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Passport won't backup

deborahwrites

deborahwrites

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 3, 2021
7
1
I bought a new Passport for my Mac about a month ago. My Mac is 1T, so I got a 1T Passport, which is what I used to have. It worked fine for a month, but since April 1 I keep getting a notification "Backup Failed -- There isn't enough space on My Passport." It's supposed to delete the oldest backup when that happens. I used to get that notification about once a month on my old computer, I'd close it and never see it again for another month, and it would backup. But it's not backing up, and the notification keeps popping up about five minutes after I close it. How do I fix this?
 
What backup software are you using? TimeMachine, SuperSuper or Carbon Copy Cloner (or are you using backup software that came with the Passport)? How full is your Mac internal HDD?
 
gecko579 said:
What backup software are you using? TimeMachine, SuperSuper or Carbon Copy Cloner (or are you using backup software that came with the Passport)? How full is your Mac internal HDD?
Click to expand...

Looks like I have 66 G available of the 1 T on the HD. I'm not 100% sure which software I'm using because I can look at Time Machine on my Mac and it's connected to the Passport, but the Passport does appear to have some software associated with it because every day it tries to tell me to update it, but when I click, it says I have the most current version. I don't remember that ever happening with my old Passport.
 
if I were you I would have went bigger than 1 TB if your Mac is that size already and possibly close to full.
I would have got a 2TB size for the backup.
The drives are so cheap today. I get 5TB for $99 at Best Buy.

Can your return it and go a little larger?

Also I always format a new drive to gain 100 percent of the drive you paid for.
Many drives including Passport come with pre installed backup software.
If you are using time Machine you do not need any of this pre installed Backup software which takes up space

I would buy a 2TB or larger drive and assign it as your Time machine backup.
And also move all previous backups off the 1 TB Passport to the Larger 2TB or larger drive
Always buy a backup disk that is bigger than the one that is in your Mac. To be Safe.
 
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IF you are using time machine
and
IF your internal drive is almost filled up
and
IF your backup drive is the same size as the internal drive...
then
You're not going to have room for many tm backups.

TM keeps backing up "the same stuff" over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again...

You either need a bigger backup drive -- at least 2tb but 4tb would be better.
or...
Use a cloning backup app such as CarbonCopyCloner instead. It WON'T "clog up" the backup with endless "re-backups".
 
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It's not "the make" of the drive.
It's THE SIZE of the drive.
1tb isn't large enough for a tm backup of a 1tb drive that's "getting full".
Try 2tb or 4tb (platter-based, an SSD would be too expensive for this).
 
I have a 4T external hard drive, which I had partitioned into two halves with 2T each -- one half for video storage and one half for backup. My computer kept crashing, and Apple kept telling me there was nothing wrong with it. Finally someone said that maybe it was my external hard drive, so when I was talking to a non-Apple computer person, he said that the problem was that I had partitioned the hard drive, and it was confusing my computer. So, I unplugged it, and the computer has not been crashing. I would plug it in once a month to do a backup and finally just decided to go ahead and buy a new Passport. Do you agree with this?

Is it possible for me to swap the two external HDs? I suppose I would need to erase the 1T HD and then transfer the videos to it. Then I'd have to erase the 4T HD and plug it in as the new backup HD. Does that make sense?
 
"Is it possible for me to swap the two external HDs? I suppose I would need to erase the 1T HD and then transfer the videos to it. Then I'd have to erase the 4T HD and plug it in as the new backup HD. Does that make sense?"

You could do this.
You could erase the 1tb drive to HFS+ (Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format), and then copy the videos over.

Then, erase the 4tb drive (also to HFS+), just one partition, and "start clean" with time machine again.

But if it was me, I'd do this:
Keep using the 1tb drive, but STOP USING time machine, and START using CarbonCopyCloner... :)
 
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Fishrrman said:
"Is it possible for me to swap the two external HDs? I suppose I would need to erase the 1T HD and then transfer the videos to it. Then I'd have to erase the 4T HD and plug it in as the new backup HD. Does that make sense?"

You could do this.
You could erase the 1tb drive to HFS+ (Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format), and then copy the videos over.

Then, erase the 4tb drive (also to HFS+), just one partition, and "start clean" with time machine again.

But if it was me, I'd do this:
Keep using the 1tb drive, but STOP USING time machine, and START using CarbonCopyCloner... :)
Click to expand...
Sounds like a good idea, I do the same but with SuperDuper.

OP, it sounds like your 4TB external HDD may have other issues than your partition (power supply if not bus powered, perhaps cables) as your computer should not be...confused by a partitioned drive.
 
I've never erased an external HD or used software other than what came with it. How do I do that?
Thanks for all your help and suggestions!
 
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Good tutorial here:
www.macworld.co.uk

Here's how to format a drive on a Mac

Here's how to format a drive using a Mac - including how to format a drive for Windows and Mac so the contents can be read on both platforms, and what format to use for Time Machine.
www.macworld.co.uk www.macworld.co.uk

I would suggest (at least initially) NOT partitioning and just using this as a large 4TB TM backup (if the power supply and drive is functional). Later if desired you can partition into 2x 2TB drives, one as a “bootable” backup using (purchased) backup software and the other as a 2 TB TM backup. Get it running first and then decide if you want/need a bootable backup.

Of note this is a few years old and I believe Time Machine can now use a drive with HPFS formatting but to be safe you may want to use the good old standby of MacOS Extended Journaled (NOT case sensitive which I have heard can case issues) and +/- encrypted (I always encrypt external drives, and once you set a password you can either type it every time to mount it or have it saved In your keychain).

Good luck and let us know how it goes!
 
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"I've never erased an external HD or used software other than what came with it. How do I do that?"

WARNING WARNING DANGER DANGER !!!

NEVER "erase" a drive unless you don't mind losing everything on it!

OK, now that you understand that:
1. open disk utility
2. select the drive you want to erase from the list on the left
3. click erase
4. choose the format you want (in your case, I'll reckon you want "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format")
5. disk utility will erase the drive

Then, start putting what you want back onto it.

You can also use disk utility to partition a drive. This is best done just after you erase it.
 
The notification to update software popped up again. It's NTFS for Mac. I googled that, and it does not make any sense why it showed up when I installed this hard drive. Every day this notification pops up saying I need to update, but if I click on it, then it says I'm up to date. Was this on the Passport? Or where did it come from? Can I delete it? I have Microsoft products installed on my computer, but I don't think I need this. And I'm really confused why it showed up as I was trying to set up the Passport.

I haven't decided yet whether I should wipe my 1T hard drive and reformat it. I accidentally bought a PC external hard drive one time, and I tried formatting it for my Mac, and it was a disaster.
 
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