Time Machine

[bhop123]

I just purchased a new iMac and am wanting to use Time Machine with an external hard drive that I am also using to back up my PB (with Time Machine). Do I need to partition the external hard drive in order back up my new iMac or can I just plug it in and back it up without losing my PB backups?

 

[iMacBook]

Yes. You need to partition it and use one for Time Machine and the other for your other back-ups.

 

[Dimwhit]

You sure about that, iMacBook? I'm pretty sure Time Machine can use the same partition for multiple backups. Each computer gets its own subfolder within the Time Machine backup folder.

Haven't tried it out, but I'm fairly sure it can do that.

 

[TheZA]

You don't need a partition. Time Machine just makes a file folder. The problem is that Time Machine will continue taking backups until the drive, or volume, or whatever is full and will then start deleting the oldest backups first. So it is going to go, for however long that takes, until the thing is full. And if you are dynamically adding/deleting files from that same partition, or drive, or volume....? So it is best to have a set aside volume, drive, or partition.