Multiple HD setup: Is this too silly?

Discussion in 'Mac Pro' started by c23roo, Apr 7, 2008.

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  1. c23roo, Apr 7, 2008

    c23roo macrumors regular

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    #1
    Ok firstly, some background:

    I have a Mac Pro - 2 x 2.66, with 5 GB of RAM as my desktop, running Leopard; I have an internal 500 GB HD, and a 500 GB external that I use for Time Machine. The desktop has about 60 GB of iTunes material, and iPhoto is managing over 65,000 photos (almost 200 GB).

    This week, TM ran out of space and stopped backing up. There was a perplexing message stating something like, "You have 300 MB of material to backup and there is only 350 MB of space available on the backup volume." Weird, eh? I excluded a bunch of stuff from the Time Machine backups, and it ran fine for a few days and ran out of space again.

    Thinking I just need more HD space, I'm shopping for a new internal HD - wondering if anyone has recommendations.
     
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  2. PlaceofDis, Apr 7, 2008

    PlaceofDis macrumors Core

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    #2
    the reason Time Machine is running out of room is because of the way it backs up. its not as if its a clone of your drive, its a series of snapshots of your drive, applied over one another, and as a result will be full long before your internal drive is.

    it all depends on how far back you want Time machine to have your stuff backed up, or if it can start deleting the oldest saved data for the newest etc.
     
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  3. stmsfo, Apr 7, 2008

    stmsfo macrumors newbie

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    #3
    U R Maxed Out

    When I was trying to decide what HD to get for Time Machine, the first thing I was told was "Be sure it is much larger than the drive it is backing up". Sounds like you didn't get that advice, given you're using a 500 to back up a 500. I use a 1T to back up my 500, and that seems to work fine. (BTW, my Time Machine drive is internal, by choice. Makes things super simple. And after assessing the different TYPES of risk that I'm trying to mitigate via back-up, I concluded that there wasn't much difference (in terms of risk mitigation) between having my Time Machine drive internal or external. But everybody has to make that assessment for themselves, based on their particular set of risks.
     
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  4. junior77, Apr 7, 2008

    junior77 macrumors regular

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    #4
    I would recommend at least 2-3 times the Time Machine drive versus what you are intending to back up. So, 500GB drive, Minimum I would recommend is a 1TB drive.

    You might be better off with cloning software, such as SuperDuper. This is a 1 to 1 backup of your data, but you don't have all the benefits of Time Machine, i.e., deleted files, moved files, changed files...etc.
     
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  5. Firefly2002, Apr 8, 2008

    Firefly2002 macrumors 65816

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    #5
    Yes, excellent advice... a 1GB drive to back up a 500GB drive, BARE min. I totally agree. I'll go dig out the 1 GB SCSI drive from my old Performa 6205 CD :D

    ;)
     
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  6. acarle208, Apr 8, 2008

    acarle208 macrumors member

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    #6
    1Gb for 500GB
    huh?
     
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  7. Mackilroy, Apr 8, 2008

    Mackilroy macrumors 68040

    Mackilroy

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    #7
    He was poking fun at Junior's mistake. The latter meant to say 1TB, not 1GB. ;)
     
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  8. Salavat23, Apr 8, 2008

    Salavat23 macrumors 6502

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    #8
    Are you sure that he did not mean to say "pentabyte"?

    1PB?
     
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  9. tom., Apr 9, 2008

    tom. macrumors 6502

    tom.

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    #9
    Do you mean petabyte?
    1PB?
    ^^
     
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  10. c23roo, Apr 11, 2008

    c23roo thread starter macrumors regular

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    #10
    I've been looking into a 1 TB internal drive for my TM backups - incidentally, I got the 500 MB drive cheaply (promotion w/ Leopard release at my local Apple shop) and wondered how long it would take to fill up.

    So a couple follow-up questions: it seems the 750 MB drives are cheaper per MB than the 1GB I'm looking at. Am I crazy or am I just looking in the wrong place... And what do you all recommend? I've had good luck with Seagate but I'm not married to them or anything...

    Has anyone had good results, say, putting music on one drive, photos on another, and having my main drive just to run applications, etc... Or will that just slow me down - assuming all drives are the same speed in my machine?
     
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  11. junior77, Apr 11, 2008

    junior77 macrumors regular

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    #11
    haha...funny...yes, 1 TB! You all knew what I meant...

    I recommend putting all documents/music/photos on one drive, and application/OS on a seperate boot drive.

    You could seperate the music/photos if you wish on different drives, but if you want to use the 'home' folder I don't think you can easily do that. Either way, the choice is yours...
     
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  12. c23roo, Apr 12, 2008

    c23roo thread starter macrumors regular

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    #12
    So what's the best way to move my music/photos to another drive - I can just click and drag the folders over, but which ones do I need to move to keep things operating smoothly? Sorry if this is a silly question...
     
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  13. acarle208, Apr 13, 2008

    acarle208 macrumors member

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    #13
    except me:mad:
     
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  14. plod, Apr 13, 2008

    plod macrumors newbie

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    Mar 12, 2008
    #14
    Take a look at the Drobo

    Id recommend you look at a device called Drobo it grows with your needs

    info at http://www.drobo.com/

    Nigel
     
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