Partition NTFS External Drive to work with Time Machine

Hello Apple Support Community,
I use a 1TB External NTFS hard drive to backup the contents of my Desktop Windows computer. I was wondering if I could use Disk Utility (or another tool) to partition the external hard drive so I could use TIme Machine on it. That way, not only would I have my desktop backed up, but also my laptop.
I'd delegate around 700GB for my Windows Desktop and 300GB for my MacBook Pro.
Is this possible? Or do I need to erase the entire external harddrive and backup everything all over again?
Thanks,
David

Requirements to use Time Machine
Time Machine is only available with Leopard or later.
External FireWire or USB 2.0 drive
Time Capsule
Drive shared by a Mac running 10.5 or later using File Sharing
Drive shared by a Mac running 10.5 Server
SAN volume managed by Apple's Xsan file system
A TM drive must be partitioned with either APM (PPC) or GUID (Intel) and formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
Clearly you cannot use Time Machine with an NTFS formatted backup drive. Furthermore, Disk Utility cannot partition an NTFS formatted drive. In my opinion you should use separate drives for separate backups.

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Recently upgraded Mac 24" to Lion (clean install) and now no external hard disks work with Time Machine

Recently upgraded Mac 24" to Lion (clean install) and now no external hard disks work with Time Machine.
installed new internal disk first with fresh 10.7.3 Lion software. Also upgrade ram to 4GB. Work great, super fast.
BUT.... my WD 1TB firewire400 external disks no longer work with the Lion enabled machine now.
FURTHER... I read somewhere that WD is problematic with Lion but Seagate was not... so I went and bought a new 3TB Seagate GoFlex.
When it didnt work properly either, I patiently searched and found a software/firward upgrade and applied.
I re-partitioned disk to extened/journaled standard, etc.
Then assigned the particition to Time Machine. Drive turned the blue/grey color, so I thought it would work.
But, it has now been in "preparing" mode in Time Machine for HOURS....
What is up Apple? So dissappointed. Ive read these type of problems are notorious with Lion and I wish I never upgraded.
Are you trying to make issues with External disks, to drive people to iCloud? That trick ont work in me. I will not reward bad behaviour Apple.
Please provide a fix... I wasted hours/days screwing around with this, instead of using the Mac for what its intended!

Solved by Pondini, on another thread I opened...
Answer:
Sounds like either:
A directory problem on your internal HD. Verify your internal HD, and Repair any other volumes being backed-up per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
Something in OSX may be damaged. You've tried the "combo," so a fresh copy of OSX (that won't disturb anything else) would be worth a try (and you don't need a tech for that). See Installing the ''combo'' update and/or Reinstalling OSX.

Which External Drives are compatible with Time Machine. I plan to utilize it for backups and to connect to an Airport Extreme.

MBP Retina, 15 inch, Late 2013. Intel Core i7. OSX 10.9.4
Which External Hard Drives are compatible with Time Machine.
I plan to use one drive for automatic backups connected to an Airport Extreme.
The connection can be USB or Ethernet and should be expandable.
OR
should I just buy the Time capsule and avoid the compatibility, connection and interference issues.
Thanks

Hi Kappy,
I just saw that on the Apple Support site that "Time Machine is not supported with USB hard drives that are connected to an AirPort Express or AirPort Extreme device", just as you have suggested.
Why is the newest model of the Airport Extreme, which is the model I have, an exception to the Time Machine compatibility?
The following information is from Apple website:
Time Machine works with:
AirPort Time Capsule's built-in hard drive (any model)
External USB hard drive connected to AirPort Time Capsule (any model)
An external hard drive connected to your Mac
Use the Time Machine pane of System Preferences to choose your backup disk(s).
Additional Information
Time Machine is not supported with USB hard drives that are connected to an AirPort Express or AirPort Extreme device.

