External Hard Drive for Mac OS 10.7.5 in 2017

[k8k8k8k8]

Hello, you fine people of MacRumors.

I am way behind the times, running OS Lion 10.7.5 on a 17" Macbook Pro.

I need to upgrade my OS and my external hard drive is out of space. No problem, right? Just buy a new hard drive.

Unfortunately, all the drives in my local store are compatible with Sierra, El Capitan, and above. I bought a drive, and did the erasing and partitioning as in times past, but my computer and Time Machine still won't recognize it.

My question is, what drive can I buy in 2017 that's not an expensive Time Capsule (more than $200USD used). Because I need to backup before I can install a new OS and do it relatively inexpensively.

Thanks!

 

[IowaLynn]

Use Disk Utility (or Carbon Copy Cloner)
I'd get OWC kit www.macsales.com and consider new HDD upgrade, SSD.

The lack of support and security updates makes using web iffy to me.

USB 2 is slow but fw400 is marginally better. FW800 preferable.
Has to be bootable so no USB3 for you.
A docking station is handy.

Guess post and thread'll get moved.

 

[k8k8k8k8]

Hey, thanks. I'm a tech dope and a n00b on here, so yeah. I see that this post is in the wrong place. Oops. I will research your reply so I can figure out what you mean.