How to back up MAC OS using Time Machine. How to back up a Mac with Time Machine Can I use a drive to back up multiple computers

No matter who you are, you should always back up your Mac. It's like life insurance, except for your digital files. You never know when something might happen to your Mac and you should always have a plan. Reserve copy in case of emergency; someone might spill a drink on your Mac, your hard drive might crash, you might lose your Mac, and your Mac might even get a virus on rare occasions.

So you want to know how to do backup your Mac? In this article, you will learn about many ways and better ways backup your Mac. We have 5 tips for you on how to backup mac devices And we even have a bonus tip that will make it easy to back up your Mac with just a few clicks.

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Article Guide

Option 1: How to backup Mac with Time Machine

1. Connect an external storage device to your Mac.

1. When your Mac connects successfully, your Mac may be asked if you want to use Time Mac
2. Click "Use as a backup disk".

If there is no warning, double check that the disc format is correct.
- It must be Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

If the warning still does not appear, you should:

1. Open system settings
2. Select Time Machine
3. Select Backup Disk
4. Then choose your storage device

Option 2: How to backup Mac via iCloud

1. Open System Preferences on your Mac
2. click on iCloud.
3. Sign in to iCloud.
4. Check the box next to iCloud.
5. Click on the "Settings" field in the iCloud row.
6. Check the box next to the things you want to keep in iCloud

In addition, you can:

1. Click Finder you will see iCloud Drive Folder in the panel on the left.
2. Move any folder on your Mac that isn't already in iCloud to your iCloud Drive .

Option 3: How to backup Mac with Dropbox

1. To come in
2. Download and install software
3. Once the software is installed on your Mac, open Dropbox
4. The web interface will open and you can copy your files there.
5. Click on Upload Files or Upload Folder on the right
6. Find the folder you want to download.
7. Click on Select.
8. Wait for the download to finish

In addition, you can also

1. When DropBox is installed on your Mac, you will see a Dropbox tab under Favorites in Finder. Just drag and drop anything into this folder and it will be saved to Dropbox.

Option 4: How to back up a Mac with an online backup service

Please note that the process for backing up your Mac will vary depending on the service, but in general it will be something like this:

1. Register an account, possibly a subscription or advance payment
2. Install their software and start the installation process.
3. The process may start immediately or you may need to initiate it yourself.
4. The process may take some time.
5. If you want the process to be faster, you can manipulate some of the settings or select only what you want to back up.

Option 5: How to backup your Mac by cloning your Mac

Please note that the process for cloning your Mac will vary depending on software, but in general it will look like this:

1. As with Time Machine, you'll need to connect an external mass storage device to your Mac.

• If you need to format external storage:
• Open Disk Utility
• Select external drive
• Click "Erase"
• Format options
• Select MacOS Extended (Journaled)
• Click Erase again

1. Open the cloning software.
2. Look for the "Copy" to external drive option.

** Make sure everything necessary files are copied, otherwise your clone may not boot.

1. You may be prompted for a password to confirm the transfer
2. Wait for the translation to finish

Before backing up your Mac, you should make sure that there are no junk files on your Mac. You don't want to back up your Mac along with all the other files you don't need. Junk files can also be the reason why your Mac is running slowly. You can even back up your files due to a virus on your Mac, but if you back up your Mac along with a virus, you may have other problems. So before you even start backing up your Mac, make sure you use Clean Up Your Mac.

PowerMyMac by iMyMac is a powerful all-in-one tool with many features to clean up your Mac. It has built-in tools like performance monitor, memory extractor, application uninstaller, smart cleanup and cleanup module.

Of the many features on PowerMyMac A cleaner module, we will teach you how to use the System Junk utility to clean junk files from your Mac. If you know how to use this tool, you will have an idea of ​​how to use other tools as the steps for this tool are similar to other tools.

