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A good choice for external hd for TM backups?

My husband and I both have iMacs, mine is supposed to backup wirelessly via Time Machine to our Time Capsule which is located downstairs by his iMac. Husband has had no problems with TC (which we've had for 2 1/2 years).

Twice, a year apart, I've lost all my backups when Apple sent me the message about "verification" and that it had to wipe out my old backups and start again. I've just finished reading forum posts here, so now know it's a widespsread issue. I want to take the advice given there and get an external hd to connect to my computer with a usb.

I'll use it solely for Time Machine backups - my computer is a late 2013 iMac, and has about 300 GB used of 1 TB. Would a portable 1 TB WD Passport Ultra, or a Seagate be ok?

Thanks for any advice,

Lynne

You should get a disk that is larger than that if you expect to use Time Machine. Time Machine requires a backup capacity of two to three times the capacity of the drive being backed up. In your case that would be a 2-3TB capacity backup drive. This is the minimum size. If you want a 1TB backup drive then you should change the backup utility to something other than Time Machine.

Backup Software

Using Time Machine is very easy, and all the tools you need come with OS X. If you later need help with Time Machine then I highly recommend a visit to Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with Time Machine. This is an extensive site with most everything you may need for using Time Machine. You will not find a better resource for Time Machine of OS X in one location. Due to the passing of James Pondini the site is no longer being updated. Therefore, some of the information may be outdated.

As an alternative you can use any third-party backup utility your prefer. They all create straight file backups meaning you can restore individual files manually if you want by drag and drop copy.

Recommended Backup Software

Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.

Either one will suffice.

Backup Software

As an alternative you can use any third-party backup utility your prefer. They all create straight file backups meaning you can restore individual files manually if you want by drag and drop copy.

Recommended Backup Software

Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.

A portable 1 TB drive would be fine as long as you keep your iMac at 400-500 GB of used space. That's because the general rule of thumb is that you need to have a drive that about twice the size or more of the amount of data on your Mac to allow space to build a nice backup history that won't be out of room in a few years.

If you plan to use most of the 1 TB space on your Mac in the next few years, it would be wise to purchase a drive of 2 TB or so at this time.

Keep in mind that the drive must be formatted for Mac in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to work with Time Machine. You can save yourself some time and effort if you buy a drive that has already been formatted for Mac.

Thank you - I wasn't sure those portables were meant for such heavy use.

Thanks very much for giving me so much information. I'll use Time Machine (because it's built-in and so simple for me to get it going) but I'll want a second backup so will follow up on your reply to try to learn more about the best way to handle that.

I really appreciate your help.

Cheers,

Lynne

Other World Computing carries very reliable external drives.

Other World Computing

Since December 2014 I´ve been using 3 WD external HDs, each with a capacity of 2 TB, connected to my iMac with a 1 TB internal HD. Two of these externals are used exclusively for Time Machine backups, the third one for making a regular bootable clone using Carbon Copy Cloner, which I can highly recommend for ease of use and reliability. I´ve been using it for years…

It´s important to remember that you can´t boot from Time Machine backups, so it´s a good idea to have a way of making a bootable backup for the emergency that is going to happen one day (Murphy´s Law!!), using software like Carbon Copy Cloner. Using Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner is a "belt and suspenders" solution, but better safe than sorry, as I´ve been twice in the past!

And please don´t put anything else, nothing at all, no folders or docs, however small, on your external Time Machine drives…just set up ™ to work with the drives and let it do its work! And make sure you format the external HD as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using Disk Utility. I´d suggest doing this immediately after taking the new HD out of the box, to make sure everything is erased from it…some vendors pre-install all sorts of spurious software which you don´t need with a Mac, and the formatting is sometimes not right for a Mac! And do read the link posted by Kappy! Hope this helps you! Cheers, Ian.

I use a Seagate 1TB external hard drive and I find that, quite often, there is insufficient space left and earlier backups need to be deleted. For me, this is no problem as I have never exceeded more than about 500Mb on my iMac hard drive and need the external drive as a backup (ie. a copy of everything for the past few weeks or months) rather than an archive (ie. a copy of everything from day 1). Other posters have suggested that you should buy something with more than 1TB and I agree with them if you plan on using close to this on your iMac hard drive.

My personal experience with drives that get their power from USB ports is that some of them do not seem to get enough power and are not "seen" by the iMac. However, this is not based on using hundreds of drives so it may have just been bad luck with those that I have used. Nevertheless, I would go for a drive that had its own power source rather than a "portable" drive that gained its power from the USB that it is connected to.

Thanks, Ian. I totally agree with you - I'm SO well acquainted with Murphy . Our setups are so similar and I like your system. I've kept a copy of your reply and of Kappy's and will follow your advice. I'm definitely a "belt and suspenders" person - I didn't get to be this old by being stupid, as they say.

Thanks for all your help.

Cheers back to you,

Lynne

BTW, Lynne, where in BC are you? We are in Vancouver this time of the year - May through Sept. - and reside near UBC. I don't know how old you are but we are in our mid-70s.

I'd recommend getting something other than a Seagate or WD external, having just witnessed the death of yet another Seagate external drive. Both WD and Seagate use enclosures that make troubleshooting drive problems unnecessarily difficult: meaning, it is difficult to extract the drive in the event that you need to figure out whether the drive is failing, or if there is a problem with the enclosure.

OWC enclosures are much better and can be easily reused if you decide you need a larger drive at some point.

You´re very welcome, Lynne! Glad I could have been of some help! Cheers, Ian.

I grew up close to the area you are currently staying in! We live on the Island now - and we, too, are in our mid-seventies. Do you live in BC the rest of the year as well?

We are here from May through Sept. The rest of the year we live in Tampa, FL which is our permanent residence. We come to Vancouver to enjoy the, usually, pleasant summers. Our condo is not air-conditioned, is on the top floor, and faces SW. So it gets pretty hot inside even if it is just warm outside. We have two portable AC units to help make the inside tolerable.

We sort of trade off between the nice summers in Vancouver and the nice winters in Florida.

Although we have been on the island a number of times of the past 15 years, we haven't been there in nearly 10 years. All of our guest visitors have made the trip but not anymore. We've run out of guests.

最后更新：2017-09-07 06:06:41

A good choice for external hd for TM backups?

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