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Ruahrc · December 29th, 2005, 10:54 PM

Santa delivered to me over Christamas a 200GB USB external HD. Yay

Anyways what I want to do with this device is create a backup for my two computers: a Windows XP PC and an Apple Powerbook G4.

My XP PC has a 120GB HD in it, formatted NTFS.
My Powerbook has a 60GB HD in it, formatted in OS X (HFS+ I think is the technical term).

Since the sum of my two computers' storage is 180GB, I figured I would use the last 20GB as "long-term temporary" storage (a scratchpad for files, if you will).

Anyways I am having trouble setting it up the way I want. Basically in an ideal world I envision 3 partitions on my external HD:
1) 120GB NTFS partition for my XP backup
2) 60GB HFS+ partition for my PB backup
3) 20GB FAT32 partition for misc. files
(The 20GB Partition needs to be FAT32 so both OS X and XP can read and write to it natively)

Obviously I can't create a partition for HFS+ on XP, but I can create windows partitions in OS X. The problem is that I can't seem to be able to mix the two. If I try to make one partition in OS X a Windows partition, it forces me to make all my partitions windows.

Does anyone know of a solution to this? Do I have to physically separate the Macintosh partitions from the Windows ones on a separate HD?

Lastly, please recommend to me some good backup software? For OS X, there are freely available utilities that can be used to make complete, bootable disk images. For Windows, however, my new external drive (It's a Maxtor) didn't seem to come with any backup software. I would be willing to pay a reasonable sum for some software so long as it's good, but if there are free ones that's even better. I don't need fancy software with quick restores, or scheduling, or any of that stuff. In fact all I want is for the software to make a complete and bootable image of my existing partitions. Basically what I will do is simply connect the external drive say once a month and completely re-image my two computers' hard disks onto the backup. Then back it goes into storage.

Thanks for any tips or help getting this backup scheme set up!

Ruahrc

December 29th, 2005, 10:54 PM	#1 (permalink)
Ruahrc Ultimate Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 1,172	External HD for both Mac and PC backup Santa delivered to me over Christamas a 200GB USB external HD. Yay Anyways what I want to do with this device is create a backup for my two computers: a Windows XP PC and an Apple Powerbook G4. My XP PC has a 120GB HD in it, formatted NTFS. My Powerbook has a 60GB HD in it, formatted in OS X (HFS+ I think is the technical term). Since the sum of my two computers' storage is 180GB, I figured I would use the last 20GB as "long-term temporary" storage (a scratchpad for files, if you will). Anyways I am having trouble setting it up the way I want. Basically in an ideal world I envision 3 partitions on my external HD: 1) 120GB NTFS partition for my XP backup 2) 60GB HFS+ partition for my PB backup 3) 20GB FAT32 partition for misc. files (The 20GB Partition needs to be FAT32 so both OS X and XP can read and write to it natively) Obviously I can't create a partition for HFS+ on XP, but I can create windows partitions in OS X. The problem is that I can't seem to be able to mix the two. If I try to make one partition in OS X a Windows partition, it forces me to make all my partitions windows. Does anyone know of a solution to this? Do I have to physically separate the Macintosh partitions from the Windows ones on a separate HD? Lastly, please recommend to me some good backup software? For OS X, there are freely available utilities that can be used to make complete, bootable disk images. For Windows, however, my new external drive (It's a Maxtor) didn't seem to come with any backup software. I would be willing to pay a reasonable sum for some software so long as it's good, but if there are free ones that's even better. I don't need fancy software with quick restores, or scheduling, or any of that stuff. In fact all I want is for the software to make a complete and bootable image of my existing partitions. Basically what I will do is simply connect the external drive say once a month and completely re-image my two computers' hard disks onto the backup. Then back it goes into storage. Thanks for any tips or help getting this backup scheme set up! Ruahrc