Tech noob - iMAC additional storage and back up?

[twobone]

Hi,

I'm looking for an inexpensive hard drive that I can periodically plug into my iMAC (500Gig model) to back up the data. Also, if I run out of hard drive, I would want to store extra media on it and access it as needed.

What is the best value and your recommendation?

[motion]

Check dealmac.com. You can find very inexpensive 2TB external USB hard drives.

[Gogar]

Go to Best Buy and get a WD "My Passport" 2TB USB, or something like it

for about $130 or so, then set up your 'time machine' to use it. Suuuuuper easy.

If you want to put extra junk that's (not backup related) on that drive, then use 'disk utility' right when you set it up and partition it into two pieces and use one of the pieces for the 'time machine backup', and the other for your porno err i mean your other stuff.

[tharbert]

^^^ This works. Also, most external drives are formatted in FAT32. This format can be read and used by both PC's and Macs. If you re-partition the drive, OSX will want to use Mac OS Extended format. That's fine if you never want to access it with anything but a Mac. Otherwise, select FAT format.

[Z-man]

twobone:

Are you familiar with Apple's Timemachine software? It comes with your iMAC. Plug in an external hard drive, assign it to your iMAC, and it will automatically backup all your files, and enable versioning as well. Versioning works like this: say you saved a document two days ago. Today, you whacked that file. Go into time machine, 'rewind' to two days ago, find your file, and restore it. Done.

Another thing Timemachine can do is if you are upgrading your iMAC to a newer iMAC or even a MAC Book Pro, you can migrate all your data using time machine -- it is automatic and quite painless.

Amazing backup management software -- if you have a Mac and you aren't using this, then you are truly not protected.

-Z-man.

[Gogar]

I'd also like to suggest you take a look at the "Time Machine" utility on your iMac. It's really great.