Size HD to buy for Time Machine function?

[Bowlerguy10]

My friend has a 320 gig HD in his Mac and im curious as to what size HD he needs. Does he need at least 320 to match it and maybe a bit more or does it only use a small part of the drive and not back up your ENTIRE HD? Thanks.

 

[Nugget]

Short answer: the largest drive he can afford.

Long answer: Time Machine only /needs/ enough space to store the actual data on the machine. If your friend's 320GB drive is full, then Time Machine will need at least 320GB of space to back it up. If he's got 200GB free, then Time Machine will need at least 120GB (to back up the actual data).

Then, each hour, Time Machine will need enough space to back up any files that have changed on the drive. How much space this works out to is quite dependent on what sorts of work your friend does and what files are changing regularly.

 

[Bowlerguy10]

Ok thanks man. I guess maybe im the only one that feels this way but it feels like a waste to use an entire external just for backup. I know backing up is good and thats great specially with the new Time Machine feature but just object wise it feels like a waste of a new drive to me lol. Ah well.

 

[creator2456]

Ok thanks man. I guess maybe im the only one that feels this way but it feels like a waste to use an entire external just for backup. I know backing up is good and thats great specially with the new Time Machine feature but just object wise it feels like a waste of a new drive to me lol. Ah well.

Get a larger then needed drive and partition it.

 

[Father Jack]

I got a 500 GB Barracuda 7200 rpm S.A.T.A. drive especially for Time Machine, £100 GBP ..


Sorry just noticed this thread is for laptops ..
The drive I bought is an internal for my Mac Pro, but bigger is definitely best.