Using time Machine With New Computer But Not A Complete Restore

[PGB1]

When I get a new computer, the only items that will move from the old computer to the new are Documents, Pictures & Music.

But, I often find myself using Time Machine to go many versions back for a document and that brings up a Time Machine question:
I'd like to use the existing Time Machine drive on the new computer, but keep the old versions of files that are stored there for those way-back files.

If i connect the existing Time Machine drive to the new computer and set it up there without erasing it, will that cause problems?

Will the new computer see the existing backups from the existing computer and the new one as separate entities and let me access the old ones while the Time Machine drive is connected to the new computer? (I am guessing it will be done by going to the old set's Backups.backupdb folder.)

Thanks for sharing your knowledge before I goof things up.

Paul

 

[MacInWin]

If you are stepping from the 2007 MBP in your profile, running 10.6.8, to a new Mac with M1 and Monterey, the answer is "no." The old backup drive format and the format of the backup files are changed significantly. The drive will be reformatted by TM, erasing everything on it, to prep it for use with your new system.

If you want to keep those old files, I would suggest a new drive for the backups. You can keep the older backups and access them through Finder to recover older files from the dated backups. But TM won't open those files and cannot exist on the same drive because the old system used HFS format and TM now requires APFS.

If that is not the set of machines, let us know what the old and new are and we can address that for you.

 

[ferrarr]

If you try to access the older TM data from a newer (how newer?) macOS version there could be issues. It depends on what macOS version the new Mac will be using.

 

[IWT]

As you only want to transfer Music, Pictures and Documents, you might be able to copy the Music Library; the Photos App Library (or the individual pictures if they are stored outside the Photos app); and Documents Folder on to a fresh EHD and then transfer them to your new Mac.

Jake knows a lot more about this than I; but it's a thought.

Ian

 

[PGB1]

Thank You all for your advice. Time Machine is worth doing properly for me- Mister File Wrecker. Time Machine & VueScan are my two favorite & most reliable applications. Neither has ever needed a "What went wrong now?" intervention from me.

Bob asked "how newer?" of an OS. After lots of thought & study of date-to-obsolete and used equipment prices, I'll most likely wait until I can a new computer with the newest OS so it can last longer before becoming unsafe or obsolete. The current leaning is toward MacBook Air M2 with an external monitor.

After reading, looking at HDD type drives to use for Time Machine on the new computer revealed they are much less expensive than I thought. There's need to budget for the computer, a hub, cables, adapters & a monitor. Adding a new Time Machine drive isn't the "Master Card Melter" that I thought it was going to be.

I will, as Jake suggested, keep the files on the existing Time Machine drive instead of trying to use it on the new computer while unsuccessfully attempting to keep the old files.

This makes much more sense than my plan. The old computer will stay in use for many months as I discover files that have to be opened on that computer & converted for use on the new. The conversion often wrecks the file. Having the existing Time Machine drive on the old computer will be important. (Example: TurboCAD .tc3 files have to be converted to a different file type, such as DXF or DWG. The conversion's often a train wreck.)

 

[MacInWin]

One thought: A move from an Intel Mac to an Apple Silicon (M1 or M2) has the added complication that the apps that run on the Intel may or may not run well on the Mx. Rosetta2 is reasonably good, but you might want to do some research on your apps before taking the step.

 

[PGB1]

Thank You Jake for the caution.
I knew my 32 bit applications won't work but didn't know about the Apple Silicon challenges.

After reading your caution, VueScan came immediately to mind. Mr. Hamrick reported back that VueScan with my model scanner and the M2 will work well. Phew! That's my favorite application.

The other "really need" applications on my existing computer are 32 bit, so they're out even if I go Intel. Some I will skip & live without or replace eventually.
Examples of ones for which I'll need to buy new versions of, or find alternatives for, are TurboCAD and Adobe Photoshop Illustrated. SuperDuper & Onyx also come to mind.

Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac (32 bit) will also have to go, but hopefully Pages & Numbers will handle my existing documents well. If agreeable to the existing documents, Pages & Numbers each have the features I need for my simple office tasks.

Thanks Again for the caution. Hopefully vendors will slowly but surely issue updates for Mx users.
Paul