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Is using an external SSD for my Macbooks Time Machine good idea? If so any recommends?
- Thread starter clutchm3
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An SSD is not needed for TM backups. A quality platter drive (Toshiba or Western Digital) will do just fine.
I say no for most people because unless you are doing a full restore or setting up a new computer (both infrequent under normal use), a Time Machine drive's speed isn't that important. As well, for an activity that involves a lot of writes to disk over time, a spinning HD might last longer than a SSD. Essentially, each memory "cell" on a SSD degrades a little every time your Mac writes to it. This isn't a factor with magnetic drives.
The most important thing is to buy a Time Machine drive that has at least twice the capacity of the drive you're backing up. This is to avoid Disk Full errors that can prevent Time Machine from working properly.
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ETA: I have a 2 TB SSD in my iMac and use a spinning HD for Time Machine, connected over USB 3. Most backups take 1-5 minutes, for something like 500 MB to 1 GB. The longest backups might be around 5-10 minutes...but these only occur if there's been a system update or I've been creating or working on videos and there's, say, 2-5 GB to transfer. In any case, don't take these numbers too literally because I don't pay much attention to what Time Machine is doing.
The most important thing is to buy a Time Machine drive that has at least twice the capacity of the drive you're backing up. This is to avoid Disk Full errors that can prevent Time Machine from working properly.
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ETA: I have a 2 TB SSD in my iMac and use a spinning HD for Time Machine, connected over USB 3. Most backups take 1-5 minutes, for something like 500 MB to 1 GB. The longest backups might be around 5-10 minutes...but these only occur if there's been a system update or I've been creating or working on videos and there's, say, 2-5 GB to transfer. In any case, don't take these numbers too literally because I don't pay much attention to what Time Machine is doing.
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Seconding what everyone else said. Here's my backup situation. I have a "toaster" hard drive dock and a bunch of bare metal drives. Some of my drives are clones, some are just used as standard archive drives, and the 4TB drive shown in this photo is my Time Machine drive.
I also have a wireless Time Capsule with Time Machine, but that is so slow for the amount of data I have that I only use it as a fallback once in a while.
I also have a wireless Time Capsule with Time Machine, but that is so slow for the amount of data I have that I only use it as a fallback once in a while.
I am more concerned about the time. My current time machine is a 2TB western digital and it takes hourssss to back up. I don't think it's the drive failing more it filling up...just want something fast.
Is the drive directly connected to your Mac? What kind of Mac do you have and how large its drive?
My backups are typically GBs at a time and they finish in under 10 minutes. It’s connected via USB4.
I am on a 2018 MBP and I am using a Western Digital 2TB USB-C connection. Takes forever. Hour each time.
It's normal for Time Machine backups to HDD or over WiFi to take forever these days. Many developers assume that everyone is using SSDs and happily create a huge number of tiny files. For example, I have over 400k files in my home directory on my MBP and almost 300k files on my iMac. When latency is measured in milliseconds and you may need several I/O operations per file, Time Machine can handle at most a few thousand modified files per minute. And if there are many old versions of the same files, things may become even slower.
Over WiFi, I'd agree with you, but a backup to a directly connected drive shouldn't be taking forever.
I'd make a wild guess that either there is something wrong with the drive or the cable the OP is using might only be rated to take advantage of USB 2.0 speeds.
It's a waste of a useful resource. You can get an 8 TB WD Elements for $200 or a 2 TB Crucial SSD. I use SSDs for data that needs to be accessed on a regular basis. I use HDDs for backup.