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I've got a new WD My Book 1 TB drive and have not yet set it up. I'm using an imac with SL with a 250G drive about half full. I"ve got a FW external (160G) to which I've cloned my main drive (I do this about once per month). I've also got a another 250 G USB drive partitioned into a small BU drive and Time Machine partition. I also use MobileMe backup to do my data files and settings. Anyway, it's kind of all mixed up. I'm thinking of partitioning the new 1 TB drive into maybe 250G time machine and the rest backup for my photos, music, etc.
I'd love to hear some other suggestions.
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I've got far, far away from partitioning these days-- but for a backup drive that's serving multiple volumes it seems like the best way; still after having been to overpartitioning hell and back I'd say however many partitions you think you need, try to get by with one less . . .
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Wow, that is all messed up. But I applaud you for thinking about backing up.
If it were me, I'd use the external 250 USB as your "clone" disk. Use CCC or SD to clone to it on a fairly regular basis. Even better if you can then unhook it and store it offsite.
I'd use the FW 160 for photos/music. Then I'd use the whole 1TB drive as Time Machine backup for the internal drive and the 160. But that's just me. I'm sure you'll get a bunch of opinions
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I also have one of the 1TB My Book drives and I use it for TM BUs for three laptops, each with 250 GB HDs or less. I did not partition the drive but I can see putting a limit on the size of the TM backup files. In my case, I use one machine nearly all the time and the others mostly when I travel, so their TM files remain relatively small.
I'd make the TM partition twice the size of the HD you're backing up. Too small and it will constantly be trashing older files. I second rz suggesting the 250 to be used as a clone. I actually have two for my main machine, backed up with CCC once a week, alternating between the drives. If your iTunes/photo libraries are getting too big for the iMac drive, I'd move them to the 1 TB MyBook.
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Interesting about partitioning. Yes, I'd love to do without partitioning, but isn't 1 TB overkill for a TM backup?
Yes, I"m also interested in moving photos off my main drive. But I want to have redundant copies of that. I guess the TM copy will have the photos and so will the clone.
Good suggestions. Please keep them coming.