1. Run the program.
2. Using the program's main interface, you should check your Mac's system status if everything is ok to avoid backing up a slow or infected version of your Mac.
3. Once you find that your Mac is fine, click on the "Cleaner" button and you will see "System Junk".
4. Click System Junk and the program will start scanning system cache, application cache, and other system components on your Mac. In the left circle you will see the progress of the scan.
5. After the scan is done, you should review the scanned items in case you don't want to delete certain files. If necessary, you can also return to the previous page to rescan if you find that some garbage is missing.
6. Click the "Clear" button to remove system junk files on your Mac. You may also need to enter a password when prompted.
7. Press the confirmation button after pressing the "Clear" button.
8. Let the cleanup process complete, but this may take some time.

Now that you know how to back up your Mac, just remember our bonus tip and don't forget to clean up your Mac before backing up your Mac. There are many ways to back up your Mac, but all of these options won't be enough if you don't clean up your Mac before backing up your Mac. Use any of these options to back up your Mac and don't forget to use before backing up your Mac.

By using a macOS backup, you can avoid problems such as data loss due to a drive failure or system problems that cannot be fixed.

Anything can happen - a failed system update, disk corruption, software and system errors, or there will be a need for a pre-configured and saved system. In this guide, you will learn how to back up macOS, protecting yourself from losing important data and other problems.

Create a backup using Time Machine

Time Machine automatically backs up hourly for the last 24 hours, daily, for a month, and every week for all past months. As the disk fills up, previously created copies will be replaced.

Connect an external drive to your Mac, go to System Preferences and open " time machine".

Click " Select backup disk".

Select an external drive, check the box " Encrypt copies" (for backup security) and click " Use Disk".

Create a password that will be used to encrypt your drive.

Important . If you forget your password, you will not be able to restore your backups.

If the drive is not properly formatted, you will be prompted to erase it.

After that, Time Machine will start periodically backing up your system.

If you want to disable automatic backup, just uncheck the " Create backups automatically".

If necessary, you can start the backup manually by selecting " Create a backup now".

And also, view the status of the backup, stop the backup, enter Time Machine and open the settings.

iCloud backup

Select the data you want to back up.

Don't forget to look into Options".

Now you can protect your data from loss and restore it when needed.

No matter how debugged the Mac platform is, there is always the possibility that, due to various circumstances, the user may lose his data, often quite important. most popular information backup tool in Mac OS X is Time program Machine that comes with the operating system. This rather well-thought-out application, for all its merits, has one noticeable drawback - the lack of advanced backup settings. The program indiscriminately copies everything that the user has on the disk. Meanwhile, the user does not always need to make a copy of the entire disk, quite often it is necessary to save only certain data. In this case, he will be helped by alternative applications from third-party developers, which include a small utility from a developer company with the funny name Grapefruit (Grapefruit).

The multilingual interface of the program is localized in 15 languages, including Russian. It cannot be said that the Russian localization was done flawlessly - somewhere there are untranslated phrases, somewhere the translation was made without taking into account the peculiarities of the Russian language ... However, all these translation shortcomings are found mainly in the program settings menu, where the user will occasionally look.

In the upper part of the program window there is a panel of program profiles, in the left part there is a list of groups of objects, the contents of which are supposed to be copied. In the right part of the window, a list of the contents of one or another selected group is shown. At the very bottom of the window there is a very small toolbar that also performs an informational function, displaying information about the selected profile. Additionally, you can display a retractable panel that displays information from the log file of performed operations. The display of this panel is controlled using the corresponding button on the toolbar.

All copy and restore operations are carried out using profiles that are created in a special section of the settings menu. Initially, iBackup already has two profiles, " Recovery" And " Backup copy“, the purpose of each of which can be guessed already by the name. In order to be able to make a backup copy of certain data with just one click of the mouse, the user will need to configure the profile, specify the folder where the data file should be saved and mark the objects that should be copied. We select the profile we need and, using the button Set..., set the folder for saving the backup file. Now we need to select objects for backup. To do this, go to the list of groups and select one or another group, for example System Settings. After selecting a group, the list of objects included in this group will be displayed in the right part of the application window. They need to be marked so that the program knows what it should copy. If you want to copy all the objects included in the selected group, then you do not need to check each element at all - just put a checkmark next to the name of the group and all elements of the group will be automatically selected.

