Questions about Time Machine...

[farmerku]

I bought an external HD I have used Time Machine to back-up my system.

I bought the external because I needed a back-up of my system and I also wanted to free up some hard drive space on my laptop by removing some large files.

Should I rely solely on Time Machine to retrieve those files in the future or should I use the additional space on my external to back up specific folders that I would like to remove?

Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[Jolly Giant]

I bought the external because I needed a back-up of my system

time machine will do nicely for this task.

and I also wanted to free up some hard drive space on my laptop by removing some large files.

time machine is a backup, not a storage solution. if you remove files from your startup disk, they will eventually be removed from your TM backup.

Should I rely solely on Time Machine to retrieve those files in the future

you can restore your entire system or selected files from your TM backups. however, in addition to TM backups, many user are cloning their startup disks to yet another external HD using e.g. Carbon Copy Cloner.

or should I use the additional space on my external to back up specific folders that I would like to remove?

you could do that, but if you do, i recommend you partition the drive (one partition for TM backups, the other for your other files).

a word of caution, though: imagine the drive croaks ... you'll have lost both the TM backup as well as the other stuff at the same time ! i'd rather invest in another external.

 

[maflynn]

Should I rely solely on Time Machine to retrieve those files in the future or should I use the additional space on my external to back up specific folders that I would like to remove?

If move some folders to the external drive, you're still running the risk of losing data due to hardware failure, or am I missing something?