Q: How best to backup MacBook Air?
I am having problems with Mail and also screen going off to the right. Maybe indicates vulnerability. I forgot how to back up.WIth older Mac I had extra hard drive.
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
Posted on May 20, 2016 4:51 PM
Get an external USB hard drive. TimeMachine is Apple’s backup software and it works by backing up any files that have changed every hour (assuming the drive is connected continuously while you are using the computer). You can also manually trigger a backup whenever you want. Due to the way it works it is best to look at how much your drive is being used now, guesstimating how much more you’ll be using about a year from now, adding the two together and then doubling it. That number is the smallest drive you should get.
In other words, I’m using 270GB right now and in the coming year I’ll add a few more movies and CDs to my collection, not to mention photos and papers. So I figure I’ll probably add another 30GB. That gives me 300GB so I’d want at least a 600GB drive. Might as well get a 1TB drive. This should let me make TimeMachine backups for well over a year before it begins deleting old files.
Once you get the drive you’ll probably need to format it. Here’s instructions: Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture - Apple Support (Ignore the part about Aperture) You can find external drives just about anywhere but I prefer OWC drives because the enclosures are high quality and they use top notch drives.
Posted on May 23, 2016 12:43 PM