Did You Buy the Wrong Time Machine Backup Drive?
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- Опубликовано: 16 июл 2024
- macmost.com/e-2987 When you bought your Time Machine backup drive, did you opt for a solid state drive or a hard disk drive? One is better than the other when it comes to backups.
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00:00 Intro
00:46 SSDs vs HDDs
01:27 SSDs Are Faster
02:07 SSDs Are More Durable
02:53 Consider a Second Backup Online
03:12 What Size Drive Do You Need?
04:01 Time Machine Stores a History Of Your Files
04:31 Comparing Size and Price
06:18 One Cable vs Two
07:06 My Advice: Go With a Large Hard Drive
#macmost #mactutorial 
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Thanks for the advice Gary! So pleased I found your channel for Mac's, I feel a lot more confident about which way to go for backing up my Mac.
Spot on, Gary, so many people dont have a clue about these differences and costs, especially at this time, people need to save money, and this is an easy call. Another great video. Thank you.
Agreed! I’m sticking with spinning disks. Just recently got a $130 Seagate 8TB Ext HDD for Time Machine Backups as an upgrade from my old 5TB drive that was getting full. I’m good for at least another 5 years.
Thank you for this. I got a new Mac M1 Air not too long ago and been looking into getting a backup drive for it. Thanks for explaining, another wonderful video.
Great video, thanks Gary. I was just in the market for a new Time Machine drive after my 10 year old 2 TB Time Capsule died recently. This helped.
Never heard of macmost before seeing this video. As a Mac user of 39 years I was impressed. The presenter is spot on with his advice. I would only add that if your files are really important and irreplaceable then have 3 backups: one connected, one off-site (office or safe deposit box), and one that can be exchanged between the two. Rotate often (weekly or monthly) and NEVER have all your backups physically at the same location.
A very useful and informative video tutorial with great advice! Thank you, Gary! 👏❤️
I never thought about the cost saving for back ups if you are using a disc as purely back up. Thank you!
I agree that if you're working with documents or photos to use a spinning drive. In my case I work a lot with virtual machines (I could see video editors having the same issue). I purchased a 5TB external spinning drive and Time Machine was starting to take forever. I like to keep that drive at work and through the day have it backup. (My offsite backup) But it started taking longer than a full work day to backup my Mac. I just purchased the 4TB Sandisk Extreme (249) and so far it does a backup in a few hours or less. It's partitioned 3TB for Time Machine and 1TB for regular files. It's also much smaller than the spinning drive I was using.
I went 5TB Hard drive with the "WD My Passport Ultra" this time for my use with just TimeMachine backups only. Since my 2TB Seagate has been used for about 9 years. It'll be filled up shortly. But it still works.
The 4TB Samsung T7 shield will be my external files transferer/project backup drive just to open extra storage space on my internal hard drive on my Mac's.
I'm really glad I found your channel.
You speak my language and confirm the way I think. I think. 😊
1. HDD's for TimeMachine @5Gbps is fine.
2. SSD's for extra storage, drag & drops, file transfers, storing things i dont need to keep on the internal & back up other very important files/folders/projects etc
@10Gbps speeds.
3. Thunderbolt3/4 enclosures with gen4 NVMe SSD's for use as external boot drives for Mac with up to
@40Gbps speeds.
Your channel is absolutely awesome.
Thanks for sharing.
That improbable failure of both drives happened to me yr & 1/2 ago. Followed by a GPU failure 3 days after recovering and restoring everything. Fun times.
Thank you Gary, I'm learning a lot about hard drives.
Yes I agree. I have a spinning disk for backups and SSD for media.
I do my time machine backups on a WD My Cloud 8TB NAS with two hard drives in raid 1.
Thanks for this video
Great video and information. Fortunately I bought a 4TB external HHD which I use solely for Time Machine.
SSDs are silent! That's the greatest benefit of SSD.
I use HDD for backup but I remove it after I made a Backup because the noise is getting on my nerves. I use two 2,5" HDDs and put one of it into a safe .
Excellent information as usual. Thanks for doing these videos.
I guess I have been fortunate. I've been using Time Machine since Apple first came out with it. The only thing I've ever had to use it for was to restore a document of some sort. Usually due to a mistake on my part. But it does give you some peace of mind, for sure.
That's actually the main point of Time Machine or any backup. Everyone things of the disaster situation. But it is the time you delete or overwrite a file by accident that happens more often.
I agree. Good advice Gary.
Thanks veyr much,, Gary, for this very informative video. Some very solid advice here.
this was really helpful, thank you!!
Thank you Gary, this was great to know and very useful!
Very useful - many thanks.
