Time Machine question

[macnbhangra]

I am considering re-formatting my 2009 MBP because it has been running extremely slowly for some reason for the past couple weeks (stalling alot etc), and upgrading to Lion.

I've never used Time Machine, so my question is - if I use time machine to backup my documents, etc, does the external HD i use have to be completely empty? ie - i was going to use a 2 terabyte HD which already contains about 100 gigs of information on it. If i use time machine to back up my current MBP (about 100 gigs) should i clear out the external first? will that 100 gigs overwrite data already on the EHD?

also, when if and when i use time machine, will my music through itunes be conserved as well?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Slydude]

Although it's usually best practice to have Time Machine on a separate drive or partition, it's not absolutely necessary. My current Time machine drive has several gigs worth of other files on the same drive with no problem. If the drive is going to be directly connected to the Mac for backup, as opposed to over a network, make sure the drive is formatted as HFS+ if it is not already formatted that way.

 

[macnbhangra]

thanks. anyone else know have an answer about itunes and time machine? how does my music get backed up? (i know playlists are usually lost, im ok w/ that)

 

[osxx]

thanks. anyone else know have an answer about itunes and time machine? how does my music get backed up? (i know playlists are usually lost, im ok w/ that)

TM backs up everything.