Is it possible to backup 3 computers to an external hard drive-1 XP Mach, 1 Vista, and 1 Macbook? Brand and BU software?

I haveb een told with partition-can do Vista and XP but not the Mac! Backup and partitioning software would be critical and to make sure the external drive and software will work with Vista-many don't. Asked by JackB 53 months ago Similar questions: backup computers external hard drive 1 XP Mach Vista Macbook Brand BU software Computers > Hardware > Computer Components.

Similar questions: backup computers external hard drive 1 XP Mach Vista Macbook Brand BU software.

Computers > Hardware > Computer Components.

Yes. There are quite a few options available depending on how simple/complex your backup needs are... Since there's a lot of information, I'm going to break this answer up into sections to make it easier to digest. External Hard Drives The most common external connector between your XP, Vista and MacBook is most likely going to be USB, so a USB compliant external hard drive will work fine.

Although, depending on whether or not you're running OS 9 on your MacBook, there may be a limit to how big the drive can be. I'm not a huge fan of keeping everything on a single external drive, because like all hard drives, there's still a platter spinning thousands of times per minute inside. Even though it's more expensive, I like having smaller drives that keep me from throwing everything into a single "basket".

It sounds like you haven't purchased a drive yet. If so, I'd recommend considering Seagate's "FreeAgent" series of drives. They have 5-year warranties instead of the typical 90-day/1-year for most external drives and are also nice looking (though the black and yellow don't quite blend in with all-white-themed Macs :o).

A 250GB model is about $83 after shipping: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148233 Partitions I wouldn't worry about partitioning. Repartitioning an external hard drive isn't necessary unless you have very specific needs. It's also difficult to use all of the space efficiently since you have to decide how big to make each partition.

Later on you could resize the partitions using software that does non-destructive repartitioning, but there's a significant risk that something could go wrong (power outage, hardware failure, etc. ) during the process that could destroy all the data. Also, for large drives, repartitioning can take a very long time to finish. Another thing to keep in mind is that while Windows and Linux use the same partition structure that dates all the way back to MS-DOS, Macs use a different one.

Linux can natively access Mac partitions but Windows can't, so you're really better off with just a single DOS-type partition (the default for the majority of pre-formatted external hard drives). Filesystems (i.e."Formatting") Most ready-made external hard drives are pre-formatted for Windows (FAT32), but, due to file size limitations with FAT32 (no more than 4GB for a single file), more and more drives are being formatted as NTFS. Even though a drive may be pre-formatted, it can always be reformatted as HFS+ (common to Macs), EXT3 (Linux), and any other format that may be needed.

In terms of compatibility, assuming the hard drive had a single partition spanning the entire disk, FAT32 would be the most cross-platform/compatible with Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS 9/X and Linux. However, because of the file size limitations mentioned earlier, it may not be very practical if you happen to want to store home movies, backups of DVDs and other things that might be more than 4GB in size. One way around the 4GB per file limit is to split files into smaller chunks which many backup programs are able to do.

Making Backups For home users, there are basically two methods of making a backup: a) Copy personal files b) Disk imaging A lot of people attempt to copy every file, including the operating system, and that doesn't work because often there are files that are in use and can't be copied while the system is running. Even if it were possible to simply copy all the files, there's a chicken-&-egg problem... let's say the hard drive dies... to restore all the files and get a running system, you need the backup software... but, in order to run the backup software, you have to have a running system. So, I always recommend sticking with either copying only personal files and/or disk imaging.

The simplest method of backing up your personal files is to manually copy them over to a external hard drive because you know exactly when it happens, and that it's been copied. For more complex backups there are many software packages available. I've tried several commercial backup programs and I honestly can't say that I was happy with any of them.

A common problem is either too many options and/or too few -- either one makes backing up more complicated than it should be. Software A some freeware and commercial backup software that I have used and like... Unison (Linux/Windows/OS X) http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/ DeltaCopy (Windows) http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp RsyncX (OS X) http://archive.macosxlabs.org/rsyncx/rsyncx.html Cobain Backup (Windows) http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm Acronis TrueImage (Windows/Linux) http://acronis.com/ Unison, DeltaCopy and RsyncX are very closely related in that they all use the "rsync" protocol. Rsync is a wonderful open-source package originally written for Linux but has been ported to Windows and the Mac OS.

A lot more detail about rsync can be found on its official web site (http://rsync.samba.org/) and there's nice Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rsync) covering the history of rsync with good links to rsync-compatible software. I'm partial to rsync because of it's simplicity and also because it's network-capable. It's possible to have an external drive hooked up to one computer and rsync your files over a local network (or the Internet) to/from another computer.

