Home Forums Peripherals & Multimedia Peripherals Putting files on Time Machine drive

In another post joemike noted: “…Apple does not recommend putting the Time Machine backups on a drive with any other files. Not even if you put the Time Machine data set in a separate partition.”

I assume this means files that share the drive on an ongoing basis. What does it mean for files that are temporarily stored on a Time Machine drive, not in a separate partition?

I recently used Data Rescue 3 to search my main drive for a deleted file. It required that I have a place to store the recovered files and it could not use the main drive. My only options were to use the space on either of my two backup drives (Super Duper on one, Time Machine on the other). I chose the Time Machine drive (Capacity 319.73 GB, Available 154.48).

Once I was finished I immediately removed the Data Rescue 3 file folder. Is this a "no-no" practice?

I personally don't see any reason to avoid using a TM drive for other purposes. I personally use them for mirroring other critical data from other drives. Not for large storage, but for smaller things. I use them somewhat frequently as "slush space", for things like working drives for data rescue as you mentioned.

That is Apple's recommendation and I have always "understood" the reason was primarily to leave as much space free on the Time Machine disk as possible to avoid backups falling off the back end of the set prematurely! Particularly in the early days I have been loath to used the Time Machine drive for other purposes because of the enormous complexity of the multi-linked backup data set and an unwillingness to create any potential access conflicts during a backup. Personally I still think it is a good idea, but that is just my personal opinion.

FWIW I wish Time Machine would use a sparse image bundle for all backups and not just on remote disks like a Time Machine.

Sparse bundles are to allow for efficient shrinking of the image if files are deleted. This is necessary for active backups that are being edited, but isn't usually necessary for static images.