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Can I use Time Machine on a drive with other files?
Tip: Time Machine will by default use up all the space available on the drive. If you’d also like to use some of the hard drive space for storing other files, you’ll need to partition the drive into two volumes: one for the Time Machine backups and one for your other files.
Should I have two backup drives?
Two backups are better than one–if you do them right Backing up is all about redundancy. And the more redundant, the better. If some ransomware steals your important files, the last thing you want to discover is that your backup drive is dead. So Dien has the right idea—you should back up twice.
Can Time Machine be used as an external hard drive?
External drive connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11ac) or AirPort Time Capsule. Time Machine can back up to an external USB drive connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11ac model) or AirPort Time Capsule. Connect the drive directly to your Mac, then use Disk Utility to erase it.
How many backup drives should you have?
Including your live environment, you should have at least three copies of your data in total. This means that in the event of a disaster you will always have additional versions. We’d recommend creating backup copies at least once every day. However, the more copies you can practically make, the better.
Do you have to back up files on Time Machine?
If you keep separate files on your backup disk, Time Machine won’t back up those files, and the space available for Time Machine backups will be reduced. No it will not erase your existing files. Time machine will create a folder on your external hard drive called Backups.backupdb.
Can a time machine drive be used as an external drive?
You can also make the files partition an ExFAT partition, which means you can use it with Windows PCs and practically any other device you can connect an external drive to. You’ll need to use the Disk Utility built into your Mac to work with partitions.
Can you use time machine on Windows PC?
Bear in mind that Time Machine requires the drive be formatted with the Mac’s HFS+ file system, which means you won’t be able to easily access these files on Windows PCs or anything else that isn’t a Mac. Time Machine will also work toward filling up the entire drive, not leaving extra room for your files.
How big of a hard drive do I need for a time machine?
Here’s how you can get around that and use a Time Machine drive both for backups and file storage. Using a 2 TB external drive for Time Machine backups of a Mac with a 128 GB solid-state drive doesn’t make much sense.