I just bought a new 1TB external hard disc. Please how can I format it so that both PC and Mac can read from it? Also, if I wanna use some part of it as my Time Machine back-up, how do I go about partitioning it? Is this a good idea?
I have a MBP 13″ mid-2009.
Any help will be highly appreciated.
Thanks so much guys :)
— alrhazes
Yes, your best bet is to use FAT32.
But, if you want to use some part as a Time Machine backup, then you can't do that. Time Machine takes up the whole drive and must be formatted for Mac (Time Machine itself will do the formatting).
You could partition the drive into two parts: a FAT32 drive for use between machines and a Time Machine partition for only use as your Mac's backup. But I wouldn't recommend it.
I always recommend having a separate drive just for Time Machine. Drives are cheaper than ever and your backup is so important. My advice is to use a separate drive for Time Machine. Maybe use this 1TB for TM and then get another drive for sharing between your Mac and PC.