Time Machine, External Hard Drive Space.

[NStocks]

I'm getting a iMac in a few weeks, and would really like to use Time Machine. The only thing that's holding me back is knowing what size hard Drive to get. I would much prefer to get a portable HD, as they take up less space, whilst still work perfectly and reliable. I have seen this one: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/144342, I heard Iomega are very good but not sure if it's large enough. I currently use 90GB of space on my PC, this this will grow as I take more and more Photo's, and get more music. The iMac I will be getting will have 500GB Hard Drive space which is plenty, but I'm not sure if it's better to get a external that is of a similar size.

Can anyone tell me since they started to use Time Machine, how much their external Hard Drive had grown over a 6 month period, as this will give me some guidance of how much I will need. ( obviously individual needs are taken into account e.g I do Photo's therefor this will take less space then HD Video )

Thank You.

NStocks

 

[soberbrain]

General advice is to get twice the size of the drive you want to back up. This is what I did and after 6 months I had 25% free space on the external drive.

 

[NStocks]

General advice is to get twice the size of the drive you want to back up. This is what I did and after 6 months I had 25% free space on the external drive.

So are you saying I whould get a 1TB hard drive . I don't think I will ever use that much really.

Can you recommend any good portable ones ?

NStocks

 

[soberbrain]

It's general advice that will work for most people.

If you really don't think that you will need all that space, then get a drive that is the size of how much space you think you will use.

Personally, I would get an external drive at least the same size as the internal drive.

Keep in mind, the bigger external drive means more space for Time Machine to keep incremental back ups and the "further back" it can go in time since it can keep older back ups longer.

I use a Western Digital My Book.

 

[NStocks]

It's general advice that will work for most people.

If you really don't think that you will need all that space, then get a drive that is the size of how much space you think you will use.

Personally, I would get an external drive at least the same size as the internal drive.

Keep in mind, the bigger external drive means more space for Time Machine to keep incremental back ups and the "further back" it can go in time since it can keep older back ups longer.

I use a Western Digital My Book.

I guess it would be nice to look at how you're Mac looked 14 months ago... How is the Western Digital My Book, Quiet, Fast Reliable... chunky ?

NStocks

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

So are you saying I whould get a 1TB hard drive . I don't think I will ever use that much really.

Can you recommend any good portable ones ?

NStocks

That guy (soberbrain) is wrong, Apple recommended the same size as the internal one you want to backup. Try the Big Three brands in HDs. Maxtor, WD, and SeaGate. For a notebook drive (2.5" portable) 500GB is the maximum I think.

 

[soberbrain]

That guy (soberbrain) is wrong, Apple recommended the same size as the internal one you want to backup. Try the Big Three brands in HDs. Maxtor, WD, and SeaGate. For a notebook drive (2.5" portable) 500GB is the maximum I think.

I appreciate your opinion and help, but please read the entire thread and don't jump to conclusions. Also, I mentioned general advice because that's what I have seen in these forums. I never mentioned "Apple recommends".

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

I appreciate your opinion and help, but please read the entire thread and don't jump to conclusions. Also, I mentioned general advice because that's what I have seen in these forums. I never mentioned "Apple recommends".

I'm not jumping to any conclusions. Please substantiate your claim with proof. General doesn't have to just be this forum. There's the Apple Discussion forum and the MacWorld forum and countless others.

 

[The Hammer]

Adjusting the frequency of Time Machine back ups may help conserve drive space can this be done? I understand the default is hourly.

 

[aross99]

I decided that I could handle reinstalling things if I had a disk failure, so I only backup my user folder. This allows me to use a much smaller portable drive like you are looking for.

My MBP has a 160GB drive, but I am using a 80GB portable drive, and I have only used like 30GB or so.

I also felt that hourly backups was overkill for me, so I use "Time Machine Editor" to restrict the backups to once a day. Use at your own risk, but it works great for me...

 

[smartalic34]

just as an example.... I have an 80GB internal drive, and on my external I only use an 80GB partition for time machine. after 9 months of backing up, I still have over 16GB left...

 

[The Hammer]

Adjusting the frequency of Time Machine back ups may help conserve drive space can this be done? I understand the default is hourly.

I did a search before posing this question and came up empty. Then I changed the search terms and got several suggestions including changing the 3600 second plist default in a time machine file and just turning Time Machine off and then turning it on when I want a backup and using the Time machine Editor program suggested in a post above this one.

 

[aross99]

Here is a link to Time Machine Editor:

http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/

I use it because I felt that hourly backups was overkill for my user folder. I am most concerned about backing up my photos, music, documents, etc. Once a day is plenty for me.

I think it just edits the plist for you. The only issue I have seen, is that Time Machine still thinks it is supposed to backup on an hourly basis, for the System preference shows the next backup time incorrectly.

 

[otis123]

i just picked a a 250gb segate free agent go, its been great so far, and i use it to back up my ibook, i partitioned the drive 40gb for time machine, and i use the rest for my data, and its been working great.