how to backup computer to external hard drive time machine

#HOW TO BACKUP COMPUTER TO EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE TIME MACHINE HOW TO#
#HOW TO BACKUP COMPUTER TO EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE TIME MACHINE UPDATE#
#HOW TO BACKUP COMPUTER TO EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE TIME MACHINE PASSWORD#
#HOW TO BACKUP COMPUTER TO EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE TIME MACHINE MAC#

Once the disk has been selected, Time Machine will make an initial backup. If you’re setting up Time Machine for network attached storage, encryption is optional. If the dialog doesn’t appear, or if you’re setting up Time Machine for network attached storage, open System Preferences > Time Machine, click select backup disk, select your disk in the “Backup destinations” table, and click the “use disk” button.

#HOW TO BACKUP COMPUTER TO EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE TIME MACHINE PASSWORD#

If you forget the password to an encrypted disk, the data on it will be lost forever. Important: As this password is used to encrypt and decrypt your disk, it is critical that you remember it or keep it in a safe place. In this dialog, you may want to select the “Remember this password in my keychain” checkbox, so you won’t need to enter the password when you connect the disk or restart your Mac, but anyone else would need to if they were connecting the disk to theirs. If you click the “Use disk” button, you’ll be prompted to create a password to encrypt your disk.

#HOW TO BACKUP COMPUTER TO EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE TIME MACHINE MAC#

To set up Time Machine for direct storage, connect the disk to your Mac and a dialog should appear asking if you want to use it for Time Machine backups. However, while convenient, network attached storage can be significantly slower than direct storage. Common network attached storage (NAS) approaches include using a dedicated NAS device connected to your network, or connecting an external disk to the USB port on a wireless router.Īn advantage to this method is that any time you’re on the network, your Mac will backup automatically, eliminating the need to carry around an accessory or have one of your Mac’s ports constantly in use. If you don’t want to connect a disk directly to your Mac, you can use Time Machine to back up to one connected to your network. For example, if your Mac has 512GB of internal storage, you should get a 1TB, 1,024GB, external disk backups happen every hour when the disk is connected.

When purchasing storage, I would recommend getting something that is at least twice the size of your Mac’s internal storage. External hard drives and flash drives are readily available from various retailers, and are usually reasonably priced. Direct storageĭirect storage, as the name suggests, connects to your Mac directly via USB or Thunderbolt. If you want to make a backup that you can start up from immediately, use something like SuperDuper. Note: Time Machine is not cloning software, meaning you cannot boot your Mac directly from a Time Machine backup. In this guide, I will refer to this media broadly as the disk. Storage media, such as an external hard drive or flash drive, can either be directly connected to a Mac or over a network. When the external disk is full, the oldest backup will be deleted.

To use Time Machine, you’ll need external storage that is bigger than your Mac’s internal storage, as backups are made continuously over time. If the Mac is already set up, Time Machine backups can be restored using Migration Assistant, located in the Utilities folder. Likewise if you get a new Mac, the macOS Setup Assistant gives you the option to restore from a Time Machine backup, placing your data where you’d expect on the new Mac. If at any time you lose a file or something catastrophic happens to your Mac, you can “Go back in time” to retrieve the data. Time Machine is a backup utility built into macOS that allows you to create a backup of all your data on external storage that is updated every hour. This particular setup offers the dual advantage of having your content synced across multiple devices and having it stored in multiple locations. For example, you could back up your Mac’s entire disk with Time Machine and additionally store your documents and other files in iCloud Drive. Of course, like all backup solutions, it is not perfect, so it is generally advised to also have your data in another place, such as a cloud service.

#HOW TO BACKUP COMPUTER TO EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE TIME MACHINE HOW TO#

Thus in this guide, I will be discussing how to back up your Mac with Time Machine, the Mac’s built in backup utility. However, iCloud backup is not available on macOS. If you have an iOS or iPadOS device, you probably back up the data on it in iCloud. For this reason, it is advisable to always back up your data.

#HOW TO BACKUP COMPUTER TO EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE TIME MACHINE UPDATE#

The device’s internal storage, either a hard drive or solid state drive, could fail, complications could occur during an update or other system event, the device could get lost or stolen, or a flood or fire could break out at the device’s location. When your critical information is stored in only one medium, it is inherently vulnerable. If you own a computer or mobile device, there’s one thing you’ve probably heard time and time again, back up your data.

How to backup computer to external hard drive time machine