External HDD Backup for Mac & Windows

[rgraves]

Hi,

I have a 250GB external harddrive that is formatted as NTFS and used to backup my 2 PCs. I recently got a Macbook Pro and want to use the same drive to backup all 3 computers. I know Macs can't write to NTFS partitions so here's what I'd like to do:

-Make 2 partitions on the drive using partition magic 8.0 for windows. Format the one partition to NTFS
-On the Macbook Pro, use Disk Utility to format the other partition to Mac's filesystem

Will this work? Or will it cause problems (e.g. will the mac and pc's be able to read their respective partition)?

Rob

 

[emptyCup]

It will work but is 250 GB enough to backup 3 machines?

 

[iPhil]

It will work but is 250 GB enough to backup 3 machines?

Thats roughly 74 GBs per machine..

 

[rgraves]

Thanks

Thanks for the confirmation. One PC isn't used much and the other just has a 40GB drive so I'm not too concerned about space for the time being.

The only concern I have with space would be how much Time Machine will use once I get that. My understanding is that it makes multiple copies of your files when they've been changed so that could potentially add up over time.

Thanks again.
Rob