Size of bootable back-up, HD partition

[khunsanook]

Hi,
I have a MacBook Core Duo with a 60GB HD (Actually 55.44GB). I just bought a new 320GB external HD and I'd like to set up a partition on it for a bootable clone of my internal 60 GB HD.

Is there any reason I should make this partition larger than the 55.44GB of space that the internal uses?
(Well, I'd probably round up to 56GB

 

[Chupa Chupa]

1) It's really not a great idea to share your backup drive w/ regular data. Reason being, if your backup drive dies, so does the other data. Also the regular data on the 2nd partition will not have a backup.

2) If you are just going to to a bit for bit backup then a partition of the same size as the drive you are backing up will be fine. But if you are going to use an app like Time Machine then your backup drive needs to be at least 25% larger to hold the extra info.

 

[khunsanook]

1) It's really not a great idea to share your backup drive w/ regular data. Reason being, if your backup drive dies, so does the other data. Also the regular data on the 2nd partition will not have a backup.

2) If you are just going to to a bit for bit backup then a partition of the same size as the drive you are backing up will be fine. But if you are going to use an app like Time Machine then your backup drive needs to be at least 25% larger to hold the extra info.

Thanks for the reply.

I realize that my proposed method of back-up is far from optimal and sometime in the near future I will hopefully purchase a much larger internal drive and possibly another external (Probably at the same time when I eventually upgrade to Leopard).

For now though, I want to make sure that my primary 60GB internal HD is consistently backed up because it holds the most important and pertinent data.

The other data beyond my 60 GB drive that I plan to put on the external HD will mostly be photos and music which are already backed up on DVDs at 2 separate locations. Putting these DVD backups on the new external will make them much easier to access.