SSD or HDD for time machine
I have an M1 Mac Mimi with a 1TB SSD. I am using a 5TB HDD for Time Machine backups. The Time Machine backups take a long time. Would a 2TB SSD be faster and is 2TB sufficient?
Mac mini (M1, 2020)
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Your M1 Mac mini comes with two Thunderbolt 3 that can support:
- Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40 Gb/s)
- USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
- USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10 Gb/s)
For a single external drive attached to either of these two ports, you would realize the greatest data throughput if the drive supports either Thunderbolt 3 or USB 4. Most likely, unless you tell me otherwise, it should support USB 3.1 Gen 2. Regardless, this is more than adequate for the purposes of running backups to it.
Unless you have a particular need to use Parallels Tools (FWIW, I have been using Parallels for years, but personaly have not found a real need for this tools myself), you can delete this folder. Again, if you format the drive, it will erase everything on it for you.