I'm upgrading to my first Apple Silicon Mac after my old iMac gave out, and I want to get up to speed on how Time Machine functions with the latest OS. I'm curious about a few things: if I use a single USB drive as the backup destination for multiple Macs, do I need to create a separate DMG container for each one? Will Time Machine automatically handle this if I'm backing up over a network share? Also, is it better to format the destination drive as APFS? And if I still have older Macs that aren't using APFS, will their DMGs be HFS+ instead? Lastly, what should I consider for the file system on the HDD? I used to have solid guides on Time Machine, but they're outdated, and I think it might be time to start fresh instead of hanging onto my old backups.
1 Answer
You can back up to a shared folder if you have a system that’s running 24/7. When you do it this way, each Mac will create its own sparsebundle without needing separate DMGs or partitions beforehand. Just keep in mind that Time Machine's recent changes mean it won't include system files anymore, so you can't roll back software updates like you used to with older macOS versions. It’s important to adjust your expectations!
Exactly what I’ve been doing for regular backups! I’m also considering a local backup for my iMac since it's stationary and even thinking about using an external drive for off-site backups that I could rotate every few months.