Before getting starting. Mac OS Journaled is the formatting option. How to format a hard drive for MAC.

Yeah seems like a long time for a back up - I have a similar WD drive 1TB I purchased in 2008 @ costco - I use it to store large files / and access those files between a Windows (FAT32) and Mac - a lot of media files and large transfers and a back up from CCC I am using Mojave and it seems as fast as ever and rarely takes longer than 1 hour for even very large transfers and replacement of prior back ups. But even though it works it is getting old for a spinning drive. I agree with Patcell above - but it could also be an issue with the settings and configuration? Maybe try a new complete back up? Or - if the drive is failing if and the Data is critical - a new back up drive is probably due? Hello, Patcell, I guess I forgot to mention that I no longer have my mid-2008 MBP. I now have a Mid-2012 MBP.

The only thing I have had replaced was some bracket a few years ago. (I can't remember the exact name of the bracket and I believe it was for the hard drive. I only have to connect my external hard drive when I back up on the first of the month, though, I erase it every month to make sure I have room. I am also part of the BETA software program, but I don't think that matters with my current question.

I agree with the previous poster. First, get a new USB 3.0 external drive to use for time machine backups. Also, if you delete the backup every time, it has to create a new backup every time you connect the drive; this is extremely inefficient. As was mentioned, time machine only makes incremental backups; i.e. It will only backup what has changed since the previous backup was done. Also, it will delete old backups to free space on the external drove when storage starts to get low. Really is very cool!

I would never trust my valuable data to an old external drive, nor do I depend on only ONE external drive as backup. If one has important files on their computer (documents, photos, movies, music, etc.) it is really imperative to protect that data by backing up to more than one external drive plus also perhaps storing some things in the cloud. What I do is to have at least three copies of each backup, and one of those external drives goes into my safe deposit box t the bank, swapped out with the one that is in there from the previous time, which is brought home and updated. As technology has changed and external drives have improved in terms of both pricing and type, I have continued to update and upgrade my backup process with newer drives periodically. Right now I have pretty much completed a shift from platter/spinner external drives to external SSDs, which are significantly faster.

That said, though, I still do use the larger-capacity platter/spinner drives for archival photo storage and such. I do not use Time Machine so cannot really answer questions about that except to know that, as has been stated by others in posts above that it does one initial complete backup and then after that does periodic incremental backups so that one does not need to tinker with it at all. Time Machine does its thing and it is a continuous process with older backups being aged off as new ones are added over time. That said, yes, external drives, especially the platter/spinner ones, do wear out after a while and are no longer useful. Definitely it is time to replace that old one from 2008! Amazing that it has kept going this long, though. My backup strategy and approach is somewhat different in that I prefer to do everything manually, and thus have control over exactly what is backed up and how and where I can retrieve it later if need be.

Basically it is a process of just copying folders and files containing data rather than cloning my entire drive, the OS and all my settings. Since I am retired and am not spending time at work five days a week, I have the luxury of time to do this kind of thing. It also helps to have more than one Mac available for use, too. Actually, right now in the other room my older MBP is hosting two external drives which are swapping folders that are part of an archival photos project I've been working on. Get a new external drive -- this is what you need. Click to expand. It depends how much data you're currently, how much capacity you have (free/used), how much you anticipate that changing, and how long you'd like to go back in time.

I don't see any of those details. You can't backup 2TB of your system storage to a 512GB drive, for example. And you could backup a 512GB system to a 1GB drive of course, but then you may or may not have a lot of 'time' depending how much data you write. A good rule of thumb is 3x your data. Minecraft team extreme for mac.