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Once the format is complete, the drive is ready to be usedĪs a Time Machine backup drive. Note that all information on the disk will be wiped out.

To reformat the disk in a new format, click on the Erase icon at the top. On the right, under the name of the drive, there will be information about the current format. In the Disk Utility app, select the drive on the left. In the search bar type “Disk Utility” and hit Enter. One way to start it is by using Spotlight Search: hold Command and hit Spacebar. To know the current format of the external drive, use the Disk Utility app. If the drive is formatted with different format types, the Time Machine will offer to erase the disk and reformat it before use.

External usb backup drive mac os#

Time Machine only recognizes the drives formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), also known as HFS+. What disk format is best for Time Machine?

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You just need to know how to prepare the drive for However, almost all drives can be used with Macs as long as

External usb backup drive Pc#

This really means that the disk was preformatted for either PC or Mac, and you can use it right away with the corresponding computer. When browsing various drives on Amazon or Best Buy, you can see that some of them marked as compatible with Macs.Ĭontrary to what you might think, this does not mean that you cannot use drives described as PC drives. Writes are important when taking backups, and reads are significant when restoring.

Pay attention to write and read performance. One of the ways to improve the time it takes to backup is getting a faster drive. If you want to know how to speed up the backup process, check my article here. It is much slower than other (commercial) backup solutions because it runs in the background, so it doesn’t impact any programs you are using at the time the backup process runs.

One of the biggest complaints about Time Machine is the fact that it is slow. This means if you don’t have enough space, your ability to go back will be limited. If the backup disk gets full, the Time Machine starts deleting the oldest snapshots. Time Machine keeps local snapshots, hourly snapshots for the last 24 hours, daily, and weekly snapshots as storage permits. After that, it keeps deltas (only files that have changed).

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When Time Machine runs for the first time, it takes the full backup of data on the disk. In other words, the best size for Time Machine backup drive 4x to 8x of the size of the primary disk, when 2x is a minimum. For instance, if MacBook’s disk size is 128GB, then 256GB will be the minimum for a backup, and 1TB would be the best choice. The minimum size for a Time Machine backup drive should be at least twice the size of the Mac primary storage. So, what’s the best size for the Time Machine backup drive? We want to keep a balance between capacity and the price, if possible. When the difference in price between 1TB and 2TB may not be too high, when we are moving up in size, doubling the storage comes with more than double price. However, we need to be practical, because extra bytes come with extra price. Ideally, you want as much storage as you can get. The second most important factor is storage capacity. On the market for decades, here is the list (not complete) of companies which If you are not familiar with which manufacturers have been If you get anything from this article, I want to remind you that brands matter when reliability is the most important factor in choosing a backup drive. I think we all know the answer: some reviews on Amazon are fake. So many times, I’ve seen several thousands of 5-star reviews on no name devices, and at the same time, good devices get a couple of hundreds of reviews, and the average is 3.5. If Amazon is your choice when it comes to purchasing anything online, be aware that not all user reviews are real. There is not a single model that is 100% fail free.ĭevices produced by well known established companies have lower rates compared to drives from unknown manufacturers. If the drive fails when you need it, then it’s not worth even a penny. It doesn’t matter how fast the disk is, how sleek it looks, or how good the discount was on Amazon. The main factor in selection is reliability. There are certain qualities that I look for when considering hard drives for any backup. Shop or Read Reviews on Amazon How to Choose Hard Drives for Time Machine Brand name