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Creating a backup disk from a wiped hard drive

I have a new MacBook Air running OS Monterey 12.6. I have wiped all data from my old Mac Mini hard drive and am trying to use the Mini as my external backup disk. Can you tell me how to establish a matching OS (12.6) on this empty disk? I have connected it to my MB Air and mounted it, but it has absolutely nothing on it since I did a multi-wipe using Disk Utility with many passes.

Thanks in advance for your advice!


MacBook Air

Posted on Oct 6, 2022 11:53 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 6, 2022 4:22 PM

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support


It would be better to attach an external drive to the Mini and back up to that over the network.

Back up to a shared folder with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support


If you really want to use the internal startup volume on the Mini as your backup drive, it might be best to create a new Volume on that drive using Disk Utility. Share that out as the backup destination as per instructions above.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 6, 2022 4:22 PM in response to lee annfromwoodland

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support


It would be better to attach an external drive to the Mini and back up to that over the network.

Back up to a shared folder with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support


If you really want to use the internal startup volume on the Mini as your backup drive, it might be best to create a new Volume on that drive using Disk Utility. Share that out as the backup destination as per instructions above.

Creating a backup disk from a wiped hard drive

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