I have a WD external drive that I have manually loaded files onto for back up. I want to doa time machine back up on the same external device. Do I have to remove what is on the device before I begin time machine back up?

Question

I have a WD external drive that I have manually loaded files onto for back up. I want to doa time machine back up on the same external device. Do I have to remove what is on the device before I begin time machine back up?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Oct 1, 2023 3:03 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

121,676 points

Oct 1, 2023 3:20 PM in response to NeedToKnow_2023

Time Machine will erase and format the drive, so if you want the files, you must copy them somewhere else.

You can format the drive APFS and create two volumes, but you really shouldn’t keep files on a backup drive unless you don’t care about those files.

Once Time Machine takes over the drive, you cannot save anything to it.

Reply

I have a WD external drive that I have manually loaded files onto for back up. I want to doa time machine back up on the same external device. Do I have to remove what is on the device before I begin time machine back up?

Similar questions