I have a new macbook air and wish to back up before applying any updates. How to determine how large a backup I need. Is time machine still used? If so is the harddrive connected on blue tooth. How would it be backed up automatically.
The hard drive is connected via cable. I only connect mine periodically (noting that there is a risk of losing data that changes between the times that I connect the drive if something goes wrong while the drive isn't connected). Time Machine backs up automatically when I connect the drive.
Also see: Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support
and
Backup disks you can use with Time Machine - Apple Support
The hard drive is connected via cable. I only connect mine periodically (noting that there is a risk of losing data that changes between the times that I connect the drive if something goes wrong while the drive isn't connected). Time Machine backs up automatically when I connect the drive.
Also see: Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support
and
Backup disks you can use with Time Machine - Apple Support
Also note the following from Backup disks you can use with Time Machine - Apple Support if you neve want to connect the external drive via a cable to the Mac.
Network-attached storage (NAS) device that supports Time Machine over SMB
Many third-party NAS devices support Time Machine over SMB. For details, check the documentation for your NAS device.
Our backup drives are attached directly to the Macs via USB cable.
My wife who uses her MBP mostly portable; the drive is connected only after she has done significant work. For my MBP used for streaming the drive is always attached.
Our Backup drives are twice the size of the internal drive.
We used TM in the past and it was entirely sufficient. I elected to go to Carbon Copy Cloner for greater flexibility and control.
Do I leave hard drive in permanently? Or is it a bluetooth connection.
