HT201250: Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac

Learn about Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac
carole97

Q: is a 2terabyte time machine has enough space for 1 terabyte  mac book pro?

Does a 2 terabyte airport time capsule has enough storage capacity for a 1terabyte mac book pro?or should I get a 3 terabyte time capsule?

MacBook Pro, iOS 9

Posted on Oct 19, 2015 3:17 PM

Close

Q: is a 2terabyte time machine has enough space for 1 terabyte  mac book pro?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by lllaass,Helpful

    lllaass lllaass Oct 19, 2015 3:32 PM in response to carole97
    Level 10 (188,771 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 19, 2015 3:32 PM in response to carole97

    2TB is OK but on the low side. You want 2-4 times the installed HD. However, if your HD is only 1/2 used then 2 TB is good.

    For more info see:

    http://pondini.org/TM/1.html

  • by Limnos,Helpful

    Limnos Limnos Oct 19, 2015 3:33 PM in response to carole97
    Level 9 (53,936 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 19, 2015 3:33 PM in response to carole97

    I would think it also depends upon how you use your drive. One of the features of Time Machine is being able to go back in time at various stages for file retrieval. I don't have time Machine so I don't know exactly how it works but I would think if you only change a small number of files on the drive and most are constant (e.g., iTunes media) then the 1 TB left over would be plenty of room to store several versions of the files you do change.  If you're doing a lot of video editing with huge files then a extra TB might only represent a couple of snapshots in time.

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Oct 19, 2015 3:40 PM in response to carole97
    Level 9 (60,909 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 19, 2015 3:40 PM in response to carole97

    You should get the biggest one you can.

     

    If you need to make trade-offs, you do not need speed for Time Machine, because it works quietly in the background, and how soon it finishes does not matter because it never takes over your Mac.

     

    A Time capsule seems really cool, but you may have more options using a regular external drive. A cheap slow interface like USB-2 is all that is required.