[Jake514]

My wife needs to back up her MacBook Pro 5.5 running Mac OS X 10.5.8. I bought an Omega Desktop DH (2 TB) for her for Xmas. The box indicates you must reformat for use with Mac.

1. I am thinking this should only take a short while to reformat and then this drive will be as good as other more expensive "Apple" drives, correct?

2. Does Apple supply good software for backing up or should I use some other software?

3. As a "non-Mac" guy, is there anything else I should know or do?

Thanks for the help as I do not want to open the box if I need to return it for something else.

[mikeflys1]

1. Use the disk utility to partition/format (Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility) and then you're good to go there.

2. Time Machine is built in and works great. After you format the external it should actually ask you if you want to use it for that.

3. Nope

[mgo]

Originally Posted by Jake514

My wife needs to back up her MacBook Pro 5.5 running Mac OS X 10.5.8. I bought an Omega Desktop DH (2 TB) for her for Xmas. The box indicates you must reformat for use with Mac.

1. I am thinking this should only take a short while to reformat and then this drive will be as good as other more expensive "Apple" drives, correct?

2. Does Apple supply good software for backing up or should I use some other software?

3. As a "non-Mac" guy, is there anything else I should know or do?

Thanks for the help as I do not want to open the box if I need to return it for something else.

SuperDuper for the Mac is much easier to use and more reliable than Time Machine. Pay the few dollars and get the one you can count on. No, I do not work for that company.

[JK-linux]

Originally Posted by Jake514

My wife needs to back up her MacBook Pro 5.5 running Mac OS X 10.5.8. I bought an Omega Desktop DH (2 TB) for her for Xmas. The box indicates you must reformat for use with Mac.

1. I am thinking this should only take a short while to reformat and then this drive will be as good as other more expensive "Apple" drives, correct?

Yes. As stated earlier, format it with Disk Utility to HFS+ which is called "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". It will work as well as any other hard drive. Windows systems will not be able to write to it without special software (not a Windows guy so I don't know what would be needed).

Originally Posted by Jake514

2. Does Apple supply good software for backing up or should I use some other software?

Apple supplied Time Machine which will do incremental backups indefinitely. When the external disk get full, it will start deleting older backups.

Originally Posted by Jake514

3. As a "non-Mac" guy, is there anything else I should know or do?

Thanks for the help as I do not want to open the box if I need to return it for something else.

Keep in mind that Time Machine by all accounts works pretty well if you want to restore a file or even a directory of files back to their previous state. Time Machine is also by many accounts considered to be pretty hit-and-miss when it comes to restoring an entire system in the event of a complete disk failure. It requires using the installation DVD in conjunction with your backup disk to do a restore. I've had issues with "restored" systems having bootup issues between the DVD, restored internal disk and the external backup disk. Many people (myself included) use Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper to make a full "clone" backup from time to time. Time Machine is then used to bring that "clone" backup up to date.

[emspilot1]

Another vote for SuperDuper. Being able to boot up from the external HD (in the event of an internal HD failure) will allow you to continue to work until you can repair/replace failed drive. Time Machine is good for recovering files and has its use. But I wouldn't rely entirely upon it for system recovery.

[frostamp]

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/

here is an absolute treasure trove of information for the mac user

i have a 2TB Time Capsule that I use with Time Machine to keep an
exact copy of my IMAC. Only thing I don't back up is mail & trash.

[Jake514]

Thanks for all the replies and great information. This looks like a good project for this Saturday.

[crimsonaudio]

Time Machine has worked beautifully here, allowing me to get up and running in under and hour on two different occasions (two different machines) after having primary drive failures. Literally rebuilt the drive exactly as it was before the crashes.