SD and TM backups - what goes first?

[Moses3d]

Hi all,

I've been reading the posts here as well as the FAQ and manual, and quite understand that both SD and TimeMachine backups can be stored on the same drive and on the same partition without doing any harm to each other. Nevertheless, I have a question which may seem weird, but, in my opinion, has some logics behind it. So the question is: say, I have a new HDD to be used for backups, but which of the two (SD or TM) to apply to the drive first? What I mean is that I would like to have a bootable SD backup, so my guess is that first I need to make the HDD bootable with SD (this making SD the FIRST thing to apply to the HDD, right?). And only after this (erasing the HDD with SD, then making a clone, then making the HDD bootable) I should turn TM on and save TM backups to the same partition. Is this the correct order? Or am I missing something? Because, as I see it, if I use TM first and then would like to use SD for a bootable clone, SD would erase everything first (together with TM backups).

And one more question: say, I have a 500Gb HDD to be used for backups. Do you think I should partition it (e.g.: 300Gb for a bootable SD clone of my iMac's internal HDD; 100Gb for TM backups of my iMac's HDD and 100Gb for a bootable SD clone of my MacBook's internal HDD)? Hence, BTW, another question: will it be possible to have TWO BOOTABLE partitions on the same HDD (one partition storing a bootable clone of Leopard on my iMac, another storing a bootable clone of Tiger on my MacBook).

Thank you so very much in advance!

[dnanian]

It doesn't matter which one goes first, actually. But make sure the drive is properly partitioned before you do anything... and if you haven't written to it yet, I'd actually suggest you partition it into multiple volumes, one for TM and one for SD!.

[Moses3d]

Originally Posted by dnanian

I'd actually suggest you partition it into multiple volumes, one for TM and one for SD!.

Thank you, Dave!

I take it, it's better to have two separate partitions devoted to different software solutions. Sounds logical.

Still one question remains (of course, I can try to do it myself, but this may take too long, so maybe someone has already tried it?): can I have TWO different but BOOTABLE partitions on the same drive? Like I said, one bootable Leopard clone of my iMac, another one being the bootable Tiger clone of my MacBook. So that in case something goes wrong with either of my Macs I could boot up from the same drive and not to have a separate HDD for each bootable one. Thanks.

[dnanian]

Sure, you can have as many partitions as you'd like, just use the right partition scheme (behind Options in the Partition tab) for your Mac.

[Moses3d]

Yes, I know of course that there can be any number of partitions, but the key issue here is whether I can have several of them BOOTABLE at the same time (not in the sense that I will boot from all of those bootable at the same time, but to have two bootable to choose from in each case). That's what I'm concerned about. Thanks

[dnanian]

I understood what you were asking, and yes, any number of them can be bootable.