Jul 09, 2020 Best Data Recovery Software for External Hard Drive Having an external hard drive, although more expensive than a regular SATA HDD, can be a great thing. It removes the clutter from the drive you use daily, and can also serve as a backup of files in case of a power outage, hardware failure, or even a virus attack. Backup Mac to External Hard Drive with Time Machine Time Machine is the built-in feature on Mac for users to backup files hourly for the last 24 hours. The old backup files will be deleted when the storage is full. You can backup Mac to external hard drive with Time Machine if.
- Mac Software To Backup Specific Files To External Drive Mac
- Backup Entire Computer To External Hard Drive
- Backup Windows 10 To External Drive
You can use Time Machine, the built-in backup feature of your Mac, to automatically back up all of your files, including apps, music, photos, email, documents, and system files. When you have a backup, you can restore files from your backup if the original files are ever deleted from your Mac, or the hard disk (or SSD) in your Mac is erased or replaced.
Create a Time Machine backup
To create backups with Time Machine, all you need is an external storage device. After you connect the device and select it as your backup disk, Time Machine automatically makes hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for all previous months. The oldest backups are deleted when your backup disk is full.
Connect an external storage device
Connect one of the following external storage devices, sold separately. Learn more about backup disks that you can use with Time Machine.
- External drive connected to your Mac, such as a USB, Thunderbolt, or FireWire drive
- External drive connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11ac model) or AirPort Time Capsule
- AirPort Time Capsule
- Mac shared as a Time Machine backup destination
- Network-attached storage (NAS) device that supports Time Machine over SMB
Select your storage device as the backup disk
When you connect an external drive directly to your Mac, you might be asked if you want to use the drive to back up with Time Machine. Select Encrypt Backup Disk (recommended), then click Use as Backup Disk.
An encrypted backup is accessible only to users with the password. Learn more about keeping your backup disk secure.
If Time Machine doesn't ask to use your drive, follow these steps to add it manually:
- Open Time Machine preferences from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Or choose Apple () menu > System Preferences, then click Time Machine.
- Click Select Backup Disk (or Select Disk, or Add or Remove Backup Disk):
- Select your external drive from the list of available disks. Then select ”Encrypt backups” (recommended) and click Use Disk:
If the disk you selected isn't formatted as required by Time Machine, you're prompted to erase the disk first. Click Erase to proceed. This erases all information on the backup disk.
Enjoy the convenience of automatic backups
Free cad viewer software for mac windows 10. After you select a backup disk, Time Machine immediately begins making periodic backups—automatically and without further action by you. The first backup may take a long time, depending on how many files you have, but you can continue using your Mac while a backup is underway. Mac book pro screen shot software parental controls. Time Machine backs up only the files that changed since the previous backup, so future backups will be faster.
To start a backup manually, choose Back Up Now from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Use the same menu to check the status of a backup or skip a backup in progress.
Learn more
- If you back up to multiple disks, you can switch disks before entering Time Machine. Press and hold the Option key, then choose Browse Other Backup Disks from the Time Machine menu.
- To exclude items from your backup, open Time Machine preferences, click Options, then click the Add (+) button to add an item to be excluded. To stop excluding an item, such as an external hard drive, select the item and click the Remove (–) button.
- If using Time Machine to back up to a network disk, you can verify those backups to make sure they're in good condition. Press and hold Option, then choose Verify Backups from the Time Machine menu.
- In OS X Lion v10.7.3 or later, you can start up from your Time Machine disk, if necessary. Press and hold Option as your Mac starts up. When you see the Startup Manager screen, choose “EFI Boot” as the startup disk.
There are multiple reasons for you to backup mac to external hard drives, either for file security, saving space or keeping privacy:
- Taking the file security into consideration, it is always right to keep at least 2 copies of a file. Who knows whether the file will be deleted intentionally or unintentionally on your Mac, or your macOS crash accidently.
- Space on a Mac is limited. Whether you’re using MacBook Pro or iMac，instead of buying a Mac with more storage, it is cost-efficient to using external hard drives to back up files from Mac.
- Whether you’ll resell, donate or give your Mac away, you must have some important files on the Mac, needing you to back them up for future use. After then, you can delete them from the Mac permanently because the Mac will never belong to you any more.
Sum it up, no matter for what reason, you need to backup your Mac to external hard drives. If you don’t know how to do it, follow the guide below:
Part 1. Backup Selected Files from Mac to External Hard Drive
It is much wiser to back up single files from Mac to external hard drive, because whenever you need a file, you can check out it from the external hard drive right away. Basically, you can do it by copying & pasting files one-by-one from Mac to the external hard drive. It is quite easy and simple to copy and paste files from Mac to the external hard drive, but it takes a long time and needs your patient. Most important of all, you need to be clear where the target files are.
Part 2. Backup Mac to External Hard Drive with Time Machine
Time Machine is the built-in feature on Mac for users to backup files hourly for the last 24 hours. The old backup files will be deleted when the storage is full. You can backup Mac to external hard drive with Time Machine if you want to restore your Mac with the backup later. Here are the simple steps:
Mac Software To Backup Specific Files To External Drive Mac
Step 1. Connect the external hard drive with your Mac firmly, making sure your Mac can detect the external hard drive. Generally, when connected successfully, a pop-up will appear, asking you whether to use the drive to back up with Time Machine or not. Please check 'Encrypt Backup Disk' and select 'Use as Backup Disk'.
If no window like this pop up after connecting the external hard drive with your Mac, please click the Apple logo on the top left side of Mac > System Preferences > click Time Machine. Next, click 'Select Backup Disk, Select Disk, or Add or Remove Backup Disk.' After then, select a backup disk from the list, then click 'Use Disk'.
You have successfully set up using the external hard drive to backup your Mac with Time Machine. After then, it will backup your Mac to the external hard drive automatically. To make sure the success of backing up Mac to the external hard drive with Time Machine, I suggest you do it manually: choose 'Back Up Now from the Time Machine menu', then it begins to back up. For the first backup, it may take longer. It fully depends on the scale of your files on Mac.
If you haven’t backed up the important files from Mac to external hard drive and lost them accidently, there is still a chance to recover them with the help of iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac. It is a professional and trustworthy tool specially developed to help users to get back lost and deleted files. Here are the simple steps for how to use iBeesoft Data Recovery to recover lost and deleted files on Mac.
Step 1. Download and install iBeesoft Data Recovery on your Mac. It is a standalone tool, which is able to work separately, no extra tool is needed at all. Feel free to use it, it is virus-free.
Step 2. Select the file types you want to recover from your Mac to external hard drive. By default, all supported files are checked. You need to ensure the unwanted ones are unchecked. It will save you time for the scanning process. Click 'Start'.
Backup Entire Computer To External Hard Drive
Step 3. Select the partition where your lost files were stored and click 'Scan'.
Backup Windows 10 To External Drive
Step 4. After the scanning process, filter out the wanted files by selecting the file type in the left side with its extension. Select the files you want to retrieve to the external hard drive and click 'Recover', saving them to your Mac or the external hard drive on Mac.