Can I partition my external hard drive and use one partion for time machine and the other one for data that i may want to use in different computers?

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Can I partition my external hard drive and use one partion for time machine and the other one for data that i may want to use in different computers?

I have this doubt. I've just bought an external drive, especifically a Seagate GoFlex Desk 3 tb.

I want to know if it is recomendable to make a partion exclusively for time machine and let another one so I can put there music, photos, videos, etc that I should need to use or copy to another computer.

May half and half, 1.5 tb for time machine and 1.5 tb for data.

I have an internal hard drive of 500 GB (499.25 GB) in my macbook pro.

Any recommendation?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Dec 13, 2012 7:05 PM

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Answer 1

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Kappy

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Dec 13, 2012 7:07 PM in response to AntonioDz

Yes. I don't recommend it. Backups and storage needs should be separate. If something happens to the drive you've now lost your backups and your data. The safe thing to do is have two drives - one for backup and one for data.

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Answer 2

AntonioDz Author

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Dec 13, 2012 7:24 PM in response to Kappy

If for the moment I only have one external drive, would you recommend me to partition it and then when eventually I buy another one, use one for backup and one for data.

I don't have enough money to buy two of them.

If I use it for backup and don't partition it, can I still use it for data?

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Dec 13, 2012 7:31 PM in response to AntonioDz

As I said, yes. Be sure your Time Machine partition has at least 1 TB for backups.

1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.

2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two (2). Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

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