I use Time Machine to backup to an external hard drive. That external drive also has a lot of other photos and unique info on that drive, too.
I'm not sure my Time Machine backed up my whole computer because of the computer turned off in the middle of the first time I used it (recently).
Questions:
- Is there a way to confirm that the backup on the Time Machine is complete?
- Lets say I just want to redo the backup from scratch. I can't format the external drive since it has a lot of other unique info. How can I delete the Time Machine information and have Time Machine automatically redo the backup?
Best Answer
The first question, how can you be sure a backup has completed, is answered by checking the menubar Time Machine item. It will tell you the date of the last completed backup.
Secondly if you want to perform another complete Time Machine backup you can stop Time Machine, eject the Time Machine drive, plug in a fresh drive and re-enable Time Machine using that drive as the backup destination. A complete new backup will be performed.
You could also just delete everything on the original Time Machine drive but it is slightly more risky. If something bad happened before the new backup completed you would be without the backup you are not sure about and the new backup.