Why You Should Never Partition Your Backup Drive 

It's important to keep a backup of important data in another physical location for much the same reason. If the backup device is connected to the Mac and they both get stolen or destroyed, everything is gone. There are many "cloud" backup services but if you keep important documents in a safe deposit box that is a good place to keep your backups. Get TWO backup devices and swap them between your Mac and your bank no less frequently than you can afford to lose your data - for some people, that might mean weekly or even daily, for me once a month is good enough (but I do use "cloud" backup, too). If you live and work in two different locations, you can shuttle your backup devices between those two - don't use your backup devices in both locations, one location is where the device should be actively used and the other is just for storage.

A very useful and informative video tutorial today! You explained so well. Thank you, Gary! 👏❤️

As always, great content and is easy to understand.

A useful piece of information. That clears up some of my questions. Thank you very much, Gary

Great information Gary - Enjoy The Journey - Cheers

Thanks for setting fire to my plan Gary, but I learned a lot. 👍

Very nice Gary! Definitely answered my question.

Thank you for all of your informative videos. I look forward each day for them. A good follow up to this one might be how to transfer a Time Machine drive that is filling up to a larger drive without losing the previous archived data. (If that is possible) As you now have me thinking my current Time Machine drive needs upgrading.

I completely understand Gary's point. It makes perfect sense if the Data stored on a second partition is Read/Write data. I have one application, Band-in-a-Box, with Huge quantities of live music [keeping this simple]. Since I purchased the content, if I ever loose it I can access the account and re-download the data. However, as noted in another Comment, this Read-only data is very similar to a cache (viz. slow), so on my new iMac I purchased a very large SSD to install ALL data on the iMac. Now my old partitioned drive can serve as a backup for the Read-only data and I can set up the iMac Time Machine to exclude that Read-Only data folder.

Saving this. As I’m shopping for a NAS for the macmini

I did partition my backup drive but I didn't store data on it. Partition 1 was Time Machine, partition 2 was a bootable backup created with Super Duper so both essentially had the same data. It came in very handy when my internal Mac hard drive died. I could still boot and run off the bootable external drive partition, albeit slower, but I wasn't dead in the water until I could get it fixed. I did eventually fill up the time machine but it still had months of backup.

Thanks bunches

I wish I khad seen this vid before!!!! Thanks for educating me!

Actually, I _do_ partition an external drive to backup my 2021 MacBook Pro (which contains no critical data) - one partition contains a bootable clone and the other a Time Machine. A third backup exists on the network as a network Time Machine. I justify the two backups on one external drive as really a single backup - one allows me to boot if everything goes south, the other is a historical archival backup. If I lose the external drive there's always the network Time Machine. My main driver is an 2020 iMac 5K where the _real_ critical data lives, and it's backup up on a Thunderbolt clone drive, a Thunderbolt Time Machine disk, a network Time Machine, and a BackBlaze offsite backup. The iMac has a connected Thunderbolt disk array with 50 TB of data and that's backed up to a Synology NAS in the family room as well as on the BackBlaze backup.

great tutorial (as always)! Is it possible to copy TM from a local drive to a SparseImage? ( I want to backup to a central network drive (not a NAS but a drive attached to another Apple computer)

I like how you explained in such detail with the plain simple obvious reasons lol.

I use a Sandisk G-Drive in raid 1 mode and split the drive into 2 volumes. One volume is for the TimeMachine, so I have incremental backups of my Mac system and my external work SSD every hour, and the other volume is used for large data storage, which doesn't need the incremental backup. Both volumes have the extra security with the raid1 setup.

Master teacher

I didn't know about letting Time Machine automatically format a drive. What I have been doing is getting a new external drive when Apple rolls out a new operating system, and renaming with the new OS and brand of drive. Or if my TM gets full before that, I get a new drive. I start a fresh TM backup when I get the new drive. I have had external drives fail for no particular reason in the past - this way I don't have all my eggs in one basket, and I figure newer hard drives are less likely to fail. I also make clones on separate drives, and store/backup certain things on Dropbox.

