Using Time Machine with a 3rd Party External Harddrive with Windows

[JordanSaints]

Hey guys. So I have a MacBook Pro with Snow Leopard, and I am looking to buy a large external harddrive (1+ TB) to back up my computer with (using Time Machine). Can I do this wirelessly, even though I do not have Airport Extreme or the Apple external harddrive (I will most likely buy a Western Digital or some other big-name brand).

Also, my family PC is running Windows XP. Is a way I can wirelessly back up that computer as well to this external harddrive, or will I need to plug that in to the PC.

Finally, can I back up both a Mac and a PC on the same harddrive?

Thanks in advance guys. I really appreciate it.

 

[spinnerlys]

If your router (the one that creates the wireless LAN) supports HDDs connected via USB to it, the wireless part might work.

To use an external drive as backup for Windows and Mac OS X, the HDD needs to be partitioned into two partitions.

One with the HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) filesystem, one with NTFS (Windows filesystem).

To back up from Windows wirelessly you may need additional software if you want automated backups.

Also MRoogle will have a lot of threads to offer on this subject.