
In this example, the internal drive is 250GB and just over 20GB are being used. Turn off Time Machine backups Use a tool like Mount both the new drive Open Terminal and type or copy & paste the following command: Drag the new hard drive. Here you will be provided with a menu that shows the list of available drives that you can use Time Machine with.

After this you are going to want to click on Select Disk. Then, you are going to want to click the Time Machine on.
Upgrade external hard drive time machine mac#
You should see a window like the one below. First, make sure your external drive is hooked into your Mac and that your Mac recognizes it. To find out how large your internal drive is and how much space is being used and how much is available, click on the internal drive icon on the desktop (often it's named "Macintosh HD") and then click the Command and "I" button at the same time to "Get Info". With a 1TB drive (1000GB), there would always be plenty of room for backups.
Upgrade external hard drive time machine for mac#
Here you’ll choose where you want to backup your Mac. Silicon Power 2TB Armor A85M for Mac Military-grade Shockproof/IP68 Waterproof & Dustproof USB 3.0 2.5-inch External Hard Drive- HFS+ and Time Machine Supported, Silver ( SP020TBPHD85MS3S) 3.9 out of 5 stars. So a 500GB drive could backup to another 500GB drive, but as the amount of data on the drive increased, there would be less room for backups on the external drive. Now that you’re in the Time Machine window, you need to tap select backup disk.

However, keep in mind the amount of data on the drive can easily increase so I just go by a rule of thumb and get a backup drive that is at least twice as large as the drive capacity of the drive you are backing up. For instance, if your internal hard drive is 500GB and you are using 250GB of on the drive, the minimum size drive you'd want to backup to is a 500GB drive.

Generally you want a drive that is at least twice as large as the amount of data you are backing up. Time Machine works great with external USB or Firewire hard drives. The first thing you'll need to use Time Machine to backup your Mac is a second hard drive.
