Students, staff, and faculty will be able to backup their data in macOS / OS X. Backing up your personal data is essential to prevent the loss of important documents. Time Machine is the built-in backup application for Macs that works with an external hard drive. The application automatically backs up the entire Mac, including items such as system files, applications, accounts, preferences, emails, pictures, videos, and documents. If you keep your external drive connected at all times, Time Machine will back up every hour for 24 hours per day until the drive is full.

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Viewing the Amount of Data Saved on Your Mac Prior to Backup

1. Open 'Finder' and within finder, open up the Macintosh HD.
2. In Macintosh HD, find the 'Users' folder and right click on it and select Get Info.
3. In Get Info, you should be able to identify the number of user files that are present and require backup.

Types of Data and Its Location on Your Mac

User Profile Location:

Back up all of your content to the cloud – easily access your files in Google Drive and your photos in Google Photos. Download Backup and Sync for Mac Download Backup and Sync for Windows. Apple Mac computers might be well built and feature-filled, but buying a Mac doesn’t mean you’re safe from data loss. All good tech can fail, and it’s important to know how to backup a Mac.

• /Macintosh HD/Users/Username/

Data Backup Methods for Your Mac

Info

Time Machine backs up the entire Mac automatically. This includes system files, applications, accounts, preferences, music, photos, movies, and documents. Time Machine is available on all Macs running Leopard (10.5) and newer.

Setting up Time Machine with an External Drive

1. Connect an external hard drive to the Mac via USB, Thunderbolt, or FireWire.
2. Time Machine will automatically ask if you want to use the drive for backups.
3. Select Use as Backup Disk.
4. A countdown for when the backup will begin will be displayed on the Time Machine window. Once the countdown is complete, the backup will begin.
5. A progress bar will appear in a new window that will show you how much data has been backed up and remaining time.
6. If you decide at any point during the backup that you do not want to continue or that you do not want to use Time Machine to back up your data, hit the X in the gray circle next to the progress bar.
7. Time Machine will now back up the Mac either every hour or every time the disk is connected.
   

Warning

Any external drive being used to back up a Mac must be formatted in the same format as your Mac hard drive. When Time Machine opens, it will prompt you to Erase the backup disk. If the drive is new or if you have a secondary backup of the data on the drive, select Erase to use the drive with Time Machine.

Selecting Items to Exclude From Time Machine on Your Mac

1. Open SystemPreferences > Time Machine and click Options.

2. A window will open, allowing you to add items to be excluded from the Backup.

3. Click the + icon to add items to exclude.

4. Finder will open so you can select files that you do not want to back up. (For example, Dropbox and Google Drive are already backed up through butt storage)

5. Click Save to save the changes.
6. Click Done.

Including Items in Backup

If you want to include these items in the backup, select the item listed and click the - button. This will include these items in the backup.

Manual Data Backup on Your Mac

1. With an External Drive Connected
2. Open Finder and in finder open up the Macintosh HD.
3. In the Macintosh HD, find the 'Users' folder and right click on it.
4. Click Get Info.
5. In Get Info, the backup size is listed in the upper right of the window.
6. Open a new Finder Window
7. Navigate to the External Device
8. Drag your user folder to the External Device Window

Finding Files Using Finder on Your Mac

Backup Utility For Mac Os X

1. Open Finder. The search box is in the top right-hand corner.
2. Type in a filename or keyword. Finder will search the entire computer and connected devices for files containing those characters.

Find Files Using Spotlight Search on Your Mac

1. Open Spotlight Search
   1. On the Menu Bar press the Magnifying Glass icon in the top right corner
   2. Press the Command + Space keys consecutively
2. Type in a filename or keyword
   
   1. Spotlight Search will search the entire drive and display Applications, Documents, etc. Spotlight Search will also show information from Siri, and the web.

Related articles

Sep 06, 2020 • Filed to: Take Data Backup • Proven solutions

Most of the Mac users believe that their system can’t be infected by malware, which is a common misconception. Just like any other device, Macs can also get corrupted and suffer from an unexpected data loss. Therefore, it is important to know how to backup Mac to iCloud to safeguard your crucial information. To help our readers effortlessly achieve the same, we have come up with this comprehensive guide. Read on and learn different ways to backup Mac to iCloud right away.

• Part 1: Why Do You Need to Backup Your Mac to iCloud??
• Part 2: How to Backup Mac System and Files
• Part 3: How to Backup Your Mac to iCloud
• Part 4: How to Manage iCloud Storage Space
• Part 5: How to Retrieve Lost Data on Mac?

Part 1: Why Do You Need to Backup Your Mac to iCloud??

Before performing a backup operation, lots of users ask about its need. It is a misconception that iOS devices or Macs can’t beaffected by a virus or malware attack. Over the last few years, we have seen the occurrence of various cyber attacks that were essentially targeted for Mac. Appetite, Mac Scareware, Lamadai, and Coin Thief are some of the common threats that can cause some serious damage to your system.

