Hi Laura, The 320GB is far too small for Time Machine. What size is your Hard Drive? It is recommended that any hard disk designated for Time Machine backups be "at least" twice as large as the hard disk it is backing up from. You see, the more space it has to grow, the greater the history it can preserve.
The message includes the amount of space that the backup requires; note that it's the estimated size of the data to be backed up plus 20% (for workspace). Also make sure an external drive is formatted correctly for Time Machine. 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)' and 'GUID Partition Table'. I think you downloaded my how to: "Format & Partition your Drive to work with Time Machine" PDF some time back. OK I'm out of here, I need a break. Cheers, Ronni On 27/12/2012, at 4:21 PM, Laura Webb <[email protected]> wrote: > Good afternoon all on this very hot day. > > I need some help please with setting up Time Machine to back up on an > external drive. My MacMini (mid 2010) was originally intended mainly as a > media centre, However I recently upgraded it to Mountain Lion and intend to > make more use of its computer capabilities. Previously I used Super Duper > for backups but Time Machine seems to make more sense. > > The external drive I have is USB 320 GB (supplied by Daniel). > > When I attempted a back up I was given a message that there is insufficient > room on the disk. The backup requires 259.82GB but only 123.82GB is > available. The message also adds that work space is needed for other items as > well as the actual backup. Fair enough, but is it usual for there to be such > a difference in the capacity? The external drive works well with Super Duper > so I could, of course, continue to use that as a back up system. > > There is also the option, to exclude some files from the Time Machine back > up, but I have no idea how to do that or what should be excluded. > > Obviously to use Time Machine I need a much larger external drive. Advice as > to what size and what brand is recommended would be appreciated. > > Best wishes to all for a happy and healthy 2013. My thanks particularly to > Ronni and also to other members who so readily give advice when it is > required. > > Regards > Laura > > > MacMini > 2.4GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo > 4GB Memory > OSX 10.8.2 -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Settings & Unsubscribe - <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug>