This is very informative. I have a related problem, and could use some guidance. I bought a new external drive with the intention of using it as a Time Machine to backup BOTH my iMac and my MacBook Air. In the past, this was possible without partitioning the drive. But when I set up the backups, the OS partitioned the drive on its own. And now I don't know how to reformat the drive to a single partition without deleting all the backup data. Is there any way of reunifying the drive into a single partition while preserving just the backup data for the iMac?

Gary, I’m having issues with PHOTOS on my MacBook Air. I can’t seem to turn on the iCloud switch for the PHOTOS App in SYSTEMS PREFERENCES. I click it and I get a message to turn on iCloud with in the PHOTOS app, but the app will not allow me to connect to iCloud. So I’m not able to see photos taken on my iPhone over on my Mac Air.

If a SSD if partitioned in half with the data mirrored, does that increase the chance of data recovery if that SSD fails?

I purchased a 4 TB external drive about one year ago. I partitioned it at that time. I am using one partition for Time Machine and have not used the other yet. I think that TM will be able to use all the "space" if I do not ever use the other partition. Correct? Both partitions currently show that there is 3.71 TB available.

OOPS just watched the formatting video but created 2 partitions, 1 for Time Machine and other for my stuff ARGHHHHH I best go back and start over lol but did want to ask, when I set up Time Machine it asked if I wanted to replace TM (I guess on internal hard drive) with Time Machine on External OR Keep Both? Internal is using about 200Gb (used and other volumes) of 1 TB and my external is 1TB so theres kind of plenty of space on both to back up to both (well 800gb worth) so should I start over and choose 'keep both??? then if internal drive fails, ive back up on external and vice versa, essentially covering all bases, whats your thoughts?

A bit off topic, but related. Can I move my home folder to an external SSD drive that I leave connected? Looking to free up space and just have the operating system on the internal ssd. I figured out how to move my photos and music libraries but can't see how to move the home folder, which includes my icloud drive folder.

In the new Cloud world, Time Machine is getting dated. Since TM keeps a copy of every file that’s changed and since iCloud and it’s various parts (files, photos, videos, books, settings) is constantly changing (particularly if you use the default settings and let it manage what’s kept locally) the vast majority of changed files are local caches of files already stored in iCloud. I have had days where I have changed only 1 or 2 actual documents, but TM is backing up 100s of MBs an hour. I keep multiple backups of work files but most of my day to day stuff is in the cloud (which also gets a complete backup from time to time). Video files and programming projects have separate backup strategies (BU drives and Git, respectively)

I am backing up my 1tb mbp with a 1tb external drive. I also have a 5tb external drive for my photos library. Can/Should I get another 5tb drive to back up my other 5tb drive? Or should I get an 8tb to use time machine for both my mbp's ssd and external drive and remove the 1tb external drive from the equation?

I do like to use SSDs for backups, when I can afford them, because they are much more portable and take up much less room on my desk.

Cool

Does it make sense or have the extra benefit of using a NAS for Time Machine?

What size HDD would be optimal for timemachine for a macbook that had 4TB internal storage?

3-2-1: one copy on computer ssd, one copy external HDD, one copy offsite/cloud.

Kind of outside of the scope of this, but, could you take a 4TB drive and partition it into 2 - 2TB partitions and do a Time Machine backup from 1 Mac to 1 of the partitions and another to the other partition as a point-in-time the store as an offsite backup (hope that makes sense)? Basically, will there be an issue with Time Machine on the 2nd Mac seeing an existing Time Machine backup on 1 of the partitions, will it try to use that partition only or will it allow you to use the 2nd partition for the new Mac?

Great logic, Gary, thank you. But, I've already partitioned two external drives, and have been using both for Time Machine, figuring if/when one drive dies, I'll still have the other. Apparently, Time Machine alternates between the two drives for the backups. How do I un-partition (is that a word?) at least one of the drives without screwing up Time Machine?

