A copy of mac os. Forget about Time Machine

It's too late to back up your MacBook when you can't access these files. Even if you're careful enough about the security of your Mac, it's hard to say if you can protect its internal data. In other words, your Mac can be attacked by many situations, including malware, system crashes, update failure, accidental deletion, etc. To avoid these annoying incidents, you'd better mac backup to iCloud make a copy.

If you want to back up your Mac without an external hard drive, then iCloud is one of the best Mac backup software. You don't need to prepare external storage for Mac backups as iCloud offers 5GB free cloud storage and related plans. Therefore, this article shows you how to quickly and easily backup your MacBook to iCloud.

Part 1: Why Back Up MacBook to iCloud

As mentioned above, digital devices are now easily attacked by viruses and malware, including the MacBook Pro or MacBook Air. If you cannot afford to lose data, then it is absolutely imperative to back up your MacBook Pro to an external hard drive or cloud storage. And these two methods are also widely used by most Mac users to secure their MacBook data.

Some people may still wonder if backing up your Mac to an external hard drive using Disk Utility or Time Machine is better. Well, you can't deny the benefits of backing up your MacBook to an external hard drive, but you can also greatly benefit from iCloud backups. For example, you can access over-the-air backup information. Therefore, it doesn't matter if your external hard drive is in good condition or not. And once you are logged into your iCloud account, you can recover the data of any Apple product directly. As a result, you can move your Time Machine backup to iCloud for later use. And that's why Mac needs iCloud backup.

Part 2: How to Backup MacBook to iCloud

Once you set up iCloud to back up files on your Mac, it might work automatically. Moreover, you can restore all data from iCloud backup to new Mac wirelessly. Even though there is only 5GB of iCloud storage, you can upgrade with a flexible management plan. Therefore, the use of iCloud for Mac backups without Time Machine is discontinued.

Step 1

Open the Apple menu and select Software Update to see if there is an update available. Before backing up your MacBook to iCloud, you need to make sure your MacBook is running the latest version of OS X.

Step 2.Enable iCloud for MacBook backup

Launch "System Preferences" from the Apple menu. Then find "iCloud" and click on it. Sign in to your iCloud account using your Apple ID and password. You can view all the available file types to back up, including Photos, Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, and more, so it's pretty easy if you're going to back up documents to iCloud on Mac.

Step 3.Enable iCloud photo backup settings on Mac

Click Options next to Photos, and then you can check the iCloud Photo Library, My Photo Stream and iCloud Photo Sharing boxes according to your personal needs. After that, you can import the latest photos and watch videos on all Apple devices wirelessly. After all this, the MacBook will automatically backup to the iCloud drive.

Step 4

You can also open iTunes and find its preferences to set up automatic iTunes backups on Mac. Select "Downloads" and check the box next to "Music, Movies & TV" to back up your available files wirelessly. Click OK to save your changes.

If your left iCloud storage isn't enough to store your entire Mac backup to iCloud, you can click the Manage button in the bottom right corner to upgrade to a larger storage plan that starts at 50GB for just $ 0.99 per month.

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Bonus Tips: Backup and Restore Mac with Time Machine

If you want to back up your MacBook Air and MacBook Pro using Time Machine, you can follow these steps to fix the problem.

Section 1: How to Back Up MacBook to External Hard Drive

Step 1

Connect your external hard drive to your Mac and select Use as a backup drive when prompted to use it to back up your Mac with Time Machine.

Step 2

Select "Back Up Now" to back up your Mac data to an external hard drive. In addition, select the Automatic backup check box to automatically make hourly / daily / weekly backups as needed. The first time you use Time Machine to back up your Mac, it will take longer to complete the MacBook backup process.

Section 2: How to Restore Mac with Time Machine Backup

Step 1.Open the window you want to restore

For example, you need to open the Documents folder if you want to recover an accidentally deleted document.

Step 2.Recover MacBook with Time Machine

Open the Time Machine menu and select Enter Time Machine to locate a specific file from your previous backup file. Press the space bar to view in detail. Finally, click "Recover" to recover your Mac data from Time Machine selectively.

If you want to recover your entire Mac data, you can choose the "Recover from Time Machine" utility in MacOS Recovery.

With the above system backup and iCloud backup methods, you can detail the key points of backing up your Mac data. If these files are really important, then it's best to back up your MacBook to iCloud and Time machine at the same time. That's all for how to back up your MacBook to iCloud. Do not hesitate to contact us if you run into problems while backing up and restoring your Mac.

