Even with that syncing process, I still use a Time Machine Drive (and Backblaze) as a fail safe. I am all in on iCloud Drive, so my Documents and Desktop folders are synced to iCloud. These “folder that sync” solutions are better than nothing, but I wouldn’t rely on them as my only backup. This process is the same for Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive. 2-way sync means that if another device deletes the data, it gets removed from other devices. Is iCloud a backup? While data hosted on Apple’s servers isn’t likely to go away accidentally, it’s 2-way sync. While a Time Machine drive is easy to restore from, a clone drive is bootable (hold option when your Mac boots up). When would you need a cloned drive? It would be useful if your drive dies, and you need to finish a document, presentation, etc. SuperDuper offers a free option (with upgrade) while CCC is paid only. I’ve used both of them extensively, and they are doing a great job of staying up to date with macOS updates. For cloning, I like both SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner. This process will need to be done a different drive than your Time Machine backup (unless you partitioned them, but that is not recommended). With Time Machine, you can plug up your hard drive to a new Mac (or a Mac with a new drive), and use Apple’s Migration Assistant to bring back all your data.įor someone who has mission-critical needs, making a clone of your hard drive is recommended. While other solutions allow for offsite backup, they can be slower and more cumbersome to recover from compared to something local. Time Machine is without a doubt the fastest way to recover from a damaged Mac. I recommend this as the first step in a multi-layered backup approach. The first backup will take a little while, but future backups will be pretty fast. The premise of it is that you plug up an external drive to your Mac, and Time Machine will make a copy of what’s on there. Time Machine has been around since Mac OS X Leopard, and, while it hasn’t changed a lot on the surface, it’s continued to do precisely what it needs to do. Here’s my guide on how to back up your Mac: The most important thing I can communicate is you need to act like all of your devices have a chance of breaking tomorrow, and you need to be prepared. Don’t forget about data losses due to theft, fire, and accidental damage (spilled drinks, drops, etc.). Even in the age of flash storage and SSDs, failures still happen. If you are hesitant to pay for anything, think of it like this: If your hard drive crashed, and I offered to restore everything for less than a meal at a restaurant, you’d take me up on it. I am often asked by friends and family about backups, so I wanted a way to just send a simple article they can follow. Unlike iOS, there is no built-in cloud backup feature that will cover everything on your device to an offsite server. This article is meant to serve as the most up to date guide to backing up your Mac.
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