I read that one same external hard disk can be used to back up two devices. I have a hard disk that works well with time machine on my iMac. If I connect it to my BacBook I see time machine appear in the finder side bar, and all iMac backups are listed. I click on "start backup now" but n nothing happens. Any clue? Thanks!
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.5
The other Mac will need to backup to a separate partition of the drive. Two Macs can't backup to the same partition simultaneously. Use Disk Utility to make the second partition, and when you setup Time Machine, be sure you are selecting the hard disk partition dedicated to the same Mac. When you do a partition, it is wise to make each partition a distinct name.
Keep in mind, you want at least TWO copies on TWO different devices of all your data at all times. The use of one hard drive is only the second location for the data on each machine in the configuration you describe. If both machines have different data, it is wise to get a second external hard drive to make a second partition in case your first time machine drive has failed and your computer has failed.
The other Mac will need to backup to a separate partition of the drive. Two Macs can't backup to the same partition simultaneously. Use Disk Utility to make the second partition, and when you setup Time Machine, be sure you are selecting the hard disk partition dedicated to the same Mac. When you do a partition, it is wise to make each partition a distinct name.
Keep in mind, you want at least TWO copies on TWO different devices of all your data at all times. The use of one hard drive is only the second location for the data on each machine in the configuration you describe. If both machines have different data, it is wise to get a second external hard drive to make a second partition in case your first time machine drive has failed and your computer has failed.
Thank you very much. Meanwhile I found out browsing the web that I had to make the external disk known to time machine in the MacBook. After this was done (in system preferences -->time machine) the second partition was created automatically! in fact I saw TWO positions in the finder, and the backup started smoothly :-)
time machine doesn't bckup second mac
