Different people will express different views on what or how to best do backups. Allow me to offer some useful thoughts.
- Time Machine came with your computer's operating system and it will do backups. It apparently no longer backs up email messages, however. And there are regular reports here on this forum of T.M. stopping doing backups for some reason.
- Carbon Copy Cloner is a purchased app which reliably does backups (I really like it). It does back up your emails, is easy to use and has some valuable additional features which are noted on their web site. It can also be installed on other computers in the same household.
- These backup apps can back up as needed according to what you schedule them to do - daily, certain times, etc.
- Backups should be done to an external disk which is at least twice the size of your computer's HD. Many excellent ones are available at reasonable costs and which are easily connected with vendor provided USB cables.
- You can also manually back up all your files (and other data) by dragging them to a backup disk. Then you add new files or drag over any files which have been modified. This way, you can be up to date to the minute.
- There are also on line backup services for a fee. Note - iCloud is NOT a backup service. It is designed for cross platform sharing of files.
- Some people recommend backing up to more than one source. (I do.)
- Never backup files to your computer's HD. When it fails, everything will be lost.
- Keep in mind that eventually all disks will fail, so I recommend replacing the important backup disk(s) periodically. I suggest waiting no longer than 5 years.
That's more than you asked for, but it should be helpful.