Based on your comments, my RAID TM is a bit of overkill. ☺
Thank you for explaining. I have been saving in HDD but never thought of the difference from SSD.
Totally agree with using hard disk drives, I've got dozens I've taken from old machines that I put to good use.
Just buy a nice enlosure and off we go, I dont have large files to backup so a 1tb drive does me.
Good info. My internal is an SSD, I have an external SSD to supplement my smaller internal drive, and I use a 6 TB HDD to backup both SSDs via Time Machine. I also have a large capacity flash drive that I periodically connect and make a copy of recently changed files. Plus, I have my files in iCloud. Because it’s not if your drive will fail, but when will it fail.
I actually have both.
My main/personal iMac machine (the daily driver, a slightly older Intel model) has a 12TB external Western Digital Drive. My internal iMac HD is 2TB, and I have two other external drives it backs up as well (I think which have about 7TB of data own them combined - mostly video archives). I've had to replace that Time Machine drive since first getting my iMac back in 2015, but I figure that's part of it doing so much work all the time for many years.
My secondary iMac is one of the newer 24" M1 models, and it's used JUST for my company work - no personal stuff on it at all. It's NEARLY all factory, the only stuff on there is Chrome (which my company requires) and some VPN bs that the company also requires. Plus of course files I've added in the course of doing my work. If this thing shits the bed, I'm not too worried about it because the only reason I REALLY use it is to recover a few recent "whoops, shouldn't have deleted that" kind of files. If I had to replace it fully, a FULL backup to that wouldn't be the end of the world. Plus it's super small, and I have it attached to the back of the iMac, so it's invisible as far as I'm concerned.
For that work Mac I use a 500Gb SSD drive. Which is plenty of space, as the computer itself only has 256Gb, and most of the space used there is factory installed stuff.
Oddly that SSD drive for the work iMac I built myself with info from one of your older videos. :)
One other thing I've found with the external HD for my daily driver is that when it has to clear space, it can take quite some time. It's a 12TB drive, and I've seen it spend quite some time going "Clearing space" before it eventually finishes thinking about that. I imagine an SSD would help there considerably.
Unrelated - I did move my iCloud Photos to an external 2TB SSD drive, as I mentioned previously my iMac internal SSD is just 2TB, but my iCloud library is massive. It's about 830Gb, and has about 117,000 photos/videos. So I have that as an SSD as well.
But - my main Time Machine drive is a 12TB external HD still.
Hey Gary, always great as usual, thank you. I have strong opinions on this topic from past traumatic experiences. Backups are irrelevant. It's restores that matter. Trying to restore large quantities of data using slow devices is really risky. Time machine performs very poorly when restoring, especially with large data. Don't skimp price and performance on backup devices, your data is worth way too much to risk it. And always focus on restore. Test that your backups can be restored on a spare machine. Consider using more than one backup technology. If your data is really valuable, you also need to consider offsite backups, which these days is achievable via the cloud.
Gary did say to have an offsite cloud backup.
Yes that restores are critical and definitely should be tested. But for me a restore is the last thing I care about with respect to speed, and why is a slow device “risky”? If I have to recover from a complete loss of decades of data, I can wait several hours (or overnight) to get my computing world back in order. Cheers!
Useful. Thanks.
Thanks for the analysis. I’ve had two HDDs for backups and both have failed. Not very impressive. I’m trying an SSD for the first time, and so far so good. Prices have come down a lot in the past few months, so that wasn’t a factor for me. I want speed and reliability. Still leery about cloud backups and subscription services since I’ve had bad experiences in the past. Rather be self-sufficient. As always, the video was straight-forward and succinct.
I use an old Toshiba 2TB external drive for Time Machine which is about 300 meg away from full but I don't mind when Time Machine starts deleting really old stuff to make room for new backups as I don't need it now anyway. I bought a LaCie Thunderbolt-3 SSD to use with Final Cut Pro which was expensive but the extra speed makes a big difference in that application.
Yes, an SSD for FCP is much better. But it probably is still slower than your internal SSD, keep that in mind. If it was me I'd always have my current FCP Library/Project on the super fast internal, and then archive to an external when done with the project.
WOW GARY💪❤: Great insights .... THANKS 🙏
I use a 2TB external HDD plugged into an AirPort Extreme 802.11ac, so I get the speeds I get. Never been an issue. First backup was 4 hours. Every backup after is about 2 minutes. Never really had to restore from Time Machine but it is good to have.
A very sensible analysis
The more important positive for HDD is that data is recoverable after a failure. SSD's are not recoverable so all is lost.
I’ve lost everything three times due to failed SSD’s! Tragic
Thanks. I had come to the same conclusion.
