I am not sure if I am backing up my Mac Book pro through Time Machine on my external hard drive.

How can I tell all my information is there on the back up hard drive. I have so much information in photos alone that I do not think it is backing up when it says that it has 1.68 of 32.52 GB information to download & it hasn't changed from 1.72TB of 2TB available I believe since my first back up????.

I have backed it up once a month and the information hasn't changed. Is it only reading my desktop as when I go in it shows my desktop which appears different.

I do not understand if I need a partition? I want to make sure that I have all my impostant art documents & photos stored on the hard drive, where should I delete them as I have multiple devices and I am not sure where each is stored but found under info on the Macbook if it is on Ipad or iPhone. So many have been deleted from my phone and pad as I am out of spac. . I do not trust the cloud and it is full now, so for instance if I delete on my iphone, where I may have taken the photo, but I see it on my Mac Book computer, when the cloud syncs again it will be deleted from my Mac Book Pro?

I have many photos taken from ebay as I sell a lot and figure if I delete those first I can free up space. I am not sure if the photos on my computer in my Photo Stream are actually on my computer, so I am in a delimema. I do not want to upgrade to 2TB for 6.99 a month when I have a 2TB backup hardrive which is loads of information. I feel I am hostage to the Cloud.

I am in desperate need of professional advise and though I would ask the community as it has been tough to get into an Apple Store or speak to a customer service advisor.

Thank you for any help

Lisa