External hard drive questions

So should I get another seagate external hard drive (and a higher storage of about 4TB)? And after I get a new seagate external hard drive and use it as a backup with Time Machine, do I need to reformat it? (sorry for the same question again, just want to be sure).

When you plug in a new disk, if you are asked if you want to use the disk with Time Machine, then Time Machine will format it for use with Time Machine.

If you are NOT asked, then you would reformat it, then use System Preferences -> Time Machine -> Select Disk to assign the disk for Time Machine's use.

Once I use one hard drive for a complete backup with Time Machine, I also want to get one external hard drive for all of my photos/videos on my computer. So when I connect another hard drive, do I just drag over the photo/video files?

Yes, you can do that. This assumes all the previous emails about the initial, need only 1 time, formatting for that disk occur.

You might also want to read this article "How to move an Apple Photos for OS X library to an external drive"

<http://www.macworld.com/article/2999846/photography/how-to-move-an-apple-photos- for-os-x-library-to-an-external-drive.ht…>

And

<Move your iMovie for Mac (2014) library - Apple Support>

Since you have an iMac, you can leave the disk connected all the time if you want. If you want to disconnect it, then you first tell the Finder to "Eject" the disk, then you can remove the USB cable from your Mac.

what's the process once I connect a new hard drive and just want it for photo/videos files? not with time machine for backup.

If Time Machine prompts you asking if you want to use this disk for Time Machine, you say "No" or whatever the button is that effectively says "No".

When I'm done backing up my videos/photos on a hard drive, I also read that it's a good idea to back up files online...anything you'd recommend? is Icloud good enough for large video files?

Sorry, but I do not have an opinion on that. iCloud is not bad, and it is integrated with macOS, but I have not used it, so I'm not qualified to tell you what to do.

As for my own stuff, I've been playing with computers for so long I've rolled my own backup solutions which do not include commercial on-line backup services.

After backing up videos/photos online and on the external hard drive, I want to delete those from my computer so that I'd have enough storage space since I only have 1.85GB left. Am I doing the process right to make more storage space on my computer?

In an "Ideal" perfect world, you want 3 copies of any data you really care about.

• The original is the 1st copy
• A copy on a local backup that is kept up-to-date, and is fast access should you need it
• A copy off-site which protects you from fire, theft and natural disasters.

Having 2 copies of your data is so far ahead of the the vast majority of computer users. getting up to 3 copies might be sometime to strive for in the future.

NOTE: If your new Time Machine backup disk is sufficiently large, you can tell Time Machine to include your photo/video disk in the backups. That would give you a local backup of your external photo/video storage.

1. When I connect a new seagate hard drive, do I always need to go to disk utilities and click on "erase" to reformat it??

As Csound1 says, you need to format it the first time you connect, if you want to use it with your Mac.

MacOS, extended (journaled)

With GUID partition map

2. If I just want to save photos/videos on seagate, can I just drag it to the hard drive and then disconnect the USB?

Do not JUST disconnect the USB. Make sure you "Eject" it via the Finder "BEFORE" you disconnect it. Ejecting it will make sure that all the data you have transferred to the drive has been flushed from memory to the disk.

if I need to add more videos/photos to the same drive later on, and then

connect the USB again, do I need to reformat the drive all over again?

won't it erase all the photos/videos that were already saved?

No. The first format will put a Mac compatible file system on the drive, and now you can use the Finder to add and remove files. There is not need to reformat, unless you WANT to start with an empty drive.

Getting brand new disk drive is like buying a piece of land. Formatting the disk drive is like building home on the piece of land. Storing files on the disk drive is like moving in furniture, dishes, clothing, etc...

When you leave the house, and come back, you do not need to build a new house each time. And the stuff you left in the house should still be there. You can move things in and out of the house.

The only time you destroy the existing house, is when you want a completely new house. If you bring in the wrecking ball while the house still has stuff in it, then that stuff is lost.

Maybe the question should be "What are you going to be using this disk drive for"? That might affect the answer.

Also, do I need to do anything with the time machine?

Time Machine is the macOS provided backup utility. You DO NOT need to setup a backup if you do not want. macOS prompts you when you plug in a brand new drive, asking if you want to use the disk with Time Machine, because Apple knows that disk drives fail, and the data users have on their Macs is valuable to them, so they are trying to make it easy to setup a backup as pain free as possible.

If you already have a backup system in place, then it is not necessary to give a disk over to Time Machine. If you do not have any kind of backup, then you might consider dedicating an external disk as a Time Machine backup disk. The disk should be at least 2 times larger than the internal Mac's boot disk.

Your available storage is now too low for safe operation so buying a new drive for Time Machine is a very good idea.

As to your question, format the new drive for Time Machine as soon as you get it (just plug it in and Time Machine should ask you whether you want it initialized for use with Time Machine), you do.

Once you are sure that all photos are safely backed up you can delete them from your Mac, but be sure.

Online backup has many disadvantages (not the least of which is that iCloud is not a backup system and will disappoint on demand if used as one) I don't recommend it (online backup) at all.

1. Yes (set format to MacOS, extended (journaled)

2. Yes, no reformat needed, 1 is enough,

That is the exact opposite of what happens, where on earth did you read such nonsense 😮 because it is not what Bob said.

You format it once, the first time you use it. And Only Once.

You would enter Time Machine and look for them, they will be in the same place as they are on your computer.