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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Operating System
Time Machine question
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<blockquote data-quote="EndlessMac" data-source="post: 1037315" data-attributes="member: 140470"><p>Your situation depends on whether you want to backup your whole computer's hard drive or if you just want to move files off of your computer permanently to free up room. The mistake I see people do is use Time Machine for both.</p><p></p><p>TM is made for backup. It should not be used for files you want moved permanently off the computer to be stored elsewhere. I have similar needs and here is what I do.</p><p></p><p>What I do is have two external hard drives. One is for a backup copy of my computer's hard drive and the other is used to store files I no longer have on my computer which is what you are trying to do. I then have backup DVD copies of the 2nd external hard drive because having only one copy of something means it doesn't have a backup. I'm planning on getting another hard drive so I can just easily clone the 2nd hard drive instead of doing DVD backups.</p><p></p><p>If you are using your external hard drive for storage then you don't need to use Time Machine or cloning software because you are not backing up your whole computer. Just format the hard drive and then drag and drop the files over like you do in Finder but in your situation you should think about getting two hard drives or partition the one you have but that would reduce the hard drive space for TM and storage space. Backing up and permanently moving files off your computer for storage are two different things so you shouldn't use only TM when you need both.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EndlessMac, post: 1037315, member: 140470"] Your situation depends on whether you want to backup your whole computer's hard drive or if you just want to move files off of your computer permanently to free up room. The mistake I see people do is use Time Machine for both. TM is made for backup. It should not be used for files you want moved permanently off the computer to be stored elsewhere. I have similar needs and here is what I do. What I do is have two external hard drives. One is for a backup copy of my computer's hard drive and the other is used to store files I no longer have on my computer which is what you are trying to do. I then have backup DVD copies of the 2nd external hard drive because having only one copy of something means it doesn't have a backup. I'm planning on getting another hard drive so I can just easily clone the 2nd hard drive instead of doing DVD backups. If you are using your external hard drive for storage then you don't need to use Time Machine or cloning software because you are not backing up your whole computer. Just format the hard drive and then drag and drop the files over like you do in Finder but in your situation you should think about getting two hard drives or partition the one you have but that would reduce the hard drive space for TM and storage space. Backing up and permanently moving files off your computer for storage are two different things so you shouldn't use only TM when you need both. [/QUOTE]
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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Operating System
Time Machine question
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