Can I Still Use My Hard Drive For Other Things After I Do A Time Machine Backup?

I'm currently in the process of backing up my imac with time machine using a Western Digital My Passport 1TB hardrive. My total back up is just about 600GB. I've read that I will still be able to use my hard drive for backing up or transfering other files but I should partition my hard dirve. Now that time machine back up has started, will I still be able to partition my drive or is that something you must do before using time machine?
-Gabrielle

macjack has a very valid point, so you might want to consider a second drive for files.
To partition, you need to boot into the Recovery Volume (command - R) on restart. Select Disk Utility.
Step 1 - select the hard drive.
Step 2 - select the Partition tab.
Step 3 - select the current partition and then use the lower right corner to push up and resize the partition.
Step 4 - click the plus sign to add a partition. Then select the new partition.
Step 5 - Name the new partition and select the format. The one shown in the screen shot is generally recomended.
Step 6 - Hit apply.
This procedure can be reversed at a later date if you find your Time Machine backup needs more space.

Similar Messages

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    Firstly, apologies if these questions have been answered elsewhere. I have searched but feel I need a post in its own right.
    I've bought a new 1TB Western Digital 'My Passport' hard drive. I've plugged it in and it is busy creating a time machine back up right now. It is going to use about 60GB once done.
    Will I be able to use the remaining 940GB when it's finished backing up?
    Will my HD behave just like a regular USB storage device after this?
    Will it work with my windows PC as well?
    I have an older, smaller HD drive with backups of all my pictures/docs/music on. Can I easily transfer those onto my new hard drive?
    Many thanks in advance for any answers that may be forthcoming.

    dughall wrote:
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    Yes. However, this is not recommended. Time Machine makes duplicates of your entire system. Each identical file is only on disk once, but there can be many, many file and directory pointers. If you ever want to blow away your Time Machine drive and start a fresh one, it will take forever and then some to delete all those files. It is far easier to just erase the partition. If you have other files on there, you have to remember to move them elsewhere before erasing the partition.
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    Will my HD behave just like a regular USB storage device after this?
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    I have an older, smaller HD drive with backups of all my pictures/docs/music on. Can I easily transfer those onto my new hard drive?
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