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Worth it to move Time Machine backups to new drive, or should I just start fresh?

Hey there.

So I want to move my time machine back ups to a new external hard drive. I have backups going back to October 2017. I went through all the steps and was going to copy the backup files to the new drive, but it's a ton of files, and I'm wondering if i's really worth it, or if I should just start with a fresh backup on the new external hard drive.

Thoughts?

MacBook Air, macOS High Sierra (10.13.3)

Posted on Feb 27, 2018 5:21 PM

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Posted on Feb 27, 2018 6:47 PM

As LaPastenague notes, there is no one single correct answer for all users.


Ask yourself how many times in the last month or two that you have used Time Machine's option to go back in time and pick up a file from the past.


If like most users, you have not done this at all, then it would probably not be worth the time and effort to try to transfer old backups over to the new backup drive.....not to mention the amount of space that you will use up on the new drive with backups that will likely never be used.


On the other hand, if you find yourself deleting files by accident 3-4 times a month, then it might be a good idea to keep the old drive around for a month or two......in case you need to go back and pick up a file. After a month or two of new backups, you can erase the hard drive and use it as a spare.

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Question marked as Best reply

Feb 27, 2018 6:47 PM in response to jessiepeli

As LaPastenague notes, there is no one single correct answer for all users.


Ask yourself how many times in the last month or two that you have used Time Machine's option to go back in time and pick up a file from the past.


If like most users, you have not done this at all, then it would probably not be worth the time and effort to try to transfer old backups over to the new backup drive.....not to mention the amount of space that you will use up on the new drive with backups that will likely never be used.


On the other hand, if you find yourself deleting files by accident 3-4 times a month, then it might be a good idea to keep the old drive around for a month or two......in case you need to go back and pick up a file. After a month or two of new backups, you can erase the hard drive and use it as a spare.

Feb 27, 2018 5:31 PM in response to jessiepeli

There is no one right answer to this sort of question.


Generally I think a fresh backup to a new clean drive is a better idea than trying to copy backups and then continue to use them.. Especially with permissions issues that seem to inhabit High Sierra now.


What we generally recommend is to start a new backup but if possible keep your old disk for a few weeks or months until you are certain nothing is needed and the new backup has a decent amount of history in it.

Worth it to move Time Machine backups to new drive, or should I just start fresh?

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