Hi folks. So I partitioned my seagate freeagent drive using exFAT so I could swap it back and forth with Windows. I went to setup time machine and I see the drive is excluded and I cannot remove it from the exclude list. Can time machine not backup that partition type? If not, what can I use that will be usable with both windows and os x and allow me to back it up with Time Machine? Thanks.
Try this solution for using a sparse bundle for Time Machine with exFat: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20140415132734925. You can give the sparse bundle a dynamic size as explained here: https://www.cnet.com/news/how-to-set-up-a-dynamically-resizing-disk-image/.
According to the built-in Help system, no, NTFS or FAT formatted disks are not supported for Time Machine.
For fat or ntfs, you have to use something like Winclone to clone those partitions as a backup, but I have not tested winclone in Lion to see if it still works 🙂
Okay. So what is the standard file system I should use for this drive so I can have time machine back it up? It's a 1tb USB drive. Sorry I'm new to some of this even though this is basic stuff. Thanks.
Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
You can't use any other file system as they don't support hard links to folders.
Thanks. that worked. Can't use on my Windows machine now though 😟
Yes, you can. Just install an HFS+ driver (like Paragon) on your Windows computer.
Can Time Machine NOT backup USB exFAT drives?
