Soliciting recommendations for external SSD/HDD drives for future Time Machine backups

For Time Machine SSDs are fairly unnecessary and quite expensive at this time.

You can get a regular HDD for backups and it will work just fine. The extra speed offered by the SSD is not required for backups.

LaCie is a good brand, also OWC (though more expensive), Seagate, even WD.

Examples:

click here ➜ Seagate Portable 2TB External Hard Drive HDD — USB 3.0 - Amazon.com

click here ➜ LaCie Rugged USB-C, 4TB, Portable External Hard Drive - Amazon.com

dubwisedude wrote:

Thanks for your input, Phil0124! I take it that whether I purchase HDD or SDD from my preferred brand, they'll all support Apple's upcoming new SMB. Is this correct?

SMB is already implemented and is AFP is going away. There is nothing new about it. How do you intend on connecting to the drive? If you have another desktop Mac, you can share that drive out and back up to it wirelessly from other Mac’s just like the Time capsule.

For a Time Machine backup drive I think buying an SSD is a complete waste of money. You need absolutely nothing that an SSD provides over a mechanical HDD.

if you are trying to back up a laptop and don’t want to have an external power supply for the drive, then an SSD might be a good choice because all mechanical HDD that are bus powered will eventually overcurrent the USB and stop working without an external power supply. I don’t know if an SSD will eventually do that also, but I doubt it.

if you’re backing up a desktop, Mac just get an HDD with an external power supply.

FWIW, I would get an SSD over a hard drive for speed and reliability. Make sure you use disk utility to format the drive when you first connect it to your computer.

BobTheFisherman wrote:

FWIW, I would get an SSD over a hard drive for speed and reliability. Make sure you use disk utility to format the drive when you first connect it to your computer.

For backups speed is irrelevant. Backups happen in the background, they have no need to be fast.

SSDs are absurdly expensive these days due to the massive memory chip consumption by AI companies. There's really very little point in spending more money on SSD for passive backups when an HDD is less than half the cost of a comparable SSD.

(though I will continue using it for non-essential non-TM backups for as long as it will serve!)?

You won’t be using it if you upgrade macOS because it’s not just the Time Machine part that’s going away. All AFP will be gone, so there will be no way to connect to the time capsule over the network.

What new SMB?

Apple has no plans to change Samba shares beyond what they already did, and that only applies to shared files and folders from a Mac to other devices.

If you are sharing the hard drive from somewhere else like a local router or connecting the drive directly to the Mac then Apple's SMB options do not really apply.

Phil0124 wrote:

BobTheFisherman wrote:

FWIW, I would get an SSD over a hard drive for speed and reliability. Make sure you use disk utility to format the drive when you first connect it to your computer.

For backups speed is irrelevant. Backups happen in the background, they have no need to be fast.

SSDs are absurdly expensive these days due to the massive memory chip consumption by AI companies. There's really very little point in spending more money on SSD for passive backups when an HDD is less than half the cost of a comparable SSD.

It is OK that you disagree with me but I value my backups and a SSD provides added reliability and security. I understand that some prefer HDD over SSD and that is fine.