Time Machine question

[mullock87]

Hi

Wondering if you guys can help me with the best way to manage my data and back it up in the best way possible for my new iMac. I am familiar with Time Machine and have used it for many years but would like to know the best use of the resources I have to back up my data.

The HDs I have are...

Internal Mac SSD - 512 GB
External #1 USB3.0 - 2 TB
External #2 USB2 - 1 TB
External #3 USB2 - 1 TB

I was planning on using the SSD for apps, system and frequently accessed data. For other data (photos, music etc) I was planning on allocating myself 1 TB for this, the rest of the storage I have is to back up these things.

I was thinking of partitioning the 2 TB USB 3.0 drive I have, one partition to be a backup of the SSD and the other partition to be 1 TB of usable data space which is where I will dump files etc.

The other two drives (external #2 and #3) can be a backup of the 1 TB data partition on external #1

Confusing I know, but any help would be appreciated.

 

[Rok73]

What do you mean with "dump files"? I wouldn't necessarily put one partition with TimeMachine and another one with data on the same HDD. If this HDD fails you obviously lose the data in the 2nd partition. USB is not a perfect solution as a connection for HDDs but I would obviously use the USB3.0 one for photos, music etc.