I have a 2018 Mac Mini 256 GB. What drive would people recommend me using as a permanently connected time machine drive? Preferably USB C as I use my USB A port much more often.
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External drive time machine
- Thread starter danny842003
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When I commissioned my iMac in June of this year I bought a couple of these very smart items:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07D284B1L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
One for TM and one for a clone drive. I bought a new SSD for the clone and salvaged a 1TB SSD circa 2015
from my retired desktop PC as the TM drive. I suppose if you have a sufficiently large hard drive - it can't ever be too capacious for TM - going spare then it could be pressed into service, but I think on the cusp of 2020 we should only be thinking solid state. Perhaps a PCIe drive and housing would be neater with a Mac mini than what I am suggesting?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07D284B1L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
One for TM and one for a clone drive. I bought a new SSD for the clone and salvaged a 1TB SSD circa 2015
from my retired desktop PC as the TM drive. I suppose if you have a sufficiently large hard drive - it can't ever be too capacious for TM - going spare then it could be pressed into service, but I think on the cusp of 2020 we should only be thinking solid state. Perhaps a PCIe drive and housing would be neater with a Mac mini than what I am suggesting?
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Samsung T5, its SSD and really reliable, I got two
Comes in sizes from 256gb to 2TB.
Comes in sizes from 256gb to 2TB.
I use a 7200 RPM HDD from WD (separately powered) with no issues, minus that it's slightly more noisy than SSD. If you need quiet operation, stick to SSD. However, I need a minimum of 4TB for my TM backup and I'd rather use SSD for my audio recording since I could care less how long it takes to backup (plus it's really expensive).
I also just picked up a 5TB WD easystore on a black friday sale. It's a portable HDD & bus powered. Slower than my other one, but actually very quiet for HDD. Too soon to tell if I would recommend it, but so far so good.
While I might be too paranoid, I actually feel more comfortable with my backups on a HDD rather than SSD because there is a greater potential (however small) for data recovery from a mechanical drive--and you don't have to worry about giving it some power at least once year to keep the data fresh. I have an old 2TB buffalo station from 2008 that still works fine and has all my old backups. Slow and noisy as heck, but the data is still there if I need it.
I also just picked up a 5TB WD easystore on a black friday sale. It's a portable HDD & bus powered. Slower than my other one, but actually very quiet for HDD. Too soon to tell if I would recommend it, but so far so good.
While I might be too paranoid, I actually feel more comfortable with my backups on a HDD rather than SSD because there is a greater potential (however small) for data recovery from a mechanical drive--and you don't have to worry about giving it some power at least once year to keep the data fresh. I have an old 2TB buffalo station from 2008 that still works fine and has all my old backups. Slow and noisy as heck, but the data is still there if I need it.
An SSD is a waste of money for Time Machine. The first backup will be faster, but updates will be relatively fast on a HD. Use the money you save to get a larger HD so you can keep more TM history.
Larry Jordan posted an article about degridation of signal on hard disks. Evidently they need to be refreshed (cp -r *.* > null) or eventually the signal will fade as well.