What is the best way to back up my MacBook Air?

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Level 1

13 points

What is the best way to back up my MacBook Air?

I want to back up my laptop just in case something happens to it. I have icloud drive set up and turned on. I'm pretty sure I have it set up to sync everything with cloud drive, but there's a chance I set it up incorrectly. I'm not worried about this because I plan to start backing up the laptop with time machine. What is the best way to do this? I have read the support articles and just can't decide which option to go with. Does apple sell an official external storage drive for backing up with Time Machine? If so, how big of an external drive do I need to buy? Is this truly the best way to back up? If I back up to an external drive, do I have to plug my laptop into the external drive every time I want to back up my laptop. This would get annoying. Can it back up my laptop wirelessly? I'd greatly appreciate any product recommendations or ideas you have. What do most people do? Thanks!

MacBook Air

Posted on Feb 9, 2021 11:26 PM

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Answer 1

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Jack-19

Level 8

45,842 points

Feb 10, 2021 1:49 AM in response to seod27

Hi there,

Backing up with Time Machine is a great thing to do, and the best way. Apple does not sell an external hard drive, but they do sell some third party options. It is also very difficult to setup a wireless Time Machine backup, and is often unreliable. So yes, the drive must be connected to the Mac for backups. For size, you want a drive at least 2 times the size of your internal drive in your Mac.

However, I will always recommend the following items. They are reliable and fast:

If you want a portable backup drive: G-DRIVE Mobile USB-C (https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/portable-drives/g-technology-g-drive-mobile-usb-c-usb-3-1-hdd#0G10264-1)
If you want a “desktop” backup drive: G-DRIVE USB-C (https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/external-drives/g-technology-g-drive-usb-c-usb-3-1-hdd#0G05666-1)

I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Jack

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Answer 2

PRP_53

Level 10

86,101 points

Feb 10, 2021 2:49 AM in response to seod27

The Time Machine Backup route is always suggested whether via direct connection to external drive or via NAS drive. One could and should also consider adding Two Tested Clones of the internal drive to Two separate External Drive as part of an emergency recovery plan - the Insurance policy incase major issues arising.

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What is the best way to back up my MacBook Air?

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