I was lucky enough to pick up a wrapped brand new time capsule 2tb for good money. It’s my understanding that they used server grade HDDs in these? I’ve heard about some failing after about a decade & some still going strong!! I don’t intend to go above 1tb on a new computer so this seems about right for me, but if I do add any other means of storage I can still strap an SSD to it to handle any extra headroom.
I went a bit mad & previously purchased 2 used AirPort extremes before this + a 2nd gen AirPort Express & a first gen for an older printer
It may seem a bit much but I love the way they integrate & they’re still WPA 2 which most things still use so I’m ok with that, I’m sure I don’t have to explain to Apple users all the arguments for….
If Apple did bring out another version (& mesh) I would buy it!!
Cheers for the video, I seem to recall you mentioning this before slightly in another video which I save to my library & catch up on later….
*correction: WPA2 on the “ modern “ ones
Another great video!
Very useful and well thought out thanks.
I’m the exception in that I manage with Apple’s family of software plus SimplrMind to write a book, which use very little memory. Thus the basic M2 Mac air plus ½TB external SSD suffices for manual fortnightly backup of mostly iCloud files.
On the SSD longevity issue, have you thought of building SSD lifespan checkup into your clipTool? The Mac setup report of just verifying SSD validity is so blunt.
The M2 is such an underestimated machine. Most developers just look at performance and fail to see the advantages of the chip’s low power consumption ⇨ longer machine life.
I think an SSD tool in ClipTools would be way far away from the clipboard/selection/text focus. Not sure even an advanced tool would tell you much about SSD lifespan anyway.
Gary, when formatting a new TM backup drive, using Disc Utility, what is the ideal format, if I currently use an Intel MBP 2019, and will be switching to an M3 in the near future, and will be continuing to use that backup drive, and adopting the backup?
I use 2 TimeMachine backups, one on SSD and one on HDD enterprise-class with a longer MTBF. Never had an issue with enterprise Class HDDs; a bit more expensive than standard HDDs but highly invaluable and reliable sturdy backups.
Do you periodically unplug one and replace with the other?
I’m trying to figure out whether to get something portable just for use when traveling.
@@nancycy9039 No, one is for everyday use, the other for a monthly or twice monthly backup (connected only for the task).
Hi Gary. Off topic, I know, but do you explain apple lockdown mode anywhere? I'm trying to find out what it is, how to use it, and whether it's something I should consider using.
Thanks & useful. Your arguments are sound for video and other high memory backups. My needs a very small (Apple suite apps and SimpleMind files) and I can get a cheap, small, robust, SSD. Horses for courses
LATENCY??? I was sick & tired of the 20-second pause whenever I did “Save As” - as the TimeMachine HDD spun-up. I paid $$$ to avoid that - and it’s worth i!
Turn off the "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" option in your power settings.
Thanks bunches
I use external hard drive enclosures with mirrored drives. I actually have a pair of them and swap back and forth from time to time.
Hey Gary, great content as always! Question; I use an old Apple Airport Extreme that I changed out the HDD to an 8TB for Time Machine backups, this is great when I am at home, but how would you recommend I backup whilst away from home for extended periods? (I regularly work away for up to a month at at time) Would you have a portable HDD running Time Machine? Thanks!!
A portable would be good, sure. Or an online backup if you want to travel light.
I actually use both. A NVME SSD is attached to my desktop while a second backup takes place on the spinning disks of my NAS. I won't attached a spinning drive directly to my desktop anymore after going through SIX drives in a month -- WD, Seagate, Toshiba, it didn't matter- they failed because the smaller drives are now combining the drive interface with the connector and the failure rates are horrid. I also won't use a shingled drive from seeing just how poorly the work as archive drives.
I have a spiny drive for my usb backups and a Synology NAS also. Could you please make a video about a NAS and how to use it with our Mac's for file acess and backup? (preferably a Synology..haha). Thank You for anothe great video!!
I don't use a NAS so I wouldn't be able to do a video on that, sorry.
Gary I need to get my head around something
I have a 1tb Mac Studio and will be upgrading my back up to g drive pro but I’ll also like to free up my working space on the Mac.
Should I use an ssd for working memory and have both the Mac and the ssd backing up to the drive? I guess for that I’d want to partition the g drive for Time Machine backups and then space for direct backups from ssd?
Do not partition your backup drive. Use the whole drive for Time Machine. See ruclips.net/video/Wmlpup2lIYI/видео.html
If you want to free up some space on your internal drive, get a second external drive and use it to archive old projects and files. Keep everything you are actually using and working with on your internal drive.
