why do I need more storage then what is on my computer to back up?

Question

why do I need more storage then what is on my computer to back up?

Apparently i need 1T for a 320G HD that is not even close to full. I keep picturing buying a refrigerator to put an apple in, just seems like over kill.

I thought Apple was better at this, I had an HP with 500G and saved all my backups/ ghosts for years (and tons of other stuff) on a 250G that still is not full. But now i'm looking at buying a 2T external to back up my wifes and my computers and do nothing else, I'm figuring something has to be wrong. HELP...

Posted on Jan 19, 2013 4:52 AM

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Answer 1

WZZZ

Level 6

13,220 points

Jan 19, 2013 6:05 AM in response to daddy not computer savvy

What exactly is your question?

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Answer 2

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Jan 19, 2013 6:42 AM in response to daddy not computer savvy

Apparently i need 1T for a 320G HD that is not even close to full

Says who?

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Answer 3

Jan 19, 2013 7:09 AM in response to daddy not computer savvy

For an explanation of how TM works, read Pondini's TM articles; http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html

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Answer 4

Jan 20, 2013 5:09 AM in response to WZZZ

the question is why do I need so much more space then what I am saving?

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Answer 5

Jan 20, 2013 5:12 AM in response to Klaus1

my wife went to back up her mac book 320G with this time machine deal. she got some kind of message saying she needs 1TB worth of space to do the back up. everything I am finding says 2-3x the space too, so I get that it's needed... im just curious as to why you need so much more space to back up less stuff?

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Answer 6

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Jan 20, 2013 5:17 AM in response to daddy not computer savvy

If you read the link noondaywitch posted you would know that Timemachine needs that space for multiple backups.

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Answer 7

WZZZ

Level 6

13,220 points

Jan 20, 2013 5:19 AM in response to daddy not computer savvy

Because it's constantly making backup "snapshots."

See this for an explanation.

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

Btw, there are alternatives to Time Machine. You can choose to make a bootable clone of your system. This would only require an external drive the same size as your internal. Restoring an entire system from TM is more complicated and you can't boot from it either.

Look up Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper.

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