Time Machine questions

[BrentMc]

Hello all, I have a 2TB EHDD set as a Time Machine. I would like to save space on my iMac and install The Complete National Geographic on this EHDD. Can I just create a folder in finder to install too? Do I need to partition it? Can I move my iTunes library there to save space on the internal drive?

Thanks for the help. -Brent

 

[ColdCase]

Hello all, I have a 2TB EHDD set as a Time Machine. I would like to save space on my iMac and install The Complete National Geographic on this EHDD. Can I just create a folder in finder to install too? Do I need to partition it? Can I move my iTunes library there to save space on the internal drive?

Thanks for the help. -Brent

Time machine is eventually going to want to use the entire external disk (or partition). But partitioning can be troublesome and a bit risky in that there is more of a chance for the drive to get corrupted. The best thing would be to use a second hard drive, one for TM and the other for your files. But you can partition your drive if you want. In case you don't know, partitioning will erase everything on the drive, including you TM backup files.

 

[rigormortis]

what the heck is it with these replies


u can create folders all you want on external hard disks that are used on time machine, regardless if its an external hard drive or if its an actual timecapule
you dont need to make a new partition or erase it.

i do this all the time i got a bunch of tv shows on my time capsule router and i sometimes will put photo and itunes libraries on my external hard disk that i use for time machine

just don't touch the backup directory or put anything in the sparse bundle file

aside from your hard drive crashing, which is true of all hard disks, the only bad thing about putting tv shows and other files on your time machine drive, is your video playback may suffer if your doing a backup at the same time your watching nat geo

regardless if you put files on the same disk or on a different partition, you will have less space for rolling backups and older content will delete itself from your backup quicker once you run low on space.

the only time you need to make separate partitions for time machine is if your using the same hard disk to back up more then one computer ( connected directly using usb) . i dunno if its true. but thats what i tell people to do

 

[Meister]

the only time you need to make separate partitions for time machine is if your using the same hard disk to back up more then one computer ( connected directly using usb) . i dunno if its true. but thats what i tell people to do

You are right. I forgot about that. My advised was based on that scenario.

 

[ColdCase]

what the heck is it with these replies

The reason I stopped doing folders and sharing a drive between backup and user data is that I always seem to get in the situation where I want to save data and the disk is full and the backup solutions are awkward. Second drives are so damn cheap now days that why mess with it.

Then there is the question not asked. How are you backing up the user data on the external drive? When I need more storage space than the Mac internal drive capacity, I set up an external drive for that and then a separate external drive for time machine and set time machine to backup both the internal and external user data drive. The time machine drive should be larger than the sum of the internal and user data drive capacity.

Did I mention that drives are so cheap now days, why mess with it. Although in a pinch it can be done this way.

 

[matreya]

I'm staggered that someone would want to move their iTunes library to the SAME hard drive they use for Time Machine backups. If the hard drive dies, you've lost both the original iTunes library and the backup, in one easy stuff-up...

As has been already suggested, if you need to free up disk space on your internal drive, BUY another external hard drive and move your files to that, then remove that new external drive from time machine's exclusion list.