Using one HDD to backup 2 MacBook's?

[Bez59]

Hi, I have been using a 250gb external hard drive to backup my MacBook Pro through time machine and it is nearly full.

My wife has now got a MacBook Air that needs backing up.

Can i delete some of the old backups of the Pro to make space for the Air backups or would that be a bad idea?

Or would time machine do it for me if I try and backup the Air to it?

Also can i make a partition on the External hard drive for the Air backups without losing the backups of the Pro?

Thanks.

 

[Weaselboy]

Give this a look.

You can use the same disk to backup both machines, but starting the second backup is not going to automatically shrink the first to free up space.

It is best to use one partition for each machine so you can better manage the space allocated for each machine, but you do not have to do this.

If you want, you can shrink down the existing partition, then add on a second one. This page will show you how.

 

[Fishrrman]

My suggestion:

Get something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Dock...=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B003UI62AG
(Note: there are many others, just search amazon for "USB3/SATA dock")

Then, get a "bare" hard drive that has a larger overall capacity than both your drive and your wife's drive combined.

Then, put it into the dock and use Disk Utility to initialize it.

Then, partition it into 2 partitions -- one should be at least 250gb.

Now, hook the docked drive up to your computer, and use CarbonCopyCloner to clone the contents of your drive to one partition.

When done, hook it up to your wife's computer, and use CCC to clone the contents of her drive to the OTHER partition.

You now have bootable backups for BOTH computers. You can use CCC to periodically update the backups so that they represent exactly what is on each hard drive...

 

[Bez59]

Give this a look.

You can use the same disk to backup both machines, but starting the second backup is not going to automatically shrink the first to free up space.

It is best to use one partition for each machine so you can better manage the space allocated for each machine, but you do not have to do this.

If you want, you can shrink down the existing partition, then add on a second one. This page will show you how.

Thanks for the reply.

I have made a separate partition for the Air (44gb) but there seems to be something wrong with the drive so it won't let me change the size of the original partition even tho there is free space on it.

I was planning on getting a bigger drive at some point anyway so it will do for now.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks for the reply.

I have made a separate partition for the Air (44gb) but there seems to be something wrong with the drive so it won't let me change the size of the original partition even tho there is free space on it.

I was planning on getting a bigger drive at some point anyway so it will do for now.

Can you post up a screenshot of Disk Utility with the partitions shown. Maybe we can help you sort through it.

 

[Bez59]

Can you post up a screenshot of Disk Utility with the partitions shown. Maybe we can help you sort through it.

I tried to repair it in disk utility but it said something like it couldn't and i would have to copy the data to another drive and format it then copy it back but i don't have another drive so i can't.

I will post a screenshot when the Air has finished backing up to the drive.

 

[Bez59]

This is what happens when i try and repair the drive to resize the partitions.

And this is the partitions. It wasn't full when i tried to resize it tho.

 

[Weaselboy]

Yep. Something definitely not right there. Like it says, you need to get all data off that drive and reformat the whole thing. It looks like you did the partition correctly.