Time Machine + Partitioning Help? & Questions

[MaLdocK]

Hi all,
I'm looking forward to using Time Machine with my external 250gb hd, but im curious as to whether i can still partition my external after i backed up my files from my mbp to it.
1) I'm still in the process of backing up my mbp
2? Can i partition my external after that?
Say 100gb for backup and the remaining 150gb for my music/pics/movies.
3?Can my mbp hdd be partitioned too?

Thanks

Sorry nooby questions i know, Not a computer guy u know.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Are you running Leopard? Leopard supports "live" partitioning, but make sure you read all the warnings in Disk Utility before you partition. Also, how big is the hard drive on your MBP? Time Machine requires a drive or partition that is at least 110% of the size of the drive you are backing up. If you have an 80 GB internal hard drive, your plan will work fine. If your drive is any bigger than that, Time Machine will probably complain about not having enough space.

 

[MaLdocK]

Hi!
Yup leopard 10.5. I'm having a 250gb hdd in my mbp.
Oh no, so does that mean 100gb isnt enough?

My intention is to back up only my important documents. I excluded movies+songs from my mbp when backing up.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Hi!
Yup leopard 10.5. I'm having a 250gb hdd in my mbp.
Oh no, so does that mean 100gb isnt enough?

My intention is to back up only my important documents. I excluded movies+songs from my mbp when backing up.

It will be, if you partition your MBP's drive as well, and make one of the partitions no bigger than 100 GB, then tell Time Machine to only back up that partition.

 

[MaLdocK]

oic. so i should..
1. partition my harddrive 1st, seperating my impt stuff from the nots.
2. back up that drive onto the external hdd,
3. partition my external so that i can transfer my other data like any other normal harddrive?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

oic. so i should..
1. partition my harddrive 1st, seperating my impt stuff from the nots.
2. back up that drive onto the external hdd,
3. partition my external so that i can transfer my other data like any other normal harddrive?

Swap steps 2 and 3. That's the order I recommend.

 

[MaLdocK]

Cool! thanks. will do.
I'll let u know in a day's time if its successful or if i need to buy myself another hdd

Thanks!!!

 

[Siron]

I did the same thing. I partitioned the external drive into COMMON (as FAT32 for my XP and Mac common files and TIME MACHINE. I opened Time Machine and told it to use TIME MACHINE. It formatted it to its liking and everything was okay.
Alan