Time Machine, Windows based HDD and backups

[Jigsawjammer]

Hey,
I just bought a horribly cheap external enclosure off ebay and need some answers on what is best.

Background: I have a 500GB WD HDD in a Dell XPS that has obviously windows on it and my itunes catalog. I want to take that 500GB drive, put it the enclosure, and do time machine backups.

1) Can I just put the drive in and do time machine backups to it without the need to delete it? (the drive probably has 350GB free)

2) Can I access the Windows content from my MBP?

3) Can I pull the itunes library off and transfer it to my MBP?

4) Any other suggestions about doing this switch?

Thanks

 

[robbieduncan]

1) Pretty sure the answer is no. The external drive needs to be HFS+

 

[geoffreak]

1) Can I just put the drive in and do time machine backups to it without the need to delete it? (the drive probably has 350GB free)

No. You need to change the partition table to GUID in order to use HFS+ that is required by Time Machine. This will require a complete rewrite. Hard drives are cheap, so just buy a new one.

2) Can I access the Windows content from my MBP?

Install MacFUSE and you're ready to read the Windows HDD on your Mac. Macs can read off NTFS drives by default, but the native driver can't write to them and reading is very slow.

3) Can I pull the itunes library off and transfer it to my MBP?

I don't know for sure, but I don't think so. Mac OSX and Windows use two different methods of data storage (dll versus plist). Just import your files again.

4) Any other suggestions about doing this switch?

I would have actually bought one of these enclosures (in fact, I own one and love it). Cheap eBay enclosures are notorious for causing problems and can lead to data loss and corruption.

 

[Jigsawjammer]

That enclosure is awesome- a mini MacPro!

So I never did this before so please bear with me but if I pull off my info manually and lets say burn it to DVD and next I pop the HDD in the enclosure- will time machine do the steps to format the HDD to proper format?

 

[Jigsawjammer]

I would have actually bought one of these enclosures (in fact, I own one and love it). Cheap eBay enclosures are notorious for causing problems and can lead to data loss and corruption.

Do you think I shouldn't use it then? It was 15 bucks but do you think it is a high chance of being a POS?

 

[geoffreak]

So I never did this before so please bear with me but if I pull off my info manually and lets say burn it to DVD and next I pop the HDD in the enclosure- will time machine do the steps to format the HDD to proper format?

Yep. Time Machine will erase and format it for you. You can also do it with Disk Utility by erasing and formatting it to HFS+.
Some people recommend partitioning the drive to limit the size of the Time Machine backup, but this isn't necessary. If you decide to go this path, make sure you have at least twice the size of the internal drive partitioned for Time Machine.
Partitioning isn't necessary to write other files to the drive. A Time Machine backup is a single file at the root of the drive.

Do you think I shouldn't use it then? It was 15 bucks but do you think it is a high chance of being a POS?

What brand and model is it?

 

[rkdiddy]

1)The external drive needs to be HFS+

Yep, you would need to format it. If you had an additional drive you could always mirror your windows (fat-32) drive onto that. Reformat your XPS drive to HFS+ and then pull everything back over.

 

[Jigsawjammer]

It doesn't technically have a name (maybe that is a sign of future trouble).

OK- besides that- could I put my itunes on my ipod and upload it to my MBP?

I did it years ago with my friends ipod to my computer (XPS) and it was quite easy once you make hidden files shown.

Maybe off topic- but when I transfer songs from my XPS to MBP- I can play them on the MBP but can't transfer them to my iphone. WOuld this method correct that. (crap- I think I hooked my iPhone to my XPS to restore it when I got a new one so that is probably what make it not transfering- right?) I have a backup on my MBP so I guess I could restore it then sync it to my MBP- right?

Thanks guys