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Apple’s new MacBook Pro features the incredibly powerful M4 family of chips and ushers in a new era with Apple Intelligence. Learn more >
Apple’s new MacBook Pro features the incredibly powerful M4 family of chips and ushers in a new era with Apple Intelligence. Learn more >
📢 Newsroom Update
Apple introduces M4 Pro and M4 Max. Learn more >
Apple introduces M4 Pro and M4 Max. Learn more >
What type of external hard drive should I use to back up my MacBook Pro 13 before I get it fixed? I have High Sierra. I currently have Seagate hard drive but its used for my PC. I think it also allows for MAC backup as well. Should I get something else? What is recommended for MAC?
A parallel solution to what you use for your PC would work fine. Using the same drive will not work at all.
To use as a Time Machine backup drive, an external drive MUST be formatted as a MacOS extended Volume. Also, Time Machine adds incremental changes to the backup drive over time, so the size of the backup keeps growing until backups are automatically consolidated due to their age. so storing "other stuff" on the same drive is losing proposition.
A drive 2.5x to 3x the size of what needs to be saved will provide ideal, trouble-free operation. You can get by with a smaller 'found' drive for a while, but when you upgrade your Mac or your MacOS, it will need to store old plus new plus some slack.
A parallel solution to what you use for your PC would work fine. Using the same drive will not work at all.
To use as a Time Machine backup drive, an external drive MUST be formatted as a MacOS extended Volume. Also, Time Machine adds incremental changes to the backup drive over time, so the size of the backup keeps growing until backups are automatically consolidated due to their age. so storing "other stuff" on the same drive is losing proposition.
A drive 2.5x to 3x the size of what needs to be saved will provide ideal, trouble-free operation. You can get by with a smaller 'found' drive for a while, but when you upgrade your Mac or your MacOS, it will need to store old plus new plus some slack.
External Hard Drive Backup
