When I ran TIME MACHINE for the first time, it reformatted my external hard drive. TIME MACHINE then backed up my system. Is it possible for me to store misc other files and what not on the same drive as the TIME MACHINE back up?? Also, will these files be accessible from a PC also?? I want to make sure I am not going to corrupt anything before trying this. Thanks!
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Can I use a external drive for TIME MACHINE, and also misc. back-up??
- Thread starter YoNadz
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Yup, you can save whatever else you desire on there
Just beware that Time Machine can't use this space, so it has less space for backups, and then when full, will start deleting the oldest backups.well its a 500gb HD, so I would hope TM would take a while to back up. Also, Im only doing back ups every 2 weeks. so that should help.
Now since I can also ad individual mp3/video/data folders everything will be accessible from a PC too. SWEET!
Now since I can also ad individual mp3/video/data folders everything will be accessible from a PC too. SWEET!
You have to partition for that.
You will need a large partition for Time Machine formatted HFS+ (Mac OS) and the other partition formatted either FAT32 or NTFS.
Time machine (as far as i know) requires HFS+ to operate. Windows cannot read this. Windows can Read/Write to FAT32 or NTFS just fine, but if you do NTFS you will need MacFUSE & NTFS 3G installed on the mac. Those 2 programs give Mac OS X the ability to write to NTFS formatted drives.
You can choose what to format it as. It seems easier with FAT32, but it depends what you're backing up. FAT32 File system has a limit of 4GB. No single file can exceed 4GB (but groups of files can, as long as there is none >4GB.
for music, it should be fine, but video would depend. If you have a large movie project that is more than 4GB and you want to back it up, NTFS would have to be your choice.
You will need a large partition for Time Machine formatted HFS+ (Mac OS) and the other partition formatted either FAT32 or NTFS.
Time machine (as far as i know) requires HFS+ to operate. Windows cannot read this. Windows can Read/Write to FAT32 or NTFS just fine, but if you do NTFS you will need MacFUSE & NTFS 3G installed on the mac. Those 2 programs give Mac OS X the ability to write to NTFS formatted drives.
You can choose what to format it as. It seems easier with FAT32, but it depends what you're backing up. FAT32 File system has a limit of 4GB. No single file can exceed 4GB (but groups of files can, as long as there is none >4GB.
for music, it should be fine, but video would depend. If you have a large movie project that is more than 4GB and you want to back it up, NTFS would have to be your choice.
You could use Mac Drive if you want to pay $50 to let windows read HFS+
OR you can do it the other way. .
Partitioning will erase ALL data on the drive. Make sure everything is backed up before Proceeding!!!
Enter Disk Utility
applications/Urilities/Disk Utility.app
FAT32/HFS+J
Select the External Drive, and click on the "Partition" tab. You will see a display on the left of the drive, and how many partitions or sections it has (which will be one solid block).
Click on "Split" below the the display, and select a size for the new partition. If you make it 100GB, the display will then show 2 blocks, one small, and one taking up the rest of the space on the drive.
Click on the small block to select it, and select from the "Format" dropdown list on the right: "MS-DOS File System". There 5 buttons at the bottom "Split" "delete" "options" "revert" & "partition".
Select "Options" and choose "Master Boot Record". Now that that part is setup, select the larger block. Repeat the same processes, but choose "HFS+J" from the dropdown list, and "GUID" from the "options" menu. (GUID is If you use intel mac, otherwise use "Apple partition".)
To format NTFS. .
Partition in Disk Utility like above, and hook it to a windows machine. The FAT32 partition should come up as if it is an external HDD that is only 100GB in size (windows won't be able to read the other 400GB). Right click the drive, and select "Format". It should give an option for NTFS.
Once windows is done, that small partition will be NTFS, and easily be read by windows whenever you plug it in. OS X can only Read NTFS out of the box, you'll need third party software as I stated earlier to read & write to NTFS.
OR you can do it the other way. .
Partitioning will erase ALL data on the drive. Make sure everything is backed up before Proceeding!!!
