Back up without repartitioning ext HD?

[cheeryble]

Hi there

I have a 1 tb external HD.

It is presently in one partition.

It has my older Macbook backed up to it, info says 380gb data.

I would like to backup my Air (10.8.4) to it also as I am having great problems with wifi connections and would like to re-install.

I am aware if I want Time MAchine I should repartition and give the Air it's own partition.

Trouble is to repartition I have to empty the HD.

I don't have a spare right now.

So I thought....why not just drag to Air user files over to the one partition, but label them clearly as Air User.

Trouble is I just noticed there is no User section on a Finder Window.

(One of them does say All My Files and I wonder if that's the new User section)

Anyway....can I save all my user data (and what exactly do I drag to the HD icon?), then take it to the shop for a re-install, then afterwards do I just drag that user data back to where I found it?

(FYI the guy at the shop just said you might like to backup yourself as otherwise it will take some time.)

Thanks!

[JusMe]

I can't remember for sure so this definitely needs confirmation before you try it, but I think you can create another partition on the hard drive without killing everything that's there. Disk Utility might manage that.

I'd never use Time Machine, as I found it unreliable and it insists on doing backups of everything repeatedly and filling whatever space available, until the disc is bulging and then it begins to overwrite.

Try Carbon Copy Cloner. Sorry, don't have the url at the moment.

[cheeryble]

I can't remember for sure so this definitely needs confirmation before you try it, but I think you can create another partition on the hard drive without killing everything that's there. Disk Utility might manage that.

I'd never use Time Machine, as I found it unreliable and it insists on doing backups of everything repeatedly and filling whatever space available, until the disc is bulging and then it begins to overwrite.

Try Carbon Copy Cloner. Sorry, don't have the url at the moment.

Thanks for that JusMe

I will fiddle around and check it out.

I do indeed seem to get repeats with TIme Machine.

[cheeryble]

This excellent how-to does indeed give instructions for partition without erasing......will try later:

http://pondini.org/OSX/DU3.html