My First Shot At Using Time Machine...

[cababah]

Ok so I have a few questions. I just bought a Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB to use with my Airport Extreme router.

Questions:

1) My computer says the Passport HDD has 460GB free. Why not 500? There is nothing on it so far?
-Answered. Thanks MacDawg.

2) Do I have to use the Disk Utility program to re-format or erase anything to free up more space? If so, how do I do this? The Disk Utility program has so many options and it is sort of overwhelming and confusing.

I am a new Mac user and new to this whole "Time Machine" thing..do you guys back it up all the time or just turn Time Machine on once in a while to back up?

 

[MacDawg]

Check out the Guide here at MR: Hard Drive Size Discrepancy

Hard Drive Size Discrepancy

Why does my new 500 GB hard drive report it only has 465 GB? Have I been ripped off?

No, you haven't been ripped off. 500 GB = 465 GB, strange as it seems.

The reason is that computers count a "kilo" something as 1024 (binary 2^10) while the rest of the world count a "kilo" as 1000 (decimal 10^3). A 'mega' in computer binary system is 1024 x 1024 = 1,048,576 (rather than decimal 1,000,000), and a 'giga' is 1024 x 1024 x 1024 = 1,073,741,824 rather than decimal 1,000,000,000

This creates a discrepancy of approximately 7% between the number of GB the computer reports, and what is advertised as the drive's capacity in GB. It is important to note that there is no difference in the number of actual bytes of storage - it is only a difference in reporting when the binary 'giga' terminology is used.

A 500 GB hard drive has about 500,000,000,000 bytes (it is never exact, commonly a drive is designed to have more bytes, to allow for a certain number of defective sectors to be mapped out). When counted on the computer, 500 Gb (decimal) = 500 billion bytes = 465.66 GB (binary).

Some propose using a different term, gibibyte (GiB) for the binary figure, however that is unlikely to catch on in the marketplace.

As far as Time Machine goes... just set it up and let it do its thing
If you want more control you can use this: TimeMachineEditor


Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[ian.maffett]

1. You never get a Gig for a Gig... there's overhead and the math involved breaks down. What it says is right.
2. You do have to format it to HFS+ (Mac OS Journaled in disk utility) in order for Time Machine to use it. It might be already but I suggest doing it anyway.

Open Finder, Apps, Utilities, Disk Utility
Select this disk - click erase, then erase free space - since it's just one big drive that should be all you need to do. Mac OS Extended should be selected by default in that window - if not, it should be.

 

[Shake 'n' Bake]

It's as easy as 1, 2, 3 if you're just using it for a Mac!

1. Open Disk Utility and click on the first mention of your external HDD in the left pane. That's the one farthest to the left, not the indented one.

2. Click the erase tab. Make up a snazzy name and set the format to Mac OS Extended, Journaled.

3. Hit erase.

If you want a Windows partition as well, I can tell you how to do that. It is a little more than 1 2 3, though.

 

[cababah]

It's as easy as 1, 2, 3 if you're just using it for a Mac!

1. Open Disk Utility and click on the first mention of your external HDD in the left pane. That's the one farthest to the left, not the indented one.

2. Click the erase tab. Make up a snazzy name and set the format to Mac OS Extended, Journaled.

3. Hit erase.

If you want a Windows partition as well, I can tell you how to do that. It is a little more than 1 2 3, though.

What is with all those options when you plug it in...erase...erase free space..it is kind of confusing?

By "first mention" of my HD you mean there is like a tree to the left and there is a first mention and underneath that a second mention.

 

[Shake 'n' Bake]

What is with all those options when you plug it in...erase...erase free space..it is kind of confusing?

By "first mention" of my HD you mean there is like a tree to the left and there is a first mention and underneath that a second mention.

Just say cancel to those messages. They'll go away once you've formatted the HDD.

That's what I'm saying. Click the topmost one that isn't a "branch."

 

[cababah]

Just say cancel to those messages. They'll go away once you've formatted the HDD.

That's what I'm saying. Click the topmost one that isn't a "branch."

Ok so this is the option to erase EVERYTHING and clear the HD and format it for Mac right? What is the difference between extended case sensitive journaled and all those options?

 

[Shake 'n' Bake]

Ok so this is the option to erase EVERYTHING and clear the HD and format it for Mac right? What is the difference between extended case sensitive journaled and all those options?

Yup, this erase everything. I couldn't tell you what the difference between them are, but I know that you want Mac OS Extended, Journaled.

 

[cababah]

Cool, thanks Shake 'n' Bake

 

[Shake 'n' Bake]

No prob.