"Time Machine" question

[Sanford]

<p>Can the "Time Machine" hard drive be used to transfer folders of TIFF photos to a new Mac?</p>

[raymond_ocampo]

<p>Are you asking if the hard drive specifically designated for use with Mac OS X's Time Machine can be:<br>

(a) further allocated it's free space to use as storage of other data files including TIFF and to transfer the same to another hard drive, OR<br>

(b) used to back up and therefore archive photo files which can then be restored "as is" on a new Mac system.</p>

<p>In any case, the answer is yes to both. I used to use a 1TB hard drive as a Time Machine back up drive as well as my own personal archive of data stored in folders I've created myself. Time Machine is also supposed to create a copy of all your data files regardless of file type. I don't know if it compresses the files or simply creates a 1:1 duplication. But I've used Time Machine a couple of times to transfer to a new Mac and to reformat a drive and in all those times whatever type of file I had in whatever location, it re-creates it.</p>

<p>As for data corruption via Time Machine back up, I've heard stories but I don't know if it's the fault of the drive itself and/or Time Machine. I'm hoping with the latest Mac OS X 10.6 reiteration, they would have addressed such issue.</p>

[Sanford]

<p>Thanks Raymond. (b) would be the question. I also back up photos on a second hard drive formatted in DOS just in case I need to us a PC, but I wasn't sure if I could use Time Machine this way.</p>