Help! All confused re: external hard drive

[Sam165]

Hi Brian,  I know you have answered questions about EHD's before and I think you recommend a WD gaming EHD now as opposed to G-Tech.  I have Backblaze which backs up my computer and an EHD (only photos on EHD).  I went and got Carbon Copy Cloner to back up photos from my computer to the same EHD and also that EHD to clone to another EHD (lets call it G-Drive).  then I realized CCC when it copies a source to its destination, if they aren't the same, it will delete some photos in the destination.  Argh.  I also noticed that after doing this, I would get 2 icons of one of my EHD'S.  I had disabled Time Machine.  Then I thought I should start Time Machine but it says the EHD is full.  But it is 4 TB.  I think I have really screwed things up and need your counsel.  Help!

[Brian]

I'm moving this thread to the Windows Forum.

Edit: Crap...You have a Mac. *Sigh.* This should have been in the Mac Users Group. I will move it to the Mac Group after you respond.

[Brian]

7 hours ago, Sam165 said:

WD gaming EHD now as opposed to G-Tech

Oh, I love my G-Tech Drives and recommend them over any other drive. The problem is, they tend to be on the expensive side and people don't like spending $600+ on an external drive.

7 hours ago, Sam165 said:

I went and got Carbon Copy Cloner

Why? 🤨

I personally recommend a program that has been around forever, SuperDuper! Seriously, it dates from the 1990's. It's not fancy nor slick-looking, but it works very well.

7 hours ago, Sam165 said:

Then I thought I should start Time Machine but it says the EHD is full.  But it is 4 TB.  

Yeah, sometimes if you keep using the same drive for years without trimming (killing) the really old backups, you can run out of room. The only thing I can recommend is to delete the snapshots that are really-really old, OR just format the Time Machine Drive and start all-over again. A Time Machine Drive needs to be twice the capacity of the internal Mac Drive. (Well, you could get away with 1.5 the size, but it's just easier to get a larger drive.) A 4TB Time Machine Drive backing up a 1TB Macintosh HD (Internal) is perfect. BUT!! You need to maintain it, you can't just let it do its thing for years without consequences. Oh, one more thing...if you are storing crap on your Mac Desktop...stop doing this. Each time you put a file on the Mac Desktop, it kills the performance of your Mac AND Time Machine backs up the desktop each time it runs. You might have tons of temporary stuff on your Mac Desktop which then gets deleted; the funny part is, your TM drive still has a copy and that can cause you to run out of space. So in the end, it may be better for you to Nuke the TM drive and start all over.

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I think I have really screwed things up and need your counsel.  Help!

Yeah. This is going to be an involved thread. First, I want to get your TM situation fixed. That TM drive should be all-by-itself, with no other files or backups on it. After that gets straightened out, then we will work on your EHD issues.

Again, I will move this to the Macintosh Users Group when I see that you have responded in some way.