Mac virgin.. Have some questions about backups.. please help

Use Disk Utility (in your /Applications/Utilities folder) to format the disk as HFS+ (Mac OS Extended Journaled)

Same concept.

Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac
Time Machine

Using Disk Utility you can partition the drive, with the 750GB partition formatted as HFS+ for TM backups, and the 250GB partition formatted as NTFS for sharing with Windows. You'll need something like Paragon NTFS for Mac, so your Mac can format and write to NTFS. Or you could use exFAT format.

Right. Unless you're running like MacDrive on your Windows computer, it won't be able to read HFS+ formatted drives.

Format A Hard Drive Using Disk Utility (which is in your /Applications/Utilities folder)

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Choose the appropriate format:

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HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Don't use case-sensitive)

• Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
• Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! backups of Mac OS X system files. [*]To Read/Write HFS+ from Windows, Install MacDrive [*]To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
• Maximum file size: 8EiB
• Maximum volume size: 8EiB
• Mac OS X: Mac OS Extended format (HFS Plus) volume and file limits
• You can use this format if you only use the drive with Mac OS X, or use it for backups of your Mac OS X internal drive, or if you only share it with one Windows PC (with MacDrive installed on the PC)

NTFS (Windows NT File System)

• Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
• Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X [*]To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives:
  • For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon (approx $20) (Best Choice for Lion and later)
  • For 32-bit Mac OS X, install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free) (does not work in 64-bit mode)
  • For 64-bit Snow Leopard, read this: MacFUSE for 64-bit Snow Leopard
  • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx $36).
  • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and Lion, but is not advisable, due to instability.
• AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
• Maximum file size: 16 TB
• Maximum volume size: 256TB
• You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems.

exFAT (FAT64)

• Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
• Not all Windows versions support exFAT. See disadvantages.
• exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
• AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
• Maximum file size: 16 EiB
• Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB
• You can use this format if it is supported by all computers with which you intend to share the drive. See "disadvantages" for details.

FAT32 (File Allocation Table)

• Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X. [*]Maximum file size: 4GB.
• Maximum volume size: 2TB
• You can use this format if you share the drive between Mac OS X and Windows computers and have no files larger than 4GB.

 

Yes. External hard drives formatted at NTFS can be read my macs and files can be copied from them to a mac.
If the external drive is formatted as FAT32, then you can read and write to it.

 

With portable drives being so cheap these days it's good to have multiple backup devices. In addition to time machine I make a Carbon Copy Cloner backup of my drive. This drive is bootable and I can plug it into my wife's iMac and it looks exactly like my MBP. While neither are readable on Windows it's not a problem since we have multiple macs.

 

Awesome write up man! I could not have said it better myself.



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Keep in mind though that fat32 is limited to 4GB file sizes.

 

For #3, partition the hard drive into two partitions. For the first, make it 750GB in HFS+ (OSX's file system). For the second, make it 250GB in exfat, which both windows and osx can write to.