Choosing an external hard drive to work with Time Machine

Now that I have decided to get an external hard drive for my iMac, I am a little frustrated by all the different options out there. All the different ratings and reviews are making me dizzy! I am looking for an external drive that works well with iMac and Time Machine, preferably plug and play. I am looking for 1TB or so of storage and basically will use for Time machine back ups and saving pictures/video. Is there a drive that has a good reputation of getting along well with macs? Any suggestions?

Cumby wrote:
1TB or so of storage and basically will use for Time machine back ups and saving pictures/video.
If you mean you're going to put the originals of some media files and your TM backups on the same physical disk, that's not a good idea. When it fails (and it will fail, eventually), you risk losing both the originals and the backups.
You can, of course, keep other data on the same disk, but you should partition it so TM has it's own, exclusive space, usually about 2-3 times the size of what it's backing-up. See items #3 and 5 Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of this forum.
If you decide to do that, then find some other way to back-up your media files, such as CDs/DVDs.
Is there a drive that has a good reputation of getting along well with macs? Any suggestions?
For your TM disk, most of the name brands are about as good as the others; one maker may have a run of problems on a particular model, but by the time that becomes known, it's likely out of production anyway.
Please update your profile so we know what sort of Mac you have, and what version of Leopard you're running.
You probably want to get a FireWire drive, as they're usually faster and more dependable than USB. If you have a F/W800 port, spend the extra money for a F/W 800 drive; it's much faster than F/W 400.
If you think you might ever want to put a bootable "clone" on that drive (many of us do, in addition to Time Machine), and you're considering a Western Digital drive, be sure it's bootable -- some of theirs aren't.
And get one with it's own power supply; taking power from your Mac may not always be dependable.

What sort of external drive to use with Time Machine

Hi all,
I was wondering if there are requirements to the sort of external drive Time Machine can use: does it have to be a FireWire drive or will an USB drive suffice? Additionally, what would be the best type?
Wil Dieteren

Time machine will per default do incremental backups on an hourly, daily weekly and monthly basis. Therefore you need an external harddrive that is larger than the harddrive you are backing up. Depending on how many changes and large files you work with, the requirements for the right size may vary.
I'd suggest getting an external HD that is at least 150% of your HD. 200% would be more generous.
I just bought an Iomega MiniMax 500GB and it works great with Time Machine (my iMac's HD is 320GB).

Iomega eGo 2TB USB/Firewire 800 drive not working with Time Machine.

The drive I had for Time Machine died and I replaced it with an iomega eGo 2 TB USB/Firewire 800 drive. Time Machine finds it and backs up the disk when I first boot up but then it seems like the drive goes off line. At that point, when Time Machine tires to back up it can't get the drive to respond and my system hangs. To fix that, I turn off the iomega that fixes the hang up and I get the disconnect without ejecting warning.
I ran disk utility and disk warrior. Both apps reported the disk is fine.
Can any tell me what's up? I'm running OS X 10.7.2
Thanks.

I am having this exact same error with my new iMac 21.5" connected to a brand new Iomega eGo 2 TB Desktop Firewire 800 External Hard Drive (Mac Edition - 34796).
The TimeMachine backup works fine, but as soon as the iMac goes to sleep and wakes back up, TimeMachine doesn't respond well to any commands and all sorts of errors appear on the screen.
I will try the tip here from Kappy and report back later if this works for me.
Kappy, one thing to note is that I'm using the Firewire connection from the iMac to the eGo and experiencing this problem. The eGo has its own power supply too.

