Need advice regarding Time Machine on Macbook Pro

Hi Guys,

I would like to backup my MBP with Time Machine and have a WD 1TB external HD. I plan to create a partition on this HD and use this partition exclusively for Time Machine (I understand this is possible if I format it to MAC extended?), my question is, how much space do I need for the backup?

Currently the HD on my MBP is 120GB, as I've used 40GB for Windows. So should I just create the partition at 120GB? or does it need more?

Any advice would be great, thanks in advance!

It doesn't need to be larger than the HD, but it is good to have it around 2-3 times or more if you can spare it, of the size of the internal HD.
The reason being, is that when it gets full, it deletes the oldest backup to make way for the newest.... so the larger the partition, the longer the timeline of backups that you have will be.
I have a 120GB internal, with a 320GB external partitioned into 3.
180GB for time machine, 120GB for clones, and 22GB for a bootable copy of my SL install disc.
I have been lazy, but plan on getting a couple of 500GB externals so I can use one for Time Machine, and one for clones.
I hope my banter hasn't thrown you off.... so in short, the 120GB is fine, and more is better

TM will slowly fill its partition over time, perhaps the question should be what is going on the other partition and set the minimum size for that one and use the left over for TM.

Collin Bl said:

TM will slowly fill its partition over time, perhaps the question should be what is going on the other partition and set the minimum size for that one and use the left over for TM.

Click to expand...

What is going on the other partition? Can you please clarify? I only have about 200GB left on this HD.

Thanks for the replies.

a WD 1TB external HD. I plan to create a partition on this HD and use this partition exclusively for Time Machine

Click to expand...

So if u are creating a partition by definition there must be another - Partition A and Partition B - so if A is for TM what is B for?

B would be for games, music and (ahem) movies. Just the usual stuff I guess.

6string said:

I have a 120GB internal, with a 320GB external partitioned into 3.
180GB for time machine, 120GB for clones, and 22GB for a bootable copy of my SL install disc.

Click to expand...

Would you please clarify what is clone?

I dont really need a long timeline because when I save my documents I save them with date (i.e if a document gets changed I will 'save as' and put in the date after the filename) so I have my own timeline.

A clone is a bootable duplicate of your drive!
Check out CCC and Superduper.
Both these are really good, I and many others use CCC, as too many use SuperDuper.
It's kind of like OnyX Vs MainMenu as far as preference goes.
They both get the job done.
SuperDuper has a paid version with more features.
If you read the info on the sites you can get a way better description as to what they are for and what they do.

Wow, but why do you need time machine AND clone? Isn't it the same thing?

Time machine gives you the ability to go back through time capsule, as well as the easy setup of backups, that you can setup, and forget about, and leave it to the Mac to do every time you plug in your ext HD.
With CCC you can set up the hourly daily, etc incremental backups, but you have to manage it yourself.
I believe that with SuperDuper you need the paid version for the hourly, daily, etc backups, but don't quote me on that, as I haven't used it.
I'll add this link for you to delve into it further as I'm cooking dinner now
What are the main differences between CCC and Time Machine?

I'm sure others will join in and give more info

Thanks mate.

I checked out CCC and I think I'll go ahead and install it. Couple more questions please. Lets say if I use CCC and something happened to my mac, can I buy a new mac and transfer all the data from my clone drive and everything will be the same? Even all the apps with all its serial numbers and registration and everything?

And if I use the clone option, what does the program do everytime it backs up? Does it just add the changed files to the ext HD? or does it copy the whole internal HD everytime?

I checked out CCC and I think I'll go ahead and install it. Couple more questions please. Lets say if I use CCC and something happened to my mac, can I buy a new mac and transfer all the data from my clone drive and everything will be the same? Even all the apps with all its serial numbers and registration and everything?

Click to expand...

YES

And if I use the clone option, what does the program do everytime it backs up? Does it just add the changed files to the ext HD? or does it copy the whole internal HD everytime?

Click to expand...

You have the option when you choose your cloning method.... When I do my clones, I select back up everything and check (tick the box) delete items that don't exist on the source, as I only want clones of the exact system the way it is when I clone, as I use time machine as my regular backup method, and CCC for when I make major changes to my system.
You can also choose incremental backup of selected items which will give you more options.
When you have it, you will play around with it a bit I'm sure, and choose the methods that best suit you.

Thanks for all your replies mate, appreciate it a lot. Please help me with one other thing. Can you please direct me to a program that I can use to partition my ext HD? I've been messing around with disk utility and I think it doesn't do that.

Does it?

It should, but can have problems without reformatting the whole drive.
I've heard that iPartition is the way to go, but it's not free.

I'm just testing resizing partitions on my ext HD with disk utility, and I will get back to you with the results, as it takes a bit of time to verify disk, etc

No luck. After all the waiting for verify and resize, I got an error message.
I'm guessing that I'd have to start from scratch, without using iPartition.

Disk Utility will usually resize partitions although I think that is a recent feature. A quick google tells me it was introduced with Leopard (10.5). Here's a description of how to use it to resize a partition. Disk Utility - Resize an Existing Volume

Slydude said:

Disk Utility will usually resize partitions although I think that is a recent feature. A quick google tells me it was introduced with Leopard (10.5). Here's a description of how to use it to resize a partition. Disk Utility - Resize an Existing Volume

Click to expand...

Thanks man, will try this out.

I think so as well, and I'm sure I have expanded partitions in the past, but it didn't give me any joy in shrinking a volume though.
It all looked good until the end when it gave me an error message... I'm guessing it has something to do with deleting unused space when shrinking.
I might test it again soon when I have the patience.