Possible to Backup OS onto PC formatted drive?

Hi. Just bought my first external hard drive as storage and backup for my 5 year old iMac. Can I leave it formatted the way it is (PC type format out of the box) and create three partitions, one for file storage, one for backing up my entire system, and one for ?... Or must I re-format to Apple formatting in order to have a full system backup? My main reason for wanting to do this is just in case my next computer is a PC. I am thinking maybe I can get away with this if I learn to create "disk images"? Thanks for the help!

If you're thinking of using Time Machine to backup your iMac, the hard drive or the partition you use for backup must be formatted to HFS+ Journaled. Otherwise TM will not work.

If your next computer is a PC, you can always reformat the hard drive or buy another external. The only compatible file system between a Mac and a PC is FAT-32. Nowadays, most drive manufacturers are factory formatting large external hard drives to NTFS.

I dont have time machine

I searched my Mac and did not find something called Time Machine. I suppose I would use the software that comes with the drive I purchased (a maxtor). My concern is, if I Apple format the drive, then the computer dies and I decide to go with a PC, will I be able to recover my data files from this external drive? Can some PC's read apple formatting? Does a "system backup" code the files into something un-readable or would you still be able to browse thru it and get some data files from it? (as long as the computer you are on at the time can read the formatting)

Or is there such a thing as formatting seperate partitions differently on one drive?

PC's can't read the files that way because of the way the drive is formatted. If you ever needed to use the drive with a PC the data could be salvaged with a little planning:

1. Third party software such as MacDrive « Mediafour

2. Attach the drive to a Mac and network it with the PC that will receive the data.

There is a method out there to create a multiple partition hard drive HFS+ for Mac, NTFS for Windows, and FAT 32 which can be seen by both) I had a Mac/Win drive for a while but not long enough to tell you how reliable the process is. Too big a pain IMHO, If you are interested I can provide a link to the directions.

And a five year old iMac? You have to be running a late model OS to access Time Machine and you have not provided these details.

1. You can't leave it formatted the way it is and partition the drive. Each partition will have to be formatted after they are created. And yes, each partition can (and actually will) be formatted individually (that is, one at a time to the format of your choice).

2. You need to supply what version of OS X you are using and preferably which iMac also.

3. We also need to know what method of backup you intend to use in order to tell you what format is acceptable for that particular backup method. If you don't know what method of backup you're going to use, then you need to take a step back and figure that out prior to determining what format will be acceptable for each of the partitions.

I am not aware of any "full system" backups that will not require HFS as the format for the backup partition on an external drive connected via USB or Firewire.

If you want a backup method that you can use with FAT32 so that it can be read from a Windows machine without any 3rd party software later on, then you're basically looking at using 'drag and drop' for backing up your data. Not the best method.

ruilaime literature

It is Power PC 1.8 GHz G5 Imac 17" w/ 10.4 OS X. I guess I will just Apple format the drive so I can use the "Easy" backup method supplied with the drive- but before I do- could I upgrade my OS and get time machine? Are there other cool things I am missing out on by having and older OS? (as you can tell I am sort of a Mac nube, sorry).

And maybe I will never go back to a PC. Mac's are super nice. Just wish I could open certain files some people send me without buying all types of software and do certain things such as stream Netflix... but I am getting off subject.

Your iMac will run OS X.5 Leopard, which included Time Machine. You will need a black coloured full retail install DVD, and when you have that update to OS X.5.8, at this stage the highest OS your iMac can run.

No drive software will work on your Mac and you need to format your drive to Mac OS Extended (Journalled). When you get the Leopard disc, set you back +$100 on eBay and sucj but MAKE SURE it is the full retail install version, pop the disc in, reboot and hold down 'C' after the chime, to into Utilities in the Menu Bar, select Disk Utility, Erase and format the drive, and back to the Installer and let Leopard run.

leopard iHDeHDupOSdump...

OK, this sounds good, upgrading OS while I need to switch out my failing iHD anyway. I will drag and drop files onto the eHD now then install new iHD, new OS software, drag and drop files from eHD back to the Mac, then reformat eHD to Apple Extended... and start using time machine. Anything I am forgetting?

Also- does the newer OS require more computing power? (i.e. slow down the computer) Most of what I have done on my Mac is use iPhoto, iTunes, some Garage Band w/MIDI, Browsers / PDF veiwing, text edit, some small video editing, not much else.

bootable back up on eHD

I read on Wiki that Time Machine can not create a bootable backup on an eHD? The Maxtor software that came with the eHD I bought says it works with Mac OS X and can creat bootable backups. Is this something that is important to have?

Since my original iHD started acting up, I have to boot from CD, then some programs on the maching work and some do not. I've been just sleeping the computer instead of turning it off while I research how to go about this repair and starting new back up habit.

Time Machine does not create a bootable backup but with a bit of preparation you can kind of have both a "bootable" drive and Time Machine if you have a large enough drive.

1. Format the external drive (after removing anything important of course).
2. Create two partitions (one large enough to hold the contents of your boot drive).
3. Use Super Duper, Carbon Copy Cloner, or Disk Utility to clone your boot drive to one of the partitions on the external drive.
4/ Launch Time Machine and assign it to use the second partition.

Update

(I am the original poster of this thread). What I thought was a bad internal hard drive (symptoms seemed to fit according to other posts, forums, and talking to several mac outlets) turned out to not be that at all. It actually was a bad internal wireless card. iMac now runs fine with the card removed. So a few frustrating weeks ended up costing me $170 but for that I went from the original 160gb internal drive to a 500gb and also now have an external 500gb drive to do regular backups on.

The main problem setting things off was the computer going to a grey screen on boot up (unless booting in safe mode). Then once in safe mode not having access to some programs and not being able to shut down. I am just posting this final piece in case others come accross a similar issue.

Also, once back up and running I was not able to get the Maxtor supplied backup software to run properly so I am trying out Super Duper instead.

The Maxtor software is probably PC only as HDD manufacturers only supply these utilities in PC format. Catering for the greatest maximum number no doubt. SD is great and as a suggestion, get the $29 registered version. You can then use Smart Backup to do a weekly update in about a quarter of the time.