Time Machine on an Ext. Drive

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fbc1907 Author

Level 1

9 points

Time Machine on an Ext. Drive

I had time machine running on a partition of an external drive. It started to frustrate and cause of a delay of computer's starting time (it takes more than 5 minutes after entering my password) then I deleted the Time Machine from my system but now I can not mount / erase the Time Machine partition on the drive. Is there another way to erase a partition other than macOS's disk utility? so then I can reuse the same partition for a new Time Machine.

MacBook Pro 15″

Posted on Mar 24, 2023 5:08 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

PRP_53

Level 10

85,837 points

Mar 24, 2023 7:22 AM in response to fbc1907

Once you follow previous advise above.

You may have to Reformat the Entire Drive via this method from Apple

link below

Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support (CA)

This should give to user the ability to Re-Partition the drive, if that is what you chose to do

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Answer 2

PRP_53

Level 10

85,837 points

Mar 24, 2023 6:48 AM in response to fbc1907

All you Eggs in One Bucket and the Basket ( Drive Fails ) Scrambled Eggs

To protect your important and sometime Non Replaceable Data / Files

3 Backups using 2 different methods and 1 off Site incase of Natural Disaster or Un-Natural Disasters

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Answer 3

fbc1907 Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 24, 2023 7:12 AM in response to dialabrain

ok I'll use another dedicated drive for Time Machine but for the old one is there a way to erase and re-use that old partition for something else. my problem is that I can not mount that portion to erase it.

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Answer 4

fbc1907 Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 24, 2023 7:14 AM in response to PRP_53

good point for the future I'll use dedicated drive for the Time Machine but at the moment is there a way that I can mount the old one to erase it to use for something else? macOS's drive utility can not mount or erase it...

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Answer 5

fbc1907 Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 24, 2023 11:19 PM in response to PRP_53

One last question. I can not erase the volumes nor delete the partitions could that be because I encrypted them when I create. If so how can I erase and delete the partitions (I mount them with my password but when I ask disk utility to erase the partition it says failed to erase it) your help would be much appreciated 🙏

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