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damianapple Author

Level 1

96 points

Can I use a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Time Machine backup to set up a new MacBook Air on Big Sur?

I've been backing up my 2013 MacBook Pro (which is running Catalina) to an external hard drive in the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.

The old laptop has just died so I'm looking to get a new MacBook Air which will obviously run Big Sur, but I'm getting confused by all the talk about the new format it uses for Time Machine.

Main question: can I set up the new laptop and restore all my old files using my existing backup?

If yes - can I then continue to use that external hard drive to backup the new laptop? (Or will I have to format it and start again? That's problematic because I have other files on the HDD... not an insurmountable challenge, but a bit annoying.)

Posted on Mar 31, 2021 1:49 AM

Top-ranking reply

PRP_53

Level 10

91,747 points

Posted on Mar 31, 2021 1:59 AM

Move your content to a new Mac - it should work as HFS Journaled is readable / writable in the New M1 CPU of Apple.

As for using the same drive post migration as the Time Machine backup - firstly remove the Non- Time Machine Backup files from the drive to some other reliable drive. Once done - when you setup Time Machine Backup on the New machine - it ( TM ) will automatically Convert the drive format from HFS to APFS and everything on the drive will be lost and can not be retrieved.

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Can I use a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Time Machine backup to set up a new MacBook Air on Big Sur?

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