Do I need a brand new external HD for Time Machine?

[AaronOcean]

Hey everyone, I just bought a Seagate FreeAgent external HD to back up the data on my 2.16GHz MacBook running Tiger. I'm doing so for the first ever. When I finally do get Leopard, do I have to get a brand new external HD, or can I just reformat the one that I'm currently using to be used with Time Machine?

Thanks!

 

[tyr2]

Reformat the existing drive. If you want to use dedicate space for Time Machine and have free space for other stuff then it's best to create 2 partitions on it.

 

[AaronOcean]

Awesome, so it looks like it'll be fine.

Thank you!

 

[thumperjack]

Reformat the existing drive. If you want to use dedicate space for Time Machine and have free space for other stuff then it's best to create 2 partitions on it.

i've been using super duper for a while now and the option i use is the "copy new" option...where it copies all new files, replaces ones that have changed, but doesn't erase any files. this is good for saftey but it eventually starts to snowball and you have to go into your HD and erase stuff. is this the way that time machine works, or is there a preference for that like in super duper?