There is nothing better that Time Capsule for backups via Time Machine. I bought one used and it just works. Never crashed, never had any connection issue. I know it works, I don't need to worry if the backup is done. I tried to use my router with an external disk, and it was a pain. Time Capsule is great, you can find an used one for cheap. Paid mine 60 pound with a 2 TB disk.
My Time Capsule failed and is now a streaming hub. Next step will be as a boat anchor.
Hey Gary. Love your channel. I have a M2 15” air. Planning on 4tB usbc portable WD drive - mainly as I don’t want another power supply running. I have 2 TB iCloud. When I setup Time Machine, I should also back up the iCloud folder on my desktop?
Back up the entire drive (which is the default). Just let Time Machine do what it is supposed to do.
I should've seen this video before I got my dad to purchase a samsung t7 ssd to use as backup. Though I'm setting up time machine so I can recover my items if anything goes wrong while upgrading my mac.
I bought a HDD drive the other day and the back up with time machine worked fine. Unlike the back up on an USB drive.Theoratically it should have worked. I believe, but no. Not really. Then I remembered that I had an SSD from an old Windows laptop. So I decided to give it a try. Ofcourse I had to find a cable that would fit.but... no problem. This old Windows SSD did an excellent job.
Good video Gary, my wife and I both have Macs. Can we use a HD for both of us to back up to via WiFi? Thanks.
Yes, but you need a way to connect. For instance, some WiFi routers have a USB port for a drive. Or, you can get a NAS (network attached storage) drive to connect to your network for both to see.
I have an external SSD for Time Machine on my MacBook 1 terabyte of storage is enough for me, it took 30 minutes for my backup i use mine for extra storage as well i partitioned mine
This video just came at a time where I’m currently struggling with incompatibility issues with my Samsung T7 SSD which is not being recognized since the new iOS Ventura update on my MacBook Pro. After a bit of searching, it notes that it’s a Samsung driver update issue but I’m not as tech savvy yet I know Apple tends to make it hard for aftermarket devices. So based on this, should I already be looking for a higher storage external or an HDD ? I’m not a frequent user with my MacBook unfortunately so backups aren’t as crucial for me, yet now I have no backup since the new iOS was updated and I now have a useless
SSD until they update for the new Ventura iOS!
That's odd. You shouldn't need any drivers at all for either an HDD or an SSD. They are all standard. Is it using some special format?
Hi Gary! 👋
I try to find information, if Time Machine can detect defect sectors or other problems on the TM-drive and what happens if it detected something?
Time Machine does your backups. It isn't a disk maintenance app. Usually if there is a bad sector, the drive itself handles that you don't even know. But you can also use Disk Utility on your Mac to check for problems.
Excellent video! I'd be interested in hearing your personal backup plan. Would using 2 TM drives help? I already do monthly clones using Carbon Copy Cloner rotating between 2 drives. I also use Backblaze but I'm wondering what the next improvement could be. More TM drives? More frequent CCC clones? Something else?
I have a 12TB drive for Time Machine and do an online backup with BackBlaze to get a second (and offsite backup). I don't use clones because a history is so much better than a clone. Most problems aren't drive failures, but accidentally deleted/changed files or content. In a disaster probably all I'd need to do is get a new Mac and turn on iCloud Drive. If that doesn't work, then I have Time Machine. If that doesn't work, I have Backblaze.
Say you rotate drives to an on-premise media vault. While that guarantees decent temperature protection suitable for both ssd and hdd, the risk then shifts to water typically used to put out a fire. SSD is much more water resistant. (Some are even IP68 rated, but those tend to be low capacity.)
If that is your concern, an online backup is best. An off-site backup storage location would be next best. Next would be a water-tight box. None of those sacrifice size like an SSD would.
My experience is the opposite of what you're saying. I know that any HD can fail, but I've had 4 spinning HDs for more than 5 years, they're used every day, and I've NEVER had a failure. In the same time frame, I've had 2 SSDs fail with absolutely no warning. And they were not cheapies; they came from OWC.
OWC is a rebranded drive. Who knows what manufacturer they buy from.
Only buy Sandisk or Toshiba SSD drives. They’re premium drives that will last, never PNY or similar brands.
One word: Samsung
@@R50_J0 Apple sells LaCie on their website under accessories. Thoughts on LaCie?
Hey Gary, important distinctions thank you! Do you partition the big drive so that you can also have a clone of your computer’s HD? Of is that something you’d out on an ssd?
No. See ruclips.net/video/Wmlpup2lIYI/видео.html
Great advice as always Gary. I didn’t think you could also backup external drives to Time Machine. How would you set that up? New video?
It should work by default. Just make sure you haven't added that other external to the Time Machine privacy list.
