Space requirements for Time Machine?

Greetings,
I have recently bought an iMac (last week) and awaiting my update to Leopard. One of the novelties that interests me most about Leopard is the Time Machine, but I was wondering how much disk space it would require on my external drive.
I know this depends on the data I need to back up. Both my internal and external drive are 500 Gb. I have for some 100 Gb worth of data, pictures and applications on my internal drive, and for some 350 Gb of data on the external drive.
Does Time Machine backup everything, including the installed applications, or can one indicate which files should and should not be backed up.
Thanks for your response.
Cheers,
Amenhotep III

...but I was wondering how much disk space it would require on my external drive.
You'll need enough space on the external to contain the initial backup, subsequent hourly backups will be incremental as you create/ make changes to files/ folder. One of the nice features with TM is that you can set its preferences to exclude files and folder, making the backups much smaller in size.
I have for some 100 Gb worth of data, pictures and applications on my internal drive, and for some 350 Gb of data on the external drive.
The external will be of sufficient size for TM backup. When TM finally fills the external it can then over-write the older backups if you wish (or you can attach another disk to keep every backup it ever made, not necessary for most I think).

Similar Messages

  • How much Minimum Disk Space is Required for Time Machine?

    Are there any recommendations from Apple for the size of external hard drive for Time Machine?
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    Sorry about the poorly worded question.

    Size of HD = IBS + [30*DCD + 487*DCD]NM
    or
    Size of HD = IBS + 365NMDCD
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    NM = Number of Months wanted before HD fills
    DCD = Daily Churn Data in GBs
    So lets say
    IBS=160 GB
    NM=24 (2 years wanted before having to worry about disk full)
    DCD=0.05 GB of daily churned data on average (50 MB of changed and new data)
    Size of HD = 160 + 365240.05 = 598 GB
    If you wanted just NM = 12 then the HD size should be around 350 to 400 GB
    Much depends on how many months you want to go before being bothered with disk full and how much average daily data churn you have.
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  • External Hard disk has space problem for Time Machine

    Im not sure this is the right place to post this, but I've just got OSX.5 so Time Machine is new to me. I've got a 500Gb Firewire Lacie Drive which I now have, as far as I can see, about 110GB of stuff in. I have a bout 300Gb to back up. Currently my mac can only see 260GB free, which means theres about 150GB that isnt explained. I have run Disk Inventory, which shows the dot files on the drive. There seem to be hardly any. Is there anything else that could be taking up such a large amount of disk space? Theres one movie file of 28GB that I cannot move off the drive.

    Tim Whelan2 wrote:
    Im not sure this is the right place to post this, but I've just got OSX.5 so Time Machine is new to me. I've got a 500Gb Firewire Lacie Drive which I now have, as far as I can see, about 110GB of stuff in.
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  • Limiting the amount of space available for time machine

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    Yes. Open up Disk Utility (located in utilities in your applications folder), and select the drive. Make sure you select the actual Drive (the one with the amount of space listed on the name) on the panel on your left. click the partition tab, and open the drop down menu under "Volume Scheme". choose the number of partitions. I have my external drive at 2 partitions, one for TM and one for general files. move the slider bar that will appear in the panel below to determine the size of the partitions. the size of you TM-dedicated partition should be at least twice the size of the drive you are backing up.
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  • Space needed for Time Machine backups?

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  • Can I use one HD for 2 computer for time machine?

    I have an imac and macbook. I bought a new 500G external harddisk for time machine.. can I share the harddisk between 2 computer?
    Or I have to get 2 HD for 2 computer?

    happygal wrote:
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    Absolutely. Yes. You will be limiting the space available for Time Machine though. The more space available, the further back your Time Machine backup trail can go.
    Kryten

  • How can I open up more space on my external hard drive for Time Machine?

    I have a 500GB external hard drive that I use with Time Machine. I believe I have half designated for Time Machine and the other half to use as an external drive to put whatever I want on it. My issue is that now my Time Machine back up needs more than 250GB of space.
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  • By adding an external hd to time capsule does it increase the size of available space for time machine back-ups?

