Don't understand "Time Machine"

[xXSL1MXx]

If I buy an external hard drive 500GB, will it work right with Time machine or do I need to buy Apple's official product?

If I were to buy a new macbook pro, and sold this one(the one I had backed up with time machine on the external hard drive), can I just use time machine again on the NEW one and hook up my external drive to transfer all my old data that I had on the old to the new?

 

[JediMeister]

Any external hard drive which can be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) can be used with Time Machine. Network backups are possible without a Time Capsule router as well. You can migrate from a backup of a Mac to a newly purchased Mac, and after the process completes, erase the drive and use it with the new computer.

 

[xXSL1MXx]

Any external hard drive which can be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) can be used with Time Machine. Network backups are possible without a Time Capsule router as well. You can migrate from a backup of a Mac to a newly purchased Mac, and after the process completes, erase the drive and use it with the new computer.

Exactly what I needed to know. Thank you.

 

[xchaotic]

and after the process completes, erase the drive and use it with the new computer.

You don't need to erase the drive - the new machine will simply continue to backup to the drive, also only incremental changes, so much faster this way.