Time machine is a breeze. We’ve been a really big fan of Time Machine since before 10.5 Leopard was even available. Backups used to be really difficult to manage, and restoring from a backup was a task that your average user simply could not do themselves. With Time Machine, Apple has put more power and peace of mind into the hands of normal users than has ever been available before.
In fact, if you’re new to Time Machine and/or backing up your Mac in general, you may want to have a look at this article from last year.
If you’re running Windows inside of Parallels or VMWare Fusion, your compressed Windows file is backed up in your Time Machine backup.
But if you’re using Boot Camp — Time Machine only backs up Mac partitions — you need a separate backup procedure.
Here’s how to.
First (and only) decision… Are you going to backup to the same drive as Time Machine or a separate drive?
If you chose separate drives, it’s easy — one formatted Mac and one formatted Windows.
If you’re going to use the same drive, the next step will be to partition your backup disk to make room for your Windows backup. If it’s a new drive, you can create both partitions in Disk Utility (in the Utilities folder… or do a Spotlight search for it), formatting the Time Machine partition Mac OS Extended and the Windows partition Fat32.
If it’s an existing Time Machine backup drive you can resize your Mac partition in Disk Utility and then format the vacated space with Fat32.
Now that your backup drive is ready, you can setup your Windows backup.
- In Windows XP the backup utility can be found in Start-All Programs-Accessories-System Tools.
- In Windows Vista, open Backup and Restore Center by clicking the Start-Control Panel-System and Maintenance.
- In Windows 7 the backup utility is Start-All Programs-Maintenance.
Each utility gives you options on what you want to backup and the location of the backup files. What you backup is your choice, from individual files or folders to the whole Windows installation. Where you backup is going to be your Windows partition on your backup drive.
——————-
Wyn Matthews is new to the FoleyPod Digital-Life Coach eZine. He comes to us with decades of Mac and PC troubleshooting experience, and is an expert on both systems.
——————-
DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION OF YOUR OWN?
Click on the HELP button at the bottom of the page to submit your own question.
