Time Machine

[insonias]

Hi.

I'm currently using Mavericks and I want to upgrade to El Capitan in the next few days. What I would like to know is if my mavericks' backups will work with the new osx (i.e., will I be able to access files on that backups?).

Also, I would like to know if I can use the same hard drive to do the backups on El Capitan. If so, what do I have to do? Once in El Capitan, set that drive as the one that time machine should use? Will it erase the old ones?

Thanks in advance!

 

[NoBoMac]

Yes, you will be able to access your TimeMachine files on El Capitan.

Yes, can use same drive for backups on El Capitan. Nothing will have changed, with regards to TM: TM will keep backing up to the same drive, no reformatting/erasing needed. Prior TM settings will be retained/same. First backup after upgrade will be a big one and take a while, since the entire OS has been updated, but otherwise, should not notice anything different.

Basically, nothing to do, just keep using as-is.

 

[Ebenezum]

Keep in mind that if you want to downgrade to Mavericks it won't always work if the Time Machine drive has been used for El Capitan backups. This bug/ feature has been in Time Machine for years and there is no sign that Apple has fixed it.

If you want to play it safe I would recommend making a clone of your Macs internal drive to another external drive with software such as Disk Utility, SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner.

With clone you have 100% certain option of returning to previous OS if necessary.

 

[insonias]

Well, I just upgraded to El Capitan with no problems

I thought about cloning the internal ssd and I kinda did it ... CCC gave me a waring saying that the clone could not work properly as the external HDD was not formatted in the proper way. Since I had the TM backups on that drive I did not want to reformat the drive and I proceeded with the process (I think it cloned with no problems).

However, I won't use the TM for now to see if it is everything ok with the upgrade. If it is stable and doesn't give me any problem, then I'll use the TM.