timemachine and external drives

[zoranb]

How can i make TM take backups of external drives that are connected?

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

http://www.onedigitallife.com/2007/10/30/does-time-machine-backup-external-drives/

Looks like you simply remove the external drive you want to back up from Time Machine's "exclude" list.

 

[zoranb]

I tried it but the minus icon was grayed out for that drive! might it be some kind of disallowance for external drives?
aha and should i say one more thing, its a FAT formatted drive! might that be the problem?

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Yes, FAT formatting would definitely prevent it from seeing it as a viable drive to back up.

Also, be aware that your Time Machine backup drive needs to be at least as big as the two drives combined -- so, if you have a 250GB internal drive and a 500GB external drive and you wish to back up both with Time Machine, your Time Machine drive will need to be at least 750GB in size -- regardless of how much space is actually used on those drives.

 

[zoranb]

Okay, so what would be the best solution to this? Change the formating of my drive, or can there be some other way?

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Yep -- I recommend "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" for any drive to be used with a Mac.

If you own a Western Digital HDTV box, then you may want to disable journaling on any drive you intend to use with the WD HDTV box, as it cannot index content on a journaled drive. If you you do not have the WD HDTV box, then journaling is recommended.

Be aware that formatting in that format will only allow you to use the drive with a Mac (or a Windows PC with some software like MacDrive installed).

 

[zoranb]

Yes im aware of that, thanx, i was hoping that there might have been a plugin that would allow TM to backup fat drives or so! but then again maybe im asking for too much!