SOLVED Use external SSD instead of internal

[Bernardg]

I backed up via time machine to an external ssd hoping to improve speed. Now find impossible to revert, or reformat the external. Everything fine either with both connected or just use internal as at moment.

 

[Bernardg]

Not sure.! When I connect the external both are displayed . I have 2 HDD1 's shown, when I restart both show again so not sure which I boot from, but expect it to be the internal.
When I disconnect the external nothing changes.
Thank you for your reply

 

[Lufbrarunner]

Do you have access to another machine with which you could format the external drive?

 

[Bernardg]

No

 

[Bernardg]

I found that due to my ignorance I had backed up to the internal hd and now have two 384.4 systems loaded on that drive!
Wondered how I could delete one? Would the procedure of reinstalling system from the internet leave me with just one 384.4 which would of course include all my photos and documents? Any help would be appreciated

 

[Howard Brazee]

How did you try to reformat your Time Machine drive?
When I run disk utility on a Mac with Catalina or newer, my main disk shows 2 APFS volumes, "Macintosh HD" & "Macintosh HD - Data", but my Time Machine drive shows as one UPS External Physical Volume. I also have a SSD drive that is an APFS Volume that has Mojave on it (I will reformat it after my one necessary 32-bit program is converted, supposedly this Spring). My Time Machine drive is formatted as MAC OS Extended (Case-sensitive. Journaled). It's 4TB, while my SSD is 1TB, I don't need it to be fast.

 

[Bernardg]

How did you try to reformat your Time Machine drive?
When I run disk utility on a Mac with Catalina or newer, my main disk shows 2 APFS volumes, "Macintosh HD" & "Macintosh HD - Data", but my Time Machine drive shows as one UPS External Physical Volume. I also have a SSD drive that is an APFS Volume that has Mojave on it (I will reformat it after my one necessary 32-bit program is converted, supposedly this Spring). My Time Machine drive is formatted as MAC OS Extended (Case-sensitive. Journaled). It's 4TB, while my SSD is 1TB, I don't need it to be fast.

I have not tried to reformat due to fear of losing documents and photos etc. Did think of restarting with procedure to reinstall most recent system. I have like you, 2 APFS volumes which are marked HDD1 with 384.4 GB and HDD1-Data with 384.4 GB, not sure how I managed that. Also when I tried to back up via time machine to an external HD it started to back up another 384.4 GB ! Just not sure what the heck I have managed to do. Might try to use icloud to save some things or an external hd and then take the plunge and start afresh.

 

[Howard Brazee]

I assumed that your time machine only has backups of data. If it was formatted, you would still have your origins. Admittedly, you wouldn't have that backup until you made a new backup. But if you're afraid to go on without a backup for an hour or two, then you should have more than one backup. Get your important data off-site on someone else's computer, and put important stuff on the cloud as well.

A couple of months ago, I dropped my Time Machine drive, and ordered a replacement on-line.

 

[Lufbrarunner]

HDD1 and HDD1-Data are the same physical drive. some system files are read only and are on HDD1 your data is on HDD1-Data and you are able to read and write to that. Link to article

 

[Bernardg]

Thats why I found I had two HD. If I now use time machine to back up will it backup the data HD only and then keep that up to date on future back ups. Thank you for the information, I had wondered just what I had done.