WD MyBook as Time Machine and storage

[Cakester]

I've tried to do as much searching as possible and I'm not sure I'm getting an answer I feel comfortable with.

My hardware:
-MacBook Pro 13 w/ 320GB drive
-Airport Extreme
-WD 1TB external drive, hooked through Airport via USB

I'm currently using it my Time Machine only, but would like to use it to store additional files, aside from the regular backup. Music photos, etc.

I have tried to drag and drop from Finder with no luck. Do I need to partition? How do I turn my external drive into a storage facility as well?

 

[Jason Beck]

I've tried to do as much searching as possible and I'm not sure I'm getting an answer I feel comfortable with.

My hardware:
-MacBook Pro 13 w/ 320GB drive
-Airport Extreme
-WD 1TB external drive, hooked through Airport via USB

I'm currently using it my Time Machine only, but would like to use it to store additional files, aside from the regular backup. Music photos, etc.

I have tried to drag and drop from Finder with no luck. Do I need to partition? How do I turn my external drive into a storage facility as well?

Try partitioning it. It will only take you a few mins.

 

[Makosuke]

It might work in another configuration, but I'd highly recommend partitioning it into a Time Machine part (make sure to give yourself some headroom for older versions of files) and a data partition.

Maybe you'll have better luck than I, but I'll note that when I tried to do exactly that with almost exactly the same hardware--Gigabit Airport Extreme with 1TB MyBook attached, backing up to one partition wirelessly from my MBP with another for other stuff--I repeatedly got corrupted Time Machine backups (or even screwed up partition maps). It was bad enough I eventually gave up, figuring that the AEBS just can't handle that level of file serving.

It's possible it was an interaction between the power saving features on the WD drive and the AEBS, or that I was just unlucky, but I've read of other people having exactly the same problem with similar setups.

I also note that running the same drive, partitioned the same, off of a Mini works perfectly when used this way--I've been using such a setup (though I replaced the WD external with a Fantom external that has a WD drive inside) as my home file server/Time Machine backup server for nearly a year now and I've had exactly zero problems.

Gook luck, though.

 

[Cakester]

Is it recommended to use twice the size of computers hard drive for time machines backups?

 

[Makosuke]

Twice as much is a decent general-purpose ballpark, but the amount of extra space you leave really depends on how you use the drive and your backup needs.

If the drive is only 10% full and you never work with large files, it's probably overkill. If it's 80% full and you frequently create and delete huge video files for editing, 2x might only leave you a couple of days' buffer.

I'm using 1.5 at home, which is enough to give me a month of backups with the way I use the drives.

 

[Cakester]

I'm currently using 88.4GB, with 210GB free......or so says my iStat. I just take a lot of photos with a Canon 40D.