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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Notebook Hardware
MacBook 13" & time machine
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<blockquote data-quote="bobtomay" data-source="post: 1627134" data-attributes="member: 24160"><p>That is just...</p><p></p><p>wrong.</p><p></p><p>According to that explanation, even if it does backup every single file, a single backup would still be only the same size as the data it backed up. A backup of 100 GB from your internal drive, including all "hidden files and even videos music iTunes applications [<em>sic</em>]" would still only be 100 GB in size, it would not be 200 GB in size.</p><p></p><p>The reason Time Machine (TM) grows over time is because it makes what could be called "incremental" backups. You make an initial backup and over time it creates new backups only of the items that have changed - keeping a record of what has been added and deleted from your computer. While TM adds new files you have to the backup, it does not remove items that you have deleted from your internal drive.. Instead, it keeps a copy of those deleted files in case you may want to retrieve something you have deleted. This is why it grows in size over time to be much more than the amount of data you keep on your main drive.</p><p></p><p>Having said all of that, there is absolutely no reason to strip the TM backup down to below the size of your drive. When you do a clean install of the OS and use your TM backup to restore the computer, it is only going to restore what was on the computer at the time of the "last" backup. And "that" backup can never be larger than the drive itself.</p><p></p><p>It does not restore all the stuff that has been backed up previously and then removed from your computer. There is no reason, whatsoever, for attempting to get your TM backup down to a size that is below the size of your internal drive.</p><p></p><p>It is "not" going to attempt to restore all the data it is holding (239 GB in your case). If you only had 80 GB used on your computer at the time of your last backup, TM is only going to restore ~80 GB of data. I have had my TM backups reach as large as 1,000+ GB in size and after a clean install of the OS and then a full TM restore only restore 60 GB of data onto my computer - because that's how much data was there when I made the last backup.</p><p></p><p>Imho, you should never go into your TM backup and manually manipulate files there. You are taking a chance that the backup will be damaged and possibly non-functional when it comes time when you need to use it to restore data you want. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Related to this statement, there is no way for anyone here to make a recommendation as to whether your 160 GB drive is "too small" (for you) or not since you have not provided us with any info regarding how much used/free space you typically keep on the drive. For example, if you only typically have 50 GB, or even 100 GB used space on your drive, there is nothing wrong with the "size" of your drive.</p><p></p><p>I would recommend a new drive if you can afford it. But, only because of the age and because I like the WD Black drives and I know they're quite a bit faster than those 250 GB and smaller drives that shipped on Macs from a few years ago.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="bobtomay, post: 1627134, member: 24160"] That is just... wrong. According to that explanation, even if it does backup every single file, a single backup would still be only the same size as the data it backed up. A backup of 100 GB from your internal drive, including all "hidden files and even videos music iTunes applications [[I]sic[/I]]" would still only be 100 GB in size, it would not be 200 GB in size. The reason Time Machine (TM) grows over time is because it makes what could be called "incremental" backups. You make an initial backup and over time it creates new backups only of the items that have changed - keeping a record of what has been added and deleted from your computer. While TM adds new files you have to the backup, it does not remove items that you have deleted from your internal drive.. Instead, it keeps a copy of those deleted files in case you may want to retrieve something you have deleted. This is why it grows in size over time to be much more than the amount of data you keep on your main drive. Having said all of that, there is absolutely no reason to strip the TM backup down to below the size of your drive. When you do a clean install of the OS and use your TM backup to restore the computer, it is only going to restore what was on the computer at the time of the "last" backup. And "that" backup can never be larger than the drive itself. It does not restore all the stuff that has been backed up previously and then removed from your computer. There is no reason, whatsoever, for attempting to get your TM backup down to a size that is below the size of your internal drive. It is "not" going to attempt to restore all the data it is holding (239 GB in your case). If you only had 80 GB used on your computer at the time of your last backup, TM is only going to restore ~80 GB of data. I have had my TM backups reach as large as 1,000+ GB in size and after a clean install of the OS and then a full TM restore only restore 60 GB of data onto my computer - because that's how much data was there when I made the last backup. Imho, you should never go into your TM backup and manually manipulate files there. You are taking a chance that the backup will be damaged and possibly non-functional when it comes time when you need to use it to restore data you want. Related to this statement, there is no way for anyone here to make a recommendation as to whether your 160 GB drive is "too small" (for you) or not since you have not provided us with any info regarding how much used/free space you typically keep on the drive. For example, if you only typically have 50 GB, or even 100 GB used space on your drive, there is nothing wrong with the "size" of your drive. I would recommend a new drive if you can afford it. But, only because of the age and because I like the WD Black drives and I know they're quite a bit faster than those 250 GB and smaller drives that shipped on Macs from a few years ago. [/QUOTE]
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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Notebook Hardware
MacBook 13" & time machine
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