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neonkru

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 3, 2009
241
0
Hi! I got this new iomega external usb HDD for backup purposes mainly. what file system should i use? exFat for compatibility for windows computers or only mac os file system? i would like to avoid ntfs
 
well i guess i will have to use the htfs system since timemachine only supports it. i will create a 200gb partition to share with windows computers. do you think that the usb hdd will fry out being 24h turned on with each hour backup or should i turn off timemachine if i don't need the backups with that regularity?
 
i dont have time machine , but i have a external usb harddrive 1 tb from western digital which runs since 2007 constantly 24/7 , was only switched of when i bought the emac and dumped the dell pc so my rogh guess in all these years it was only off for about a half hour in total
 
do you think that the usb hdd will fry out being 24h turned on with each hour backup or should i turn off timemachine if i don't need the backups with that regularity?

Just leave it on, it will be fine.
 
between external and internal harddrives is no difference to my knowlege they are basically the same drives so they have the same lifespan , external actually should last longer due to the fact they are used less even if you do every 10 min a backup
 
well i guess i will have to use the htfs system since timemachine only supports it. i will create a 200gb partition to share with windows computers. do you think that the usb hdd will fry out being 24h turned on with each hour backup or should i turn off timemachine if i don't need the backups with that regularity?

I never understood why anyone would need to backup every hour 24/7 unless you are working at a data center or some important facility that requires that kind of backups. Time machine is mostly used for home and small business and I think doing backups every hour round the clock non-stop is over-kill.

I set my backup to run once every 12 hours and that is almost too much. I'm thinking of switching it to run only at midnight. The problem is that every time you modify a file or create a new one, it goes into the backup. If your working on large files, it will fill up your backup pretty quick.
 
^^^ You should backup changes as much as possible, because you never know when you might need it.
 
I never understood why anyone would need to backup every hour 24/7 unless you are working at a data center or some important facility that requires that kind of backups. Time machine is mostly used for home and small business and I think doing backups every hour round the clock non-stop is over-kill.

I set my backup to run once every 12 hours and that is almost too much. I'm thinking of switching it to run only at midnight. The problem is that every time you modify a file or create a new one, it goes into the backup. If your working on large files, it will fill up your backup pretty quick.

Respectfully, I think that is the beauty of TM: only changes are backed up after the initial full backup and it allows you to backtrack to the version of the file/email message/calendar that you want, which may not be the latest one nor the first one...

At any rate, there is no additional harm in keeping the TM drive on. Of course, it still has a finite lifetime... The only special thing I did look for is that the drive does sleep either when commanded by the computer, after a period of being idle and when it detects that the computer is asleep/off.
 
unfortunately time machine still doesnt work well with RAID, so my little setup here is my DNS 323 which i keep all of my mp3s, video, work stuff on and a cheap 1 TB plugged into the imac which runs time machine. hard disc on the RAID dies?? no issues, really. buy a new one, bingo we're back in action. external time machine one dies?? annoying, the worst would be a complete reinstall from the get go and a small amount of data loss. i know this may be a little dearer in the long run, but i dont really have to worry about losing my important stuff.

important question, eventually down the road when i get a MBP, is there a way of setting time machine to backup to the external plugged into the back of the imac, or do you need to plug it directly into the MBP.
 
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