You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

ssd drives

what's the best ssd external drive to use with time machine

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Aug 30, 2020 6:09 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 30, 2020 6:35 PM

hjklt Said:

"ssd drives: what's the best ssd external drive to use with time machine"

-------


Using SSDs for Backups:

A SSD (Solid State Drive) runs on a faster DTR (Data Transfer Rate) compared to that of an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) - so get one that is 1.5 (one-and-a-half) size the storage capacity as your internal hard drive. The first backup will take a while - after that things will go quicker. Consider using a laptop cooler upon the first backup.

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 30, 2020 6:35 PM in response to hjklt

hjklt Said:

"ssd drives: what's the best ssd external drive to use with time machine"

-------


Using SSDs for Backups:

A SSD (Solid State Drive) runs on a faster DTR (Data Transfer Rate) compared to that of an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) - so get one that is 1.5 (one-and-a-half) size the storage capacity as your internal hard drive. The first backup will take a while - after that things will go quicker. Consider using a laptop cooler upon the first backup.

Aug 30, 2020 6:17 PM in response to hjklt

I don't use an SSD for Time Machine. Time Machine is, for me, not intrusive enough in its working to demand the speed of an SSD. Plus archival quality rotational drive may be more reliable over time.


I use Mercury Elite Pro enclosures, each with a 3.5-inch WD "Black" 7200rpm, 6GB/sec roto-drive.


https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ME3NH7T00/


Zero issues.


The place for the SSD in an external enclosure is when you realize a mechanical drive in a 21.5-inch iMac is terribly slow. You can clone your internal drive to an external SSD, use the external as your boot volume, and see a significant increase is booting and app loading times.

ssd drives

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.