You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

How to use Time Machine with multiple internal disks to a single external hard drive

I have a MacPro desktop computer (mid 2012) with 3 drives:

A. 500 GB Flash Storage - used for programs

B. 2 TB SATA Disk - used for Data

C. 2 TB SATA Disk - used for back up of Data disk


When I set up the computer initially, I chose to use 'C' as my back up disk for Time Machine, and only set it up to back up 'B'.


I am going to purchase a 5 TB La Cie external HD and want to set it up to back up all 3 above disks, and subsequently use disk 'C' above for regular use.


My questions:

  1. How do I remove the backup data from 'C' above, prior to backing up to my new external HD?
  2. What do I need to change in Time Machine in order for it to back up all 3 drives?


Thanks in advance.

Mac Pro

Posted on Apr 15, 2020 4:40 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 15, 2020 5:31 PM

In SysPrefs>Time Machine, click Select Disk... Highlight "C" & click Remove.


From Available Disks choose the new drive you've Formatted HFS+, MacOS ExtendedJournaled, GUID Partition scheme.


In SysPrefs>Time Machine, click Options, highlight & Remove excluded Drives using the tiny minus Icon.

Similar questions

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 15, 2020 5:31 PM in response to TrailGirls

In SysPrefs>Time Machine, click Select Disk... Highlight "C" & click Remove.


From Available Disks choose the new drive you've Formatted HFS+, MacOS ExtendedJournaled, GUID Partition scheme.


In SysPrefs>Time Machine, click Options, highlight & Remove excluded Drives using the tiny minus Icon.

How to use Time Machine with multiple internal disks to a single external hard drive

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.