Advice on an EXTERNAL DRIVE for Backing up Macbook using TIME MACHINE

OK, no problem - main thing is, unless you want to back up to another (different) computer or server, you don't need to worry about AFP, SMB, NAS or any of that.

External SSD is an easy day. Given prices right now, the cost of going from 1TB to 2TB is only about 50% more, so you could consider a 2TB external SSD as a bit of future-proofing.

If Time Machine works for you, then use it. I find it a bit limited because the way it works means if you need to recover something from the backup, it's basically on a per-file or folder basis - and the interface for browsing the files is clunky. But again, if it works for you, then don't change what works.

If you just want an external drive for backups, then almost anything will do, as long as it's a decent vendor (WD, Seagate, etc). A SSD of double your computer drive size should provide lots of storage for Time Machine snapshots...I assume your old Seagate sounded like a jet engine because it was a HDD (not SSD) with an external power source and the sound was from the disks spinning and armature moving constantly, plus maybe a fan of some kind.

If you are getting an external drive - then might as well just use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to make a bootable clone instead of Time Machine. I have to admit that I am less and less enamoured of Time Machine as the years go on...

SMB and AFP are only relevant if the drive you are using is connected to over a network and not connected to your computer, for example, a NAS of some kind. SMB is the current standard for network file transfer in macOS as well as Windows - AFP was deprecated a number of years ago. That said, if you have the money and want to have other file server features available (or media streaming, etc), a NAS ain't a bad way to go. Although it will probably be noisy because of its fans and drives.

Take steps to acquire an external drive as soon as possible. If you buy one, a drive 2 to 3 times or larger than your boot drive is preferable for long term trouble-free operation. Do not pay extra for a drive that is fast.  (You can get by for a while with a "found" smaller drive if necessary, but it will eventually become annoying).

Attach your external drive and use

System preferences > Time machine ...

... to turn on Time Machine and specify what drive to store your Backups on.  It may ask to initialize the new drive, and that is as expected. APFS format is default format if running MacOS 11 Big Sur or later.

Time machine works quietly and automatically in the background, without interrupting your regular work, and only saves the incremental changes (after the first full backup). Time machine backs up every connected drive that is in a Mac compatible format. it can not back up Windows format drives.

Time Machine's "claim to fame" is that it is the backup that gets done. It does not ruin performance of the rest of the computer while doing its backup operations. You do not have to set aside a "Special Time" when you only do backups. When you need it, your Time machine Backup is much more likely to be there.

How to use Time Machine to Backup or Restore your Mac:

Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

nartorias wrote:

Any advice on an external drive to backup my Mac (Nov 2023 M3 Pro 16")? I want to use Time Machine and I'm getting confused about SMB and AFP. My main criteria is I need around 1TB and something that is silent or very quiet. My old one (seagate) sounded like a jet engine. Thanks

Look at OWC/MacSales well ahead of the curve all things Mac w/ excellent customer service.

MacOS has become VERY difficult to restore the System part, because of the crypto-locked system volume. Although Utilities are moving fast to catch up, it is not always possible to fully restore INCLUDING the System Files. if you have had issues like unexplained crashes, it is not always the best idea to restore the System. Apple really wants you to re-install the System files to the crypto-locked system Volume from fundamental sources, like fresh downloads.

[in my opinion] 'bootable backup' is not so wonderful. "Best practice" in case of unknown issues is to re-install MacOS completely.

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When use use Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper, you get ONE backup copy as of ONE moment in time [last-saved]. Time Machine saves, and can re-create, ANY Moment in time for which it still holds backup files.

Example: a user posted that they had installed software that messed up their files. it was installed last week. They had done an ordinary restore to recover, but that restored to yesterday, and the problem was still there.

Readers were able to guide them to Time Machine.APP (not to be confused with Time machine preferences). This allowed them to look ta the state of the major folder involved, back in time through each previous backup, until right BEFORE the bad software was added -- mid last week-- and restore as of that moment. They were thrilled.

...

That's not bad advice - but I'm pretty sure that CCC and SuperDuper now support snapshots, at least on APFS volumes on SSDs. So they aren't "single point in time" limited the way they used to be.