@@macmostThanks. So, to be clear, back up the Mac, then plug in an external drive I need Time Machined and save it to a different folder in Time Machine.
@@Peterade So you don't have that external drive always connected? It should work, but I've never tried it with an occasionally-connected drive. Not sure what you mean by your "different folder" comment. You don't "save it to a different folder in Time Machine" you just let Time Machine back it up as it does your internal drive. You don't do anything special or deal with your Time Machine drive directly at all.
Good arguments. I use used 2,5" laptop HDDs for my Time Machine. Those 2nd hand laptop HDDs cost me 2,5 euros a piece. I use 2 of those as Time Machines at the same time. The TM software alternates the backups between the two drives each hour.
And when one of the drives fails, I just replace it with another one. Because I always have a double backup on cheap drives I can use 'redundancy'.
I started using the double backup after my single backup failed.
Another thought. Because these older laptop drives are 500MB at the most,, they will fill eventually fill up. My idea: Start with a new one, e.g. every year, or even every month if needed.
That's the one I used too. I just put it in a protective casing and it's doing good so far
@@njpme - Since writing about my use of 2nd hand laptop disks, I had to change strategy. The 2nd hand disks were too unreliable, failed too often, and I had to swap out broken ones and put in another. It just wasn't a smooth operation anymore. So now I do my TM backups on USB-sticks, and so far that works good.
@@tubularapthere is enough room on a USB stick?
@@nancycy9039 - An average USB-stick has not enough space to backup an average internal Mac hard disk.
Therefor I used laptop hard disks, because they have higher capacity than USB-sticks.
But I recently stopped using used laptop hard disks, because they failed too often. Now I want to switch to new SSD's for my Time Machine backups, for better reliability.
I recently had the dreaded "circle with the line through it appear", and only had my Time Machine backup HDD set at "manual". Fortunately I was able to get back to my desktop with overriding script and backup the last week of data. The iMac eventually fully expired. This is a warning and strong advice to auto set your backup to every hour. With Gary's advice, I'm going to also have an offsite Cloud backup as well. Losing your files forever can be catastrophic.
I've just noticed any HDD's plugged into my M1 Mac Mini spin all the time. Power on the mini doesn't even need to be on. I have 3 sitting on my desk now all humming away. Anybody else noticed noise coming from HHD's, even with power off?
unplug them if your computer is off
what if I don't want to back up everything...only selected work folders and files?
You can customize and exclude folders in the options. But it is best not to. Let Time Machine just back up everything. It is easy to exclude something and then realize too late that it was important.
For someone such as myself who only has a laptop that I use at home, primarily for photograph editing, and other home uses, would you agree that a SSD is preferable given that I am regularly moving it and unplugging and replugging it in?
I would prefer a HDD in all cases for the reasons I talk about in this video.
Do you suggest periodically making a copy of the Time Machine drive in case it fails or is somehow lost or destroyed? If so, how does one do this backup?
No. If you want a second backup, then just do a second Time Machine backup. It supports that. Some people, for instance, may plug in one TM drive at work, and another at home. Or, alternate between them each day/week/month and store one in another location. Or, if you really want to go pro-level with backups, do a second backup as an online backup. See ruclips.net/video/_CFbCST1UuY/видео.html
@@macmost thanks. Watches that other video and it was very helpful. In addition to using Time Machine on my local external drive of my new M3 iMac, I also use DropBox so I have access to all my files when I’m away. Although it doesn’t give me the history, I like the remote accessibility.
Maybe I’ll look at adding a remote backup also from one of those services you mentioned
Wondering if the backup data from my current drive can be move to a new larger drive, or do I need to start at zero with the new drive?
Don't make it harder than it needs to be. Start fresh with the new drive. Keep the old one around for some time (months?) in case you need something on it.
Hi Gary, I have an iMac with a 3tb Fusion Drive that recently failed. Fortunately I have an external hard drive I was backing up to frequently thanks to watching some of your videos years ago. I am wondering if I can use my Time Machine backup and restore some data/settings/applications to a newer M1 MacBook Air w 256GB SSD and the remaining data (photography/videos/design files) to an attached external hard drive. I am having trouble finding info on restoring to a smaller hard drive and/or two separate drives. Any tips/info/video is greatly appreciated! Or if anyone else has any suggestions as well? Thanks!
I've never tried to use Migration Assistant to restore to a smaller drive than you had before. You can try it and see what happens. Or, contact Apple for support. But why go from a 3TB machine to one that has 1/12 the storage space? Remember you'll always be slower accessing something on an external drive than an internal one. Not to mention with a MacBook it will be hard to carry that external with you and have it attached all the time.