Therefore, if you wish to prevent your data files from getting infected by malware (or accidental deletion of data), then you need to take a backup of your device. You can either take a backup of Mac on iCloud or any other external hard disk. Since one can access the information from the cloud almost anywhere, it is ideally recommended to backup Mac to iCloud promptly.

Part 2: How to Backup Mac System and Files

While performing the backup operation, you can either take the backup of your entire system or selectively make a copy of your important files.

1. System backup

In a nutshell, the system backup makes an entire clone of Mac’s storage on a secure device. Mostly, Time Machine is used to take the local backup of Mac. Since it is already a part of Mac, no additional tool is needed to perform the system backup. All you need is a mass storage unit that is supported by Time Machine totake a complete backup of the system. Simply open the Time Machine app and turn on the option. You can also select the disk(s) that you wish to backup.

There are also plenty of third-party backup applications that can back up your entire system. For instance, tools like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy can be used to mirror your entire hard drive while taking its backup.

2. Selective file and data backup

If you have limited space, then you can also choose to back up selected files. Even though it is a more time-consuming process, it will help you save your space. At the same time, you would be able to make a copy of all the essential files. Just go to Finder and look for the file you wish to back up. Later, you can just make its copy and save it to any other location/device.

One can either copy the data files manually to an external drive or can simply backup Mac to iCloud. We will learn about the latter in the next section.

Part 3: How to Backup Your Mac to iCloud

If you don’t want to lose your precious data, then you should know how to backup Mac to iCloud. By default, Apple provides free storage of 5 GB on iCloud for every Apple ID. Though, you can always buy added space on the cloud by paying a small amount. One of the best things about taking a backup on iCloud is that it can be accessed from anywhere.

Before proceeding, make sure that you have an updated version of OS X and have enough space on the cloud. You can check it from its official website right here as well. To learn how to backup Mac to iCloud, follow these simple steps.

Step 1To start with, go to the System Preferences on your Mac and launch iCloud.

Step 2If you are using iCloud for the first time, then you would be asked to provide your Apple ID and password to sign in.

Step 3Once it is done, you can simply check the kind of data files you wish to store on iCloud. For instance, you can enable the data on Safari, Mail, Notes, etc. to be uploaded on iCloud.

Step 4You can also visit the Photo settings to turn on the options for iCloud Photo Library, My Photo Stream, and iCloud Photo Sharing. This will let you access your photos on different devices easily.

Step 5Alternatively, there would also be a dedicated iCloud Drive on your Mac. To backup your data files, you can make a copy of your content on the drive or simply drag and drop a file on the drive as well.

Part 4: How to Manage iCloud Storage Space

Most of the users complain about the limited space on iCloud. If you are also suffering from the lack of space, then follow these tips beforehand.

1. Manage iCloud space

If you are running low on iCloud storage, then start by knowing how it is being utilized by different data files. Just launch the iCloud app on Mac and click on the 'Manage' button. This will let you devise how to get rid of the data you no longer need.

2. Turn off backup from multiple devices

If you are taking the backup of several devices on the same iCloud account, chances are that it might fall short on space. If it is not needed, then you can simply turn off backup from any other iOS device. Just go to its Settings > iCloud and turn off the feature of iCloud backup.

3. Buy more storage

If nothing else seems to work, simply buy more storage on iCloud. Just launch the iCloud app and click on the 'Manage' button. From here, you can click on the option of 'Buy more storage' and pick a plan of your choice.

• Allows you to take automatic, full, incremental, and differential backups of system, disk, partition, and files.
• Supports system restore, disk restore, dissimilar hardware restore, partition restore, and selective file restore.
• Supports disk clone, partition/volume clone, flexible clone, system clone, and command line clone.
• Supports Windows 10, Windows 8.1/8, Windows 7, Vista, and XP (all editions, 32/64-bit)

Backup Mac Os X To External Hard Drive

Part 5: How to Retrieve Lost Data on Mac?

While it is always recommended to make a timely backup of your Mac to avoid any loss of data, users still end up losing their files unexpectedly. If you have also lost your important data on Mac, then don’t worry. With the help of Recoverit, you can retrieve your lost files without much trouble. It is extremely secure and easy to use application that can recover more than 550 formats of files.

Backup Mac Os X Without Time Machine

Compatible with every major version of Mac, it has an easy to use interface and can perform an extensive search to retrieve your lost files. It supports different kinds of situations as well. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if you have accidentally deleted your files or if your Mac has been infected by malware, Recoverit will come handy to you on numerous occasions.

Your Safe & Reliable Mac Data Recovery Software

• Recover lost or deleted files, photos, audio, music, emails from any storage device effectively, safely and completely.
• Supports data recovery from recycle bin, hard drive, memory card, flash drive, digital camera, and camcorders.
• Supports to recover data for sudden deletion, formatting, hard drive corruption, virus attack, system crash under different situations.

Best Backup System For Mac

Now when you know how to backup Mac to iCloud, you can easily keep your data safe. Nevertheless, if you have lost your important data files, then simply take the assistance of Recoverit to get it back. Easy to use and extremely efficient, it will let you retrieve your lost data in no time.

How To Back Up My Mac