• Re: Transfer USB Time Machine Backup Drive to a New Mac

    From Paul Goodman@21:1/5 to Colour Sergeant Bourne on Wed May 29 13:44:49 2024
    On May 29, 2024, Colour Sergeant Bourne wrote
    (in article <v37oog$180im$1@dont-email.me>):

    For several months, I’ve been backing up Mac “A” to an external USB Time
    Machine drive.

    I’m going to sell Mac A and replace it with Mac B.

    Is there a way to use Mac A’s external USB Time Machine drive to now
    backup Mac B AND KEEP the existing Mac A backups on the USB drive?

    Yes you can. When you plug in the USB drive into the new computer, it will
    give you the option to keep the backup that is there and create a new one, assuming there is enough space on the drive.

    --
    Paul Goodman

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Colour Sergeant Bourne@21:1/5 to All on Wed May 29 13:30:56 2024
    For several months, I’ve been backing up Mac “A” to an external USB Time Machine drive.

    I’m going to sell Mac A and replace it with Mac B.

    Is there a way to use Mac A’s external USB Time Machine drive to now
    backup Mac B AND KEEP the existing Mac A backups on the USB drive?

    --
    There’s no problem so bad that you can’t make it worse.
    - Astronaut Chris Hadfield.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Jolly Roger@21:1/5 to Colour Sergeant Bourne on Wed May 29 21:28:13 2024
    On 2024-05-29, Colour Sergeant Bourne <bourne@rorke.za> wrote:
    For several months, I’ve been backing up Mac “A” to an external USB Time
    Machine drive.

    I’m going to sell Mac A and replace it with Mac B.

    Is there a way to use Mac A’s external USB Time Machine drive to now
    backup Mac B AND KEEP the existing Mac A backups on the USB drive?

    Before you start up your new Mac for the first time, connect the backup
    drive to it. When the setup assistant asks if you want to transfer your
    data, choose the backup drive.

    After the new Mac is up and running, go into System Settings > General >
    Time Machine and tell it to start backing up to the backup drive. It
    will create a new backup on the drive for the new Mac.

    After some time goes by, when you feel confident that you no longer need
    the old Mac's backup files, you can delete them to recover space on the
    drive for newer backups.

    --
    E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
    I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

    JR

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Colour Sergeant Bourne on Wed May 29 15:24:33 2024
    On 2024-05-29 10:30, Colour Sergeant Bourne wrote:
    For several months, I’ve been backing up Mac “A” to an external USB Time
    Machine drive.

    I’m going to sell Mac A and replace it with Mac B.

    Is there a way to use Mac A’s external USB Time Machine drive to now
    backup Mac B AND KEEP the existing Mac A backups on the USB drive?


    You will have the option of either assuming the old backup so that it
    continues as a single backup OR creating a new backup for the new
    system, yes.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Colour Sergeant Bourne@21:1/5 to Paul Goodman on Wed May 29 18:37:55 2024
    On 5/29/24 1:44 PM, Paul Goodman wrote:
    On May 29, 2024, Colour Sergeant Bourne wrote
    (in article <v37oog$180im$1@dont-email.me>):

    For several months, I’ve been backing up Mac “A” to an external USB Time
    Machine drive.

    I’m going to sell Mac A and replace it with Mac B.

    Is there a way to use Mac A’s external USB Time Machine drive to now
    backup Mac B AND KEEP the existing Mac A backups on the USB drive?

    Yes you can. When you plug in the USB drive into the new computer, it will give you the option to keep the backup that is there and create a new one, assuming there is enough space on the drive.

    Ah, thanks. Your last few words ended up being the key here-- there's
    very little space left of the drive. I'll need to start a new one!

    --
    Because we're here lad. Nobody else. Just us.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Colour Sergeant Bourne@21:1/5 to Alan on Wed May 29 18:43:19 2024
    On 5/29/24 6:24 PM, Alan wrote:
    On 2024-05-29 10:30, Colour Sergeant Bourne wrote:
    For several months, I’ve been backing up Mac “A” to an external USB
    Time Machine drive.

    I’m going to sell Mac A and replace it with Mac B.

    Is there a way to use Mac A’s external USB Time Machine drive to now
    backup Mac B AND KEEP the existing Mac A backups on the USB drive?


    You will have the option of either assuming the old backup so that it continues as a single backup OR creating a new backup for the new
    system, yes.

    Thanks. But it turns out there's not much space left on the existing TM
    drive so I'll need to start a new one.

    --
    Because we're here lad. Nobody else. Just us.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Colour Sergeant Bourne@21:1/5 to Jolly Roger on Wed May 29 18:41:19 2024
    On 5/29/24 5:28 PM, Jolly Roger wrote:
    On 2024-05-29, Colour Sergeant Bourne <bourne@rorke.za> wrote:
    For several months, I’ve been backing up Mac “A” to an external USB Time
    Machine drive.

    I’m going to sell Mac A and replace it with Mac B.

    Is there a way to use Mac A’s external USB Time Machine drive to now
    backup Mac B AND KEEP the existing Mac A backups on the USB drive?

    Before you start up your new Mac for the first time, connect the backup
    drive to it. When the setup assistant asks if you want to transfer your data, choose the backup drive.

    After the new Mac is up and running, go into System Settings > General >
    Time Machine and tell it to start backing up to the backup drive. It
    will create a new backup on the drive for the new Mac.

