Can an external hard drive be connected to my MAC running macos monterey? Also, do I install macOS Monterey on the hard drive?
iMac Pro
You can connect as many external drives as you have places to connect them, then buy a Dock and connect even more.
You need not install MacOS (any version) on any added drives.
Best Practice is to use Disk Utility to completely ERASE a new drive using its immutable manufacturer device-name, not just its user-created name like Macintosh HD. DON'T use the drive-maker's Utilities.
Readers are eager to provide additional assistance if you get stuck.
did you then activate Time machine using
System preferences > Time machine ...
... to [√] Back up Automatically ??
what status is showing now in the Time machine pane?
Thanks, I'm just getting back to it but I'll check it out.
Thanks, those are the steps that I thought I had taken, however, I will try it again.
Great, I do have something correct. Have a good night.
Which drive? This picture was earlier this morning. I tried to rename the DawsonSave but now I don't even see it. This is so flustrating
I hit erase and this is what came up. There is not place to choose GUID????
I've tried 3 times to erase and each time a fail. What name am I to put in the box and what format should I use.
Thanks for your patience.
Restart your computer and a "can't unmount" drive will sometimes be unmounted for you.
Okay, thanks. I ejected the drive and I'll work on it tomorrow.
unmount everything. You are going to erase this device (by its manufacturer-name) and Disk Utility does not need anything mounted to do work on a drive, such as erase.
I've tried several times to unmount the hard drive but it absolutely will not do it. Is there another way to erase the drive?
Thank you for continuing to help me. I'll get to work on it.
I did to those things. In system preferences, it's showing the Time Machine with the new name, the back up automatically is checked but no past back ups and it will back up when attached. No back ups are being done. It doesn't show on the desktop when it's connected, either.
You managed to create a read-only Disk Image File instead of what you intended to create (a vacant drive).
Select that drive again and choose ERASE.
External hard drives