So I was looking into creating a Partition (or Volume) on a 4TB HDD: one for Time Machine and another for a Google Drive backup (Takeout)… should I not do this?

What size should the Time Machine drive be for a 2 TB machine? Currently I’m using a 5 TB for my 2 TB MacBook Pro. I feel like that’s appropriate but wanted to double check.

great video dear guys, but I have a question because maybe I didn't understand it perfectly: but then even the single volume completely dedicated to TM doesn't make much sense, or am I wrong... because this too can be broken, it can be stolen, it can fall off me in the swimming pool :) In any case, I too have divided my 4Tb WD into 3TB for TM and 1Tb for archive: but in the latter I don't put the same files that I have in the Mac... but only temporary things, I use it as a "key usb" when i go around...

How often should I turn off Macbook Pro ? Is 2-3 times a week good ? Or should I do it more frequently?

What happens if apple makes new devices and the older backup devices have different cords that do not work in newer computers? I have several back ups from earlier Apple computers and they will not work in today's Mac computers. I had a Time Capsule with Two TBs of space and wifi, but recently my provider said it was too slow and gave me a new modem and new wifi. So now I have no automatic back ups anymore. I have other backup drives but still miss my Time Capsule. I had a lot of storage space left on that device and of course Apple doesn't make Time capsules any more. I avoid Icloud like the plague. What if that fails? No guarantee is there? Why would I have to keep spending money to feed that icloud? I don't know how to transition to Time Machine. If I do what are the chances that will become old technology and not work eventually?

I think its fine, as long as you have another backup of your backup ;) hehe

I recently upgraded from a 2018 MBP to a 2023 MBP. I had an external 2TBWestern Digital drive that I used for both Time Machine and external storage (I.e. the Backup. backup folder). I believe that was partitioned with Extended Journal. I attempted the same setup with a 4TB SanDisk and APFS, but after completing Time Machine, I noticed you cant use the same drive in the way as old. Thus, here I am searching the Webs trying to understand this. Ive never had the need to portion drives or create volumes in past, so IDK the details yet of that... Honestly, its frustrating.

Hi, I gotta question. since I move my videos & photos from my Mac (actually from my iPhone) to the external, I'm no longer be able to see the locations but I can still be able to see another details like which device I took the photo from and date. Is that normal or I missed something during the process? Thank you

I have a second backup drive that I have never used. I have very little space on my Mac left. Can I just transfer everything onto the second drive and get rid of iCloud all together? Then anything new that I want to save just send it to the hard drive. I do not know how to do that.

Sounds like another argument to not use Time Machine. Carbon Copy Cloner seems like a better solution and you can boot from a CCC backup. Backblaze also looks interesting. Neither take up more space than necessary. Wouldn't choosing volumes rather than partitions be a better idea anyway if you did decide to divide up a large external drive? Surely having an organised file naming structure and work process would mitigate accidentally deleting files. If you wanted multiple iterations of files for specific projects you could simply save them ending as V2, V3 etc. Thanks Gary.

Gary can we use two different Mac's for backup on a single large external drive. Is it permissible??

I started using proton mail. Unfortunately unless you pay a premium you can only see one account at a time. Would it still be secure to add the PM accounts to Apple mail?

I don't quite understand your thinking on this. Apple says that if a Time Machine backup is almost full, then the software will go through the backup and delete older unneeded file so that there is always room on the drive for the next backups. Is this not correct?

hello. can I still recover the deleted back up in Time Machine in my external drive,, unfortunately after doing partition the back up was also deleted, and I can't find it anymore in my external drive, all of my photos and documents are gone now, please help me

Gary, I rely on your videos for everything but is this what your saying...If you only have one backup drive, don't partition your external backup drive with Time Machine on one of the partitions? If you have multiple backup drives and a dedicated Time Machine drive then a partition Carbon Copy Cloner and a partition with your photos on your other drives would be fine?

