Time Machine and Restoring

[crazyk]

Hi all,

Just purchased myself a 2Tb Seagate Expansion drive and partitioned it into 2.
1st partition - 650GB intended for Time Machine
2nd partition - 1.35Tb just backup stuff

1st question - is 650GB enough for a 500GB hard drive that i only have 320GB on at the moment? Just after opinions or I could just partition to 1Tb

2nd questions and most pertinent: Once I run my time machine and back everything up I'm looking to reformat my machine. If I want to say restore my Microsoft applications, is it a matter of just going to my applications folder and clicking on the Microsoft Office 2011 folder and clicking restore? Will all the programs in office be restored?
And lastly on that, will it retrieve my outlook account & pst files automatically.

Thanks.

 

[ArchiMark]

1st question, yes, think so..

2nd question, if you're backing up your entire hard drive, then it should restore your entire hard drive, unless you choose otherwise....

 

[QuarterSwede]

1st: As a rule, double the size of the drive is what you want. But what you've got will work for now.

2nd: if you need to restore a TM backup will restore everything, even what windows you have open as of the last backup. There will be no need to individually restore your apps.