Time Machine and External Hard Drive

[Bessamy]

Newbe question. Setting up Time Machine for the first time. I plan to use this hard drive as both backup and to move iTunes to. I have never used Time Machine before. I have Mac OS 10.5.8.

Can the hard drive be used for both backup and storage of my iTunes?

Thanks!

 

[Mac-Michael]

Yes.

Backups are stored in a folder named Backups.backupdb at the top level of the drive selected as the Time Machine backup repository. Within that is a folder with the computer name (as set in the Sharing preference pane in System Preferences) which contains a series of date-stamped folders (YYYY-MM-DD HHMMSS), each of which contains a folder named for each volume being backed up.

 

[Bear]

...
Can the hard drive be used for both backup and storage of my iTunes?

Yes. Just remember that any backup of your iTunes files (if any) would be on the same disk and therefore liable to be lost if the disk dies or gets totally corrupted.

 

[Bessamy]

Thanks for the reply!

Wow, that would bite to corrupt both. So basically I would need another hard drive to back up iTunes. And then use that one to back up both my Mac and the iTunes folder on the external drive?

 

[Bear]

Thanks for the reply!

Wow, that would bite to corrupt both. So basically I would need another hard drive to back up iTunes. And then use that one to back up both my Mac and the iTunes folder on the external drive?

IF I understand correctly, yes. One external drive for iTunes and whatever else you don't keep on the internal drive and then a second external drive to back up everything.

 

[minifridge1138]

I would always keep time machine on a separate hard drive.

You don't have to, but you should.