Time Machine uses more space than expected
I have a 320GB internal hard drive and a 320GB external. Until recently, the "free" space on my external was very similar to the free space on my main drive (about 50% full). But then in the last few weeks, suddenly my external is almost full, yet my internal drive is still around 50%.
All I've done in the last few weeks is add a bunch of music to my iTunes, but that was only 5-10GB of space. I find it strange that Time Machine is using so much more space, even though it does have all the incremental backups.
2 questions:
1) Anyone know why it might be using so much more space?
2) Is the 'rule of thumb' that an external drive should be bigger than the internal one, because of all the incremental backups?
All I've done in the last few weeks is add a bunch of music to my iTunes, but that was only 5-10GB of space. I find it strange that Time Machine is using so much more space, even though it does have all the incremental backups.
2 questions:
1) Anyone know why it might be using so much more space?
2) Is the 'rule of thumb' that an external drive should be bigger than the internal one, because of all the incremental backups?
Comments
I have a 320GB internal hard drive and a 320GB external. Until recently, the "free" space on my external was very similar to the free space on my main drive (about 50% full). But then in the last few weeks, suddenly my external is almost full, yet my internal drive is still around 50%.
All I've done in the last few weeks is add a bunch of music to my iTunes, but that was only 5-10GB of space. I find it strange that Time Machine is using so much more space, even though it does have all the incremental backups.
2 questions:
1) Anyone know why it might be using so much more space?
2) Is the 'rule of thumb' that an external drive should be bigger than the internal one, because of all the incremental backups?
Common practice is to have a larger external drive than the computer drive(s) being backed up. Certainly if your computer drive(s) are full, then the external drive should be at least that size (less perhaps the OS). External drives are fairly cheap for the storage with 1 TB drives at under $300.
Readup on how Time Machine works incrementally. For that matter I only run it according to workload, so it might go a week without an update or it may get 2 or 3 per day. (I leave Time Machine in the "OFF" state and initiate backups via the TimeMachine icon in the menubar.)