    By adding an external hd to time capsule does it increase the size of available space for time machine back-ups?

    No, each drive is treated separately. Sorry!!

  • Extend disk space for Time machine?

    Hi,
    We can now use 2 disk drives at one location to keep our backup files with Time Machine, thanks to Mountain Lion
    Behavior is that both disks will end-up with the same backed-up files.
    Is it possible to make it such that the 2 disks complement each other so that a file is back up on one disk only? The outcome being that MacOS sees the 2 disks more as a single but LARGER disk for Time Machine.
    The problem I am trying to solve is that my Time-Capsule is starting to be too small for my needs and I would like to extend the storage capacity through a 2nd drive connected directly to my Mac.
    Thanks

    There are ways you can continue using the TC by just adding a larger external drive to it. See:
    My Time Capsule is too small to back-up my Mac(s). Now what?
    Note that third-party NAS drives won't work reliably with Time Machine, and neither will a hard drive connected to a wireless router (even an Apple AirPort base station). As long as you've already got the TC, you might as well continue using it in conjunction with a larger drive or hardware RAID setup.

  • Use a DMG for Time Machine Disk?

    Hello everyone,
    After extensive googling, it seems at first that Time Machine will not allow you to use a mounted disk image for a backup drive. I was wondering if there was a way to rig it up so that it would work, somehow disguising the mounted image as a hard drive.
    My situation is as follows: I have an external FireLite Smartdisk hard drive for Time Machine backups. And yet, the drive is plenty big, while my computer's hard drive is fairly small. I want to have the backups not take up the whole drive, as they have. I attempted to partition the drive via Disk Utility, but it gave me the following error:
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    Filesystem resize support required, such as HFS+ with Journaling enabled.
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    I'd quit trying to outsmart the backup system (Time Machine is picky already) and focus on the hardware. I don't have one of those drives, but I'd be looking at why you can't repartition or format the drive. Firmware? Using a hub? Does it have a USB port you can try?
    Many hard drives like the MyBook series have had problems with FW on Leopard and there are firmware updates for them. The USB ports worked fine.

  • New External Drive how do I set it for Time Machine?

    I just bought a new 250g firewire to back up my hard drive - I formatted it and it's ok and all but I want to use it to back up my entire hard drive.
    I thought I was supposed to make a Disk Image?? but browsing these forums it seems I was supposed to designate it for Time Machine? I didn't know that. Can I still do that? If so what do I do? and how do I do it?
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    and if anyone else knows and I'm allowed more questions - I really wanted to install Final Cut Studio Pro on the external drive because apparently it ***** up disk space like a --- -well you know ----- - but it says it has to be on my regular drive - does that mean I have to uninstall some programs? can I set other software to work off the external or am I going to have the same problem?
    I'm so ******!! I bought the 120 g drive thinking it was enough to run programs off of and use the other for data storage - apparently not!
    I'm about 10 gigs short right now and that doesn't even count leaving something for extra space.
    I'm in a time crunch too - ok who isn't I know - but really - I'm on vaca now and was supposed to be working on my projects but instead am babysitting this freakin' computer and am really getting ******!!
    so anyone that can jump in here and help please do so. I appreciate it very much am used to windows machines am new to mac in case that wasn't already blatantly apparent!

    No disc image is required. Prepare the drive as follows:
    Extended Hard Drive Preparation
    1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
    2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
    4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
    5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
    6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
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    If you use the external drive for backups you should not use it for installing applications or storing other files. It should be used as a dedicated backup drive. If you need additional storage space get another external drive.
    See Disk Image for discussion of what a disc image is.
    Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Backup and Restore.
    Hopefully the next vacation you go on you will prepare for more thoroughly in advance. And, don't swear at the computer - it's a machine and only does what you tell it to do. If you need to swear at something look in the mirror!

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  • Looking at external HD for Time machine backup and for XP OS?

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