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time machine

Setup is Mac Mini M1 256, two external thunderbolt drive, each 4 Terabytes.


I want to use one of the external drives as my time machine. Or could I partition off 2T off the 4T drive?


Will I be able to send the files from one of the external drives to the Time Machine Backup.


Thanks in advance.

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Aug 3, 2021 7:10 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 3, 2021 7:25 AM

You can use either drive for Time Machine backups, or you can partition one of the drives as you suggest.

If your plan is to include the other external drive to be backed up, I would not partition the TM backup drive since you will need the capacity for the backups. A general rule of thumb is the TM backup drive should be minimum 2x the total capacity of the drive(s) being backed up.


And yes, you can back up another external drive with Time Machine, as I mentioned.

By default, TM excludes externals, but you can remove the external drive from the exclusion list in Time Machine Preferences > Options.


Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

Similar questions

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 3, 2021 7:25 AM in response to cdlvj130

You can use either drive for Time Machine backups, or you can partition one of the drives as you suggest.

If your plan is to include the other external drive to be backed up, I would not partition the TM backup drive since you will need the capacity for the backups. A general rule of thumb is the TM backup drive should be minimum 2x the total capacity of the drive(s) being backed up.


And yes, you can back up another external drive with Time Machine, as I mentioned.

By default, TM excludes externals, but you can remove the external drive from the exclusion list in Time Machine Preferences > Options.


Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

Aug 13, 2021 5:23 AM in response to cdlvj130

Thanks, I exchanged the 4T for a 10T, and configured the mac mini. That all works good.


But I cannot access the 10T thru network for laptop and desktop.

I read that the 10T has to be partitioned mac OS extended. No access either.


I am doing the mods remotely to mini through screen sharing. The permissions do not stay but disappear.

Do I have to do the permissions by logging into the mini directly.


I have all machines on Sur 11.5. I have created a user backup (admin account) with same password on all machines.

time machine

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