Back up before Mojave upgrade

[somapop]

Hi all.

I want to refresh my personal MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports) and upgrade the OS.

It's been running at disk full of late so I've deleted a few files but probably time I updated the OS too.

I feel as though I should perhaps factory reset whilst at it so I've just picked up a 1 TB HDD.

I've just erased to MAC OS Journaled (rather that APFS as I believe this works less efficiently on HDD?) but before I go any further I need a bit of advice.

Plan is to split this HDD into two volumes - half for Time Machine, half for general back up (the internal drive is only 125gb).
Plan to use some of the general back up for some work files (also Macbook pro but newer model running Venturs)

I think I may have misread that you can't used APFS with Time Machine, but is that down to voluming?

Looking at the Ext HDD in Disk Utility I can't see the option of add volumes here - is that because I formatted in MAC OS Journaled?

If so, might it be better to format again in APFS (taking the hit on less efficiency with HDD) and add two volumes (one for TM, one for General b/up)?

After that I was planning on setting up TM on one volume, dropping the files/documents onto the other; carry out a factory reset; update the OS to Ventura.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

 

[Bigwaff]

Types of disks you can use with Time Machine on Mac

Use Time Machine on your Mac with a Time Capsule and with USB and Thunderbolt disks.

support.apple.com

With more recent macOS releases, APFS format is the preferred file system for Time Machine backups regardless if SSD or HDD. If the disk is already a Time Machine backup disk MacOS Extended format, you can continue use the disk. If it's a new disk, you don't have choice and have to format the disk APFS.

You should be fine to use a Mojave created Time Machine backup disk (most likely MacOS Extended format) with more recent macOS releases. You shouldn't need to partition the external disk. Time Machine will store the backup files in a special folder that can safely sit along side other files and folders on the disk.

 

[Boyd01]

Plan is to split this HDD into two volumes - half for Time Machine, half for general back up (the internal drive is only 125gb).
Plan to use some of the general back up for some work files (also Macbook pro but newer model running Venturs)

IMO, that's not a very good plan. If you have a disk issue then you lose all of your backups, here's a recent thread where that exact thing happened

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/carbon-copy-cloner-backup-not-recognized-by-macos.2393997/?post=32275972#post-32275972

External disks have gotten really inexpensive, I never put more than one backup per drive.

 

[somapop]

Types of disks you can use with Time Machine on Mac

Use Time Machine on your Mac with a Time Capsule and with USB and Thunderbolt disks.

support.apple.com

With more recent macOS releases, APFS format is the preferred file system for Time Machine backups regardless if SSD or HDD. If the disk is already a Time Machine backup disk MacOS Extended format, you can continue use the disk. If it's a new disk, you don't have choice and have to format the disk APFS.

You should be fine to use a Mojave created Time Machine backup disk (most likely MacOS Extended format) with more recent macOS releases. You shouldn't need to partition the external disk. Time Machine will store the backup files in a special folder that can safely sit along side other files and folders on the disk.

New HDD is completely blank so just need to format.
Bit of reading suggested HDD were less efficient with APFS, but sounds like that's not the case.

This machine has never been time machined (or backed up....awful disk hygiene - sorry!).

So, now have a 1TB for a 125gb Macbook Pro I want to back up, factory restore then upgrade to Ventura.

With all that in mind, would you therefore suggest formatting in APFS, not partitioning and just using it as a Time Machine (then when backed up, do the reset, reinstall of OS THEN upgrade to Ventura - does that sound right?

Wasn't sure what you meant about the special folder in Time Machine (I just know Time Machine as taking a 'snapshot' of everything - files/folders/apps in the machine's internal HD?)

 

[somapop]

IMO, that's not a very good plan. If you have a disk issue then you lose all of your backups, here's a recent thread where that exact thing happened

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/carbon-copy-cloner-backup-not-recognized-by-macos.2393997/?post=32275972#post-32275972

External disks have gotten really inexpensive, I never put more than one backup per drive.

Good point.

Might be worth just picking up another HDD in that case (even a 500gb HDD would suffice given the machine itself only has 125gb and the 'cloud' takes a lot of the weight these days.

From this and my last post, does it sound like I'm on the right path?

Thanks!!

 

[Bigwaff]

If you have only one external drive, while still running Mojave, I would format the external drive as MacOS Extended and perform a Time Machine backup. Then update to latest macOS version. If the update fails for some reason or you determine you don't like the update, you'll have a backup based on Mojave to fall back on. If you stay on new version of macOS, the next time you try to perform a Time Machine backup, Time Machine will continue to use (and add to) the existing backup.

 

[somapop]

If you have only one external drive, while still running Mojave, I would format the external drive as MacOS Extended and perform a Time Machine backup. Then update to latest macOS version. If the update fails for some reason or you determine you don't like the update, you'll have a backup based on Mojave to fall back on. If you stay on new version of macOS, the next time you try to perform a Time Machine backup, Time Machine will continue to use (and add to) the existing backup.

Thanks!

Worth factory resetting or will an OS update effectively be as good as (I'm only asking about this as I was told a factory reset may make the machine run better post reset)?