After completing the selection of the objects we need, use the button Create located on the mini-toolbar — and the program will save a backup copy of the marked data to the specified folder. As you can see, the operation is quite simple and it can only be easier to restore data from a saved copy. To do this, in the profile Recovery specify the path to the file with saved data, mark those elements of the list of its contents that we want to restore, and press the button Restore.

We have now described the operation for one-time copying and restoring data. If the operation of copying the same data is supposed to be performed more than once, then during the next copying session you will no longer have to mark objects again - it will be enough to select the desired profile and use the button Create.

The undoubted advantage of the utility is that if you need a regular backup, all operations can be automated using the ability of the program to work on a schedule. In accordance with the additional profile settings specified in the tab Profiles program settings menu, iBackup can copy data to a specified folder daily, weekly or monthly, on specified days and hours. Additionally, you can set the program to end after a copy operation, put the computer into sleep mode, or turn it off completely. Before the start of the operation and after its completion, you can enable the execution of certain scripts.

iBackup can copy data not only to a specific folder on the local hard drive, but also upload them to a specified AFP or SMB server (unfortunately, the program does not work with FTP servers), and automatically disconnect from it after the download is complete. To do this, the user needs to set the full path to the desired folder on the remote server in the corresponding tab of the settings menu.

Why do we need several profiles, you will say, because one profile would be enough for saving and one for restoring. The use of several profiles opens up the possibility of storing data separately, for example, documents on mobile media, photos on remote server etc.

Initially, iBackup operates with 10 groups ( system settings, program settings, desktop, user home folder, programs, documents, movies, music, pictures, sites), which contains potential objects for copying. It is quite clear that the list of groups is based on the average Mac and it may not contain certain applications, data folders, etc. that are used on a particular user's computer. That is why the developers have provided the ability for the user to add any other folders and objects to the general list.

As for the groups System Settings And Program Options, then the situation is somewhat more complicated. The thing is that the utility can only back up the settings of those Mac OS X or third-party applications that it knows about. The utility takes information about applications and where exactly the files with their parameters are located from the corresponding plug-ins. The current version of iBackup can copy settings 26 Mac OS X applications (including settings operating system) and more 260 programs and games of third-party developers, which is quite enough for the average user.

If the plugin for the desired application was not found in the list, then there is an opportunity to create and upload your own plugin (the template for creating a plugin can be downloaded from the application developer's website). The plugin is an XML file, the analysis of the template of which showed that the only difficulty in creating the plugin will be the need to specify the paths to ALL the settings files of the selected application, and knowledge of the program code is not required.

The program settings menu is quite simple and consists of three tabs, one of which ( Plugins), you have already met in the previous screenshot. Tab Are common is responsible for general iBackup settings (including starting the application at login and automatically checking for updates).

All in all, iBackup is a simple and convenient solution for backing up and restoring almost any data on a user's hard drive. The function of launching the application at login and the ability to work according to a schedule make the program work almost imperceptible to the user, without diverting his attention to himself.

iBackup is completely free for private use and can be recommended to all those users who want to be able to selectively backup their data, with the ability to fine-tune to the level of a single folder or file.

Everyone knows that it is necessary to take care of the safety of data on a computer in advance. Most users understand this, but not always react. The reason may be both laziness and lack of experience of a bitter situation in which information can no longer be returned. In order not to become a hostage to an unpleasant situation, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with handy tool Arq for OS X and Windows, who knows a lot about backups.

If OS X users have a utility that does a good job of backing up, then Windows PC owners do not have regular tools for backing up data at all. Time Machine is also not ideal, and depending on the amount of information, a backup can take from several hundred megabytes to a couple of gigabytes, and you need a second medium for copying. But we live in a wonderful time when all important information can and should be stored in the cloud. So why not back up important data on it? The Arq program is ready to help with this issue.

