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clive241 Author

Level 1

5 points

Using Time Machine (Catalina) Backup Drive for Big Sur

I have recently bought Mac Mini with Big Sur and everything went very well in setting it up. Because my previous IMAC (2013) had undiagnosed failure it could not be used for Migration Assistant or Target Disk. So I used the Catalina Time Machine back ups held on a Western Digital 2 TB HDD. It installed well and as far as I can see everything required is all available and working correctly. So now I want to start using that HDD with the Mac Mini Big Sur. My preference would be to just start to have TM backups going to the HDD whilst retaining the existing Catalina back ups. I tend to be cautious.

Is this feasible or should I totally reformat the HDD for Big Sur back ups to TM?

Mac mini, macOS 11.1

Posted on Feb 1, 2021 3:12 AM

Top-ranking reply

David McKinlay

Level 7

23,014 points

Posted on Feb 1, 2021 3:50 AM

It's not clear from your description but it sounds like you used Migration Assistant with your Time Machine backup to restore your computer's data to your new Mac.

The first time you mount your existing Time Machine backup disc on your new Mac you should be asked if you want the new computer to inherit the backups. If you accept you can continue with the backups as they exist. Apple describes this in the document If your new Mac inherits your backup history.

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Using Time Machine (Catalina) Backup Drive for Big Sur

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