USB Drive and Time Machine backups

[circatee]

Based on the details below, I am curious. If I have a 512GB drive in my Mac, can I partition that drive, for Time Machine backups? Thus, if needed, use said partition to perform a restore of sorts?

Details:
Error: SOCD report detected: (AP watchdog expired)
Link: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252437781?answerId=254720500022#254720500022

Apparently, the above error happens if you have an external drive connected. Priceless. The question I now have is this, if one has said drive connected for Time Machine backups, how is one to backup or even restore their M1 Mac?

Hmm...

 

[gank41]

Based on the details below, I am curious. If I have a 512GB drive in my Mac, can I partition that drive, for Time Machine backups? Thus, if needed, use said partition to perform a restore of sorts?

Details:
Error: SOCD report detected: (AP watchdog expired)
Link: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252437781?answerId=254720500022#254720500022

Apparently, the above error happens if you have an external drive connected. Priceless. The question I now have is this, if one has said drive connected for Time Machine backups, how is one to backup or even restore their M1 Mac?

Hmm...

It’s been a while, but I had an old G5 PPC Mac Pro that I swapped the drive out for a 2TB SSD. I partitioned it with 512GB for “Macintosh HD” and the rest I used as a Time Machine backup. Again, this is going back many years. I’d assume you could do the same now, but I’d wait for someone else to chime in regarding the how to part nowadays. The process might be different now using an APFS formatted drive as opposed to HFS+

Personally, it sounds like a good idea. But if the drive itself fails, you’ll most likely lose out on the Time Machine backup as well.

 

[tranceking26]

Better off using an external drive. Less risky imo.

 

[Honza1]

I have M1 Mini with cheap = off brand (no idea what brand it is, it is behind furniture now) enclosure with desktop hard drive and I have no issues with using that partitioned as TM disk and regular hard drive for large stuff. My M1 had no crash, no issue at all in the 3 weeks I have it.
So these errors will be related to specific drive/enclosure. There are many different manufacturers of these things and some (typically better brands, surprisingly) take liberties on "improving" standard. They want to differentiate to be able to charge more... Those "improvements" cause troubles.
Anyway, if one enclosure does not work, buy different. Enclosures are like $25 for desktop drives, just make sure you can easily return it and problems will be just minor hassle. And buy separately internal hard drive you need.

Using partitioned internal drive for Time Machine beats the purpose of the Time Machine. It's main purpose is backup of data in case of hard drive failure. If it is on the same hardware, failure of that hardware will destroy both data and the backup in one moment. That is really terrible idea.

 

[circatee]

Understood. Thanks for the tips. My external drive is a Samsung SSD. The enclosure is a $19.99 one, from Best Buy. I now have it connected via USB B to USB C. Thus, it will be interesting if I even get the above error again...