Time Machine-Compatible Disk Formats

You cannot use a Time Machine backup drive on both Macs and Windows. The Time Capsule should be partitioned using GUID and formatted Mac OS Extended, Journaled. This is done using Airport Utility. Use a separate backup drive for your Windows system and use Windows backup software.

Mac OS X can Read from NTFS formatted drives but it can not write to them. Unless you use a Software program that allows OS X to do so.

So if all you want to do is read files from that Windows external the Mac can do that natively. But if you need to open them and make any changes then save them back to that external you will need either one of those software programs or format the drive FAT32 or exFAT so both Windows and Mac can read and Write to that drive.

I would refer you toPondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine. This is sort of out of my comfort zone. I do not think you can use a Time Capsule on both a Mac and Windows at the same time as a Time Machine backup drive. However, you should be able to use the Time Capsule as a network storage device on both platforms if each computer platform is accessing the Time Capsule via LAN.

You don't need a Win compatible drive to share files with other users of any kind of computer. A Word Doc file is the same on a PC as it is on a Mac. That goes for all other file types also. All the client needs is the correct program to open and view the files you are sharing with them.

AS I stated before for that drive to work seemlessly on both Mac and Windows it need to have a format that both Mac and Windows can read from and write to. Those 2 formats are FAT32 or exFAT.

He's using a Time Capsule. I think he wants to use it simply as a NAS device. I don't believe it's necessary to format the Time Capsule FAT or exFAT to transfer files via LAN to a NAS device.

Kappy he also has an External USB drive.

QUOTE:

Next I want to INCLUDE an external USB 3.0 drive to the backup set. This drive is used for archival storage for my Windows Virtual Machine's data files (work stuff, sharing w/PC Laptop). I have this disk formatted as exFat, so no problems reading from Win or Mac.

END QUOTE:

But after I reRead his post I see his problem. He is trying to include that USB drive formatted exFAT to the Mac TM backup.

It is saying it doesn't support exFAT drives because it may not be able to write that format when doing a restore.

To the OP.

Bad Idea to included any external drive to a TM backup system. TM is more for internal drives so if you have a drive failure you can replace the drive and then use the TM backup to restore your system the the last time you may a backup. If you include an external and that external is not connected to the system when doing a restore the restore will fail.

You are better off buying a second external and copying the data from the Mac Win external to that other drive. IE having a second copy of all that data.

Basically the same thing would happen if you tried to use a Windows Backup system to include that external drive.

Well if I understand your last post.

If you save a file, calll it .XYZ format extension, from the Mac to that external formatted FAT or exFAT and then connect that external to a Win PC that has a program that can read the .XYZ format extension file (Like a Word DOC or Excel XLT or whatever) then the client can open and read that file with their program

Time Machine only backs up HFS volumes. If you want to back up this file with Time Machine, you'll have to copy it to another volume.

If you are using a VM of Windows and MS Access in Windows the external does not have to be formatted FAT or exFAT. It can be formatter NTFS. (No that does not help you with TM backing up that drive)

You will need some other device (NAS) on your network and use the VM of Windows to backup that external to.

Well, I'm a week late and this is my first post ever (been reading the forums as I have a new MBA and am trying to figure out the best setup and backup strategy for both OSX and either bootcamp or VM Win7.

Seems to me the basic solution is to run backups in Win7 so that you are not "backing up" the external drive but are instead backing up the source as you create it in Win7.

One compound question then might be can you partition TimeCapsule and format part in NTFS and, if yes, could you then use it for automated backups out of your Win7 VM ?

I can see why most backup software would not be happy trying to backup external drives that are only there some of the time.

Oddly enough, if you're using a VM (I use Parallels Desktop, for instance) all of the 'Windows' files with be backed up using Time Machine. If you're running Boot Camp, of course, this isn't the case. So I would suggest trying a VM first, too see if it fits your needs. Parallels has a 14-day free trial and VMFusion has a 30-day free trial. Befor using Boot Camp, give one or both a shot and see what you think.

Clinton

I thought I read somewhere that if you use TimeMachine and include the VMs, then every time you use them they are backed up and if you have allocated a lot of space (e.g. 150G of my 512G SSD), then that means it is backing up the large 150G file every time. Maybe I'm wrong?