Putting aside the subject of partitioning a back up drive for the moment, when you point out (and actually "stress" the fact) that a back up drive can fail, be rendered useless due to all sorts of other calamities, wouldn't this be the hazard whether [ or not ] you partition the drive? When using a "physical device" as one's backup any of the hazards mentioned in your tutorial are at risk. I believe that one should use both, a external drive as well as a cloud based source for backing up your computer.

Gary, I have a video idea. How about Fonts, Font Libraries, add and removing, address the unusual fonts that don't seem useful, etc. I looked back in your videos and didn't see anything on that that was very current.

Thanks for the tutorial Gary but in trying to follow your logic (Re: partitioning a back up drive), when you speak of losing your backup drive (e.g.: your BU drive crashes, gets stolen, destroyed in a fire, etc) if this should occur, then wouldn't one be in exactly the "same place" (meaning all your backed up data is lost - gone regardless whether your back up was partitioned or not? Additionally, if one is restricted to backing ALL files, folders, pictures, etc all this data has to be one "one place" - on your internal hard drive. I am a photographer and graphic artist. I create TONS of pictures and graphic artwork. Do I want all this data (perhaps 800GB - 1TB) taking up space on my internal HD - I think not. Nor do I wish to pay for cloud storage. Bottom line question: If I use one entire drive for Time Machine backups and then at some later point, need to clear space off my internal drive so I delete a file (or files) that contain ALL my pictures and artwork I would have to "go back in time" in Time Machine to try and find where all my pictures & artwork were last saved, right? (and hope that Time Machine hasn't deleted these).

there's and even better plan than what he said and its quite simple and what every smart person does when backing up important data, you ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS BACK UP IMPORTANT DATA AND FILES ON TWO DIFFERENT DEVICES!!!! I don't trust cloud to keep my most important stuff so all my pictures and videos of my children growing up I backup on a ssd and also on a hdd. one you always leave home safe and put away.

Some of the same issues, but I use volumes, not partitions. Time machine is on a separate drive. Superduper for everything else.

I backup to an SSD, however SSDs shouldn't be used to their maximum capacity so I create a small partition to prevent Time Machine using the entire SSD. Interested in your take, please?

Always follow the 3-2-1 backup rule... keep 3 backups, on 2 differing media (drives) and put 1 offsite. I follow a 4-3-2 rule... 4 backups (1 being long term archival on several different disks for that purpose - once per year after tax season, each kept for 7 years minimum), on 3 media (3 different drives at a minimum, one being that annual archive, using TimeMachine, Carbon Copy Cloner and Backblaze) and 2 are kept offsite (one in my safe deposit box using CCC which is the archive and one in cloud storage with Backblaze including version history). Yah, I'm anal about it... spent ~40 years in IT and I have seen so many lose data due to poor backup procedures or having none al all.

The logic that I should keep all the space for Time Machine because it's going to fill up the drive eventually doesn't hold water for me. If instead of the 4TB drive I purchase two 2TB drives, my Time Machine drive still only has 2TBs of space. If I buy a 4TB drive, that's also going to fill up eventually. There's no logical limit; I have to choose one. So, 2TBs, or half of my 4TB drive seems fine to me. The single point of failure is a valid argument against storing both the external backup and the Time Machine backup on one drive. But if you're using Time Machine, what's the point of the extra 'archive' volume/partition anyway, especially if you're going to put those files on both the separate partition and on Time Machine on that same physical drive?

I used partition to have content cache.

Now you tell me. This is exactly what I did.

I use Time Machine to back up my Mac, and for years backed it up to a single partition. However, retrieving a file was getting to be slower and slower. I have now partitioned my external drive to two partions - one for this year's back ups and another for last year's. I don't feel I need any back ups older than last year, so at the beginning of the year I erase the partition with the old back ups and reuse it. This has solved the problem with retrieving files.

NEVER partition a backup drive? This is bad advice. We have been partitioning backup drives for use with Time Machine and CCC/SD for more than a decade. It works great for our clients.

Oops

what would i be today with out you. thank you so much

By that logic don't use an external drive as a backup as it might be destroyed.

no shit

I’m sorry, but this is so made up!