Partitioning an external HDD?

[Jonzjob]

I am thinking of getting an external HDD to do backups for both my Microsoft laptop and my iMac.

Is it possible to partition a 1 Tb HDD so that one partition is done for the Mac and the other for the M/soft?

[Bob T]

There are loads of free programs out that will partition disks for you. Most of them will even make Linux EXT4 partitions so should be able to make mac ones too.

[Quillan]

If I were you I would look at NAS (Network Attached Storage). These units will back up both PC's and Macs via a network either cabled or wireless. They are quite happy working with AFP (Apple File Protocol) as well as Windows. If your storing photo's etc you can attach things like the TV etc for instant access. They normally come with software for both the PC and Mac to automatically backup your files or you can do it manually. The price has dropped dramatically over the last year (some are under £200) and for added security offer various forms of RAID which means if one of the HDD's fail you don't loose everything which can happen with an external HDD. Many of the newer versions also backup Ipods as well. Try Googling NAS for PC and Mac and see what you think.

[Jonzjob]

The situation with Maczs Snow Lepeord OS is that it comes with what is reckoned to be a very good backup ayatem called Time Machine that does backups on the fly every hour if you want it to. But it will not recoginse a disk formatted to NTSC. This is why I am asking the question so that I can have a single disk for both my machines..

I am familiar with both Raid and Mirroring, all be it a bit rusty, because I used to install them along with the IBM AS400 systems that I used to install and maintain as an IBM hardware eng. In fact, I have wondered more than once if it's possible to mirror my machines now that HDDs are so cheap?

So for now I still ask the above question, but thank you for the suggestions.

[Quillan]

[quote user="Jonzjob"]The situation with Maczs Snow Lepeord OS is that it comes with what is reckoned to be a very good backup ayatem called Time Machine that does backups on the fly every hour if you want it to. But it will not recoginse a disk formatted to NTSC. This is why I am asking the question so that I can have a single disk for both my machines..

I am familiar with both Raid and Mirroring, all be it a bit rusty, because I used to install them along with the IBM AS400 systems that I used to install and maintain as an IBM hardware eng. In fact, I have wondered more than once if it's possible to mirror my machines now that HDDs are so cheap?

So for now I still ask the above question, but thank you for the suggestions.
[/quote]

Thats why I suggested a NAS, quite a different beasty to the old stuff. It saves data from both the Mac and Windows PC on one (or more if you want RAID) hard drive. Theres no special partitioning required as it basically uses it's own format and 'translates' NTSC and AFP to that format. Most of them tend to be UNIX based. I suppose another way of describing them is as a very basic fileserver.

[Jonzjob]

I'm still not sure about this Q? Do you know if it is possible to connect a disk to a French Orange Livebox and network it in the way that you are suggesting?

Sorry to be thick, but I have always worked on the principle that if you can't hit it with a hammer then you can't fix it? Well, I can't!

I would also be very reluctant to spend another £200 for a backup system after just buying a Mac and then another HDD to do the backups. We are talking living on a pension sourced on the £ here?

[Quillan]

Typical IBM engineer, if in doubt, give it a clout with your Birmingham screwdriver. [;-)]

These small external disks are OK but they are just that, an external disk. The problem comes when you want to do something a little 'clever' like using one to backup two different devices with different operating systems. Also, being 'portable' they are more susceptible to knocks etc and therefore damage.

The most important thing is what value you put on the data you are going to back up and store. Just by bothering to back up means that it has some intrinsic value!

If you were running just Windows XP, Vista or 7 then Windows home media server might be a solution, around £80 for the software and you can run it on most old PC's down to a 486 processor and 512Kb of memory. It mirrors the drive on your PC automatically.

If you look around in the big supermarkets you will see media servers, they are the ones that come with a remote control from about 130 Euros upward for about 250Mb of disk. You can go up to around 2k Euros for belt and braces job's with like 6Tb of disk (difficult to imagine considering in your day 300Mb the size of a washing machine was considered huge) etc. I would recommend that you do a bit of research on NAS before making your mind up as they really are quite clever.

You can plug them in to your Orange router, if you have a port to spare, if not you can buy a 8 way switched hub for around 20 Euros if you have a look around. Alternatively some of the NAS units are wireless.

I found the following for you which whilst its a US forum might give you some ideas as somebody is asking the same sort of question as you.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19611520-NAS-storage-for-Mac-and-PC-or-RAID

Alternatively Google nas for mac and pc

I use mine to store films, photo's and music and have media extenders to 'pipe' it round the house and its brilliant. All my documents are on a 'in the cudboard' Novell server with RAID which also hosts my business websites.

[Quillan]

Just to add I found this unit which is cheap (£114.73) which is 1Tb and works with PC and Mac. This is the basic model and its had mainly good reviews on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-LinkStation-MultiMedia-Attached-BitTorrent/dp/B001FNYWFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1273995424&sr=8-1

You can pay a little more and get a NAS in a bigger box with 1 drive but space to add another 2 which is always an advantage (to be able to add more storage).