Want to remove disk from Time Machine but preserve backups on it

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Want to remove disk from Time Machine but preserve backups on it

Forgive me if I've missed this in the archives, despite endless hours poring through the discussions. Many of them come "close" but none "quite there."

When I hit the inevitable "Time Machine disk is full" message I added a new drive to TM to backup my MacBook Pro running Mojave. At the time, I selected the option to add the new drive to the rotation instead of replacing the old drive. But now I'd like to have my cake and eat it too – use only the new drive while preserving the backups on the old drive (2 years' worth, many client files w/multiple changes, etc. that *might* be needed some day).

If I remove the old disk, can I still go back in time to retrieve files on it should the need arise? Or is there some other way to accomplish what I'm looking for?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.14

Posted on May 31, 2020 12:03 PM

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Answer 1

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Barney-15E

Level 10

116,782 points

May 31, 2020 7:32 PM in response to Digital Bill

If I remove the old disk, can I still go back in time to retrieve files on it should the need arise? Or is there some other way to accomplish what I'm looking for?

Yes, just hold down the Option key and you can select "Browse other Backup disks" from the Time Machine menu.

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Answer 2

May 31, 2020 5:41 PM in response to Digital Bill

This may not be the most elegant way to do what I think you're trying to do, but I've accomplished having several drives with TM backups. I either manually turn off the ones I don't want to back up to at that time, or click the "x" cancel button in Time Machine preferences to cancel backup to the unwanted drive(s) until it rotates to the one I want to backup to.

Not elegant, but works for me.

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