I definitely wouldn’t be if I didn’t have to. Unfortunately my iMac failed at the worst possible time where I need something immediately but cannot afford a higher end Mac again at the moment. I am torn between spending the money to have a new drive installed on the already older 8/9 year old iMac that may develop a different issue soon. Similar to a vehicle, I’m thinking at some point it’s worth just putting the money towards a newer model even if it’s less powerful and has less onboard storage. I agree though, it is definitely not ideal. I considered getting a higher configured Mac mini and use the iMac as display monitor only but as I researched more I found that target display mode is not supported for my late 2014/early 2015 5K iMac.
As a digital nomad, size/weight is extremely important. Drives like sandisk can fit inside an internal money belt. Durability is also important. I don't agree with the argument that when it fails you just get a new one. Often I'm in places where it's not easy to get hold of good quality drives, and also I'm not very regular with making backups and so it's not unlikely that should I need to go to my backup for restore, only at that moment find it's corrupt.
I have some files on my hard drive already do I need one solely for Time Machine back ups or can I just use the one I have?
See ruclips.net/video/Wmlpup2lIYI/видео.html
I don't need a large space for back-ups so I opted for a 2TB SSD that I partitioned in two, one partition for Time Machine and one partition for music and some movies that I play from that partition to leave a significant amount of empty space on the internal hard drive, to keep things running smoothly. Another reason I opted for an SSD drive is that an HDD can slow the Mac a bit down when Spotlight is indexing.
It is a bad idea to store data on the same drive as your backup. ruclips.net/video/Wmlpup2lIYI/видео.html
@@macmost Thanks for the warning. If I would like to back-up two drives, one the internal drive of my iMac and the other my external SSD drive, do I have to partition the drive where I let Time Machine write the back ups? Or can it write the back ups in the same volume? I mean on the internal drive you have the complete OSX files and preferences, on my external drive there are only videos, images and music files.
@@nout1972 No. It handles multiple drives without needing to do anything special like that.
@@macmost Many thanks!
Hi Gary, I have an M1 MacBook Air and a 3TB time capsule, can I use it for Time Machine?
Sure. That's what it was built for originally. Though Time Capsules are all > 10 years old by now.
I have used a WD Elements 10TB HDD with USB 3.0 for years to back up an old 2011 21.5 iMac which I had upgraded to a 2TB SSD at one point, and which had grown to 1.7 TB used. When it came to upgrading I bought a 2019 27 iMac, upgraded it to a 4TB SSD, and restored it from TM on that WD HDD. IT TOOK OVER TWO WEEKS TO TRANSFER!!!! The drive bogged down to a trickle. Was it because I also had files stored alongside the sparse bundle backups? (I since discovered Apple recommends creating a dedicated partition if you want to use those cheap, massive HDDs for both files and TM backups.) Was it because the formatting on the WD was the earlier version? (Apple now recommends APFS for TM, which is optimized for SSDs) my point is, it may be great to be able to go back years to retrieve some random file, but in the end, what you really need TM for is those catastrophic situations where you want to restore everything and in those cases and HDD may be too slow to recover a full system that you actually need. It may be that I did not set up my hard drive properly to accommodate both TM and routine fall storage. But considering how affordable SSD are nowadays, it might be worth avoiding a massive headache to just bite the bullet and go for the SSD option. Thank you Gary for your great videos, would be nice to see va tutorial on formatting and partitioning your TM drive to get the best performance out of it!
Never partition a backup drive. See ruclips.net/video/Wmlpup2lIYI/видео.html
honestly having an hdd as an backup drive its great but in the long term it may break due to stress sometimes ssds are great for backups
Neither should break from stress. That said, both CAN break, like anything else. At least with an HDD you can replace it, maybe several times, before the cost is the same as a single SSD.
ohh okay thanks @@macmost
What is really saved into the backup? Just history files? OS settings? everything?. Can i use a single 6TB drive to back up 2 MBPs from different users into a single partition? (my wife's MBP and mine)
You can use a single drive to backup multiple Macs, yes. Don't partition it though, just use the whole drive as a backup drive. See ruclips.net/video/Wmlpup2lIYI/видео.html
Except every single option I’ve used, 1tb time capsule (the square one as well as the tall one) and a 5TB WD HDD have all failed. The actual drives haven’t failed, but Time Machine somehow stuffs everything up. I’ve been on the phone to Apple Support and wasted countless hours with them only to be told “you have lost all your backups and will have to start again”. What is the use of backups when I’m told that??? Currently (for some unknown reason) I can only retrieve a backup from the 5TB HDD from one day ago - everything else is just not there. Very disappointing.
