I have some dumb questions about an External HDD - I've never had one before.

[w...b]

Im looking to get a 750gb HDD.

First.
Will time capsule back up everything? So if i have 65 gigs worth of data on my computer it will back up all 65 gigs. Meaning the External would be 750-65 = 685? Or is it some type of compressed format?

Second
Can i use the external to store all my music files on. Like move the itunes folder over. So that when i connect my ipod to my computer, my external must be connected first.

 

[alphaod]

Yes to both questions. There is no compression and yes you need the external connected to load the music if you move the music there.

For your case, I would partition the drive into 2 partitions, one for the Time Machine and the other for your music. If you don't know how to do that, just search Google for partitioning hard drives with Disk Utility.

Finally just a heads up, but remember that your external HDD could potentially fail as well, so if you move you music on to it, make sure you back up your music elsewhere.

 

[w...b]

damn. so many backups. i never backed up my 12 inch PB. But now im starting to get more professional things done.

 

[Aea]

Or get an external drive in a RAID 1 config (two drives inside).

 

[Michael CM1]

The Time Machine backup does everything in increments. I don't know about compression, but it probably doesn't do that. But when you change something, the next sync will update that on your Time Machine drive.

As the other poster said, beware of ALL drive failures (plus stuff like fire or flooding). It's always best to have a remote backup of priceless stuff like pictures and home video. Some backup to a much-more-reliable optical disc (or discs) is also a great idea for stuff like music.

If you have ever owned a camera with an SD card, you know that flash memory can also fail, especially if it's cheap. So no backup is completely safe. But that can be combatted by doing multiple backups, multiple media, multiple locations.

 

[motulist]

FYI, due to marketing BS, a 750 GB drive will actually deliver MUCH less than 750 GB of storage. The math works like this

                         (advertised GB)
actual space  =       ---------------------
                              1.024 ^3

You will actually see about 698 GB of available storage space. So you will be losing over 50 GB of advertised disk space. That's basically the entire amount of actual storage space I have in my Powerbook's entire disk!