Timemachine and a drive with intel and non-intel files

New user of Timemachine with a question on using an external hardrive:

For the last year I have been using a desktop G4 and saving a copy of some files to an external 1TB hardrive. I just drag and copy to the 1TB drive. There are no Timemachine files on this drive from another computer.

I just purchased a refurbished MacBook Pro. I need to make a backup of the entire disk before I mess around with Bootcamp.

1. Is it safe to use the same 1TB to run Timemachine for the MacBook Pro on a drive that has pre-intel files from my G4?

2. Will both computers still be able to access their appropriate files?

3. Is Timemachine useable with older computers like a G4?

4. If it is possible to use Timemachine for an older computer: Could you have a timemachine backup from both computers on the same external drive?

D300

1. Yes. (Provided of course the drive is formatted to HFS Extended Journaled.)

2. Yes.

3. Yes. Time Machine is included with Leopard. As long as you can run Leopard on your G4, you can use Time Machine.

4. By older computer, which older computer? Again, as long as the older computer can run Leopard, Time Machine can be used. You can backup several computers to the same external hard drive, but it's not a good idea to do so. If you decide to do that, the drive should be partitioned.

What is a quick way to tell the formatting?

The current drive is my first external drive. I bought a drive at BestBuy and had to reformat it to get it to work with my Mac G4.

What is the easiest way to determine if it is the correct format? I don't remember many months later what it was formatted to?

D300

Attach the drive to your Mac and open Disk Utility. That will tell you what the drive if formatted to.