What size external hard drive do i need to backup my macbook pro?

I know I need to backup my computer, especially since I have been experiencing some problems with it and will need to take it into a store to get looked at, but I do not know what size external hard drive I need to back my computer on.

Drives are so low in cost today, go for something that will meet your needs for a while...if you are going to use Time Machine, get a drive large enough that you can have a partition double the size of the internal drive for TM backups, and a partition you can use for more storage and work space.
A decent drive like the Mercury Elite Pro 2 TB drive OWC sells goes for less than $200 (US) now. Has a fast interface and is easy to setup.

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What size external hard drive do i need for Time Machine

What size external hard drive should I get to be my Time Machine backup? My iMac is 1TB. (also, I have MBP that is 250gb and will need one for it as well)
Thank you.

It is better to buy an external drive that has 3 times the storage capacity
as of the computer's internal HD.
Best.

What size external hard drive needed for Time Machine?

Can someone offer advice? What size external hard drive do I need to back up my system with Time machine? Hard drive is 232 GB but I'm only using 40 GB of the 232.
Thanks.

beach bum51,
Hard drive space is cheap, so I'm going to recommend that you get something with at least 500 GBs capacity. 500 GBs would be twice the capacity of your internal, which is apparently the "recommended" size, so I have no hesitation recommending it. The larger the drive, the lower the cost per GB.
What's not so cheap is speed. You'll be happiest with a drive capable of using the fastest bus provided by your computer. If your iMac has a Firewire 800 port, you'll get the best experience from using that port, and a drive that will use Firewire 800 transfer speeds.
Scott

What size external hard drive should I purchase

What size external hard drive should I purchase? I'm not tech savvy, so please speak slowly. I'm looking at OWC Mini Stack Classic to match my older Mac Mini. Do I need 500 GB, 1 TB or more? Plus, I have to add memory to upgrade to Snow Leopard. How much memory do I need and should I have an expert install it ?
Mac OSX version 10.5.8
Mac mini 3.1
Processor 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 2GB 1067 MHz DDR3
1 Processor
2 Cores
L2 Cache 3MB
Memory 2GB
BUS Speed 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version MM3.1.0081.B06
SMC version 1.35f0
Hard Drive
Format MAC OS Extended
Capacity 297.77 GB
Available 238.69 GB
Used 59.08 GB on disk

Good points raised by all.
In my mini configs - both older and newer flatter model - I have kept their ministack external drive on top of the mini; with 3 or 4 little rubber feet added to the mini's base to give it a bit more elevation from the surface they are sitting on and a bit better chance to breathe. I'm not impressed by the very small air intakes on the bottom and the hot air that often comes out the back or how warm the case feels. Especially in the heat of summer.
I do turn the ministacks on/off as needed (primarily for backups once a week) as they're not entirely quiet and sometimes seem to have a low hum vibration. Nothing crazy. I just like it as dead quiet as possible sometimes. Plus the fan does not turn off even if the mini and ministack drive have shut down. The newer wide & slim model does seem a bit quieter than the older model.
Check through system profiler to see if your system has 2x1GB or 1x2GB. Most likely it is 2x1GB and you'd need to remove both to double your ram. On the off chance it has a free slot; a single 2GB stick would get you to 4GB. Check on the cost difference between the 2x2GB kit and a 2x4GB kit. I have an older core duo mini that functions fine with 2x2GB of RAM and 10.6.8. But, if you plan to continue to use the mini for several more years as a primary machine including upgrading the OS to Yosemite; it might not be a bad idea to just max it to 2x4 8GB. Yosemite really likes RAM to maximize performance.
Along the lines of keeping the same mini and doing upgrades. The biggest speed improvements are made by replacing the original internal hard drive with a flash drive. Of course this is a more technical upgrade, you really need to take the mini apart more and you have to weigh the cost of the upgrades and possibly paying somebody to do them; vs the cost of a newer system which would have a significantly faster processor and other improvements.

My Western Digital external hard drive suddenly stopped showing up on my Macbook Pro and disappeared from Disk Utility. It works on a PC.

