No gold Padlock; can't change sharing and permissions

[pothypine]

Howdy...Running a new Macbook Pro, M2 Pro, Sonoma 14.3.1. I can't add folders to an external hardrive that I just used for Time Machine Back-up. I've always been able to use other External HD's for both TM and 'Manual' back ups of other folder. I can't change the sharing and permissions under Get Info for External HD because I don't see the option. I have no Gold Padlock, no list of users. I am the only user to this computer.

Another issue: I tried to use a differerent HD that I have been using no problem doing the above actions. It failed (unrelated to this above issue). I reformatted. but first backed-up all my 'manual' stuff and then when tried to TIme Machine, was told I needed to reformat and erase the 2 TB of manual back-up folders.

What's the issue? Am I formatting new HD's incorrectly? Why no option to change sharing?

 

[IWT]

I think the problem you face is that Apple has repeatedly stated that EHDs used for Time Machine (TM) should not be used for any other purpose.

See this article:

Back up your Mac with Time Machine – Apple Support (UK)

If you have a USB drive or other external storage device, you can use Time Machine to automatically back up your files, including your apps, music, photos, emails and documents.

support.apple.com

Up until the recent past, many users, ignored this advice and did indeed use the TM EHD for storing other data.

I have no direct evidence that Apple has in any way made this impossible, even though it's unwise to do so - EHD fails; loss of TM backup and all the other data! But see No 5 in the paragraph headed "Set up the storage device...." in the article I linked above.

• (Your Mac may ask if you want to erase the storage device so that it can be used for Time Machine. Either erase it or select a different backup disk or volume.)

You asked about formatting an EHD for TM purposes. As you are running Sonoma (and for some versions before it) the Formatting should be Guid Partition and APFS. In the usual way of doing this; you would either do the correct formatting yourself or simply tell the Mac to use a specific EHD and the system would automatically format it for you - and it would probably erase any other data on it and ensure a "clean" EHD for TM purposes.

From the above, you can see how sharing is not permitted - at least that's my personal opinion.

I hope this helps you in understanding your problem

Ian

 

[ferrarr]

What's the issue? Am I formatting new HD's incorrectly?

No you're not. But Time Machine does manage Time Machine disks differently now.

As per @IWT's link, at the very bottom of the page under the Learn More section it says " * Advanced users: If you add an APFS volume to the external storage device, you can use one volume for Time Machine backups and the other for storage of other files." Also, there is an option when you're setting up the TM drive to "limit disk use". Here's a screen shot from my TM setup.

 

[Rod]

So, you can erase and effectively "partition" the EHD then use one partition (volume) for time machine, the other for manual backups but...it is not advisable for the reasons already mentioned in Ian's post.
By far the best approach is to have one dedicated EHD for Time Machine.

 

[MacInWin]

So, you can erase and effectively "partition" the EHD then use one partition (volume) for time machine, the other for manual backups but...it is not advisable for the reasons already mentioned in Ian's post.
By far the best approach is to have one dedicated EHD for Time Machine.

I don't think you need to erase the EHD to create a new APFS volume. Just open Disk Utility, select the Container in the left sidebar and then click on the "+" above where the menu bar says "Volume" and you should be able create a new APFS Volume, separate from the volume being used by TM.

 

[Rod]

True, in the few cases where I have done this there was already data on the EHD.

 

[pothypine]

thanks all...I have created another volume on the disk and it seems to work. Can any of you link me to articles of folks that have experience with failed drives doing this? Percentages/likelihood?

 

[Rod]

This article from ArsTechnica while not really answering your question pothypine, is a very interesting summary of Backblaze's statistical observations of failure on their own HD's both HDD and SSDs over 5 years.

Five years of data show that SSDs are more reliable than HDDs over the long haul

Backblaze tracks reliability for thousands of HDDs and SSDs in its data centers.

arstechnica.com