Time Machine on new MacBook Pro

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Level 1

75 points

Time Machine on new MacBook Pro

Just picked up a new MacBook Pro 512GB at the Apple Store yesterday and I'm confused about using Time Machine (have had iMacs for years and years and always had Time Machine back up to an external hard drive.

Now I know that the chance of an SSD going bad is way, way less than an HD going bad. But still, is the idea that we add partitions to the SSD and have Time Machine do its backups there., or (as I think more prudent) is it recommended that we get an external HD/SSD and have the backups stored there?

Posted on Jul 31, 2021 3:00 PM

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Answer 1

FoxFifth

Level 10

475,407 points

Jul 31, 2021 3:21 PM in response to MargeHomer

I would strongly recommend an external. See the following: Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support and Backup disks you can use with Time Machine - Apple Support

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Answer 2

MargeHomer Author

Level 1

75 points

Aug 1, 2021 4:52 AM in response to steve359

Steve, I've used CCC for many years, as well as ChronoSync (another great developer) as my theory is that if one backup is good, two are better. I've read the blog posts on the CCC web site and it seems that Apple is going out of its way to make things difficult. My iMac is still on Catalina as there was nothing in Big Sur that made me want to go through yet another learning process. I've bookmarked the two links that FoxFifth provided, good reading. Thanks.

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Answer 3

steve359

Level 6

17,187 points

Jul 31, 2021 8:31 PM in response to MargeHomer

I agree with FoxFifth. Many service issues on the soldered-logicboard units result in complete system replacement with no assistance to transfer old storage contents.

I also keep a clone (CarbonCopyCloner, bombich.com) that can "clone back" to overwrite the storage of a replacement system if my 2019-model must be replaced ... that way all of my installed programs are still installed after.

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Time Machine on new MacBook Pro

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