Time Machine in MacOs is very useful to prevent accidental deletion of important data. With simple steps, the system allows you to go back some time and view and use the file as it was stored on a particular day. The only drawback is that Time Machine uses a relatively large amount of hard drive space to back up all the files you want for any length of time. Fortunately, hard drives with a lot of storage space are inexpensive these days, but the question remains as to how much storage space it makes sense to allow for the Time Machine system.
The answer to this question depends on two important factors that you have to answer for yourself:
1. how much storage space do you have available in total, i.e. how much can you afford to free up for Time Machine?
2. for how long should Time Machine save changes in your files?
Time Machine makes incremental data backups as soon as a file is changed or deleted. The user-friendly interface makes it possible to go "back in time" to find an older version of a file or a file that has since been deleted. This means that the longer the period of time you set Time Machine to save changes to files, the more storage space is required. Ideally, you should reserve three times the amount of storage space on your entire hard drive.
Realistically, nobody has that much storage space to spare. But you can optimise the system. If you regularly download large files that could be downloaded again if necessary, you should save these files on a separate hard drive and configure Time Machine so that this hard drive is not backed up. This way, fewer significant changes are made to the hard drive and the storage space allowed for Time Machine is sufficient for a longer period of time.
If you keep the system tidy and only change small files and not excessively, it is sufficient to reserve about the same amount of storage space as the hard drive for Time Machine, provided that the hard drive used is not already completely full.
Simply put, you buy more storage space for more time in Time Machine.
