Time Machine - Need advice on HDD

[smogsy]

i have 2 main Questions

I Currently have a Mac Pro with 1.64TB of space. I want to use time machine, but i have read its best to have double your HDD space is this true? i was thinking of buying this: Western Digital 2TB HDD9 or the Imega

2nd question.
If i ever choose to switch back to Windows as my main machine (i doubt it but i have to think of the possibilities) Can i see the backup files like a standard HDD and copy over the files to a linux/win box?

 

[littleb2005]

i have 2 main Questions

I Currently have a Mac Pro with 1.64TB of space. I want to use time machine, but i have read its best to have double your HDD space is this true? i was thinking of buying this: Western Digital 2TB HDD9 or the Imega

2nd question.
If i ever choose to switch back to Windows as my main machine (i doubt it but i have to think of the possibilities) Can i see the backup files like a standard HDD and copy over the files to a linux/win box?

@1 only if u have 2tb of data to back up will u need a drive twice your size

@2 i wouldn't think so but i let someone else answer that 1

 

[eldudorinio]

1) It is a good thing to have a HDD twice the size of your system HDDs for Time Machine because you will get to have many backups. But that's the ideal thing. Keep in mind that you can select which folders to back-up and which ones not to back-up with Time Machine. So if you have lots of data that you delete after using, you can keep them out of the back-up.

2) When I upgraded to Snow Leopard, my Leopard Time Machine HDD was read like a simple data hard disk from the new OS. I am almost sure though that you cannot read the specific file system from Windows. Not too sure about a Linux box.