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NoBite Author

Level 1

46 points

Requirements for Time Machine External HD?

I recently upgraded to the M2 Mini. Love it!! Would like to use Time Machine. I have a WD Passport 4Tb drive that I have used in the past with my old iMac. I recently erased the drive and plugged it in to the Mini, thinking I'd use it for Time Machine backups. When, I went to Time Machine to set it up, I got this message:

So, apparently, this HD is either not formatted properly or for some other reason is not appropriate for use with Time Machine. Thus, my question. What are the requirements for a HD to be used with TM? Is this simply a formatting issue?

Thank you!

Mac mini (M2, 2023)

Posted on Apr 23, 2023 10:52 AM

Top-ranking reply

den.thed

Level 10

82,564 points

Posted on Apr 25, 2023 10:42 AM

Something is wrong.

Container disk5 in not a mountable volume and Time Machine can not use it.

You need to Erase and format the WD My Passport, try using Mac OS Extended (Journaled) instead of APFS as I suggested above. Then the Time Machine volume should show up as a mountable volume and be usable by Time Machine.

It should look more like what my Seagate looks like.

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Requirements for Time Machine External HD?

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