Is at 250gb usb hard drive enough for a one time "Time machine" backup?

[Imola Ghost]

I may need to take my new 27" iMac in for a replacement and only have with me a 250gb usb hard drive.

I have used 182gb's of space on my iMac as of right now. Should I be OK for this one back up?

While on the subject, what size external back drive should I be looking at?

 

[allmIne]

I may need to take my new 27" iMac in for a replacement and only have with me a 250gb usb hard drive.

I have used 182gb's of space on my iMac as of right now. Should I be OK for this one back up?

While on the subject, what size external back drive should I be looking at?

I'm not trying to be funny, but 182 < 250gb, so you'll be ok.

 

[edesignuk]

While on the subject, what size external back drive should I be looking at?

Depends on how much data you have to be backed up, and how far "back in time" you want to be able to go. The bigger the better really.

 

[gnasher729]

I may need to take my new 27" iMac in for a replacement and only have with me a 250gb usb hard drive.

I have used 182gb's of space on my iMac as of right now. Should I be OK for this one back up?

While on the subject, what size external back drive should I be looking at?

It will be fine for one backup. However, if you don't have a backup drive then you should make that your very first priority. Size? Depends on how much you will fill your hard drive. If you won't ever have much more than 182 GB, then a 500 GB drive would be fine, but the price difference between 500 and 1000 is so little, I would go straight for 1000 GB. If you think you are going to actually fill up your internal drive, then go for a 1500 GB external drive.