External HD and Time Machine?

Greetings,

I think this is a basic question but couldn't quite find the answer. We have 2 MacBook Pros from 2009 and 2010. We had a hard drive on which we used the proprietary software but the drive got flaky after too many moves. We never tried using Time Machine. Ready for a new drive and this time we'll be using Time Machine because it looks easy. Will Time Machine work with any Mac-compatible HD that we buy?

Many thanks.

Time Machine will work with just about any hard drive. The caveat is that the drive must be formatted to the Mac OS Journaled file system. Which means you can purchase a drive formatted to FAT-32 or NTFS (Windows) and reformat it with your Mac (Disk Utility) and it will work with Time Machine.

Thank you so much for the clear response. One followup question, since I've never used Time Machine. Does it work well if it's not always connected? We have 2 MacBook Pro's and intend to use the new hard drive/Time Machine on both of them. As I read the info about Time Machine it sounds as though it expects to be on all the time.

Again, many thanks

Time Machine will work just as well when it's connected only when needed or connected at all times. However, you have to make sure you're not forgetful about making your backups!