[westcountrygirl]

I am not a computer techie and don't really understand any of how anything works so here goes (put it down to my age).
I have an iMac and need an external hard drive to backup to. I had an Iomega for 5 weeks then it died.
So..am looking at getting either a Western Digital or a Seagate to backup Time Machine, photo's/home movies/documents.
In my head I am likening the HD to a huge filing cabinet and everything just gets sent there. Is partitioning anything to do with making compartments ie one for photo's one for TM etc? If so how do you do it? Also does that mean for example that once TM's compartment is full it will start to over-ride the first backups? Many thanks for any help.

[chscag]

If you're going to use an external hard drive to backup what's on your iMac there is no need to partition it. Partitioning a drive is the process of dividing a drive into more than one volume. (The hard drive will actually look like more than one drive to the system.) Here's a better explanation:

Disk partitioning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Backing up your iMac hard drive is highly recommended and since Time Machine is included free with the operating system, you should use it. Buy an external hard drive that is at least as large as your iMac drive, preferably a bit larger, and use the USB or Firewire connection to attach it. Some external hard drives have both USB and Firewire, some don't. USB only will work OK.

Be sure to read up on Time Machine - how to use it, and also how to prepare your new drive for use with Time Machine.

Walkthrough: Time Machine for OS X 10.5 Leopard - Simple Help

Regards.