using a 2.5 inch drive for time machine & other documents

[Sossity]

I would like to use a 2.5 portable hard drive to backup my macbook pro, & also for documents on the go, can I have both on the drive?

or do I need to partition or something else?

 

[EmpyreanUK]

Assuming you want to use it for Time Machine backups, then you can use a 2.5" USB drive, but you will need to set up two partitions on it –*one for the TM backups, and another for your other data.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I would like to use a 2.5 portable hard drive to backup my macbook pro, & also for documents on the go, can I have both on the drive?

or do I need to partition or something else?

Assuming you want to use it for Time Machine backups, then you can use a 2.5" USB drive, but you will need to set up two partitions on it –*one for the TM backups, and another for your other data.

You can use any available 2.5" HDD, either USB and/or Firewire.
And to use it for Time Machine and data storage, you DON'T need to partition it, as Time Machine only backs up to only one folder, leaving you plenty of "space" for other folder.
But you can partition if you want, no disadvantages there.

Btw, I use Time Machine to make backups of my user folder and use CarbonCopyCloner to make a bootable backup of my entire MBP's SSD.
Therefore I have the best of both worlds and can troubleshoot via the external Mac OS X clone, if the need arrives.

 

[Fishrrman]

"I use Time Machine to make backups of my user folder and use CarbonCopyCloner to make a bootable backup of my entire MBP's SSD.
Therefore I have the best of both worlds and can troubleshoot via the external Mac OS X clone, if the need arrives."

I would like to second the above posting.

Instead of Time Machine, I suggest that you pick the 2.5" external of your choice, and then use CarbonCopyCloner to create a bootable backup of your "main" drive.

No, CCC does not work "automatically" as does TM (although CCC _can_ be set up to run on a "scheduled basis"). You have to run it yourself. But it will provide you with far better "backup protection" that will TM, especially in the following situations:
- you can't boot from your main drive and need to get running again, as in RIGHT NOW.
- you need a file and can't "get at" your TM backup (seems to be a common problem from the number of postings I see about that type of occurrence in here)
- you want to run maintenance on your main drive and you need to boot from an external source.

CCC even has the option to "leave existing folders alone" during its backups (which means you could keep a folder with your "documents on the go" on your backup drive, and that folder wouldn't be disturbed.

And CCC can even "archive changed files" that would normally be removed during the course of a "cloned backup".

Best of all, it's free.

 

[Brian33]

And to use it for Time Machine and data storage, you DON'T need to partition it, as Time Machine only backs up to only one folder, leaving you plenty of "space" for other folder.
But you can partition if you want, no disadvantages there.

Yes, Time Machine only backs up to a single folder, but my understanding is that it will eventually fill whatever partition it's backing up to. TM will delete old backups as necessary for new backups so that's no problem for TM, but if you then want to store a bunch of documents, there might be not be enough space left for them. Therefore, I believe you're better off making two partitions, one solely for TM, and one for your other documents and files.

 

[Sossity]

"I use Time Machine to make backups of my user folder and use CarbonCopyCloner to make a bootable backup of my entire MBP's SSD.
Therefore I have the best of both worlds and can troubleshoot via the external Mac OS X clone, if the need arrives."

I would like to second the above posting.

Instead of Time Machine, I suggest that you pick the 2.5" external of your choice, and then use CarbonCopyCloner to create a bootable backup of your "main" drive.

No, CCC does not work "automatically" as does TM (although CCC _can_ be set up to run on a "scheduled basis"). You have to run it yourself. But it will provide you with far better "backup protection" that will TM, especially in the following situations:
- you can't boot from your main drive and need to get running again, as in RIGHT NOW.
- you need a file and can't "get at" your TM backup (seems to be a common problem from the number of postings I see about that type of occurrence in here)
- you want to run maintenance on your main drive and you need to boot from an external source.

CCC even has the option to "leave existing folders alone" during its backups (which means you could keep a folder with your "documents on the go" on your backup drive, and that folder wouldn't be disturbed.

And CCC can even "archive changed files" that would normally be removed during the course of a "cloned backup".

Best of all, it's free.

I may also use Carbon copy cloner to clone one of my main external hard drives to another offsite backup drive, when I am ready to update or do additional backup to my offsite drive, will carbon copy cloner just copy new files? or would I have to go in by hand & copy new files? or would I have to start over each time to backup? what I mean is can it do incremental backups? & know which data is newly added from data added & copied before?