External hard drive not working with Time Machine

I have an Iomega network hard drive attached via ethernet cable to my Airport Extreme router.
I plugged the hard drive in. Everything works like it should. I can see the drive in Finder and I can read and write to the drive. I do share the network drive in a mixed WIN and OS X environment. I never had to reformat the drive and I can read/write to the drive with no problems from all of my computers.
I turned on Time Machine on my iMac and walked through the simple setup screens there. I never set anything up on the hard drive through the drive interface software. And Time Machine worked fine for about 4 months. Then all of a sudden, Time Machine just stopped backing up and I got all kinds of error messages saying that the TIme Machine backup failed.
So I went into Time Machine, turned it off, turned it back on. No luck. Same error messages.
So I started fresh. I deleted the prior Time Machine backups and I am back at the TIme Machine set up screen. OS X can see the TIme Machine share on my external hard drive and I tell the setup wizard that's the drive I want to use.
Then I get a window that says it's trying to connect to the external hard drive which I call "Cloud_Drive". After about 30 seconds, I get an error window that says
"There was a problem connecting to the server "Cloud_Drive-TimeMachine"
The server may not exist or it is unavailable at this time. Check the server name or IP address, check your network connection, and then try again.
At this point the external drive is still visible in FInder and I can read/write to it from my iMac. I just cannot understand why Time Machine was working and then all of a sudden it stopped.
I did go into the software management of the drive and found an area in which to turn Time Machine on on the drive's side. Which I never did before so I turned it on and then I'm prompted to enter the name of the computer and the ethernet ID. I entered the name of the iMac and I have tried using the WiFI MAC address - no luck getting TIme Machine to work and I've also entered Terminal, found a MAC address under the line titled "ether" and still the same result.
I have also changed the destination of the Time Machine files on the external hard drive and the Time Machine wizard does write a sparcebundle file to that new location but still get the same error message above.

Is it a firewire ext. HD?
Yes, many are reporting same, there is a firewire fault and TB HD on external HD from LaCie (Seagate) and from WD especially.
Technicians are looking into it.
Until there is resolution, consider setting up a USB ext. Time machine HD.
Until then consider confining Mavericks use with USB HD.
Ive tested a long line of USB HD on Mavericks, all seem fine.

Can I partition a Firewire 800 drive to work with Time Machine and Final Cut Pro?

Hey, I was reading that having Final Cut Projects and Events on the same external Hard Drive as a time machine backup doesn't work well together. So I was wondering if I partition a 2 TB External Hard Drive and use 1 partition for Time Machine and the other for Final Cut Pro, would it work like it should? I had thought so because it would recognize it as 2 different drives but I wasn't sure. Thank You for your time!

aside, if it is supported or not:
A backup is a crucial element in your set-up - is it wise to 'stress it' as a working drive for video-editing ...... ?
or, vice versa:
The moment, Time Machine launches, your working drive drops its performance by half or even more.
Plus, depending on your settings, the drive is forced to copy tons of data from partition I to partition II ... due to, a partition is no 'real'/physical drive, this stresses a drive extremely .....
drives are sooo cheap. and drive-space should never be an 'issue' while movie-making ..

I am trying to get an Iomega hard drive to work with Time Machine

I have replaced my old Iomega drive with a new 2TB one but unlike the old one, which worked the minute I connected it to Time Machine, this one requests a password to the Iomega server. I have registered the product with Iomega but I have no idea where or how to set up this password. I found a way to update it in the Iomega settings but it requires and 'old' password to allow you to change it. I have tried everything I can think of but it still won't work!

Disk Utility, Partition (just one partition perhaps), make sure that GUID Partition table is chosen, then erase and format in Mac OS Extended (Journalled).
Then probably you can assign it in TM preferences.

How can i backup external drive iphoto files with Time Machine?

I just can't figure out how to be sure my external drive is being backed up to Time Machine external Seagate HD, the most important files being some 24,000 family photos. Help! The forums I have tried seem to keep missing the point with the question.

The Pondini website is a definitive source for Time Machine information. Perhaps this extract will give you the information that you are looking for:
http://pondini.org/TM/32.html
Ciao.

HT2477 what is the best external drive to use with time machine?

