Backup Questions OS 10.12.6

[AsensoryMusic]

As I face impending upgrades in my OS, I have to (finally) set up Time Machine so I get an adequate backup. I bought a Western Digital "My Book" drive, 6TB capacity, to use as the backup drive. Initially, it mounted OK when I located it in Disk Utility. Once I tried to set it up in Time Machine, I started to get errors. At this point, it simply won't mount at all.

The easiest question to pose would be "what's a good, reliable disk to use as a Time Machine backup for an old cheese grater?" I'm sure there are a lot of folks here who are in a similar boat and can save me some time and pain. I'm guessing the Western Digital is going back to Amazon.

Mac Pro 4,1 upgraded to 5,1, XEON Hexcore 3.33, 32 GB RAM, OSX 10.12.6

[mikehalloran]

Once I tried to set it up in Time Machine…

So you didn't succeed? WD has phone support and can walk you through this. BTW, you do not set TM up in Disk Utility. Time Machine is one of the default settings for these—it's in the manual. Then you do the setup in Time Machine. Again, let WD talk you through this. They can also check to make sure the firmware is up to date. These have a 3 year warranty.

That said, I don't like USB externals for TM—even though many here do. With your Mac, you have either the built in USB 2 or USB 3 via a PCIe card. Unlike SATA/eSATA/Ethernet/Thunderbolt, USB & FW can go to sleep on you—no thanks. I like to "Set it and forget it".

I prefer the WD My Cloud Expert Series EX2.
https://www.westerndigital.com/products ... 00NCH-NESN

This is the 3rd gen My Cloud and supports Ethernet or USB 3. Older versions of the My Cloud support Ethernet only—fine by me—and can be found on eBay. In addition, unlike the My Book, replacing drives on the My Cloud takes under a minute with a Phillips screwdriver.

[HCMarkus]

Seems like what will work for one person may not for another. I've been using Seagate External USB3 8TB HDs for TM backups for years now without encountering any issues. Until recently, this was in support of my 5,1 12 Core Mac Pro, connected via a stock USB2 port on the Mac.

OTOH, our esteemed MOTUNation Webmaster recently had some serious issues with the same drives and Time Machine, although I think the problem may have been something other than the drives, as the Seagate weren't the only uncooperative drives. Here's that thread: viewtopic.php?t=70204

Now I'm running a new machine, and a couple of new Seagate USB3 Externals seem to be working just fine for TM and general backup duties.

[AsensoryMusic]

So you didn't succeed? WD has phone support and can walk you through this. BTW, you do not set TM up in Disk Utility. Time Machine is one of the default settings for these—it's in the manual. Then you do the setup in Time Machine. Again, let WD talk you through this.

Yes ... the bit about Time Machine was a different sentence. I read some forums (not that I could find one referring exactly to 10.12.5) but the solution was always to go back to DU and mount the drive. I will go through your recommendations on a backup setup, Markus' as well.

Thanks for the tips, I'll do some more searching.

[mikehalloran]

For MacOS Sierra, you format drives Mac OS Extended (Journaled). For Big Sur and later, it’s APFS.

Ignore the forums. Format, name, set encryption etc. in Airport Utility. For My Book, My Cloud, you can do this all in your browser. It’s in the manual.