Time Machine and 2 Macs

[Dr. McKay]

I have a 2Tb external USB3 drive with 2 partitions, a 1Tb partition for miscellaneous files, and 1Tb for Time Machine. It's connected via USB to my 2017 iMac.
I recently bought a 2015 Macbook Pro and I would like to use that same USB to make a TM backup for the laptop as well.

I would connect the USB drive to my Netgear Nighthawk R7000 router so both computers can access it through SMB. The iMac is connected to the router through ethernet, the MB Pro obviously is through wifi.
Now, I understand I would have to reformat the TM partition because apparently, an existing TM backup which was made using USB is not compatible with a networked backup.
So, I would reformat the TM partition, but here's my question : can I use that one TM partition for both Macs without any sort of problems/conflicts ? In essence, once everything's set up, can I just leave it to do its job ?

 

[Weaselboy]

So, I would reformat the TM partition, but here's my question : can I use that one TM partition for both Macs without any sort of problems/conflicts ?

Yes you can use one drive for two Macs just fine.

I do have a suggestion. There seem to always be a lot of forum posts about people having trouble doing networked TM backups with a third party router like you mentioned. If it were me, I would attach the TM drive to the iMac and let the MacBook backup to that drive over the network. That setup is officially supported by Apple and I think would be more reliable for you.

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac...der-with-time-machine-on-mac-mchl31533145/mac