Enter Disk Utility
applications/Urilities/Disk Utility.app
FAT32/HFS+J
Select the External Drive, and click on the "Partition" tab. You will see a display on the left of the drive, and how many partitions or sections it has (which will be one solid block).
Click on "Split" below the the display, and select a size for the new partition. If you make it 100GB, the display will then show 2 blocks, one small, and one taking up the rest of the space on the drive.
Click on the small block to select it, and select from the "Format" dropdown list on the right: "MS-DOS File System". There 5 buttons at the bottom "Split" "delete" "options" "revert" & "partition".
Select "Options" and choose "Master Boot Record". Now that that part is setup, select the larger block. Repeat the same processes, but choose "HFS+J" from the dropdown list, and "GUID" from the "options" menu. (GUID is If you use intel mac, otherwise use "Apple partition".)
To format NTFS. .
Partition in Disk Utility like above, and hook it to a windows machine. The FAT32 partition should come up as if it is an external HDD that is only 100GB in size (windows won't be able to read the other 400GB). Right click the drive, and select "Format". It should give an option for NTFS.
Once windows is done, that small partition will be NTFS, and easily be read by windows whenever you plug it in. OS X can only Read NTFS out of the box, you'll need third party software as I stated earlier to read & write to NTFS.
Ok, I partitioned the drive. Thanks a TON for the step by step. Now what I am looking to do is obviously use one partition for time machine. On the other partition I want to store just my DOCUMENT, MUSIC, AND PICTURE files so they are accessible from any Mac & PC. Will I need the 3rd party program to put those items on the NTFS partitioned part of the drive??
Yes, if it is formatted NTFS. "Get Info" on the drive, or open disk utility to check what file system the partition is using.
Mac OS X Can do the following:
HFS+ (Read/Write)
FAT32 (Read/Write)
NTFS (Read Only/Need third party software to write - check for MacFUSE & NTFS 3G)
Windows:
HFS+ (Not Supported/ MacDrive can give it read/write capabilities, but it costs)
FAT32 (Read/Write)
NTFS (Read/Write)
Mac OS X Can do the following:
HFS+ (Read/Write)
FAT32 (Read/Write)
NTFS (Read Only/Need third party software to write - check for MacFUSE & NTFS 3G)
Windows:
HFS+ (Not Supported/ MacDrive can give it read/write capabilities, but it costs)
FAT32 (Read/Write)
NTFS (Read/Write)
So i will need MacFUSE and also NTFS 3G to write to the drive?? Are those freeware? I think I am getting myself in over my head!
Yes you can create other files on the drive and store other things that you don't want taking up space on your main HD. This will not effect the time machine backups unless you modify the time machine backup folder. Since the drive is formatted in HFS you will not be able to read from Windows machine unless you have a third party application installed such as MacDrive
Yes you will need macfuse & ntfs-3g to write to a ntfs formatted drive. If you install ntfs-3g then macfuse is automatically installed.
Yes, they are freeware. If you follow my link for ntfs-3g in the post above, and download the driver, the install is simple and all you need is a restart for it to begin working.
The OP will need a Windows-readable partition on the external disk ONLY if it is going to be directly attached to a Windows machine. HOWEVER, if the drive is to stay attached to the Mac and Windows only accesses the drive over the network then all disk format translations are done by the Mac OS, and the disk can stay as a single HFS+ partition. It is not clear how the disk is to be used.
What about file corruption??
I have a Terrabyte external drive and I would like to run Time Machine on it AND back up misc files from my imac and pc.
I understand the partitioning part but was wondering if there is any chance of corrupting the Time Machine backup files by switching systems all the time???
I have a Terrabyte external drive and I would like to run Time Machine on it AND back up misc files from my imac and pc.
I understand the partitioning part but was wondering if there is any chance of corrupting the Time Machine backup files by switching systems all the time???
What do you mean by "switching systems"? If you format the drive as 2 partitions (1 for TM and the other for 'general') and mount the drive, both partitions will mount and you will have access to both partitions without doing anything. TM will happily work with the partition dedicated to TM, and you can do anything you wish with the other partition. That is exactly how I have my externals configured.