Time machine or western digitals software?

[ThemacNub]

I have decided on which external hard drive I need to back up my iMac. It's a Western Digital 500GB My Passport Studio. However it comes with its own back up software. Should I just delete the software off of the drive and use time machine or use the WD software provided?

[MrCheeto]

Format the entire drive to a single partition (or how ever many partitions you want) and set up Time Machine.

Such gimmick software will only cause frustration and tears.

Cod dam, I hate when drives come formatted and with pesky Jar Jar Binks software that hurts rather than helps... I think you know what I mean.

[gorjan]

My drives came with the same software and, after trying it out, I deleted it. It works and all, but TM is much more integrated and works seamlessly.

[ThemacNub]

So just delete it once it gets here? Also how do I format a drive?

[MrCheeto]

Oh... you don't have any data on the drive yet?

Excellent! When you get it, just partition it into how ever many partitions you like. You'd want Time Machine to have a partition all its own.

If you want to share the drive with PC's, you will have to format the partition you intend to share to MS-DOS (FAT). Otherwise partition to Mac OS X Extended (Journaled).

See that thing up there that says "Search Forums?" Just search for Disk Utility and Partition. Your answers lie in these fora...

[ThemacNub]

Do i really need to partition the drive as it's only being used for back up a will only ever be used on a mac

[MrCheeto]

The drive will very likely be formatted to NTFS, so yes.

If you are just going to use it for backup, just plug it in and choose to use it for Time Machine. It will take care of the rest!

Check my blog. It explains how to set it all up.

[ThemacNub]

Thanks for your help Cheeto. The blog was very helpful but a little cryptic for me though. I will do what you told me to do and post back with results.

[gnasher729]

Originally Posted by ThemacNub

Do i really need to partition the drive as it's only being used for back up a will only ever be used on a mac

When people say "partition" that includes making ONE partition

I personally recommend making a small partition at the end, say 8 GB, and copy your Snow Leopard DVD on it (using Disk Utility, not using the Finder). So in case your Mac breaks down, you don't have to look for the DVD (people tend to lose it, and then they post here how to get their data back), just boot from Snow Leopard on your backup drive.

[ThemacNub]

That sounds like a good idea. Shouldn't i also save iLife to it as well?

What I am going to do once it gets here is

format the drive (formatting it will delete all files on the disk, including WD's back up software. Right?)
Partition it (for Snow Leopard and iLife)
Save Snow Leopard and iLife
Run Time Machine on first partition

Is that the right thing to do?

[Scuby]

The WD software is setup as a virtual CD, so doesn,t disappear if you format or re-partition the drive. There are instructions for removing it on their website though, which is a bit of faff but easy enough to do. Or you can just leave it, since it doesn't actually do any harm sitting there unused.

And if it's one of the WD Mac drives (which i think the Studio is) then it'll already be formatted for OSX.

Final thing, i can't see any benefit to partitioning the drive to put your Snow Leopard install DVD on it - should be fine on the same partition as Time Machine.

David

[ThemacNub]

Ahh I've looked at the G-tech/G-drive EHD and am completely confused on which one to get. I don't need to move the drive around ever so should I just by the g-tech.

By the way this is the drive I was looking at.

http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-drive.cfm

In 500gb capacity too.

HELP

[Izzy35]

Originally Posted by MrCheeto

Excellent! When you get it, just partition it into how ever many partitions you like. You'd want Time Machine to have a partition all its own.

If you want to share the drive with PC's, you will have to format the partition you intend to share to MS-DOS (FAT). Otherwise partition to Mac OS X Extended (Journaled).

If I would like to use Time Machine as well as have the ability to go into files and do editing on the External drive, such as with large photo files that I would want to take off of my Macbook, but still have access to, should I set a separate partition from the Time Machine one, or can I just drag and drop onto the same partition??

Thanks for any help.

[MrCheeto]

You can just drop stuff in the Time Machine partition, no problem. It just won't be accessible by Windon't.