Question regarding long-term use of Time Machine

[chornbe]

So my question is this...

I'm currently using a 60gb MacBook 1.83 w/leopard. My Time Machine volume is a 250gb USB drive.

Over time I could see myself filling the drive because I listen to a lot of podcasts and since time machine is doing a backup rather than a sync, every podcast present on the system at the time of backup is retained.

So, is there a way to enable sync-mode rather than backup mode for certain directories, OR is there a way to go into the backup history and delete files and/or directories (this seems to be locked/protected, rightfully so)?

Thanks.

 

[chornbe]

Ok, I found this thread showing how to do it at the file level (I assume this would work at the directory level, too).

http://macosx.com/forums/howto-faqs/296306-how-delete-all-copies-file-time-machine.html

Is this the only/best way?

Thanks again.

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Time Machine will automatically delete your oldest backup(s) when the drive is full. There is no need to manually maintain your Time Machine drive. It will take care of all that for you, so the only thing you need to do is let it run when it runs.

You can add files and folders for Time Machine to ignore in the Time Machine pane of the System Preferences.

 

[chornbe]

So, in theory, the bigger the drive, the longer the span of time I'll have good backups?

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Yup.