If I use a harddrive for Time Machine backup on Mac OSX Leopard, can I use that hard drive for other purposes as well?

I would like to use a portion of the hard drive for other things, such as storing items that are not on my backed up Mac. Is this possible using Time Machine? I do not have Leopard yet.

Asked by internaut 49 months ago Similar questions: harddrive Time Machine backup Mac OSX Leopard hard drive purposes Computers > Software.

Similar questions: harddrive Time Machine backup Mac OSX Leopard hard drive purposes.

Yes, if you partition it. Q: I set up a directory for Time Machine on my external drive. Why can't I see it in Time Machine's list of backup destinations?

A: Time Machine can only back up to volumes (formatted partitions) that are dedicated to the purpose. For geeks' sake, if it doesn't have a /dev/disk* entry, Time Machine can't target it. Should be able to as long as it is partitioned.

You can't simply set a folder as your backup. More info: discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?thread... Sources: weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisemac/archi... .

YoSure To keep things organized I'd recommend partitioning your external drive, one partition dedicated to Time Machine the other partition to "other stuff. " I've been using SuperDuper (EZ backup software) for a couple years on a 250Gb external that has multiple partitions: 1) for SuperDuper 2). For other Mac stuff like iTunes TV & movie files and miscellaneous.

The SuperDuper is automatic and I just drag files to the other partition. I'm going to upgrade to Leopard in Feb '08 and will decide to use Time Machine or keep using Super Duper. Leopard's Disk Tools lets you resize partitions without having to reformat, this is a big deal if you've ever partitioned a drive and later wished you'd made the partitions different sizes.

BTW, I'm replacing my wife's G4 tower (sell $30-$50) with a Mac Mini (buy $600) and getting Leopard with her Mini... Leopard would cost $120 by itself, and she gets a new faster computer.

You'll have to partition it. Leopard creates a folder inside the backup drive to store the backups. So you could (and I do actually) save files into other folders on that drive.

The problem is that Leopard will create hourly/weekly, etc backups until the drive is full, so the best option would be to partition you're external drive that way you can limit the amount of space that Time Machine uses.

I haven't been able to find a definate answer but yes I looked everywhere and would have to say no, but yes. It seems that Time Machine wants to know how much space it has to work best. That is because it will save hourly backups until a day has passed then daily and weekly, monthly backups.

When it runs out of room it asks and removes the oldest backups. I would be cautious about writing to a drive that a program is using this style of backup because it will use all the space it is given. But, you could take your external drive and partition it in Disk Utility, then give one partition to time machine, and use one for other uses.

From what I have read, you will want to have twice the amount of hard drive space you plan to use available for time machine. So think about getting a 500 GB drive or bigger, if you are going to partition it, because you will need at least 240 GB available for time machine to back up a 120 GB internal drive. Earthquake_Jake's Recommendations Seagate STM305004OTA3E5-RK Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 500 GB External Hard Drive Amazon List Price: $199.99 Used from: $209.19 Western Digital 500 GB My Book Premium ES (WDG1SU5000N) Amazon List Price: $229.99 Used from: $144.99 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 6 reviews) LaCie 500 GB Big Disk Triple External Hard Drive (300721) FW/FW800 & USB2 Amazon List Price: $449.99 Average Customer Rating: 2.5 out of 5 (based on 31 reviews) Maxtor T01G500 OneTouch III 500 GB External Hard Drive FireWire/USB 2.0 Amazon List Price: $209.99 Average Customer Rating: 3.0 out of 5 (based on 29 reviews) .

Maybe The short answer is yes the long one is you will need to create differnt partitions: timemachine will format the partition that you select for its use so you will need to slice up the harddrive upfront.

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