can i use a "time machine" drie as regular hdd?

Discussion in 'macOS' started by vegas-steven, May 17, 2009.

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  1. vegas-steven, May 17, 2009

    vegas-steven macrumors regular

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    Nov 14, 2007
    #1
    this may seem strange to ask but i recently purchased a 1 TB drive and formatted it correctly to use it as a time machine archve.

    after a few HOURS my 160 gig mac primary disk was backed up.
    i then created a second folder entitled "not time machine backups" and am copying my iphoto library etc to it.

    i plan on using that drive to store my photos from now on. it this ok?
    can i use this so called "time machine" drive as a second hdd? i figure as long as i dont actually touch the time machine folder, i should be ok, right?

    thanks for clarification.
     
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  2. ab2650, May 17, 2009

    ab2650 macrumors 6502a

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    #2
    yes.
     
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  3. miles01110, May 18, 2009

    miles01110 macrumors Core

    miles01110

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    #3
    I would just partition your 1 TB drive; you probably don't need or care about 1 TB worth of backups. Maybe partition it 50% TM and 50% "free" storage where you can add and delete files as you please.
     
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  4. retroneo, May 18, 2009

    retroneo macrumors 6502a

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    #4
    Yes you can... No need to partition it. Time Machine just appears as a folder on the drive and you can use all the rest of the space as you wish.
     
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  5. wackymacky, May 18, 2009

    wackymacky macrumors 68000

    wackymacky

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    #5
    You can partition it so the partition appears as a seperate drive but you don't need to. Time machine will just slowly fill up what ever free space there is leaving the other folder(s) on the disk untouched.
     
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  6. MacManiac76, May 19, 2009

    MacManiac76 macrumors 65816

    MacManiac76

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    #6
    Wouldn't doing this prevent Time Machine from backing up these photos? Seems like partitioning the drive would make more sense as TM would backup that partition's data (your photos).

    Saving the photos directly to the Time Machine drive still only leaves the originals (ie. no backup).
     
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