HT201250: Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac
Learn about Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac
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Helpful answers
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Jun 11, 2016 7:17 PM in response to Jt_primeby macjack,If it starts up, use either Time Machine and/or a cloning utility like SuperDuper or CarbonCopy Cloner.
The advantage of the clone is that it is bootable. So if anything happens to your internal drive, you can continue to work normally until it’s fixed. The clone also has the same file structure as your internal so you can drag and drop files. The advantage of TM is that it creates recursive backup, so you can restore a file or the entire drive from a certain point in time.
If you can't startup (usually graphic issues don't prevent normal startup) your only choices are another disk with a bootable system on it, or if you have access to another mac by using Firewire Target Disk mode. Boot your Mac into Target Disk Mode and the other Mac normally. Your disk will appear as a connected disk on the other computer.