Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Time Machine Backup is double the main Macintosh HD size used

Hi,

I'm about to migrate my 2009 iMac to an iMac Pro. The main system HD is 4Tb w/ 1.47 Tb Used. When I did a full TS backup it was 3.55GB, and that was with the latest backup. Why more then double the main HD ??? Anyone have an Idea on this??


Best regards,

Andrew


Posted on Jan 11, 2020 5:17 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jan 11, 2020 10:40 PM

As unintuitive as it might seem, you cannot directly compare disk utilization on a Time Machine drive to the source system. That's because of the way Time Machine stores its point-in-time backups.

Each snapshot (of which there can be many per day) is really a diff from the previous one, so will depend heavily on the amount of data that is changing between each backup. If you change large files (such as video files), these will consume a larger amount of your backup drive (for example, you may have several copies of that 100GB movie file on your backup drive as you've worked on it over the day, even though you only have one file on your system drive).


That said, doubling the host system's drive seems like a lot for the first day's backup, but I still wouldn't worry about it. Time Machine has proven to be quite resilient in my experience and I just let it do its thing.

Similar questions

11 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jan 11, 2020 10:40 PM in response to Ampex351

As unintuitive as it might seem, you cannot directly compare disk utilization on a Time Machine drive to the source system. That's because of the way Time Machine stores its point-in-time backups.

Each snapshot (of which there can be many per day) is really a diff from the previous one, so will depend heavily on the amount of data that is changing between each backup. If you change large files (such as video files), these will consume a larger amount of your backup drive (for example, you may have several copies of that 100GB movie file on your backup drive as you've worked on it over the day, even though you only have one file on your system drive).


That said, doubling the host system's drive seems like a lot for the first day's backup, but I still wouldn't worry about it. Time Machine has proven to be quite resilient in my experience and I just let it do its thing.

Jan 12, 2020 6:40 AM in response to Ampex351

Thank you for the response, I understand, the issue is I’ll be using this to migrate to another iMac and it’s way to much hard drive space. How do I consolidate?

When you restore, or use Migration Assistant, it will not duplicate your backup to your destination. It will restore the current state of the backup. It will "consolidate" for you.

Time Machine Backup is double the main Macintosh HD size used

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.