Thanks to Arq, you can set up a backup of one or more folders in just a few clicks. True, the possibility of adding all system disk not completely, and it will also not be possible to restore the system, but the selected folders with important files will always be in a safe place.

Speaking of space, Arq supports several popular cloud storages such as Microsoft One Drive, DropBox, Google Drive or even your own SFTP server. Of course, domestic services like Yandex.Disk or Mail.ru, and even the same MEGA with free 50 GB, are not enough. It is also impossible to selectively configure them. So either we get used to the available number of free gigabytes on the storages available in the list of the program, or we purchase tariff plan with extended gigabytes.

The cool thing is that Arq allows you to add multiple storages to which you can back up both different and the same data, for increased security. By the way, all backups with data are encrypted, and information is transmitted via closed channels SSL/TLS.

The program for the first time performs a full copy of the data from the selected folders, and in the future it sends only the changed information, which saves a lot of traffic.

By default, a new backup is created every hour and we cannot increase or decrease the number of backups. The only options available are baud rate limiting and " Pause» for a specified time, available through the icon in the menu bar.

Each copy is displayed as a history, so that both all deleted/lost files and selected files can be recovered.

There are no more bells and whistles, and perhaps it is not necessary. Communication with the application comes down to adding cloud storage and backup folders. The rest of the time, Arq will quietly (don't forget to turn off notifications on your Mac) do its useful thing.

The program can be purchased once and for all for $40 (cloud storage tariffs are fully borne by the user), or by subscription - $10 a month, but in this case you will have the opportunity to access 250 GB of storage and receive up-to-date updates. For small companies, the Arq Business tariff plan is suitable - 5 TB in the cloud, remote access, advanced support and all program updates.

P.S.: The minimum system requirements are OS X 10.7 and Windows 7 or newer versions.

The latest version of Apple's operating system, OS X Mavericks, is available for download today. In this article, we will tell you how to save your data, update your operating system and prepare for latest version OSX.

Before you begin, you need to make sure you have everything you need. To back up your data, you'll need an external hard drive with at least the same amount of storage as your computer's (or Time Capsule's) hard drive. You also need to make sure your Mac can run Mavericks and make sure you have an iTunes account to purchase the upgrade.

Before installing the update, you must ensure that your device is compatible with Mavericks. Most of the information you need is on the About This Computer tab. To open it, click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of the screen, then click the "About this PC" button.

This window will allow you to see what operating system is installed on your computer, check if your software is up to date or not, find out how much memory your computer has, and also get a serial number to see what year it was purchased.

Because Mavericks is downloaded through the Mac App Store, you should be sure to check the version number on the About This Mac page for 10.6.8 or later. If you don't have 10.6 (also known as Snow Leopard), you can buy it online. When you click on "Software Update" the system will check for an update for your machine. We strongly recommend that you make sure that your software is up to date before installing the operating system. In addition, you must have at least 2 GB of RAM.

Here is a complete list of machines that are compatible with OS X Mavericks:

MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or early 2009 or newer)
iMac (mid 2007 or newer)
Mac Mini (Early 2009 or newer)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
Xserve (early 2009)
Macbook Pro(mid/late 2007 or newer)
Macbook Air(late 2008 or newer)

You can find out the exact year of manufacture of your Mac by its serial number:

Data backup

If your machine supports Mavericks, we recommend that you back up your data before upgrading.

If you're already using Time Machine, it's very easy to check when your data was last backed up and run it again if necessary. Just click on the Time Machine icon to see when the backup was completed. If you need to make another copy, just click on the "Back Up" button.

If you haven't backed up using Time Machine, let's discuss the different Mac backup methods using Time Machine. You have two options: using the Time Capsule, or using a third-party external hard drives.

