Why am I getting Time Machine snapshots on my internal disk _and_ one of my external disks?

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Level 2

218 points

Why am I getting Time Machine snapshots on my internal disk _and_ one of my external disks?

OK, I just realized something. I also use the external disk as a boot disk (startup disk) on my old Mac, as the internal hard drive in my old Mac is dead. Still, the snapshots are from the new Mac. Does Time Machine make snapshots on all attached boot drives in addition to the internal drive? Is that what's going on?

Why does this matter? When you run First Aid, it takes a very long time to check all the snapshots!

macOS 12.6.8 (Monterey)

TIA! (Screenshots below)

iMac 24″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Aug 31, 2023 11:28 AM

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Answer 1

tbirdvet

Level 6

17,030 points

Aug 31, 2023 4:32 PM in response to betaneptune

Because you are using two drives TM is making snapshots of both. And as the number of snapshots increase it will take longer to run First Aid. You should not have to run First Aid very often unless you are having some major issues.

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Answer 2

betaneptune Author

Level 2

218 points

Aug 31, 2023 5:32 PM in response to tbirdvet

Yes, I am using Time Machine on those to drives. OK, so Time Machine makes snapshots on each drive on the same drive. And I just noticed that the sizes are different, even though the names are the same. OK. Thanks.

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Answer 3

betaneptune Author

Level 2

218 points

Sep 1, 2023 10:10 AM in response to tbirdvet

Once is already too much. It takes like 3 hours or more, IIRC. It would be nice if one could skip the snapshots. Anyway, thanks for solving the problem! I guess each disk being backed up has its own snapshots placed on it, as you say.

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Why am I getting Time Machine snapshots on my internal disk _and_ one of my external disks?

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