How to backup my mac with my passport
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- #How to backup my mac with my passport how to#
- #How to backup my mac with my passport mac os x#
- #How to backup my mac with my passport software#
- #How to backup my mac with my passport download#
#How to backup my mac with my passport software#
You can try downloading the SmartWare software that you've backed up your Windows laptop with on your Mac Air and see if you can retrieve the files from the drive.
#How to backup my mac with my passport mac os x#
Image Credit: Piotr Adamowicz/Shutterstock.Welcome to the community, aubreybadger! What is your Mac OS X version? Can you access the files stored on your WD My Passport? Older OS X versions would need a specific utility to read NTFS-formatted drives (Windows file system), because they use a different one (HFS+ for Mac).
#How to backup my mac with my passport download#
You can always just download them again if your drive fails.
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On the other hand, if they’re just videos and other types of data you could download again from the Internet, there’s no need to have multiple redundant copies. If the files are important, you’ll want to have redundant backups. Bear in mind that the drive may be slow if you’re reading and writing files while Time Machine is backing up to it.įiles you store on the external drive won’t be backed up by Time Machine, so bear that in mind. You can save files to the files partition, leaving the backups partition for Time Machine alone. These are the two partitions on the drive. Choose the Backups partition in Time Machine’s settings and Time Machine will back up to that specific partition only, not the entire drive.Įvery time you connect your drive to your computer, you’ll see two different volumes. If you wiped your drive or you’re setting up Time Machine from scratch, you’ll need to point it at that specific partition. If you resized an existing Time Machine partition, Time Machine should automatically keep using it for backups.
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#How to backup my mac with my passport how to#
RELATED: How to Back Up Your Mac and Restore Files With Time Machine Warning: This process will wipe all the files on the drive! You’ll have to start using Time Machine from scratch, so you’ll lose any old backups and personal files that may be stored anywhere on the drive. Create two clearly labeled partitions, choosing Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive) for the Time Machine partition and ExFAT for the file storage partition. Open the Partition tool for the drive, then delete any partitions that exist. If you’re setting up the drive from scratch, or don’t mind wiping your Time Machine backups and starting over from scratch, you can also do that. Press Command+Space, type Disk Utility, and press Enter to open it. You’ll need to use the Disk Utility built into your Mac to work with partitions. You can also make the files partition an ExFAT partition, which means you can use it with Windows PCs and practically any other device you can connect an external drive to. This will ensure your Time Machine backups don’t grow too large, so you’ll always have room for your personal files. Use one for Time Machine backups and another for your personal files. The ideal way to do this is to create separate partitions on the external drive. RELATED: What's the Difference Between APFS, Mac OS Extended (HFS+), and ExFAT? A Better Option: Create Separate Partitions for Backups and Files Time Machine will also work toward filling up the entire drive, not leaving extra room for your files. Don’t place anything inside the Backups.backupdb folder-Time Machine automatically deletes files and folders inside there to free up space, so you may find your personal files deleted if put them there.īear in mind that Time Machine requires the drive be formatted with the Mac’s HFS+ file system, which means you won’t be able to easily access these files on Windows PCs or anything else that isn’t a Mac. Place personal files and folders outside the Backups.backupdb folder.