How much storage space does a back-up drive need to run time machine on the 2TB iMac 2011?

I've just purchased a new 2011 iMac with 2TB storage...I have a G-Drive with 250 GB and I'm wondering the minimum size a back up hard drive must be to back-up my new hard drive using Time Machine.  I already bought an Apple Router 2 years ago so buying the 3TB Time Capsule router/hard drive would be redundant.  Any thoughts?

A very difficult question to answer, why because we don't know how much data you will have on your computer. As a general rule of thumb your TM drive should be 2-3x the size of the amount of data on your HD. So for example if you only have 100GB on your internal HD then your TM drive should be 200-300GB. So you need try to figure out approximately how much you will store on the internal HD. A good rule of thumb is how much did you store on your old computer. If I were you though I'd play it safe and use your G-Drive for something else, perhaps somewhere to store your photos, music or movies. Then go out and buy yourself a high quality 2-3TB EHD, why that big....simple because eventually all TM EHD's fill up. So by purchasing the largest EHD you can afford is simply putting off the inevitable by investing up front. There are three drives I recommend for a TM drive, one is the G-Tech series. They are a high quality with plenty of features. The others are:
OWC Mercury Elite Pro series
LaCie d2 Quadra series
Both are equally high quality with similar features to your G-Tech. Personally I use LaCie (I have 4 at the moment) however I wouldn't hesitate to use OWC or G-Tech either.

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