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Mr M5

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 24, 2011
222
0
So I have used the same time machine back up disk for about 2 years, and decided since I have another external drive to also make that a time machine disk, and keep one off site in case of fire.

However, when I plugged the old time machine disk in, it does not back up yet it does see it as "time machine back up disk".

Can you not have two time machine disks?
 
I'm not sure of the mechanics of this but I have one external drive that I use as my normal time machine backup drive for incremental backups. I have another drive that I have used as a single full backup that I take periodically. In essence you can have more than one time machine backup drive but not sure if you can use both drives for incremental backups. Someone with more experience will be able to confirm or expand.
 
I'm not sure of the mechanics of this but I have one external drive that I use as my normal time machine backup drive for incremental backups. I have another drive that I have used as a single full backup that I take periodically. In essence you can have more than one time machine backup drive but not sure if you can use both drives for incremental backups. Someone with more experience will be able to confirm or expand.

I just hit the back up now button, didn't know there where further options.
 
I just hit the back up now button, didn't know there where further options.

I do the same but if you turn Time Machine on, it will incrementally backup when your drive is attached. I'm not sure how this works is you add a second time machine drive since I have Time Machine turned off and just manually backup as I go.
 
click on time machine preferences and then click on select disk. I believe you can only select one disk at a time to be the 'backup disk'. So select the name of the disk that you currently want to back up to. You can have 10 backup disks but you need to select them whenever you change the disk you want to be the backup disk.
 
click on time machine preferences and then click on select disk. I believe you can only select one disk at a time to be the 'backup disk'. So select the name of the disk that you currently want to back up to. You can have 10 backup disks but you need to select them whenever you change the disk you want to be the backup disk.

That works! Thank you!
 
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