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User profile for user: Appleshoo
Appleshoo Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Selectivel File Retrieval from Time Machine

Hi all,

Question:

Can i daisy-chain a second external HDD to my MacBook & an a time machine back up (another ext HDD) to select what files I want to keep/move to the external hdd? In this case photos/word docs/some media files.

Why?:

I recently upgraded from my old iMac & moved to a (new) 2017 MacBook Pro. It was a good buy - I backed up my iMac to time machine & this was a larger capacity HDD to what i have now on the MacBook Pro. I imported what i needed to for the basic operation of my new MacBook - but i want the photos/files now from the time machine back up.


It's likely with the passage of time there will be some OS compatibility issues but initially I need to know the most efficient/easiest way to go about this.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Aug 5, 2020 11:01 PM

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User profile for user: neuroanatomist
neuroanatomist
User level: Level 9
50,185 points

Posted on Aug 7, 2020 1:28 PM

In that case, you can simply mount both drives (the TM backup and the external storage), navigate through the TM backup to the files you want to save, and copy (drag-drop) them to the new external drive. You can do that on the iMac (easier) or on the new MBP (a couple extra steps needed to access the other machine's TM backup).

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User profile for user: neuroanatomist
neuroanatomist
User level: Level 9
50,185 points

Aug 7, 2020 1:28 PM in response to Appleshoo

In that case, you can simply mount both drives (the TM backup and the external storage), navigate through the TM backup to the files you want to save, and copy (drag-drop) them to the new external drive. You can do that on the iMac (easier) or on the new MBP (a couple extra steps needed to access the other machine's TM backup).

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User profile for user: Appleshoo
Appleshoo Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Aug 6, 2020 6:21 AM in response to neuroanatomist

hi neuroanatomist - Can you give some context as to how those external HDD might not support this process? Is that more related to a physical restriction of the HDD or a software issue related to the Mac?


I have researched & this line of thinking seems to be workable to me, but I am alsoleft in some doubt as some forums suggest the UCB type connections need to be the same & others suggesting that time machine doesn't support that functionality. :-/ grateful for your response, neuroanatomist




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User profile for user: neuroanatomist
neuroanatomist
User level: Level 9
50,185 points

Aug 6, 2020 6:58 AM in response to Appleshoo

It wouldn’t be Time Machine, really. If you daisy chain two drives, both of them are mounted (separately) on your Mac – it’s the same as if you’d just plugged in two drives directly, but one drive is plugged into the other (an example of how that’s not supported is two drives each with a single port, no way to daisy chain).


You’d use one mounted drive for Time Machine, the other as just external storage. Or am I misunderstanding what you’re trying to accomplish?

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Selectivel File Retrieval from Time Machine

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