Time Machine Query

[ipaqowner]

I've had my MacBook Pro since late 2006 running Tiger.
I've sent for the Leopard upgrade and it should arrive tomorrow with a bit of luck.
Is the Time Machine feature just an automated backup program that runs in the background all the time?
If it is...does it slow the system down?
Since I have only around 50Gb HD space of my 120Gb HD left I was wondering if Time Machine can be set to use an external HD connected by USB such as my WD MyBook 250Gb?

 

[stridemat]

I've had my MacBook Pro since late 2006 running Tiger.
I've sent for the Leopard upgrade and it should arrive tomorrow with a bit of luck.
Is the Time Machine feature just an automated backup program that runs in the background all the time?
If it is...does it slow the system down?
Since I have only around 50Gb HD space of my 120Gb HD left I was wondering if Time Machine can be set to use an external HD connected by USB such as my WD MyBook 250Gb?

First of all yes it just does it all automatically, every hour backs up the changes to any files. I have not noticed any slowdown on my macbook. I have all my films on the time capsule and its streams them over my wireless network. You do have to change some settings in VLC to get it to stream correctly though.

Strider

 

[ergdegdeg]

Since I have only around 50Gb HD space of my 120Gb HD left I was wondering if Time Machine can be set to use an external HD connected by USB such as my WD MyBook 250Gb?

You can do that and you should do that. There's not much sense in backing up your data if the original files and the backup will be lost when/if your HD dies
I created a new partition on my external and use Time Machine there.