time machine backup slower on partitioned external drive?

Hi, folks. I am running macOS 10.14.6 Mojave on my mid-2014 MBP. The time machine backups have been quite slow over the years (external drive, non-SSD) but I have gotten excruciatingly cumbersome over the last year. Yes, my MBP HD has grown (using 330 of 500 GB). The only other "obvious" change (other than OS upgrades) is a loose correlation with moving to an external HD, which I thought was bright (lol) to partition to squeeze in my carbon copy cloner backup. Could this partitioning be slowing down the backup? (Yes, I turn off my BitDefender before backing up. And yes, I tried without the partition ~ 3 mo ago, noticed little difference, but was impatient). I have a new drive (thinking that would make a difference but partitioned as well). Yes, can empirically test with a "dedicated" TM drive but also just curious as heck? Many thanks!

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.14

Posted on May 24, 2021 2:05 PM

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Owl-53

Level 10

108,341 points

Posted on May 25, 2021 2:44 AM

Rotational HD especially on External Drive are slow at best for your purposes. Observations from above posting - Partition for Time Machine Backup AND for CCC. A lot of Eggs in one basket. Drives do fail and Everything would / will be lost. Personally, dedicate One Drive ( SSD ) for Time Machine Backup and Separate SSD for CCC. and Add another two drives ( TM and CCC ) for Off-Site incase of Flood, Fire, etc.This is referred to as the 3 -2 - 1 Method. 3 Backups, 2 Methods and 1 Off Site.

Now - " Yes, I turn off my BitDefender " is not needed at all and suggest removing as per Developers Instructions. Effective defenses against malware and other threats and if one is concerned about malware / adware Malwarebytes for Mac free or Paid for added feature. From a Trusted Developer and Very Respected Contributor to these ASC Forums.

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time machine backup slower on partitioned external drive?

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