So I have 2 old airport extremes that I use to extend my home wifi & wired network as well as do over the air backups to our families macs. (4 macbooks and a macpro) What would you replace these with if we also want network storage/backup with wifi?
I'm not sure as I don't do over-the-air backups. They are a good idea, but that's just not how I have things set up. I suppose a mesh system (since you need your Wi-Fi network "extended") and then a NAS for the storage drive for Time Machine.
@@macmost sure, but for a non-technical family that will likely not remember to do backups, the passive over the air TM is a lifesaver.
@@tomdenapoli5313 Depends on the type of Mac. For MacBooks, maybe. For desktop Macs, just attach a drive and set Time Machine to defaults.
Gary, good morning. I have 2 questions for you. I recently upgraded to an M1 MacBook Pro 2021 and I have a WD Passport HD that I have been using for my previous MacBook 2012. Well I went to back up my computer and my M1 does not show that my Passport is plugged in. So henceforth, I can’t back up my computer. Do I need to buy another External drive and how do I know that the new one will be recognized by my new computer.
My other question is, my previous MacBook screen was flickering here and there. I want to reset it back to factory setting. Do you think that will solve that problem ? I want to use my previous Macbook just for live performances. Can I go into Time Machine after the reset and just extract the app that I need? I’ve been searching the internet and so far not a clear answer, algorithm brought me to you. HELP PLEASE 💙
And whats the best practice for incorporating online backup in this situation... back up the computer or external drive ...and to what?
Not sure what you mean. You install the software from the service you chose for online backups and follow their instructions.
Ironically, I have been "chatting" with Seagate about my clunking HDD 10TB expansion hard drive. It's been clunking since day one which I expected initially, but weeks later... the replacement is not what I would have wanted. "Once we receive the faulty drive in the lab the replacement will be ship. However I do not want to lie to you or give you false expectation this process can be fully completed in the next 23/30 days" I asked for them to send me the new drive, let me try to transfer all the data, erase the failed drive, ship it to them. Instead they have access to all my professional photos and videos for a month; not ideal. I will be buying a replacement, different brand, drive today.
Hi Gary. Ur videos are helping me appreciate my 2 Macs again. Do you have any videos on 'System Data' and how it seems to clog up Storage?. I'm told you can delete Cache files/ folders but I don't trust this. Even my Applications folder is reading as being 240GB, when it's really only 12GB or so? Very frustrating! Thx
Don't confuse categories with folders. When you look at your storage meter it is by category. Documents are in other places besides your Documents folder, Applications are in other places besides your Applications folder., etc. Categories. If you want to clear off space, here's how: ruclips.net/video/0-xtOFy8XfU/видео.html
@@macmost I've watched ur video on this - so I understand what you mean by this. However, the actual size of my Apps is around 10 GB. The only Apps other than the base Mac Apps is Microsoft Office. OS 'storage' is reading Applications at 250 GB!! Surely this can't be good? Thanks Gary
@@alchemize56 Some app(s) you have installed probably has more data, extensions, libraries or some other content elsewhere on your drive. I think a long time ago iPhone apps were stored on your Mac so you could sync them onto iOS devices. Perhaps you still have those lying around. There are lots of reasons. Did into your drive and examine your folders to find out what you have.
@@macmost Thanks Gary - I will keep digging. 🙂
Hi Gary. I have an external SSD I've been testing Ventura out on the last few months. I now want to move it to the internal drive. Would best practice be make a Time Machine backup, wipe and reinstall the OS and then restore from Time Machine. Or maybe do a Carbon Copy clone or something else. Seems like restoring is never perfect, usually just some email accounts and bookmarks and such. I have a virtual box and parallels installed so want to keep the headaches to a minimum. Thanks.
No. No need to "wipe and reinstall." macOS is on a separate read-only section of your drive anyway. You'll just be wasting your own time. Just do a normal update. Don't overcomplicate it. And as for "make a Time Machine backup" you should be doing that all the time all day anyway.
I think I already made it complicated. The internal drive is running Mojave. I know I'm late to the game. Anyway that's why I thought I needed to wipe the internal drive. @@macmost
@@schadlarry Just do the normal update to Sonoma. No need to wipe.
I keep multiple TM Backups. HDD at the house, HDD at the office (same mac for both) and an SSD backup that stays with the mac. Long term backups in multiple locations, but one that's always with me just in case (and that one doesn't need to be long term... just enough to get me back up in some happens while I'm away from the home or office...)
When you disconnect one backup drive, and connect a different one, does time machine automatically backup to the drive that is connected, or do you need to select the new drive from a list?
