i have a new basic iMac with my old time machine hard drive installed. Can I just eject it and plug in the new drive? Where do I find instructions for installing the new drive? I do not want to keep any backups from the old drive.
iMac 24″, macOS 13.1
If the old External Hard Disk is 5 years or older, it would be extremely wise to replace it. All HD's wear out, some last 2-3 years some last 10 years so you never know when they will fail, and they often fail with no advance notice! Replacing them about every 5 years is not a bad idea, for a backup drive like Time Machine it is extremely smart as you always want a working backup.
Also when buying a drive it is wise to buy a high quality External Hard Disk such as a OWC Mercury Elite Pro. Buying Walmart quality drives such as WD, Toshiba, Seagate etc is not smart as their enclosures are cheap and do not provide adequate cooling and heat is generally a common killer of electronics.
Basically, yes. The only other thing you need to do is go into system preferences, Time Machine, and select the new drive as your Time Machine backup.
replace external hard drive for time machine
