copy Backup drive to backup drive

[brobson]

I am a teacher and on my 5th WD My Passport in 3 years.

I don't know what I am doing wrong. I am a bit hard on them, carrying a backup to school every day, still plugged in. They become damaged somehow, don't show up, and then Disk Drill says DANGER make a new backup-this one's failing. Well, my other HD is usually not big enough to support 2 HD's size.

So now I have a 5T.
How do I safely transfer all my files on my 4T to my 5T? Finder? I want to still use Time Machine and it said something about not being able to use it if I use CCC.
CCC also seemed complicated and Super Duper wanted Avast. Ugh.

I'm just overall confused about my backup knowledge/history/angst. I did read that if the computer runs out of juice while plugged in then it will not be detected. One thread said to just keep it plugged in for hours and it would eventually come back. It did that a couple of times.

So moving on to today, 4T is journaled so I made the 5T journaled. Is that the best setting?

Ready to clone the surviving HD once again.

Using Catalina 10.15
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)

2.7 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5

8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3

 

[Insidious]

I use Superduper for backups. Smart update is a great feature. I'm not sure what you mean by it wanting Avast.

These drives don't like to be banged around. It's too bad you need so much space, I think an external SSD would suit you better. I would unplug your current drive and store it in a protective case if I were bringing it somewhere. Journaled is how I format my externals.

 

[brobson]

I use Superduper for backups. Smart update is a great feature. I'm not sure what you mean by it wanting Avast.

These drives don't like to be banged around. It's too bad you need so much space, I think an external SSD would suit you better. I would unplug your current drive and store it in a protective case if I were bringing it somewhere. Journaled is how I format my externals.

what do you mean an external SSD?

 

[brobson]

I replaced the 4T drive using Super Duper to my new 5T drive.
I tried repairing my other 4T but I get this message from Disk Utility.
What do I do now? Erase and reformat? will that repair my old 4T?

 

[brobson]

Both of my 4T backup drives show this in Disk Drill. Wish I understood all of this.

 

[brobson]

Plus my finder is a spinning ball when I try to go into one of the external drives. I relaunch finder and my desktop disappears as it struggles to relaunch. I cannot eject my HD either by putting it in the trash or pushing eject on finder. So I have to unplug it to restart the computer.
It comes back but I still cannot access the other 4T failing HD.
Any suggestions?
How can I fix one or both of my two 4T HDs to be working again?

 

[brobson]

No my computer shut down suddenly. this is the report I got

 

[brobson]

No my computer shut down suddenly. this is the report I got

Can someone advise me? do i need a new computer? im a teacher and cannot be without one