Backing Up Your Mac Made Easy

Time Machine is one of the built-in backup features/software on Mac, introduced alongside OS X 10.5 Leopard.

How Does Time Machine Work?

Time Machine operates with any external hard drive connected to the computer via USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt. Additionally, Time Machine supports Apple's Time Capsule and network-connected backup drives, supporting Apple File Protocol (AFP).

Simply having an external hard drive connected to your Mac allows you to use that hard drive to store Time Machine backups.

When activated, Apple's backup software swiftly captures all files and organizes them onto the external hard drive you've plugged into your Mac or Time Capsule connected over the network. Time Machine backs up the entire hard drive hourly, daily, and weekly. When the hard drive is full, Time Machine deletes the oldest backups and replaces them with newer ones.

This solution clearly outperforms traditional solutions like 'copying files to cloud services' or 'copying to external hard drives'. You don't need to restore the hard drive in case of losing a file; Time Machine can retrieve images, folders, and specific projects from its backup.

If your laptop is running Mac OS X Yosemite or newer versions and Time Machine is activated, it also enables a feature called Local Snapshots. This feature on OS X Yosemite allows you to save a single daily snapshot (as well as a single weekly snapshot) of your files for internal storage if the Time Machine drive is unavailable.

Local Snapshots backups occupy space on the hard drive. However, if your Mac starts to slow down, Local Snapshots will automatically 'prune' old backups to free up at least 20% of free space on the hard drive.

Can you remove specific data files from the backup?

Absolutely. You can filter and remove files from the backup by adding them to the Time Machine Preferences list.

Activate Time Machine for Mac Backup

Step 1: From the Apple Menu, select System Preferences.

Step 2: Choose the Time Machine icon.

Step 3: Click to select Select Backup Disk.

Step 5: Check the box Back Up Automatically to automatically backup your Mac to the selected drive.

How to Restore Files from Time Machine Backup

Step 1: From the Apple Menu, select System Preferences.

Step 2: Select the Time Machine icon.

Step 3: Check the box Show Time Machine in menu bar.

Step 4: After clicking the Time Machine icon on the Menu Bar, select Enter Time Machine.

Step 5: Search for the file or folder in the question dialog, then click Restore.

Time Machine will copy files back to their original location on the hard drive.

How to Exclude Files from Time Machine

Time Machine automatically backs up your Mac with all data, but if desired, you can remove specific files.

Step 1: From the Apple Menu, select System Preferences.

Step 2: Click to select Time Machine.

Step 3: Click on Options….

Step 4: Click on the + button.

Step 5: Select the files or folders you want to exclude.

Step 6: Click to select Exclude.

Step 7: Click on Save.

How to Restore Hard Drive from Time Machine Backup

Whenever your hard drive encounters issues or after upgrading your Mac, Time Machine can assist you in recovering data from the backup:

Step 1: Power on your Mac and press Command + R to access macOS Recovery Partition. Your Mac will boot into macOS Utilities screen.

Step 2: Choose Restore from Time Machine Backup and then click Continue.

Step 3: Read the information on the Restore Your System page and then click Continue.

Step 4: Select your Time Machine backup and then click Continue.

Step 5: Select the latest backup on your hard drive and click Continue. Your Mac will then restore from the Time Machine backup.

Once the restoration process finishes, your Mac will automatically restart.

If you've replaced your hard drive with a different 'blank' one, you can't boot from the macOS Recovery Partition. No need to worry though, you can still restore from the Time Machine backup: simply hold down the Option key while booting your Mac, then select the Time Machine backup drive as the startup disk.

Similarly, for Windows 8 users, refer to the Win 8.1 system backup method for future restoration needs. Detailed instructions on how to backup Win 8.1 system are available on Mytour. Wishing you successful implementation.