If you are still not backing up Mac OS X on a regular basis, you should be prepared for the fact that one day all your data may be irretrievably lost. There is hardly a single user who would say that this is not a problem for him. Even if your Mac is full of simple garbage, it is all the same dear garbage in the configuration you need, with which you have grown together, and its loss will sadly affect your state of mind. That is why you can and should regularly back up your disk. And even if you use an excellent antivirus, constantly check how everything works, you can still miss the "X" moment.

What if everything has already happened - the system fell, burying everything that was so dear to you under the rubble? Probably, for a start, try to save as much as possible with the help of special data recovery utilities. But this does not guarantee you a full refund: at best, you will be able to revive only part of what was on the hard drive. And then it's worth introducing a new habit - regular system backups.

I think that the real paranoid always keep several backups of irreplaceable, critical files, and in different places. And this is correct, because you never know when sclerosis will hit? But in fact, many do not even realize how conservative we are and how attached to our personal environment - our favorite system. And only after losing it, we begin to look for ways to prevent this from happening again. And there really are ways, and quite a lot. The most popular of these are Time Machine backups and Disk Utility tools.

Using Time Machine

So, if your Mac is running OS X 10.5 or later, the easiest way to back up your hard drive is to use the built-in Time Machine utility, which automatically backs up your system and all important files to an external hard drive or network. ... System files, digital photos, music, movies, documentation and more - all this will remain with Time Machine safe and sound. This utility allows you to truly "go back in time" to restore files in their original form at the moment when you need it.

Setting up Time Machine doesn't take much of your time. The utility dialog box appears as soon as the user connects a second drive to the Mac, you are politely asked if you want to use this tool for backup.

Your task is to answer “yes” by clicking on the “Use as Backup Disk” button. Basically, that's all. If suddenly your hard drive orders to live long, you can now not only restore all files, but also the complete configuration of the system before the "accident".

Backups are stored for the last 24 hours, week, month until the disk becomes full. After creating the first backup, the program will save only those files that have changed. If you have files that you do not need to save, configure the program to exclude their backup.

To do this, in the "System settings" of the program, click the "Options" button, and in the dialog box that appears, specify the files and folders that should not be copied. Time Machine can also be started manually. To do this, select "Back up now" in the Program Menu.

Restoring Time Machine backups is as easy as launching the program itself. To do this, click the Time Machine icon, opening a window in which you should select the desired file using the timeline on the right. Be sure to make sure that this is indeed the version you were looking for using the "quick view" function (select the file and press the spacebar). Then just click the "Restore" button, and the required file will be automatically revived "from the ashes".

Naturally, the main advantage of Time Machine is the ability to restore the entire system in just one click. Once you've booted your Mac from a bootable disk, just click Restore System from Backup.

Using Disk Utility

A great alternative to backing up with Time Machine is to create a virtual disk image along with all your Mac OS X contents using Disk Utility. Disk Utility has a number of unique features such as access rights, the Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) standard, and the Access Control List (ACL). With Disk Utility, you can back up to an external hard drive that has enough free space.

Backing up to an external hard drive using Disk Utility

1. Connect an external hard drive (FireWire or USB) with sufficient space to store your Macintosh HD backup;


4. On the left side of the panel, select the disk you want to back up;
5. Click the Verify Disk button, if you need to fix any errors, click the Repair Disk button;

6. Click the New Image button on the toolbar, give a name for the disk image, in addition, the copy creation time and the name of the saved disk will be indicated;

Note: For increased security, Disk Utility allows you to create an encrypted disk backup. From Encryption: From the pop-up menu, choose 128-bit or 256-bit AES encryption. When prompted, you will have to enter a password for encryption.

7. Click the Save button;
8. Enter the administrator name and password when (and if) required; will save about 1 GB / min depending on various factors;
9. After the copying process is complete, select the newly created disk image in the device's Images\u003e Scan Image for Restore panel from the menu and enable full scan.
10. Close Disk Utility (by pressing Q) and the Mac OS X installer (again by pressing Q), restart your computer.

To restore a disk backup of your Mac OS X:

1. Connect the external drive containing the data backup;
2. Run the installation DVD;
3. Select a language and select Disk Utility from the Utilitie menu;
4. Select the Mac OS X disk you want to recover;
5. Click the Restore tab and drag the internal drive to the Destination: field;
6. Click the Image ... button next to the Source: field;
7. Go to the local folder where the backup copy of the disk you need is saved (on an external disk);
8. Click the Open button to continue, then click Restore;
9. Enter the name and password of the administrator; if you have encrypted backup disk images, enter the password that you specified when saving the encrypted disk image; data recovery takes different time depending on the size of the saved disk.

