To disable the automatic backups, open Time Machine preferences.

To backup immediately, go to the Time Machine menu and click 'Back Up Now.'.

Time Machine offers several ways for you to personalize your backups. Once the disk is full, Time Machine automatically deletes the oldest backups. The program saves daily backups for a month and weekly backups for previous months. These include continuous hourly backups over a 24-hour period.

Under 'Security Options' make sure to set the drive to write over past data three times or more.Īfter setting up Time Machine, the program automatically makes backups for you.

MS-DOS (FAT) allows you to use Windows volumes of 32 GB or less.ĮxFAT allows you to use Windows volumes over 32 GB Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted) adds password and encryption protection to the partition while also including Mac formatting with case sensitive folder names. ('Backup' and 'backup' will be two different files.) Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) makes case-sensitive folders and Mac format. Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) adds a password and partition encryption to the Mac format. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) uses Mac formatting to protect data integrity A Format pop-up window will give you the opportunity to choose one of the following:.Click 'Erase' from the Disk Utility options.Find your external hard drive in the list of drives.Open Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.Since most external hard drives are formatted for PCs, before the backup of your Mac begins you need to format the hard drive for macOS. If the Security Options button is not available, Disk Utility cannot perform a secure erase on the storage device.Copying the files from your Mac to an external drive allows you to save data on your own terms. Secure erase options are available only for some types of storage devices.

(Optional) If available, click Security Options, use the slider to choose how many times to write over the erased data, then click OK. If the Scheme pop-up menu isn’t available, make sure you selected the storage device you want to erase-it’s at the top of the hierarchy.Ĭlick the Format pop-up menu, then choose a file system format. Ĭlick the Scheme pop-up menu, then choose GUID Partition Map. In the sidebar, select the storage device you want to erase, then click the Erase button. If you want to erase any other type of storage device: Double-click Disk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities folder. Note: If you want to get your Mac ready to trade in, sell, or give away, and your computer is a Mac with Apple silicon or an Intel-based Mac with an Apple T2 Security Chip, use Erase Assistant.

Disk utility mac external hard drive