My Western Digital external hard drive suddenly stopped showing up on my macbook pro and it disappeared from disk utility. I have tried making invisible files visible but nothing has worked and my hard drive shows up on a PC but not my Mac anymore.

What is the manufacturer of the external and how old is it? Does it have its own AC power supply or is it USB bus powered?

What size external hard drive for cc?

I want to have Br, Ps, Ai, Ac and perhaps a few others on an external hard drive.
Any suggestions what size?

Hi doppelganger,
Each of the mentioned softwares will require around 1 GB or more disk space. All the softwares can be accommodated within 20 GB.
You can go ahead and purchase a 500Gb or 1TB Hard Disk as these are the most commonly available external hard disks used these days.
Regards,
Rave

What size external hard drive

I'm thinking I want a 20G external hard drive for my computer just for music. Anybody know where to find one and how much? I can only locate 80G or more at retail stores and they're over a $100.
What's the least expensive way to keep these files off my regular hard drive, but still manage them easily?
Thanks

80GB drives (Seagate) at Walmart for $69. Best Buy has Western Digital 80GB drives for $29 (if any are left). A hard drive is the cheapest way to manage your music files.
Regards,

Can I partition an external hard drive to run windows games on my Macbook Pro

I want to play windows games on steam but I am not sure if I want to partition my Macbooks hard drive. I heard you could partition external hard drives but didn't know if you could run games on that external hard drive. I have a lot of files on my computer and don't want to take time to move my files to the external hard drive, so can I buy the external hard drive and then partition it to run window games or do I have to partition my actual default hard drive?

Hi! If your macbook doesn't have a cd drive you need to have Windows 7 but an ISO image, you can't just copy the contents of the copy into a USB and expect it to work. There are many tutorials on internet on how to obtain an ISO image from an installation disc, for example: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/software-tools/a/create-iso-image-file.htm As for "just download Windows 7" (i suppose you mean free download) this is not the right place to ask, believe me. Try searching Windows 7 ISO on google, but be careful with what you download and form where, also you are going to download the Windows drivers from the Bootcamp program, try reading this manual to give yourself a better idea: http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1636/en_US/boot_camp_install-setup_ 10.8.pdf

My external hard drive won't show up on my MacBook Pro

So, I'm trying to transfer my music from my PC to my MacBook Pro. I put all my music on an external hard drive, but for some reason when I plug it into my MacBook it won't show up on the desk top. I've already changed my preferences in Finder so that hard drives and disks will show on the desktop, but still nothing. I looked in utilities to see if the hard drive was there, and still nothing. The hard drive is a Toshiba and is fairly new, the light goes on when I plug it into my laptop, so I'm very confused. Can anyone help me with my predicament?

Check that the data cable is securely inserted at both ends.
Try a different cable.
If you're connecting the drive through a hub, connect it directly to a built-in port on the Mac.
If you're connecting it directly, try a different port.
Disconnect all other devices on the bus, or as many as possible.
Test the drive with another Mac. Test another drive with this Mac.
If the drive is bus-powered, but has an AC adapter, connect the adapter.
Boot into Recovery and launch Disk Utility. Is the drive recognized?
If the drive doesn't work under any of the above conditions, and if another drive does work with the same Mac, then the drive has failed. You may be able to salvage the mechanism by removing it from the enclosure and installing it in another one, or in a drive dock.

External hard drive will not power up on my macbook pro

I have a 120GB external hard drive that uses a USB port and it use to power up and work but now it just makes a clicking noise and nothing is recognized. the hard drive works on every other computer even pc's. the light on the hard drive is on but does not power up. Can someone help? thanks

hello. thanks for the help. It did come with a usb cable that had two plugs on one end. I never used both because the cord was not long enough to attach to both. I didnt have this problem at first. It would start right up but now it will not start at all. It does have an option for external power supply. Do you think I messed up the usb ports in the computer? thanks again for your help.

Hi all, My external hard drive does not show up on my MacBook Pro again. I've tried connecting it to another Mac desktop as well but doesn't work either. any suggestions on how to fix this?