    After some time goes by, when you feel confident that you no longer need
    the old Mac's backup files, you can delete them to recover space on the
    drive for newer backups.

    Thanks. I want to keep the "A" Mac backups so I wouldn't delete them later.

    As I mentioned above to PG, there's not enough space left on the
    existing Time Machine drive so I'll need to start a new one...

    --
    Because we're here lad. Nobody else. Just us.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From John@21:1/5 to bourne@rorke.za on Wed May 29 23:52:49 2024
    On Wed, 29 May 2024 18:41:19 -0400, Colour Sergeant Bourne
    <bourne@rorke.za> wrote:

    On 5/29/24 5:28 PM, Jolly Roger wrote:
    On 2024-05-29, Colour Sergeant Bourne <bourne@rorke.za> wrote:
    For several months, I’ve been backing up Mac “A” to an external USB Time
    Machine drive.

    I’m going to sell Mac A and replace it with Mac B.

    Is there a way to use Mac A’s external USB Time Machine drive to now
    backup Mac B AND KEEP the existing Mac A backups on the USB drive?

    Before you start up your new Mac for the first time, connect the backup
    drive to it. When the setup assistant asks if you want to transfer your
    data, choose the backup drive.

    After the new Mac is up and running, go into System Settings > General >
    Time Machine and tell it to start backing up to the backup drive. It
    will create a new backup on the drive for the new Mac.

    After some time goes by, when you feel confident that you no longer need
    the old Mac's backup files, you can delete them to recover space on the
    drive for newer backups.

    Thanks. I want to keep the "A" Mac backups so I wouldn't delete them later.

    As I mentioned above to PG, there's not enough space left on the
    existing Time Machine drive so I'll need to start a new one...

    Buy a far larger drive.

    Copy the old drive's data to the new, big one.

    There should now be space enough.

    J.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Jolly Roger@21:1/5 to Colour Sergeant Bourne on Thu May 30 00:45:47 2024
    On 2024-05-29, Colour Sergeant Bourne <bourne@rorke.za> wrote:
    On 5/29/24 5:28 PM, Jolly Roger wrote:
    On 2024-05-29, Colour Sergeant Bourne <bourne@rorke.za> wrote:
    For several months, I’ve been backing up Mac “A” to an external USB Time
    Machine drive.

    I’m going to sell Mac A and replace it with Mac B.

    Is there a way to use Mac A’s external USB Time Machine drive to now
    backup Mac B AND KEEP the existing Mac A backups on the USB drive?

    Before you start up your new Mac for the first time, connect the backup
    drive to it. When the setup assistant asks if you want to transfer your
    data, choose the backup drive.

    After the new Mac is up and running, go into System Settings > General >
    Time Machine and tell it to start backing up to the backup drive. It
    will create a new backup on the drive for the new Mac.

    After some time goes by, when you feel confident that you no longer need
    the old Mac's backup files, you can delete them to recover space on the
    drive for newer backups.

    Thanks. I want to keep the "A" Mac backups so I wouldn't delete them later.

    As I mentioned above to PG, there's not enough space left on the
    existing Time Machine drive so I'll need to start a new one...

    That's fine as well. You can still use the backup drive to transfer all
    of your data, and I highly recommend it - especially if you've never experienced it. The ability to have everything that matters on your new
    Mac so you can literally pick up right where you left off on the old one
    is somewhat magical.

    Since you are going to start backing up the new Mac to a new drive, you
    can just store the old backup drive somewhere safe in case you need
    something from it in the future.

    --
    E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
    I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

    JR

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jolly Roger@21:1/5 to John on Thu May 30 00:47:38 2024
    On 2024-05-29, John <Man@the.keyboard> wrote:
    On Wed, 29 May 2024 18:41:19 -0400, Colour Sergeant Bourne
    <bourne@rorke.za> wrote:

    On 5/29/24 5:28 PM, Jolly Roger wrote:
    On 2024-05-29, Colour Sergeant Bourne <bourne@rorke.za> wrote:
    For several months, I’ve been backing up Mac “A” to an external USB Time
    Machine drive.

    I’m going to sell Mac A and replace it with Mac B.

    Is there a way to use Mac A’s external USB Time Machine drive to now >>>> backup Mac B AND KEEP the existing Mac A backups on the USB drive?

    Before you start up your new Mac for the first time, connect the backup
    drive to it. When the setup assistant asks if you want to transfer your >>> data, choose the backup drive.

    After the new Mac is up and running, go into System Settings > General > >>> Time Machine and tell it to start backing up to the backup drive. It
    will create a new backup on the drive for the new Mac.

    After some time goes by, when you feel confident that you no longer need >>> the old Mac's backup files, you can delete them to recover space on the
    drive for newer backups.

    Thanks. I want to keep the "A" Mac backups so I wouldn't delete them later. >>
    As I mentioned above to PG, there's not enough space left on the
    existing Time Machine drive so I'll need to start a new one...

    Buy a far larger drive.

    This is good advice. Generally, Apple recommends your backup drive be
    from 2- to 3-times larger than the amount of data you want to back up,
    so that multiple versions of every file that changes can be kept over
    time, allowing you restore any version of any file back in time to the
    very first backup. So, if you have 1 TB of data on you Mac, you'll want a
    2-3 TB backup drive.

    --
    E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
    I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

    JR

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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