{"id":56161,"date":"2019-03-07T08:00:47","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T16:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/?p=56161"},"modified":"2021-12-22T22:04:06","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T06:04:06","slug":"use-multiple-hard-drives-time-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/use-multiple-hard-drives-time-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Use Multiple Hard Drives With Time Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Time<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s Time Machine software helps you create a backup of your Mac hard drive. That’s great, but what if something happens to the external drive you\u2019re using for the Time Machine backup? If you\u2019re following our 3-2-1 Backup Strategy<\/a>, then you\u2019ll be protected, but you can do more, too.<\/p>\n

How about using multiple backup drives with Time Machine? Here\u2019s how.<\/p>\n

Some Background on Time Machine<\/h3>\n

Time Machine is more than just backup software<\/a> for your Mac. You can think of it as a tool that keeps moments in time for you to look back on, so you can recover deleted or missing files or even revert to older versions of files you\u2019ve worked on.<\/p>\n

Get more details about Time\u00a0Machine in our guide, How to Back Up Your Mac<\/a>.<\/div>\n

Time Machine stores hourly backups for 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for all previous months for as much space as you have on your Time Machine backup drive. The oldest backups get deleted when the drive fills up. That makes it great for backups, but not great for archives, which require long-term storage. For more on the difference between backups and archives, see our post, What\u2019s the Diff: Backup vs Archive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Which Storage Devices Can be used with Time Machine?<\/h2>\n

Time Machine supports any of the following external storage devices<\/a>.<\/p>\n