Time Machine Backup to external HDD

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SamB11

macrumors member

Original poster

Jul 1, 2014

57

1

Cornwall

• Jul 8, 2014

• #1

Hi guys, got my new rMBP yesterday and loving it so far. Today I want to set up the time machine back up utility whilst I've got the time.
Heres what my situation is;
In my possession is 500gb USB 3.0 drive. I used this drive with my old windows PC and I have about 150gb of files that I want to keep on there. How do I setup time machine to partition this drive so that i can keep the backup of my mac and keep all my files on there as well? cheers.

 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell

May 3, 2009

74,252

44,499

• Jul 8, 2014

• #2

You'll need to back up your files to some other location - reformat that drive to HFS+, then restore the files to some directory on the drive. Time Machine needs the drive to be HFS+ and it sounds like it being from a PC, its NTFS or FAT - which won't work for TM.

 

S

SamB11

macrumors member

Original poster

Jul 1, 2014

57

1

Cornwall

• Jul 8, 2014

• #3

So should I copy all of my files on to my mac, format the drive in disk utility and then partition it?

 

M

mac8867

macrumors 6502

Apr 5, 2010

457

22

Saint Augustine, FL

• Jul 8, 2014

• #4

SamB11 said:

So should I copy all of my files on to my mac, format the drive in disk utility and then partition it?

Click to expand...

Yes to the copy, no to the partition.

1. copy your files from the external drive to your mac
2. reformat your external drive with disk utility to HFD+
3. setup time machine to use the external drive

4. two options here:
a: Leave your old files in their current location on your machine
b: create a directory on your external drive and copy your old files to it

-- no partitions needed