Apple Intelligence now features Image Playground, Genmoji, Writing Tools enhancements, seamless support for ChatGPT, and visual intelligence.

Apple Intelligence has also begun language expansion with localized English support for Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K. Learn more >

You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

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

backup device size

How much portable drive space is needed to backup a 256GB hard drive?

Thank you.



MacBook Air 13″, 13.1

Posted on Feb 10, 2023 8:02 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 10, 2023 8:17 PM

The obvious answer would be at least 256GB. But there are some industry standards in portable or external hard drives.

The next biggest size is typically 500GB. That's what I would get. The next intervals are usually 1TB and 2TB (terabytes, or 1,000GB).


Here are some options from the Apple Store:

Storage - Mac Accessories - Apple



3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 10, 2023 8:17 PM in response to sbreiden

The obvious answer would be at least 256GB. But there are some industry standards in portable or external hard drives.

The next biggest size is typically 500GB. That's what I would get. The next intervals are usually 1TB and 2TB (terabytes, or 1,000GB).


Here are some options from the Apple Store:

Storage - Mac Accessories - Apple



Feb 10, 2023 8:10 PM in response to sbreiden

sbreiden wrote:

How much portable drive space is needed to backup a 256GB hard drive?
Thank you.


This article includes the size backup drive you need:

Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

"Ideally, your backup disk should have at least twice the storage capacity of every disk or volume you're backing up. If your backup disk doesn't have enough storage space to contain a complete backup, Time Machine will let you know."

backup device size

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