I've never used this feature in OSX so unfamilar with it. My question is - if my HD is around 250GB - can I back up onto a 160GB? Does it undergo any form of compression etc? Thanks!
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Timemachine question?
- Thread starter XP Defector
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Is the 250gb the size of your drive or the size of your data?
If its the amount of space your apps/data/OS are consuming, then you'll need to exclude folders. TM does not do any sort of compression and if you plan on using TM then I highly recommend an external drive that's significantly larger then your internal drive. You want plenty of space to hold the hourly/daily/weekly backups. The power of Time Machine comes when you have sufficient space to allow it to run hourly. Having such a small drive, will mitigate the power and major features of TM.
If its the amount of space your apps/data/OS are consuming, then you'll need to exclude folders. TM does not do any sort of compression and if you plan on using TM then I highly recommend an external drive that's significantly larger then your internal drive. You want plenty of space to hold the hourly/daily/weekly backups. The power of Time Machine comes when you have sufficient space to allow it to run hourly. Having such a small drive, will mitigate the power and major features of TM.
I would read THIS. It describes what Time Machine does pretty well.
P.S. Time machine isn't very modifiable. the schedule is set to every hour and you cant change it unless you download some sort of modifier program like Time Machine Scheduler. Also, it will back up all of your data until your external is full. No way to put a cap on how much space it uses. One way around that is to use the disk utility to partition the external and dedicate one of the partitioned drives as your Time Machine drive. You should really get an external that has a lot more memory then your hard drive though. I have a 120GB HD and I'm using a 2TB external
P.S. Time machine isn't very modifiable. the schedule is set to every hour and you cant change it unless you download some sort of modifier program like Time Machine Scheduler. Also, it will back up all of your data until your external is full. No way to put a cap on how much space it uses. One way around that is to use the disk utility to partition the external and dedicate one of the partitioned drives as your Time Machine drive. You should really get an external that has a lot more memory then your hard drive though. I have a 120GB HD and I'm using a 2TB external