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Post by uproar13 on Sept 2, 2008 18:22:48 GMT
Hi
I've bought a 500gb external hard drive for my imac. I want to be able to run time machine and also store some other files on it. I would also not like it to show up on my desktop (as i like it clutter free). I understand I need to partition? How do I do this and how much space should I give to time machine?
Any help gratefully received.
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Post by Forum Cat on Sept 2, 2008 18:34:50 GMT
I am not an expert on this one but as I understand it you don't need to partition the drive. Time machine will ask you if you want to use the hard drive as a time machine drive the first time you connect it.
If you say yes then a folder is made on the drive that is your Time machine backup for that computer. You can use one drive as a backup for multiple computers. Each computer will have it's own data backed up in a separate folder on the drive.
Any other data that you want to store on that drive can be stored in another folder on the same drive if you wish. For example you could create a folder called "Not my Time Machine data" and then keep it all in that.
The time machine folder will expand over time though, and it will continue to do so until the drive is full. So…
If your extra data is not going to change don't partition
If your extra data is going to change make a partition on the drive and use one partition for TM and the other for your data.
Does this make sense?
Time machine should have as much space as you can spare. The more it has the more it can go back in time. In a perfect world a HDD of double the size of your internal drive is what is wanted. In a less perfect world a partition double the size of the anticipated used space is enough to be useful.
Mr Cat
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Post by Forum Cat on Sept 2, 2008 18:38:00 GMT
To keep your desktop clutter free do the following.
Click on the desktop so that you are in Finder.
Click the Finder menu (next to the blue apple top left)
Choose preferences
Choose the general tab
Check/uncheck the items that you want or don't want to see on your desktop.
Mr Cat
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Post by uproar13 on Sept 2, 2008 18:59:40 GMT
That's great, thanks! i have left it unpartitioned for now because it is just a few movie files. I'll keep on eye on it to make sure there is enough space.
Thanks again
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keith
Senior Member
Posts: 269
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Post by keith on Sept 2, 2008 20:50:11 GMT
I do it a different way. I've knocked up some AppleScript that hides unwanted drives from the desktop. That way I can have some drives showing but not others of the same type (ie external, network, idisk etc). For example, the drive I use for my SuperDuper! backup is called 'backup' Open the AppleScript Script Editor (Applications, AppleScript) and paste the following into it. quit application "Finder" tell application "System Events" to ¬ set visible of disk "backup" to false delay 1 launch application "Finder" Click file/save as Enter a filename (I called this one "Hide backup drive" and ensure that the file format is set to Application and that all three options are unchecked below that. Click Save. When you double click the script you've created, the drive called 'backup' will vanish from your desktop. To make it come back, make another script called 'Show backup drive' and use the same code you used above but change the word false in line 3 to read true. You can use this technique to show/hide anything on the desktop, just change the name in "" on the third line. Although I have finder set to display everything, I only have my boot drive and my home drive on the desktop. Much tidier
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jock
Full Member
Posts: 50
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Post by jock on Sept 3, 2008 6:39:23 GMT
It's even better if you're using a NAS for Time Machine - it mounts the partition when Time Machine is in progress and automatically unmounts the partition when it's finished, so the only time the partition shows on the desktop is when Time Machine is active.
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keith
Senior Member
Posts: 269
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Post by keith on Sept 3, 2008 12:19:16 GMT
Yup, that's true but as I've got four internal drives plus my idisk, I didn't want five drive icons on the desktop, hence doing the script thing.
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