This isn't related to the rsync project, but they company that runs the off-site backup service below has some very nice How-To articles for using rsync on Linux, Macs and Windows: http://rsync.net/Another free package worth considering is Microsoft's http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168221482330 was originally only for XP, but due to user demand, support for Vista was added: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168221482330 Links Wikipedia has a nice article listing some of the more popular commercial and/or free backup software packages: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168221482331 .

Partition the Drive Assuming your drive is large enough to do the work you want (back up three computers) The obvious answer is to reformat the drive and divide it into three partitions, one for each computer. You should probably use Windows XP or Vista machine to format the drive, since the Mac actually can deal with Windows formats very well and in fact right now I am typing this with an iMac hooked up to a drive with NTFS formatting (an older Windows format that works with all recent versions of Windows plus the current Mac OS plus antique Mac OS 7.1 and up - I could have used FAT or FAT 32 but then the drive would not work well with pre-OSX macs, and I believe that Win XP and Vista do not work well with FAT). If you use the Mac Disk Utility, you can format the drive into the needed partitions, by default the disk will be formatted as HFS+ which is not going to work with Windows (or with obsolete Macs with an operating system older than version 8.6) , but if you know how use the pull down selection box to force the format to be FAT 32 or even NTFS, you will do just fine.

Once you have the drive partitioned, you can use your favorite backup utility on each computer - I will refrain from specific recommendations since many other people will have stronger opinions than I do and will give you good reasons for their opinions. In my case, I use MacBackup which I find to be effective, but clumsy and crude, and for Windows, I use some freebie that came bundled with the security S/W my employer likes me to run so that work I do at home does not get infected with malware that will eventually make its way to the office! I don't even remember the name, but it works quite well.

I would resist the temptation to use exotic utility S/W to partition your disk into HFS+ or Unix partitions that only the Mac can see and FAT32 partitions that supposedly only Windows can see - why get exotic if you don't have to? .

I plan to backup all three of my computers to one external hard drive. Will OneCare determine which backup is the correct files to be restored? Can I give a specific name to each backup?

Report Abuse 20 Apr 2007, 3:55 PM UTC kumaaragiritirumaladevaraya Posts 46 Answer Re: Backup three compters to one external hard drive Was this post helpful? Yes You can do OneCare determines by Machine Name. Report Abuse 21 Apr 2007, 12:49 AM UTC Chuck W.

ModeratorMVP Posts 1,459 Re: Backup three compters to one external hard drive Was this post helpful? BillgI have not heard of anyone doing it, but give it a try and let us know.As was said before be sure to give each computer a name. Chuck--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Windows Live Butterfly/MSDN & Windows Live OneCare Forum Moderator Report Abuse 22 Apr 2007, 1:31 AM UTC Stephen Boots ModeratorMVP Posts 10,693 Re: Backup three compters to one external hard drive Was this post helpful?

I've done it, Chuck.No problems. :-)-steve--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Microsoft MVP Windows Live / Windows Live OneCare Forum Moderator Report Abuse 09 Aug 2007, 2:50 PM UTC Billg Posts 5 Re: Backup three compters to one external hard drive Was this post helpful? It worked just fine.

I did have one small problem though. My laptop for some reason would not start OneCare after a recent update. I had to un-install the program then re-install it again.

After going though the scans and tune up it did not recognize the old back up and created a new file of original backup. I then tried to delete the old backup and found out that it would not delete. After searching your data base I found the instructions on how to delete old files.So far I love this program.

I would like to see a anti-spam program incorporated into it, to make it a full service program. Report Abuse 10 Aug 2007, 4:48 PM UTC Stephen Boots ModeratorMVP Posts 10,693 Re: Backup three compters to one external hard drive Was this post helpful? I'm glad that it worked for you and the forum has been a good resource, too.

Sorry to read that you encountered a problem that required a reinstall, though. -steve Sources: http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1985149&SiteID=2 .

1 newbie2650464, regarding your answer "Re: Backup three compters to one external hard drive ":There is obviously some great and very relevant material in this thread, but it would be more useful for most of us if you rewrote it in paragraph form, developing each point systematically - as it stands, it is still certainly a good and helpful answer. JK .

Newbie2650464, regarding your answer "Re: Backup three compters to one external hard drive ":There is obviously some great and very relevant material in this thread, but it would be more useful for most of us if you rewrote it in paragraph form, developing each point systematically - as it stands, it is still certainly a good and helpful answer.JK.

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" "I don't know how to get my computer to acknowledge my external hard drive. What do I do? It doesn't acknowledge when its" "Can I get my computer to recognize my external hard drive?

How to backup properly to an external hard drive.

My computer will recognize my external hard drive but will not allow me to access it.

Please recommend the best hard drive backup software.

Is it ok to copy my dvd movies to my computer hard drive and what software would I use.

I don't know how to get my computer to acknowledge my external hard drive. What do I do? It doesn't acknowledge when its.

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