Time Machine Backup for 256GB Storage on 512GB Drive a Good Idea?

[chiappa]

On a Macbook Air with 256 GB of storage, which is quite often used near it's capacity..

How feasible is using a 500 GB drive for Time Machine backups?

I'm not that interested in keeping a history of backups. Just one that saves the day in case something happens to the laptop, is enough, I would imagine..? What are the cons of a smaller backup drive?

Pros being cheaper external storage of course

 

[Weaselboy]

500GB will work just fine. If it starts to get full, TM will just purge off the oldest backups. If you are not too concerned about having a lot of old file versions saved like you said, there will be no problem.

 

[IHelpId10t5]

500 GB should be fine unless you are frequently adding or changing a bunch of really large files on the MBA drive.

 

[JOSmith99]

On a Macbook Air with 256 GB of storage, which is quite often used near it's capacity..

How feasible is using a 500 GB drive for Time Machine backups?

I'm not that interested in keeping a history of backups. Just one that saves the day in case something happens to the laptop, is enough, I would imagine..? What are the cons of a smaller backup drive?

Pros being cheaper external storage of course

Is a lot of the capacity taken up by iTunes content? If it is, or it is something else that is also stored in the cloud, I suggest you exclude it from the backup to save space in the backup (since you can always re-download iTunes purchases). Still, it will probably be fine either way, since time machine only saves changes after the first backup.