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User profile for user: jinniferb
jinniferb Author
User level: Level 2
156 points

How to un-assign an external hard drive as Time Machine disk?

Hi!


I recently replaced my 2011 iMac running High Sierra with a 2020 iMac that was shipped with Catalina.


I was using a single large external hard drive to store my Time Machine backups AND my Dropbox folder, and before this 'upgrade', having them both on the same volume was never an issue.


Long story short, Spotlight will NOT search for or find files stored on my external drive. Lots of Googling and forum reading has led me down the path of "You have to re-index the drive in the privacy panel of system prefs...but oh wait! You can't! Because it's also your Time Machine disk! So get a new drive, use that as your TM backup location and keep your Dropbox files on the original drive, then re-index it". Alright, fine. I did all that but am STILL getting the same error.

I got a blank, new drive, moved the TM backups to it and set is as the backup drive in TM preferences.

So the question is now, how do I "un-assign" the old drive as a "time machine drive"??? Seems like this was always an easy and straightforward function in earlier OSes but there is no visible option for this in the Catalina GUI.


I DESPERATELY need this external drive to be searchable (I'm a photographer and all of my photos live there), and nothing I have tried will work. (Even setting read/write to "everyone" and applying it to all enclosed contents).


Please help!

27" iMac (2020), iMac 27″

Posted on Oct 18, 2020 4:32 PM

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User profile for user: jinniferb
jinniferb Author
User level: Level 2
156 points

Posted on Oct 19, 2020 9:54 AM

I don't know how or why this worked, but for an unrelated reason, I ran First Aid from Disk Utility on the old TM disk, unplugged it, plugged it back in, and Viola! It's now an "orange disk" instead of a "green disk" and SEARCHING WORKS!


EDIT: It worked for a minute, and then stopped again. This is nightmarish.


Now to get TM to stop telling me there isn't enough room on the new disk to create a new backup....because there most assuredly is!

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User profile for user: jinniferb
jinniferb Author
User level: Level 2
156 points

Oct 19, 2020 9:54 AM in response to jinniferb

I don't know how or why this worked, but for an unrelated reason, I ran First Aid from Disk Utility on the old TM disk, unplugged it, plugged it back in, and Viola! It's now an "orange disk" instead of a "green disk" and SEARCHING WORKS!


EDIT: It worked for a minute, and then stopped again. This is nightmarish.


Now to get TM to stop telling me there isn't enough room on the new disk to create a new backup....because there most assuredly is!

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User profile for user: Old Toad
Old Toad
User level: Level 10
208,403 points

Oct 18, 2020 5:10 PM in response to jinniferb

If those photos are your lively hood I'd enter Time Machine, locate the folders that contain your photos and restore them to another external HD that is formatted as shown in this screenshot:


Even if you get another TM drive setup you still won't be able to search for your photos on the current TM drive due to the complex ecosystem of hard links and permissions of the TM backups. I've searched my TM drive for individual files with Find Any File and it is extremely slow.


So get the image files out of the TM environment. To restore to a different location Control (right) - click on the folders within Time Machine and select Restore "xxxx to…" from the contextual menu.



Excellent external HDs for this type of workflow are these: OWC Envoy Pro EX, OWC Envoy Pro EX Thunderbolt 3, or OWC Envoy Pro mini for more portability.



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User profile for user: Old Toad
Old Toad
User level: Level 10
208,403 points

Oct 19, 2020 11:47 AM in response to jinniferb

jinniferb wrote:

Thanks!
My ehd that house both the backups and the dropbox is, and always has been, formatted that way.
So you are saying I need to bring a 3rd EHD into the mix now?

I believe so. Having the photos in a TM backup does not facilitate accessing them via the Finder or other apps. I would restore the photos to the new EHD formatted as mentioned earlier so that you can use them without reservation from the Finder and any editing app of your choice. Then make sure the new EHD is also included in the TM backup.


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How to un-assign an external hard drive as Time Machine disk?

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