To backup 2020 MacBook, what is the required format for external drive?

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To backup 2020 MacBook, what is the required format for external drive?

To backup 2020 MacBook, what is the required format for an external SSD and/or regular hard drive?

I need to backup my new 2020 MacBook Air. I want to use the Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD for a full backup with SuperDuper. The WD drive is partitioned. I want to use one partition with Time Machine and another partition for a full backup with SuperDuper.

Time Machine gives me less than one day of backups. SuperDuper says I must erase and reformat with APFS. I haven't tried the new SSD yet.

Posted on Jun 17, 2020 12:09 PM

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Answer 1

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Kappy

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Jun 17, 2020 12:42 PM in response to Enver Masud

If the backup utility is Time Machine, then use a HDD for backup and format it using Mac OS Extended, Journaled. If the backup utility is NOT Time Machine and the backup drive is an SSD, then use APFS; if it's an HDD, then use Mac OS Extended, Journaled.

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Answer 2

Enver Masud Author

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Jun 18, 2020 6:14 AM in response to Kappy

I'm not tinkering with the laptop drives. Question is about an EXTERNAL SSD — specifically SanDisk Extreme Portable. I asked the developer of SuperDuper, "Should I format WD My Passport for Mac partition to APFS or Mac OS Extended, Journaled?" His reply, "For Catalina, you MUST use APFS".

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,765 points

Jun 18, 2020 12:03 PM in response to Enver Masud

That's true if the drive is going to have Catalina installed on it. That's not necessarily the case for a Time Machine backup HDD. Note that Time Machine does not work with APFS formatted HDDs. I run Catalina and have no problem formatting external HDDs using JHFS+.

If you format an external SSD APFS, then you must not use Time Machine to backup any system using Mojave or earlier.

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