If I have 2 laptops, can I back their content up both on the same seagate hard drive?

[TettyLouBar]

I have one of the laptops backed up on a seagate and would like to back up the other one. Is this possible?

Yes, you can, providing there's enough space on the drive for it. What operating system are the laptops running, and what backup software are you using?

Just partition it.

flatpack, operating system? Please explain. Not sure what I need to look for. Back up software....um??? I'm very basic with IT knowledge

Are you running Windows or are you on a Mac? Is it Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7?

Back up software is a program which automates the backup process, making it easier. Depending upon the drive you've bought it may have software included with it.

Do you mean backup i.e creating an exact carbon copy of the entire hard drive so you can restore the whole thing if the laptop buggers itself.

Or do you mean you want to extra storage to put stuff on from the laptops and copies of things from the laptops such as photos and things but have the two kept seperate.

Sorry for late reply:
flatpack Our newer laptop is Windows 7, our older one is Vista

I think the software is included on the seagate drive, I'll have to have a look at it to see what software is used

Sun Bit of both really, I want to back up stuff very occasionally so that there is a restorative function if things do go tits up, but I do also want to save lot of pics and files too. Can it be done? Partitioning is the way to go then?

I don't think partitioning is the answer. If you do that, you're basically making a backup on to the same hard disk where you've got the data. If the drive fails you've lost the data.

Windows 7 and (I think) Vista both have backup software built in (see control panel, backup and restore) so if your Seagate drive doesn't have it, use the Windows one. You can set it up to automatically back up once a week/day/month. You can use the Seagate external backup drive to back up both machines.