@@MotorcycleSalesVideo Yep... it recognizes the drive and auto uses it. If I keep 2 plugged in at the same time, it alternates between them...
If your time machine drive is full, and you take a new drive with more space, can you clone the old disk to the new disk and go further with the new disk?
No. Just start a new backup. Keep the old drive around for a while in case you need a file from it.
Gary. Interesting but don’t SSD’s have a longer MTBF. than hard drives?
I don't think so. Not enough to justify the cost and putting up with a smaller drive anyway. Plus, remember using a drive as a backup is very different in terms of how you are using it and what you expect out of it.
I bought 5TB HDD and Partition to 1TB for Time Machine for my iMac M1 Internal 1TB SSD.
Don't partition it. macmost.com/why-you-should-never-partition-your-backup-drive.html
Ive been using an SSD drive for Time Machine. Sometimes the back up fails and I have to restart my Mac and force a back up. I that because its an SSD or just the M1 being fussy?
Impossible for me to guess what the issue could be there, sorry.
Hi there! Can you teach us how to use AirPort Time Capsule correctly? Thanks a lot Gary! 🙏🙏🙏
Apple stopped making that about 10 years ago so I don't think I'll be doing a video on it. It should be pretty simple to use if you still have one. Just connect to it over your network and choose it in your Time Machine settings as your backup drive. See support.apple.com/en-us/HT202784
@@macmost Maybe a better subject would be a video covering the options available for those of us replacing one of those aging AirPort Time Capsules, particularly in households with multiple users who are all using laptops. I’m in the process of trying to make that decision now, and at this point I think I’d be happier paying too much for an SSD than having to pay for, and learn how to use, any of the existing NAS alternatives.
@@Eponymity1000 If you are going for a NAS, look for one that specifically states it supports Time Machine just to make it easier on yourself. And if using a NAS there is even more of a reason to choose a HDD over an SSD as the speed of an SSD wouldn't be a factor at all if you are sending your backups over your Wi-Fi network.
So sorry, I’ve had my Mac for years and only just about to start using time machine ( used different method before). Is that ok? You said to set up time machine when you first get your Mac. Is it ok to do it now with so much on my Mac already ?
You should set it up when you first start using your Mac. But if you want to start now that is fine too. You can start at any time, but I want new users to know they shouldn't wait.
why do I need to do this. dont i have a backup at iCloud?
iCloud is a cloud service, not a backup. See ruclips.net/video/yM-hbmpTfgI/видео.html
100% corect 👍
Hi, can we use one HDD/SSD as TM for 2 laptops? if yes then how ?
You mean over Wi-Fi with a NAS? Sure. Just select the same network drive for Time Machine for each.
For me, I would prefer SSD to a spinning hard disk. Reason being is that every time your computer accessed the spinning drive, the computer has to wait for it to spin up. Can slow things up in general. 😖
Just turn off hard drive sleeping in that case.
Thanks but what format for a hard Drive (NOT SSD) APFS or HFS+ journaled - as the mac wants to do this in apfs when you plug it in and say you want to use it as Time Machine. Is it ok to format as apfs or should we ignore the message and use disk utility to format as Journaled ?
Just use APFS for all Mac formatted drives today.
@@macmost Thanks
My Time Machine HDD just quit. Need a new drive. Thinking of switching to SSD. I have 1 1/2 TB so 4TB is fine. I just need something that will not stop working. Been through several WD HHDs. Frustrated. Maybe three SSDs, Time Machine, Hard Drive, and occasional back up (Not Time Machine) of just my hard drive. Thoughts?
Get what you want, but the point of the video is size is better than speed. If you create an delete a lot of large files all the time you can fill up a 4TB pretty fast. But maybe you don't work that way.
I use time-machine on my NAS but I don‘t like it as it backs up way too much data! I think it even backs up every webpage I visit. Sometimes a TM backup runs even if I didn’t do anything for hours. And at least twice a year TM isn‘t able to connect to my Synology NAS although it‘s not a problem to connect manually.
I don't care to use TM for that reason, and would rather just do my own manual backups of important data.
The danger of manual backups is you just can't match the hourly 24/7 history of Time Machine. Then whenb you work all day on a file and accidentally delete it before your next manual backup, you pay the price.
Hi Gary, I've done what u said and bought a bigger HDD for my Time Machine. Now I try to copy the old Time Machine file on the new HDD but I can't drag and drop with the finder because it doesn't allow it. I tried to make an alias but it doesnt want too. Could u give me a way to do it ?? Thanks very much.
Don't bother trying to copy it. Just start a new Time Machine backup, Keep the old one around for a few months or so in case you need a file from it.