Time Machine

Question

Time Machine

Being that I don't see a separate support area for Time Machine I am guessing here is where I might be able to get an answer. I want to use Time Machine to backup my new 256 GB solid state drive to a partition on a 2TB external drive. If I understand correctly how Time Machine works I do need have a much larger partition than just 256 GB. Can anyone suggest just how big that partition should be? I don't really want to use the entire 2 TB for this puprose as I do have other drives/files I want to back up as well on othwr partitions on the drive. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 8 gb RAM

Posted on Sep 30, 2012 4:22 PM

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Answer 1

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LaPastenague

Level 9

67,208 points

Sep 30, 2012 4:28 PM in response to Jeffrey Bivans

I would suggest 1TB for TM use..

But you do not actually need to partition the drive.. although it is a good way to prevent TM filling out the whole drive. A lot depends on how you use the computer.. if you do a lot of big file handling.. in and out then the TM backup can quickly grow huge.. but if you do a bit of browsing and emails.. then it will not grow much at all.

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