I have an iMac 2020. My previous machine is an iMac 2011. I am running both right now as I slowly move stuff from one to the other. I’m aware that not every app will transfer. The old one is running Yosemite.
I have a 10T external hard drive backing up the old machine. It is partitioned to also back up via Time Machine (I’m now reading this should be on 2 separate drives though). I do have several old hd in a desk drawer somewhere. I have Backblaze for each machine now.
How do I maintain backups for both machines? I want to eventually use the big 10T for the new machine.
I need a process to get each machine backed up to its own hard drive, a Time Machine solution and a way to get the 10T attached to my new machine, not my old one.
Sidebar, the data on the HD is mostly pictures that I will need for my business. I will also be searching for a photo solution, as I have many thousand personal photos and many thousand business pics as well.
That’s probably for another day.
Thanks to all of you who are much smarter than me about all of this stuff
Maripat
I’d recommend a bootable clone and a time machine drive for each machine (and yes, the clone and time machine should be on separate drives) plus Backblaze.
My backup solution: I just back up my MBP and don’t care about the Mini.
My rationale: everything essential is on the MBP, the Mini just runs some services and acts as a server. If the Mini dies, I can reconfigure the stuff on a new one in very little time. Any data it uses or generates goes either through iCloud (and over to the MBP) or my NAS.
As for the MBP: Time Machine+backups+Backblaze.
Photo solution: I use PhotoMechanic and Lightroom to deal (catalog, sort, keyword) my photos.
Disk drives are cheap, replacing your data and photos is not. Cheap and easy insurance. Similar to @ChrisUpchurch I like having a clone on an external SSD. I put Time Machine backups on spinning drives. I’m in the process of moving to BackBlaze for offsite. Taking awhile as I have a 1.28tb per month data cap on my Cox account and we have about 3tb to backup.
As to photo management I haven’t been 100% pleased with any system I have looked at. Currently using Photos and iCloud. Good enough for now but looking for improvements.