1. Backup on Time Capsule. To set up your AirPort Time Capsule for backup, open System Preferences and click on the Time Machine button. Then click the "Select Disk" button and select your Time Capsule from the list that will appear.

2. Backup to an external hard drive. When connecting any external hard drive the first time, a pop-up window will appear asking you to use it for Time Machine.

Backup Encryption will allow you to encrypt your Time Machine backup using FileVault 2. It's up to you whether you want to encrypt the backup or not. This will give you an extra layer of protection with a password to access your backup, but encrypting your data can slow down the backup process noticeably.

Click on "Use as backup drive" and select which external hard drive to use with Time Machine. The first backup may take several hours, I would recommend doing it quickly so as not to interrupt the process. After the initial backup, Time Machine backs up only the files that have changed while the drive is connected hourly. If the drive is not connected when it's time for a backup, Time Machine will simply wait until the drive is connected again and continue working normally.

In addition to Time Machine backups, or instead of Time Machine backups, online backups can be used, although this can be much slower than using a local disk.
Installing Mavericks

Once yours has created all the backups, you are ready to download Mavericks from App Store. The download is free and takes about an hour, depending on your internet connection. Once it has finished downloading, the installer will automatically open and prompt you to get started. Click the "Continue" button to install.

The first part of the setup process simply involves agreeing to Apple's terms of use. Click the Agree button to continue. If you later decide that you want to read (or re-read) all of the terms, you can find them on the Apple website.

You need to re-confirm that you have read the terms.

Next, you will have to choose which drive you want to install OS X Mavericks to. For most it should be your inner hard drive, which is often the only choice, but if you have several partitions of the hard drive or multiple hard drives in your machine, choose the drive that best suits your needs.

In order to proceed with the installation, you need to enter the administrator password on the computer. This password is usually different from your Apple ID. This password is used when you log into your computer and is sometimes required to change settings. Not all users on a computer have a single administrator user, so it's important to make sure you're signed in to an administrator account. If you have more than one account on your computer, the administrator is usually the first user of the computer.

Now everything is ready for installation.

After a few minutes, the computer will automatically restart and the installation will begin.

The computer will boot to a black screen with a gray window showing the current progress of the installation. This usually takes about forty-four minutes, but sometimes it actually takes an hour and twenty minutes, depending on the speed of your machine.

If the progress bar seems to be stuck at "Less than a minute left," don't worry. This message is almost always wrong, and takes much longer than it says. Do not attempt to restart your computer during this step.

When the installation is completed, you will receive a message that the installation was successful. Your computer will restart for the last time. You are currently running OS X Mavericks. After the reboot, there are a few additional steps that you will need to complete in order to get back to using your Mac.

Even though the installation will complete, there are still a few things the installer needs to do before you can continue using your Mac. This process takes a few minutes, but is much faster than the previous step.

If the installer detects that you have old, incompatible versions of software on your computer, it warns you that those programs have been moved to the Incompatible Programs folder.

To start using the machine, click the "Start Using Mac" button. At this point, depending on the version of OS X that was updated, you may have to complete a few extra steps, such as signing in to (or creating) an iCloud account, which isn't very long and easy enough.

When you enter the desktop for the first time, two notifications will appear in the upper right corner of the screen. The first tells you that your Mac will be optimized for use with Mavericks, which will affect performance and time. battery life until completed.

And the second will offer to get acquainted with the features of the new operating system.

Clicking on the "Show" button will take you to a page on Apple's website detailing the changes to Mavericks. You can always find "What's new in OS X Mavericks" later using the Help menu in the Finder. The first option, "Help Center", will take you to the Mavericks user manual. The second option, What's New in OS X Mavericks, will take you to an Apple page that highlights some of the new features.

Congratulations! Your computer is now running OS X Mavericks. Over the next few days, we'll be posting a few help articles to help you get the most out of your updated Mac.

And if your computer is too old for Mavericks, it's time to upgrade! New MacBoo Pro, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro Retina Display are always in stock in our online store