Time Machine / multiple partition backup

[Zortrium]

Hi guys,

I'm looking for a simple way to keep complete backups of both the Mac and Windows partition on my iMac. I've never had an automated backup system before - ideally, I'd just get an external HD of the same size as my iMac's (500 gigs), and Time Machine would handle everything else for me, but I imagine that TM can only handle the Mac partition. What's the easiest to way to keep a complete backup of my HD?

 

[sickmacdoc]

You are correct about TM only dealing with the OSX partition, but there is a workaround for that which will wind up with both partitions being backed up.

The workaround involves WinClone- a free OSX utility to backup your BC partition as a disk image. When you run WinClone (in OSX since it is a Mac program), you can safely direct it to save the image to your external drive since TM stores its backup files in its own folder on the external.

The difference is that the WinClone backups need to be done periodically manually, as opposed to the automatic backups that TM provides and Winclone backups do not offer the "digging back in time" functionality of TM. The manual backup issue should not be a problem as long as you remember to run WinClone again whenever you feel your BootCamp partition needs to be backed up again.

BTW- Don't forget to format your external drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) before you try to use it with Time Machine since TM does not work on PC formatted disks as new drives usually are.