Does time machine reformat the whole HDD?

[mpc91]

when using time machine to backup, does it reformat the whole hard drive or just create a file on the hdd.

I will be using an external hdd western digital?

thank you.

=]

 

[Audit13]

You can create partitions on the hard drive and have time machine use a particular partition on the drive. This leaves the other partitions free for other uses.

 

[velocityg4]

If the hard drive is using the factory file system and partition. Such as MBR with ExFAT. Then yes you will have to reformat the whole hard drive. At which point you can partition it to have a Time Machine partition and file partition.

Although it is not advisable to have your backup on the same drive as you are storing files. Performance in accessing those files will decrease during a time machine backup. Any files on that drive won't be backed up against failure of said drive.

If you still want to have time machine and file storage on the same drive. You definitely want partitions. Otherwise Time Machine backups will keep growing until they fill the drive. Generally, the time machine backup partition should be double the capacity of the drives being backed up..

 

[Fishrrman]

You're probably best off to just let TM use the ENTIRE drive (non-partitioned).

I'm not a TM user, but my guess is that things will just go better that way.