Hi all, my external hardrive is no longer being recognized on my Macbook pro after I tried to transfer some documents from another Macbook( that used the Lion operating system) to mine. i'm currently using the Mac OS X 10.6.8. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

I suspect the drive got disconnected, somehow, on that other system and corrupted the drive because of the Disconnection.
Connect it to your system and open Disk Utility and see if the drive is even being seen. If it is all the data on is more then likely lost and it will need to be repartitioned and or just erased and reformatted.

WD 1TB not recognised on 13" macbook pro retina (late 2013) even though it is exFAT file structure. The same drive is recognised on iMac and an old Dell laptop. I also have a seagate 2TB external hard drive (powered) that is recognised by my macbook pro.

I just bought a late 2013 macbook pro retina 13" a few days ago. I am trying to transfer all my music from my old Dell laptop. I formatted by 1TB Western Digital MyPassport to exFAT to allow read and write on both operating systems. The 1TB WD My Passport is recognised by both my Dell and iMac but not my new macbook pro retina 13 (late 2013). My 1TB WD My Passport is USB 3.0 with USB 2.0 backward compatability. I also just bought a 2TB Seagate Desktop Backup Plus (which is powered) for backing up and extra file storage, THIS WORKS! I don't understand how this works on my macbook pro but my 1TB western digital my passport doesn't. PLEASE HELP!! I have done full formats as well (not quick ones) which take nearly 8 hours. PLEASE HELP

Is there a pattern to the time of day or other detail that may be
traced back to a OS X system cause of this odd phenomenon?
Are there any copies of system files on any of the attached USB
external drives? Any libraries, such as iTunes, iPhoto, etc?
Once the drives are indexed by Spotlight, are their permissions
ignored by the OS X? Content, if neutral, should not affect the
wake or sleep cycle; especially if they're ignored by the OS X.
Could there be a bad cable or other component? If so that would
be a difficult process of elimination to detect it. Usually replacing
most suspect components in the USB stream (external to Macs)
is a rote way to mechanically test that idea; & not 100% sure.
Does the equipment all have a good ground to the utility or house
electrical field? An intermittent ground may affect more than sleep.
Hard to say at this point. Maybe a late-night talk radio guru on
remote viewing could peer into your situation and sleuth it out?
Sorry to have run out of ideas, but the process must be electrical
& mechanical to some extent. - Or perhaps odd software inspired.
Do you have any phone-home spyware items inside, just jumping
at the chance to spill your information? Little Snitch may help.
PS: Perhaps the computer needs to go into Apple & have a genius
or product specialist at AASP test the unit thoroughly... BlueTooth?
see:
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Wake+reason:+XHC1
Good luck & happy computing!
edited 2x

I have an external hard drive that I cannot find on my macbook pro.

I cannot find my external drive on my MacBook Pro. I can find it in the Utilities disk but I don't know what to do so that I can use it. Can you please help?
Thank you

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
To access to your external disk, open a Finder window and choose it in the sidebar, under "Devices". Another way is to go to Finder menu (on the menu bar) > Preferences > General, and mark "External drives" to show it in your desktop. Then, you can read your data on your external disk and you can copy files, unless your external drive is using NTFS. In this case, you will have to use Paragon NTFS or format it

My external hard drive is not recognized on my new MacBook Pro, even though it is recognized on my older MacBook and other computers. Help?

Please help me find a solution to my new MacBook Pro not recognizing my hard drives. Yes, thats two hard drives I have that don't seem to work on this computer but both work on my older MacBook and many other computers.

It is formatted for both PC and Mac
I have tried finding it in Disk Utility, no dice...
Tried both USB Ports
And a reboot is still unsuccessful..

I have a new mini mac and i want to use my existing external hard drive but it needs to be reformated how do i do this without loosing all my old photos?

i have a new mini mac and i want to use my existing external hard drive but it needs to be reformated how do i do this without loosing all my old photos?

Formatting will erase the drive.
You need to copy the photo's to either your old computer, the Mac Mini or to a new external drive and then decide what to do with your existing external drive.
For example: You could use one External drive for Photo's and one external drive for Time Machine to backup both your Mac Mini and the Photo drive.

What size external hard drive do i need to backup my macbook pro?

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