Javascript Disabled Detected

You currently have javascript disabled. Several functions may not work. Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality.

Register a free account to unlock additional features at BleepingComputer.com

Welcome to BleepingComputer, a free community where people like yourself come together to discuss and learn how to use their computers. Using the site is easy and fun. As a guest, you can browse and view the various discussions in the forums, but can not create a new topic or reply to an existing one unless you are logged in. Other benefits of registering an account are subscribing to topics and forums, creating a blog, and having no ads shown anywhere on the site.

Click here to Register a free account now! or read our Welcome Guide to learn how to use this site.

Latest News: Ethereum mailing list breach exposes 35,000 to crypto draining attack

Featured Deal: Upgrade your iPad with an Apple Magic Keyboard Folio for under $90

Latest Buyer's Guide: Best web browsers with built in VPN: Boost online privacy

Time Machine drive mounting delay

Started by Bcpv , Feb 22 2024 05:44 AM

Please log in to reply

7 replies to this topic

#1 Bcpv

Members
19 posts
OFFLINE

Gender:Male
Location:Great Brittain
Local time:03:21 PM

Posted 22 February 2024 - 05:44 AM

Recently I purchased a Seagate 4TB one-touch drive for use as a Time Machine backup for my M1 iMac 16GB RAM 1TB internal SSD running macOS 14.3.1.

https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/products/external-hard-drives/one-touch-external-drives/

The drive seems to be taking longer and longer to mount when I plug it in. I've run Disk Utility and no problems have been found. I've left the drive plugged for extended periods to allow indexing to complete. But still the problem persists, now taking at least 3 minutes for the drive to mount. As an experiment I've used a smaller capacity (1TB) HDD (i.e. NOT an SSD) as a secondary TM backup and it consistently mounts in under 30 seconds. Note that Time Machine seems to initialise any new drive in APFS format which does not seem to be ideal for non-SSD devices. Is this delay something I have to live with or are there any other issues I could investigate?

Back to top"> Back to top

BC AdBot (Login to Remove)

BleepingComputer.com
Register to remove ads

#2 JohnC_21

Members
35,028 posts
OFFLINE

Gender:Male
Local time:10:21 AM

Posted 22 February 2024 - 11:21 AM

Does it mount faster if you format the drive as exFAT?

Back to top"> Back to top

#3 Bcpv

Topic Starter

Members
19 posts
OFFLINE

Gender:Male
Location:Great Brittain
Local time:03:21 PM

Posted 22 February 2024 - 11:58 AM

Does it mount faster if you format the drive as exFAT?

Having backed up my Mac to my smaller Time Machine drive and to my Carbon Copy Cloner drive, I removed the Seagate from the list of backup drives and reformatted as exFAT. The now empty exFAT formatted drive mounted in about 10 seconds! So maybe a large capacity SSD would be better in terms of mounting time and, of course, file transfer speed but they are not cheap!

Back to top"> Back to top

#4 greg18

Members
1,743 posts
OFFLINE

Gender:Male
Location:Los Angeles, CA
Local time:09:21 AM

Posted 22 February 2024 - 12:06 PM

One touch drives take longer because of the hardware encryption built into them. Time Machine only uses APFS, no other format if running the latest versions of MacOS.

Back to top"> Back to top

#5 Bcpv

Topic Starter

Members
19 posts
OFFLINE

Gender:Male
Location:Great Brittain
Local time:03:21 PM

Posted 22 February 2024 - 01:47 PM

One touch drives take longer because of the hardware encryption built into them. Time Machine only uses APFS, no other format if running the latest versions of MacOS.

Well as long as the drive remains healthy, I will just have to accept that. I originally thought the drive might have had some other issues that Disk Utility couldnt spot. Yes I knew about recent macOS versions only using APFS but I should have known about the encryption but clearly didnt fully rtfm! Thanks to all for your responses

Back to top"> Back to top

#6 Pkshadow

BC Advisor
13,821 posts
OFFLINE

Gender:Not Telling
Location:On the Brow of the Hill, West Coast, Canada
Local time:07:21 AM

Posted 22 February 2024 - 06:04 PM

Can keep a eye here for prices : https://pricespy.co.uk/computers-accessories/storage-media/hard-drives--c355 a 179 pounds for a 16gig Iron Wolf is pretty good price.

as well can check between the 2.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/pc-components/storage/internal-hard-drives-hdd

" mosquitoes really wake up everyday and choose violence " — dalia (@_dalia7)
www.cnn.com/2020/07/23/health/mosquitoes-attraction-humans-future-wellness-scn/index.html

Ticks - Lyme disease & anaplasmosis - https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/what-you-should-know-about-the-tick-borne-disease-anaplasmosis-1.6942217

I-7 ASUS ROG Rampage II Extreme / ASUS TUF Gaming F17 / I-7 4770K ASUS ROG Maximus VI Extreme

Back to top"> Back to top

#7 Bcpv

Topic Starter

Members
19 posts
OFFLINE

Gender:Male
Location:Great Brittain
Local time:03:21 PM

Posted 23 February 2024 - 04:30 AM

Can keep a eye here for prices : https://pricespy.co.uk/computers-accessories/storage-media/hard-drives--c355 a 179 pounds for a 16gig Iron Wolf is pretty good price.

as well can check between the 2.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/pc-components/storage/internal-hard-drives-hdd

Will do - thanks

Back to top"> Back to top

#8 pelorustech

Members
11 posts
OFFLINE

Local time:08:51 PM

Posted 06 March 2024 - 02:50 AM

You can click on the Time Machine icon in the Apple menu bar and select "Skip verification". If that makes no changes, test the performance of the two drives in Mac Safe Mode.