How do I reuse a portable drive for Time Machine backups on a new iMac?

I got a new iMac and would like to clean off my time machine backups to reuse the drive with my new Mac. How do I best do this?


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iMac 21.5″, macOS 12.7

Posted on Mar 7, 2025 3:35 PM

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Posted on Mar 7, 2025 4:40 PM

Hello teacherosb,


If you do not want to inherit the backups from the previous Mac, reformat the drive: Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support.

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How do I reuse a portable drive for Time Machine backups on a new iMac?

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