do that? format it to fat32 right? but i don't see that option in disk utility.

thanks alust, but just to be on the safe side for more time machine backups is 300 GB fine?

300 would be plenty for that. I'd recommend at least a 50GB FAT32 partition for transferring stuff with windows, etc. as well. The rest you could just leave as free space