Time Machine ?

[Washac]

I had time Machine set up to do backups of my boot disk, but now I want to set it up to do backups
of my storage drive, how do I go about this ?

 

[MarkC426]

It should be added by default.
Go into TM settings and make sure it is not listed in the exclude list.

 

[Washac]

Thank you.

 

[maflynn]

I had time Machine set up to do backups of my boot disk, but now I want to set it up to do backups
of my storage drive, how do I go about this ?

If its an external drive it may be excluded.
Go to the Systems Setting-> Time Machine

Click on Options and make sure that your storage drive is not showing up in the exclusion list. For instance, my data drive is, as its an external drive.

 

[benwiggy]

my data drive is [excluded], as it's an external drive.

So if it fails suddenly tomorrow, what will happen?

Every file that you want to keep needs to be on 2 separate devices -- at least.

I've literally just been replying to a thread on another forum where someone was asking how to recover data from an SSD, because it had just failed, and they had no backup.

"Files with no backup are waiting to be lost."

 

[FreakinEurekan]

The external disk must also be in APFS or Mac OS (Extended) format in order for Time Machine to back it up. I see a lot of external disks using exFAT, sometimes because they need cross-compatibility with Windoze and other times because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[maflynn]

So if it fails suddenly tomorrow, what will happen?

My data drive is largely cloud backed up, i.e., my games from steam, so losing them is a non-issue.

 

[benwiggy]

Cool. I'd rather annoy everyone by saying "Make sure you've got a backup" than by saying "Ha ha -- should've had a backup".

 

[ChrisA]

My data drive is largely cloud backed up, i.e., my games from steam, so losing them is a non-issue.

If you have no data of your own, only copies of other people's data (like games and downloaded movies), then you have nothing to lose. Having "nothing to lose".... Is that a bad thing or a good thing? I don't know.