Time Machine B

[chrisman9]

#1
HI-- Salvaged from my old PC Laptop, I have had an old 'spinning-kind' of external harddrive from which Ive retrieved some contents of the laptop to my iMac; it's called a 'Rosewill.' Im very unfamiliar with how these things work and, being simple and relatively fastidious, I would like to purge the harddrive then set it up to be backup for the iMac. My questions are: 1) how can I tell whether the Rosewill has already been saving my iMac activity? because I would not want to delete that. 2) Once purged, and starting fresh, how do I instruct the iMac to use the external harddrive for continuous backup from here on?

PS--I have consistently selected "decide later" when iMac asks if I want to use the external hard drive to back up Thanks for your Help

 

[cruisin]

Disk Utility has erase options including secure erase settings.

Under Time Machine settings (System Preferences > Time Machine) it lists all drives used for backups. Unless you set up a backup, then it should be empty. Here you can also set a new backup.

 

[chrisman9]

Disk Utility has erase options including secure erase settings.

Under Time Machine settings (System Preferences > Time Machine) it lists all drives used for backups. Unless you set up a backup, then it should be empty. Here you can also set a new backup.

to crusin: 1) where do I find 'disc utility' ?

 

[cruisin]

to crusin: 1) where do I find 'disc utility' ?

It comes as part of macOS. It can be found with the rest of the applications (like Mail, Safari, Contacts) or in spotlight (the magnifying glass by the clock) by searching for Disk Utility (just typing the first few letters should show it within the first 5 results).

 

[monokakata]

"Rosewill" is the brand name of your enclosure. You should probably use Disk Utility to learn just what sort of disk is in that enclosure.

 

[chrisman9]

to cruisin & monokakata: Thanks, Ive been able to open "disc utility" and can see the device (Rosewill) in some detail. when I click on the "erase" option at the top, I am asked to 1)enter a name // 2)choose a partition map and format What is the name for and how do I decide upon a "partition map and format" ? Thanks for your help

 

[monokakata]

The name is your choice. As for what it's for -- really just for you to easily ID the disk when it appears in Finder or elsewhere. I'd suggest something with "TM" embedded in it, though, so the name itself will remind you what it is.

Then you want the partition to be Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

 

[chrisman9]

to monokakata: Thanks for your reply and advising--the plot thickens, however (as usual)
I did erase the ancient data from the device (I named it Rosewill) AND formatted it according to your "Mac OS Extended (journaled)" then closed disc utility and reopened it to find all its' capacity (500.11GB) "used" ---the "use bar" is colored all yellow representing what is being called "other" (as opposed to apps, photos, audio, etc) For the record, my iMac harddrive(1TB) says that Ive only used 79 GB---and Ive not instructed Time Machine yet, to back up. What do you think has happened ? and what should I do? Im tempted to re-erase, but ask for counsel before winging it. Aloha

 

[monokakata]

Which version of MacOS are you using?

Did you erase the disk using Disk Utility? Disk Utility has changed over the years. In the current version, you have to erase a disk before you can partition it. In the old versions, maybe not (can't remember).

If you erased Rosewill by using Finder, then try emptying the trash.

 

[chrisman9]

to monokakata: Yes, I had opened Disc utility thru finder and have proceeded to empty the Trash. The 'yellow' has disappeared and it appears that Rosewill is empty too ! Can you instruct me now in how to ''set up" if that's the right word, Time Machine to back up all that Ive done thus far on this iMac (2 years worth) and to routinely save data ongoingly. Thanks.

oh for the record: O/S X El Capitan 10.11.6

 

[monokakata]

Now you go to System Preferences, choose Time Machine, choose "Select Disk," select Rosewill, and you're done.

As many people have said in many threads, TM does sometimes screw things up. This has happened to me.

I'm going to change to CarbonCopyCloner when I get around to it.

 

[chrisman9]

Thanks, monokakata. I will procede. Ive 'heard' others take issue with TM, but, as you can probably recognize, Im a relatively unsophistocated use and I will trust that at least now having some backup will yield benefit should the proverbial you-know-what hit the Fan one fine Day. Thanks much again, for your help---Aloha !