Does Time Machine seize the whole drive?

[sfong]

I just got a 500gb wd passport, and when I plugged it in, Time Machine asked to reformat it. My question is, can I limit how much room that Time Machine uses? If I let it reformat the drive, and I can limit how much storage Time Machine uses, can I use the rest for my own purposes?

Thanks,
Steve

 

[blodwyn]

I just got a 500gb wd passport, and when I plugged it in, Time Machine asked to reformat it. My question is, can I limit how much room that Time Machine uses? If I let it reformat the drive, and I can limit how much storage Time Machine uses, can I use the rest for my own purposes?

Thanks,
Steve

Your drive was probably formated with FAT32 or NTFS, and TM needs it to be HFS+, that's why it prompted you to reformat.

TM just creates a folder on the drive which it uses for backups, and you can use the rest of the space as you wish. In this setup you will have to manage how much space you keep free for TM to use. The alternative is to partition the drive and dedicate one partition to TM and use the other partition for whatever you want.