Storing a backup alongside other files

[backspaces]

The user's guide sez: don't do it!

In the past, I've been buying OWC mercury drives that are exactly the size of my laptop. But lately I've also started to have additional drives, again OWC, that are MUCH larger (.5 and 1 TB).

It sorta seems a waste to buy a new backup-only drive .. albeit one I can pop into my lappy and be running right away. Shouldn't I just be able to update to one or both of them? .. and have them be bootable in case I need to startup with them?

So I guess the question is: If I want to back up to a larger drive, would I really be best off to build a new partition on that disk that is the size of my laptop's disk? Can I even boot from that partition? Or can I just backup to the larger disk without concern that it contains other files .. none of which have the same path from / to my backup files?

I guess I just can't see a reason not to blend the files as long as I am careful not to have directories in / that are also on / on my lappy.

Thanks for the great product, btw!

Owen

[dnanian]

That's right, don't combine them on the same partition. Partition the drive!

[KnightRyder]

I was able to boot to a partioned larger drive that was firewire without problem...I assume USB 2 would work as well...

[dnanian]

As long as you're on an Intel Mac, yes.

[backspaces]

That's right, don't combine them on the same partition. Partition the drive!

Hi Dave, thanks for the quick response.

OK, so I'll make a backup partition, shouldn't be that bad. Will I be able to boot off that partition? How?

All disks are firewire, laptop is intel mac book pro.

Thanks,
Owen

[dnanian]

You boot off a partition the same way, actually -- all drives are partitioned, just often as one partition. Partitioning into two doesn't "change" anything about starting up...