Plan to clean install MacOS. How will Time Machine behave?

[617660]

Hi All,

I am planning to clean install MacOS Sierra onto my MBA which is currently running Capitan. I have Time Machine set up for backup and knowing how finicky Time Machine is, I just want to make sure it will continue to work as expected.

Shall I keep the computer name the same after clean install? Please advise.

 

[blackdogaudio]

Hi All,

I am planning to clean install MacOS Sierra onto my MBA which is currently running Capitan. I have Time Machine set up for backup and knowing how finicky Time Machine is, I just want to make sure it will continue to work as expected.

Shall I keep the computer name the same after clean install? Please advise.

Good question as an untested backup system is not trustworthy...

If you want to be certain that Time Machine will not fail you can test your backup system by creating a test new partition on your hard drive and recover to that test partition or do the same to a properly formatted external hard drive. That leaves your current working partition untouched in the event your backup drive is corrupt or mechanically damaged.

There's no need to change your computer name for test or actual disaster recovery purposes. Assuming you've kept the default partition name "Macintosh HD" on your current working partition just name the new test partition "Test" so you can easily distinguish between them.