I have a ScanDisk Professional 1 TB G Drive for my MacBook Pro but I don't know how to use it.

Take the new external drive and plug it into the computer.

Use Disk Utility (In Utilities) to erase the new drive and name it backup. You do not need anything on that drive.

Launch Time Machine and have it do its job - a backup.

That will not free up space on your computer, so if that is all you want to do:

after erasig the new drive, have it plugged in and manually drag your photos, videos, etc to the external drive. Once you have checked that they open and work, you can erase those on your computer. That will create space, but remember that now the only copy of those files is on the external drive.

With all due respect, I suggest that you do not use the same external drive for both backups and for external storage. That can cause some serious issues. I would do as suggested - reformat the disk and then use it to copy and place files onto the new disk. Then delete those files from your HD and that will clear needed space. Next, install another external disk, properly reformatted, and use it to do backups using Apple's Time Machine app. Then you should be good to go.

I would personally avoid the SanDisk SSDs and anything else from Western Digital. The SanDisk Extreme Pro v2 SSDs are known to have a severe firmware issue where people have lost all the data stored on the SSD. While SanDisk (aka Western Digital the parent company) has provided a firmware update to supposedly resolve the issue, some users are apparently still reporting issues plus some people believe other models of SanDisk SSDs are also affected. Western Digital/SanDisk has not been responding to reporter's questions for clarification or details. Even the SanDisk page where the firmware update can be downloaded does not mention anything about data loss....only about the SSD disconnecting unexpectedly. A class action lawsuit has even been filed regarding the issues with the SanDisk Extreme SSDs.

Western Digital has proven to be a very dishonest company for years by misleading users with their product descriptions.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/05/sandisk-extreme-ssds-keep-abruptly-failing-firmware-fix-for-only-some-promised/

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/08/sandisk-extreme-ssds-are-worthless-multiple-lawsuits-against-wd-say/

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/wd-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-sandisk-extreme-pro-ssd-failures

Here is a link to the Western Digital support page for the SanDisk Extreme SSD firmware download (notice there is no mention of possible data loss):

https://support-en.wd.com/app/firmwareupdate

What did you buy it for? Knowing that, a solution can be proposed

With all due respect, I did not suggest that the same disk be used for both storage and backups. My suggestion was meant to be an either / or solution: either TM or storage. I would never use the same disk for both; I currently have 7 external drives - some for storage and some for clones.

WD was dishonest long before Sandisk. I don't remember the particulars, but there was a problem with their own brand external hard disks where the pre-installed software wiped disks clean for no reason (?) and people lost all their data. Sandisk used to be a good product and company - at least I never had a problem with any of my 10+ camera SDHC cards.

Aleda2 Said:

"my macbook pro is running out of space and I was told to purchase the scandisk professional g-drive backup system but there aren't any instructions and I think I destroyed the disk"

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Based on Personal Experience...

Seagate One Touch:

What I have used for years is this device: Seagate One Touch SSD.  I have data recovery on it. Without the Dara rescue on it, one would pay thousands to get the data off of it. For Catalina, you'd format the drive to APFS when using it just for backups.

babowa wrote:

WD was dishonest long before Sandisk.

I know. I avoided WD even way back in the early 2000's because you never knew whether you would get a good drive or a bad drive. If the WD drive worked, then it usually worked well, but you never knew. I remember one model back in the day which would fail all the time...one of the chips on the drive's main board would literally burn up. I actually ended up using Maxtor drives even though many people thought they were terrible....at least they always seemed to work and even worked well for years. I recall Apple even seemed to avoid using WD drives for many years as well.