What HDD for Time Machine?

nantucket66 · 18 Apr 2018 at 22:11

I've hit the button on a 27 iMac with a 256 SSD drive.

I have important files on my MBP in my Google Drive account, but was thinking of using something for a time machine to back up everything, just in case.

On my MBP I typically use about 80GB.

I've never used Time Machine before - how big a drive do I need to do it properly? Will a sensible passport USB3 style drive that takes power from USB do the the job or do I need a self powered external drive?

Jimbeam3678 · 19 Apr 2018 at 08:29

nantucket66 said:
I've hit the button on a 27 iMac with a 256 SSD drive.

I have important files on my MBP in my Google Drive account, but was thinking of using something for a time machine to back up everything, just in case.

On my MBP I typically use about 80GB.

I've never used Time Machine before - how big a drive do I need to do it properly? Will a sensible passport USB3 style drive that takes power from USB do the the job or do I need a self powered external drive?

Time machine eats up as much data as you allow it to. 256 Gig or bigger would be fine I'd say. Self powered USB will be fine.

hartgeh3 · 22 Apr 2018 at 21:41

I use a 1TB WD passport, can go all the way back a fair few months so decent enough and was around £30. Get a USB 3 one so fast backups!

nantucket66 · 22 Apr 2018 at 22:02

hartgeh3 said:
I use a 1TB WD passport, can go all the way back a fair few months so decent enough and was around £30. Get a USB 3 one so fast backups!

That's exactly what I've ordered!