Since you have purchased a new Apple computer to replace the old model, you are looking for a guide on the Internet that explains specifically how to make a Mac backup. In the next lines, we at Teknologya will propose some efficient solutions to save a copy of the desired data with a few simple steps.
Preliminary operations
Before discovering the steps to follow to make a backup of your Mac, you need to get an external hard drive. Naturally, the capacity of the disk must be equal to or higher than that of the PC disk, otherwise the backup operation will fail.
Once the hard disk is purchased, it must be formatted using the Mac OS Extended Journaled file system. Let’s see how to proceed:
- Connect the hard disk to one of the USB ports of your Mac, open the Other folder of the Launchpad and press on Disk Utility to open the macOS tool.
- From the window that appears, press the name of the storage device through the left sidebar.
- In the next step, click on the Reset button located in the middle and then press the Format menu and choose Extended Mac OS (journaled).
- At this point, type the name to be assigned to the hard disk in the appropriate field and click on Initialize first and then Finish to complete the operation.
In case you have chosen to use a storage disk already in your possession, we advise you to make a backup of any files present on it since the operation will completely delete the content.
How to make a backup of the Mac with Time Machine
Apple computers implement an excellent tool to make a backup called Time Machine that saves files, applications and settings on a Mac. The backup created, then, can be restored on the new PC always using the same tool. In addition to this feature, Time Machine allows you to recover files deleted by mistake, restore them to a previous date or restore the entire operating system in case of problems.
That said, let’s see how to proceed:
- Connect the hard disk to the Mac in which to backup and wait for the dialogue box to appear, where you have to click on the button Use as backup disk.
- At this point, the computer will start to automatically copy all the data on its hard drive to the external one. If desired, you can also set a backup protection key by enabling the Backup disk encryption option before pressing the button.
- After clicking on the button, you will not have to do anything anymore as Time Machine will copy the files completely automatically.
If any dialog box had not appeared to HDD connection, then open the System Preferences from MacOS pressing icon gear present in the Dock, click on Time Machine and pressed on Select Backup Disk.
Then, choose the disk to be used for saving files, check the box next to Encrypt the backup if you want to add a password and press on Use disk. In addition to this, make sure that the Back up automatically option is activated in the left sidebar (under the Time Machine icon).
If you have a network disk and want to use it to backup your Mac using Time Machine, then you must first connect it to the USB port on the back of the modem/router (if you do not know where it is, take a look to the user manual) and then connect to your network with your Mac .
You should have a router AirPort Extreme 802.11 ac of Apple or a Time Machine, make sure it is activated partition for backup. Start the AirPort Utility on your computer (found in the Other folder ), press the Apple router name and then click on Edit to access the network device settings. In case it was the first time you access the device, you will need to enter the password.
From the window that appears, click on the Disks tab, choose the disk or partition to be used with Time Machine in the Partitions pane, check the Enable file sharing option and click on Update to save the changes. For further information, we suggest that you read carefully the instructions on the page Backup disks used with Time Machine on the Apple website.
After correctly creating the backup with the Cupertino colossus utility, you can restore it on the new Mac in a very simple way. In this case, we recommend that you carefully read the steps in our guide on how to restore a Time Machine backup.
How to make a backup of the Mac with iCloud
If your intent is to back up only documents, photos and videos, then you can simply use iCloud, the cloud storage service offered by Apple.
Let’s see how to proceed:
- From the desktop, press the Apple logo at the top left of the menu bar and choose System Preferences.
- From the screen that appears, press iCloud and, if necessary, log in to your Apple ID by entering your e-mail address and password.
- By pressing the Manage button at the bottom right, you can find out how much storage space you have available in your account ( 5 GB free for the basic profile ) or increase it by clicking on Edit storage plan and choosing the desired one among the proposed plans.
- At this point, to enable the backup of files and documents on iCloud, check the item iCloud Drive.
- To transfer a favorite file to the Apple cloud storage platform, simply drag and drop the file to the iCloud Drive entry found in the left sidebar of the Finder. Alternatively, in the Save dialog box, choose the iCloud Drive option.
All the files on iCloud can be seen on all the other devices on which you have accessed the Apple service, then iPhone, iPad and iPod but also from the iCloud.com website or by installing the official client for Windows PC. Obviously, you need to log in to the same Apple ID. Once finished, now just follow the same directions on the new mac and gain access to your iCloud Drive simply using the Finder of MacOS.
How to make a backup of the Mac with Carbon Copy Cloner
To get a 1:1 clone of your Mac’s hard disk, then you need to rely on third-party software called Carbon Copy Cloner instead of Time Machine. Before seeing its operation, we would like to clarify that it is a paid software with a cost of $39.99 but it is possible to try it for free for 30 days in order to test its operation and the features proposed.
That said, we discover the steps to follow:
- Open Safari or the default browser on your computer Apple, connect to the Internet site of Carbon Copy Cloner and pressed the green button Download 30-Day Trial to proceed with the download.
- Once the installation is complete, open the program, choose whether to enable the automatic search for any updates and press the Test button to start testing the paid version.
- From the Carbon Copy Cloner main screen, click on the Select source button and choose the Mac disk to back up.
- After that, click on Select destination and choose the external hard disk on which to clone the internal PC.
- If you do not want to save a copy of all the files, click on the drop down menu of Copy all files (in the Source section ) and choose the Copy some files option. From the window that appears, deselect the folders not to be included in the backup and adjust the various settings according to your preferences.
- By pressing on Advanced Settings, you can choose whether to execute a script before and/or after cloning the unit or to activate or deactivate troubleshooting options (eg do not update the most recent files in the destination or do not keep the extended attributes).
- At this point, to start the backup process, press the Clone button on the right and enter the password of your user account. Alternatively, you can program it by pressing the No programming button specified and setting the date to start the 1:1 backup process. In addition to this, press the drop-down menu Do not send email (next to @ ), you can allow the software to send you e-mail notifications in case of errors during the backup phase.
On the new Mac, you can restore the backup copy created previously with Carbon Copy Cloner in a very simple way. Here are the steps
- Connect the external hard disk where there is a backup to one of the USB ports of the new computer and then open the System Preferences by pressing the gear in the MacOS Dock.
- Once this is done, click on Startup Disk, press the closed lock on the bottom left and enter the administrator password to unlock the features.
- Now you need to set the external HDD as a boot disk. Simply press the name of the unit in question and click on the Restart button. Alternatively, when starting up the PC, hold down the Alt key on the keyboard and select the backup unit from the menu that appears.
- The last step is to start Carbon Copy Cloner from the external HDD and clone the contents on the hard disk of the new Mac.