Best way to backup macbook

Hello
i was looking for some advice on backing up my macbook, i did think that i could plug an external drive and run time machine but as the external drive is also used for my windows machine, it says incorrect file system for time machine.
I then decided to try and just copy all files in finder to the external drive and it didnt like this either, which i thought was strange as iwould be able to do so to a flash drive, but i dont fancy backing up this way as flash drive isnt big enough for all data on macbook.
I dont really want to have to purchase another external drive, so was wondering if anyone had any suggestions to help me back up the macbook?
thanks
Carlo

You will need an external drive that's formatted for a Mac in order to use Time Machine which is an easy* way to backup. One solution, if your external drive is big enough, would be to partition it into 2 drives; one for windows and one for Mac.
* Easy because it's automatic. Another method is cloning your HD using a program like SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner. I use both Time Machine and cloning because of the advantage of being able to boot your machine from the clone thus creating a second hard drive. Time Machine is merely a restoration method.

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