Cloning 3 Macs's HDDs to 1 Ext HDD (Maxtor OT III)

[KIM]

Dear SD,

Thank you for such a nice app.
Our family use 3 Macs (120 G PB, 40 G iBook, and 40 G Mini). We only have one Maxtor OT III 320 G for a BU.

What if I'd like to backup 3 HDDs to 1 Ext HDD? I understand CLONING will be the best way to be safe and easy for BU and Restore but, in such case, how may I do it?

I was thinking:

1. Partition Maxtor to 3 + 1 volumes (120 G, 40G, and 40G; remaining space for simple storage) a and do individual Cloning. In this case, ain't I wasting too much space for 3 'booting systems' which are not essential actually? However it seems to be the easiest.

2. Partition as above but CLONE only 120G PB's HDD to 120G volume and SIMPLE COPY for other 2 HDDs to two 40 G volumes. In this case, those two 40G volumes are eligible for SMART UPDATE?

3. Your suggestion?

What should I do?

Cheers,
Kim

[dnanian]

Use method 1. That's going to be the way to go, using "Backup - all files" and "Smart Update".

[KIM]

Dear SD,

Thank you for your help. I guess I should follow your suggestion.

Cheers!
JH

[JAC II]

You won't know how you lived without cloning after you do it for a while. If one of you computer's dies you can clone to a new hard drive and be up and running in about an hour. Otherwise it can take a ton of hours to reinstall all your software and transfer the files you need.

You'll love it !!!