Do i have to delete all files on my external hard drive, to make a Backup of my Macbook?

Hi!
I Have a MacBook Pro, and i want to make a Backup of it (with help from Time Machine.)
- To a external hard drive, but, i have one little issue, and that is that i already have other files on that external hard drive, (from other computers..) but when a start up Time Machine, it want me to delete all thoose files, (which i wouldn't!)
So what can i do, if i want to make a backup of my mac, on a external hard drive, where there already are other files on which i don't want to delete?
Please respond quikly!
Thanks!
Magnus Ejlskov.

Magnus,
To add to Barney-15E's point, not only must the drive be formatted correctly, but the volume or partition being used for Time Machine (TM) must be used for TM and for TM only. You indicate that you want to store other files on this hard drive. That's fine. But those files should be stored in a separate partition and NOT the partition that will be mapped to TM. TM backs up incrementally. It will automatically delete the oldest back-ups as space is required for newer back-ups. Any files stored in the TM partition that are not stored anywhere else will, eventually, be deleted.

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Do i have to delete all files on my external hard drive, to make a Backup of my Macbook?

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