In this article, we have described just two of several possible ways to create Mac OS X backups and restore data. If you know of other (better) ways to back up a disk, please share with us and other readers in the comments.

No matter how debugged the Mac platform is, there is always the possibility that, due to various circumstances, the user may lose their data, often quite important. Most popular backup tool in Mac OS X, Time Machine comes with the operating system. This fairly well thought-out application, with all its advantages, has one notable drawback - the lack of advanced backup settings. The program indiscriminately copies everything that is on the user's disk. Meanwhile, the user does not always need to make a copy of the entire disk; quite often it is necessary to save only certain data. In this case, he will be helped by alternative applications from third-party developers, which include a small utility from the developer company with the funny name Grapefruit.

The multilingual interface of the program is localized in 15 languages, including Russian. It cannot be said that Russian localization is perfect - somewhere there are untranslated phrases, somewhere the translation is made without taking into account the peculiarities of the Russian language ... However, all these translation shortcomings are found mainly in the program settings menu, where the user will occasionally look.

In the upper part of the program window there is a panel of program profiles, in the left - a list of groups of objects, the contents of which are supposed to be copied. In the right part of the window, a list of the contents of a particular selected group is displayed. At the very bottom of the window there is a very small toolbar, which also performs an information function, displaying information about the selected profile. Additionally, you can display a pull-out panel that displays information from the log file of the operations performed. The display of this panel is controlled using the corresponding button on the toolbar.

All operations for copying and restoring are carried out using profiles that are created in a special section of the settings menu. Initially, iBackup already has two profiles, “ Recovery"And" Backup copy“, The purpose of each of which can be guessed by the name. In order to be able to literally make a backup copy of certain data with just one click of the mouse, the user will need to set up a profile, point him to the folder where the data file should be saved and mark the objects that should be copied. We select the profile we need and, using the button Set ..., set the folder for saving the backup file. Now we need to select objects for backup. To do this, go to the list of groups and select one or another group, for example System parameters... After selecting a group, a list of objects included in this group will be shown on the right side of the application window. These are what you need to mark so that the program knows what to copy. If you need to copy all the objects included in the selected group, then you do not need to mark each element at all - just put a check next to the group name and all the elements of the group will be automatically selected.

After completing the selection of the objects we need, use the button Create alocated on the mini-toolbar - and the program will save a backup copy of the marked data to the specified folder. As you can see, the operation is quite simple and it can only be easier to restore data from a saved copy. To do this, in the profile Recoveryspecify the path to the file with the saved data, mark those elements of the list of its contents that we want to restore, and click Restore.

We have now described the operation for a one-time copying and restoring data. If the operation of copying the same data is supposed to be performed more than once, then during the next copying session there is no need to re-mark the objects - it will be enough to select the desired profile and use the button Create a.

The undoubted advantage of the utility is that if you need a regular backup, all operations can be automated using the ability of the program to work on schedule... According to additional profile settings specified in the tab Profiles program settings menu, iBackup can copy data to a specified folder daily, weekly or monthly, on specified days and hours. Additionally, you can set the program to end after a copy operation, put the computer into sleep mode, or turn it off completely. Before starting the operation and after its completion, you can enable the execution of certain scripts.

iBackup can copy data not only to a specific folder on the local hard drive, but also upload it to a specified AFP or SMB server (unfortunately, the program does not work with FTP servers), and after the download is finished, it automatically disconnects from it. To do this, the user needs to specify the full path to the desired folder on the remote server in the corresponding tab of the settings menu.

Why do you need multiple profiles, you say, because one profile would be enough to save and one to restore. The use of several profiles opens up possibilities for the separate storage of data, for example, documents on a mobile medium, photographs on a remote server, etc.

Initially, iBackup operates with 10 groups ( system parameters, program parameters, Desktop, user's home folder, programs, documents, movies, music, pictures, site) containing potential objects for copying. It is quite clear that the list of groups is based on the average Mac and it may not contain certain applications, data folders, etc. that are used on a particular user's computer. That is why the developers have provided the ability to add any other folders and objects to the general list by the user.

As for groups System parameters and Program parameters, then the situation is somewhat more complicated. The thing is that the utility can only back up the settings of those Mac OS X or third-party applications that it knows about. The utility takes information about applications and where exactly the files with their parameters are located from the corresponding plugins. The current version of iBackup can copy parameters 26 Mac OS X applications (including operating system settings) and more 260 third-party programs and games, which is quite enough for the average user.

