Back up with Time Machine
To start regularly backing up your files with Time Machine, your Mac’s builtin backup software, grab a portable hard drive and connect it to your Mac. This drive needs to house the contents of your Mac HD, so check the size by clicking on the Apple menu and going to About This Mac>storage and seeing how it compares to your Mac storage. All being good, follow these steps to back up your Mac.
1 Set it up
Go to System Preferences>time Machine and then click on the ‘Select Disk’ button. You will now be able to choose your connected portable hard drive from the list of possible backup disks.
2 Encrypt it
To make your backups more secure, tick the ‘Encrypt backups’ box at the bottom of the window and then, with your portable HD selected, click on the ‘Use Disk’ button to proceed to the next step.
3 Add password
If you have chosen to encrypt your backups (recommended), then you will be required to enter a backup password. Provide and verify a password (and a hint) and then click on ‘Encrypt Disk’.
4 Initiate backup
Make sure that the ‘Back Up Automatically’ option is ticked and Time Machine will countdown to an auto-backup. Leave it running in the background and the contents of your Mac HD will be backed up.
5 Easy access
In the Time Machine System Preferences, tick the ‘Show Time Machine in menu bar’ option and this will place a handy access icon to the right of your Mac’s menu bar. Click on it.
6 Find files
From the menu bar item, choose ‘Enter Time Machine’ and then use the timeline on the right to scroll to a particular time or date and then you’ll be able to navigate through the files in the backup.
7 Retrieving files
To retrieve an older version of a file, highlight it and click on the ‘Restore’ button. If the file that is being restored is going to replace a more current one, then choose from the options that pop up.
8 Back up anytime
Even if your Mac is scheduled to back up every hour, you can override this and make a backup whenever you want by clicking the menu bar item and choosing ‘Back Up Now’.