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Uber noob questions about Time Machine, and External HDD's.

You'd need to make different partitions on it if you wanted Time Machine back up on the same HD as Windows (Time Machine needs to be on HFS+ which windows can't read). I'd make three partitions on the external HD, one for Time Machine, one for backing up Windows and one for various files.
 
yeah i guess i should partition it huh? it is 2tb, i am pretty sure i might never use that much lol.
 
Make sure you size the partitions well, especially for the backups. They should be 2-3 times the size of what you're backing up.
 
simon48 said:
Make sure you size the partitions well, especially for the backups. They should be 2-3 times the size of what you're backing up.
Click to expand...

you are making me kind of nervous now lol, i might not even back up windows cause i don't use it much and most (all) of my stuff is on the os x side. I made windows a 100gb partition :p I'm starting to feel like i could have just stored the whole partition on my external and just kept the 500gigs to myself.
 
tymaster50 said:
you are making me kind of nervous now lol, i might not even back up windows cause i don't use it much and most (all) of my stuff is on the os x side. I made windows a 100gb partition :p I'm starting to feel like i could have just stored the whole partition on my external and just kept the 500gigs to myself.
Click to expand...

I'm sure you'll find a balance. What are your partition sizes and usage for the HD you are backing up?
 
so if I had 80GB allocated to win8.1 and the rest - 176GB allocated to os x, I would do ~160gb for backup for the windows, ~352gb backup for osx/timemachine, and have the rest for media/etc? this is possible, correct? if so, what program do you recommend to partition?


and why 2-3 times?
 
simon48 said:
I'm sure you'll find a balance. What are your partition sizes and usage for the HD you are backing up?
Click to expand...


I have like 379 gigs used on a 407 gb partition
windows has the rest of the 500gb, with 91 gigs. I think i allocated 100 but bootcamp used it or something lol.

so i made a partition on the 2tb drive, one is FAT, which windows can read and holds 700 gigs
other one is mac os extended, for backups and transferring between macs and that is 1.3 tb
varatep said:
so if I had 80GB allocated to win8.1 and the rest - 176GB allocated to os x, I would do ~160gb for backup for the windows, ~352gb backup for osx/timemachine, and have the rest for media/etc? this is possible, correct? if so, what program do you recommend to partition?


and why 2-3 times?
Click to expand...
Depends on how much space you have on the hard drive. And i used the default Disk Utility, worked fine lol. Actually it took less than a minute to partition it. And because it backs up everything, literally everything so if you have 80gb, by the time it is done backing up, you will have 80 gigs left. at least that is how it is on windows. That is why he said 2-3 times. Also once you back up, turn off time machine because time machine likes to back up like every 5 minutes.
 
Consider building your Windows VM to not store any of your files on at all. Simply create a share from your mac side to the windows machine as the z: drive (for example), and store all your work there. This way, all your files are stored as part of your mac drive and all you need to run is time machine for backups.
 
varatep said:
and why 2-3 times?
Click to expand...

You want some history. Time machine basically makes a full backup and then keeps on backing up the delta after that whenever needed. So you need some room for the delta. How much you need depends on how much history you want to keep, but also how big new files which come on to your machine are. So 2-3 times is a good starting point. After a month or two of usage, you'll have a pretty good idea of how much space is needed.

For example, I have 256 Gb of data stored on my internal SSD, and my time machine backup is 385 Gb. My history goes back to Nov. 21st 2013. The delta size is small because I've not pulled any really large files onto my machine during that period.

The whole idea of time machine is to keep it running permanently. Like that, if you erase a file accidentally, you can recover it no matter when it was deleted. Also, if you need to restore your entire machine, you will recover everything up to the last snapshot. I've done this countless times and it works very well. If you want to be on the safe side, you can also make a backup with CCC or SuperDuper, which probably a good idea.
 
i turned time machine off, it was annoying backing up like every 5 minutes lol. Really wish there was an interval setting. It's not like my mac will just simultaneously combust right after a backup.
 
tymaster50 said:
it says it doesn't work while time machine is enabled.. isn't that the whole point ol
Click to expand...
If I understand it correctly, you need to disable TM, change the schedule and re-enable it again.
I believe it does the same plist modding (defaults write), that was explained in the article I linked to.
 
I think i finally get why people keep time machine on

it backs up every hour, so there is a small window for you to delete stuff

You'd think it would be searching for constant changes and then writing it to the HD at the same time, quicker but takes more effort. Then it stores the whole backup multiple times on your HD so if there is a difference in the span of an hour, you can go through each and every one of them looking for something you wanted

Amazing.
 
i dont wanna make another thread, how would i go about using linux with this hard drive? I have a section for mac, and a section that is windows compatible (can use it on bootcamp and stuff, it is fat or something). Can I do a triple boot? Anyone tell me how?
 
tymaster50 said:
i dont wanna make another thread, how would i go about using linux with this hard drive? I have a section for mac, and a section that is windows compatible (can use it on bootcamp and stuff, it is fat or something). Can I do a triple boot? Anyone tell me how?
Click to expand...

Sure, just make another partition just for Linux and install Linux on it.
 
tymaster50 said:
ah ok, do i have to do anything special? I tried to make a linux usb but all it did was mess up bootcamp lol.
Click to expand...

No, just install it on it's own partition (pick the new partition with the Linux installer). No more then one OS per partition, ever.
 
tymaster50 said:
once i have the iso how would i install it on the hard drive?
Click to expand...

Use Disk Utility to put the ISO on to a thumb drive, DVD etc. Then hold option on boot to boot into the installer (make sure you install to the right partition).
 
simon48 said:
Use Disk Utility to put the ISO on to a thumb drive, DVD etc. Then hold option on boot to boot into the installer (make sure you install to the right partition).
Click to expand...

Even if I mess up I have time machine :p im gonna do a backup right now then.
Edit: What do i format the partition as? I chose mac os extended..
 
Last edited:
I only post this because others may see this thread, why not save the $10 and get this drive? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-my-p...lack/9617227.p?id=1219033486638&skuId=9617227 They're pretty much identical except for the "for Mac" branding that WD counts on those that don't know any better seeing and buying because it's "for a Mac and I have one". I have a "normal" drive and use it just fine for TM, just need to format it properly which, as you found, isn't hard to do.

BTW, if you plan on ONLY using that one partition for Windows stuff, you could go into disk management on the Windows side and format it as NTFS. For what it's worth, I store all my stuff on the OS X side and don't even bother backing up my Win 7 VM.
 
hallux said:
I only post this because others may see this thread, why not save the $10 and get this drive? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-my-p...lack/9617227.p?id=1219033486638&skuId=9617227 They're pretty much identical except for the "for Mac" branding that WD counts on those that don't know any better seeing and buying because it's "for a Mac and I have one". I have a "normal" drive and use it just fine for TM, just need to format it properly which, as you found, isn't hard to do.

BTW, if you plan on ONLY using that one partition for Windows stuff, you could go into disk management on the Windows side and format it as NTFS. For what it's worth, I store all my stuff on the OS X side and don't even bother backing up my Win 7 VM.
Click to expand...

Whats the difference between all of these 2 tb hard drives by WD? They all look the same to me lol
 
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