I already have an external hard drive that I use to backup anything I want to then delete from my macbook air. I also use Carbonite to back up everything on my mac. I am looking to switch to Carbonite to Time Machine because it's free. Can you recommend a drive? How do most people use TM? Do you manually back up once a day or do you set it to constantly back up your files?
Thanks,
Jan

I back up every day, I also have 2 back up drives, which you should also have, if your data is imporant to you.
A Time Machine back up, and a clone (which is bootable)
I use a OWC Elite,and a IOmega.
Use Time Machine on OWC:
ttp://eshop.macsales.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=adwords& gclid=COCM8O3uuLsCFSUOOgodVBEAOwuuLsCFSUOOgodVBEAOw
IOMEGA:
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=iomega+portable+hard+drives&tag=googhy dr-20&index=electronics&hvadid=3927029335&hvpos=1t2&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2132 262008473015365&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_2k8gsvyzks_b
These are but a few that are available for affordable prices, I have had very good performance from both, there is going to be many other opinions, and all are valid, I just sat stay away from WD as they have been problematic.
Do a web search you will find tons of drives, at different prices, and capacities, choose one or better still two and back uo to 3 different systems.
I use Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner:
http://www.bombich.com/
Also check into SuperDuper:
http://download.cnet.com/SuperDuper/3000-2242_4-46651.html
Hope this helps

Type of External Drive to use with Time Machine

I just upgraded to Leopard & want to use Time Machine to back up my data. Is it better (i.e. faster) to use a FireWire or USB external drive, or doesn't it make a difference?
TIA!

Hi-
It's better, and faster, to use firewire.

Partitioning an External 320gb drive for use with Time Machine and...

I want to be able to use my Western Digital 320GB external drive for use with Time Machine and to use as extra storage space on both my Mac and when I boot into Windows Vista.
Is this possible?
I was playing around in Disk Utility and would I partition the part I want to use for Time Machine with the Mac OS Journaled, and whatever I want as space for windows, use a MS - DOS format?
Has anyone done this before?
Cheers-

Unless you are using 64 bit version of MSWindows (64 bit XP/Vista), it won't be able to handle a disk with GUID partition table (GPT). Disks with Apple Partition Map (APM) or GUID partition table are the only ones that Time Machine will work with (not MBR disks). Note also that the MBR/APM/GPT are at the DISK level and not the partition level, so don't mix the format with partitioning scheme. Time Machine disks are meant to live in the Mac universe (for now, anyway) and sharing with the MSWindows 32-bit universe is not possible.
See http://img87.imageshack.us/my.php?image=macpcdiskdd06sv8.png for some additional background.

La Cie Porsche Design External Hard Drive no longer working with Time Machine since update to Yosemite.

My La Cie Porsche Design External Hard Drive USB 3.0 is no longer working with Time Machine. Is Yosemite the cause? How do I fix?

Can you see the drive in Disk Utility? If so, try selecting it and using the Mount button in the top menu. You can also run repair disk and repair permissions.

How can you configure a WD external to work with Time Machine??

I have an 1TB external WD MyBook drive that is connected to my network through my Linksys wireless router and am trying to figure out how to format the drive to use with Time Machine.
I currently use the drive to store files from both my PC and my MacBook but can't seem to select the drive to use with Time Machine. I figured that I could just format the drive through the Disk Utility program, but the drive doesn't show up in Disk Utility. This may be because it is a drive connected through my router and not directly to my MacBook?!
Here are a few questions...
Any ideas on how to format the drive so it will work with Time Machine?
Once formatted to use with TM, can I still use the drive to store other files from both my Mac and PC? or do I need to partition for this??
Is it possible to set up an automatic backup schedule that will happen via my home wireless connection?
Thanks in advance,
Todd.

You cannot use the drive with TM as you have it set up. TM will not work with a networked drive except a Time Capsule or a USB drive connected to an Airport Extreme Base Station (current version.)
If you wish to use this drive for TM backups it must be connected directly to the computer. Other computers on the network can access the drive for TM backups if you turn on file sharing for the drive (select drive, press COMMAND-I, check the box labeled "Shared Folder," click on the Enable button.) The shared drive will have to be mounted on the other computers in order for them to use it as a TM backup drive.

Partition NTFS External Drive to work with Time Machine

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