If the plug-in for the required application was not found in the list, then there is an opportunity to create and upload your own plug-in (a template for creating a plug-in can be downloaded from the application developer's website). The plugin is an XML file, the analysis of the template of which showed that the only difficulty in creating a plugin will be the need to specify the paths to ALL settings files of the selected application, while knowledge of the program code is not required.

The program settings menu is quite simple and consists of three tabs, one of which ( Plugins), you have already met in the previous screenshot. Tab Are common responsible for general settings of iBackup (including launching the application at login and automatically checking for updates).

Overall, iBackup is a simple and convenient solution for backing up and restoring virtually any data on a user's hard drive. The function of launching the application at logon and the ability to work on a schedule make the work of the program almost invisible to the user, without distracting his attention to himself.

iBackup is completely free for private use and can be recommended to all those users who want to be able to selectively backup their data, with the ability to fine-tune to the level of an individual folder or file.

Not all Mac users have bothered to back up their data. Even the presence of a simple standard Time Machine utility in macOS does not motivate you to configure the creation of backups.

It turns out that Apple's desktop operating system has another not-so-obvious way of backing up data. It is based on a combination of two features of the iCloud cloud service.

One of them was the ability to synchronize data from the desktop and the Documents folder between computers. It was she who formed the basis of this method.

How to setup

The method will work on any Mac computer. It is enough to do the following settings:

1. You need to make sure that your computer has an Apple ID ( Tinctures - iCloud).

2. In the parameters, enable the option Folders "Desktop" and "Documents".

That's all, nothing else is needed.

How it works

We just place the file on the desktop and wait for the cloud sync to complete (the corresponding indicators in the Finder will disappear).

Any data that was uploaded to the cloud will be available from any device, and if you accidentally delete something unnecessary, you can restore files from the backup.

We recall another feature of the cloud service -. If you need a copy of the data, do the following:

1. We go to iCloud via the web interface.

2. Go to Settings and open the file recovery section.

3. We select the required data and restore it.

What are the limitations

The main limitation is 5 GB of free space in the cloud. When the file is copied to the desktop, its size should not exceed the remaining free space in iCloud.

If there is not enough space, you can either purchase it. This is not necessary, for small files, photos or documents, there will be enough space.

The second limitation is the 30-day storage period for iCloud backups. After a month, the file that was deleted from the Mac will be permanently deleted from the iCloud backup.

Thanks to re: Store for an interesting feature!

The Time Machine backup system is perfect for beginners and anyone who simply understands the need to create backups, but have never faced a complex data recovery from a copy.

Time Machine does not have any settings at all and does not have advanced options for advanced users. The system is made in the style of Apple: everything just works with the push of a button.

You cannot set a flexible copying schedule or complex conditions for changing its parameters. There are other significant disadvantages as well.

I am not suggesting that the system I have described is the best or most secure. Just sharing my experience and an alternative backup method.

Why I don't like Time Machine

At firstThe most convenient way to back up with Time Machine is to save it to your NAS. Apple has long since curtailed the production of branded routers with a built-in disk, the direction is clearly not a priority for the Cupertinians.

Secondly, working with plug-in drives for backup sooner or later gets bored. First, you try to connect the disk every day, then you make backups once a week, and then completely forget about this process.

Thirdly, you need to make a backup of the backup yourself. When storing data on an external drive or network storage, it must be duplicated to a more secure location.

Devices at home are not protected from external factors (fire, flooding, robbery, etc.) and are not a safe enough place for backups. I have to periodically upload copies to the cloud.

Fourth, you need a working Mac to restore from a Time Machine backup. The computer has broken down and without a new backup there will be no sense.

You can't extract data from it, you can't boot, just deploy it on another Apple computer.

To get rid of all these Time Machine problems, I decided to switch to a third-party backup system.

How do I store data on Mac

You already know that I'm not using the original Mac, but with the installed one. Three drives fit inside my computer at once: a 256 GB SSD disk with macOS, 256 GB SSD disk with Windows and a 1 TB HDD for files and data, which I formatted in exFATto work with them from any OS.

I store all work files and data on a common exFAT to work from macOS or Windows. In addition, the disk is installed in the laptop through an adapter Optibay instead of the standard DVD drive. This allows you to unscrew just a couple of screws from the bottom of the laptop, remove the drive and connect it to any computer using a cheap adapter.

Temporary files and not the most important data are already stored in each operating system separately.

For backup, I have identified two tasks: keep up-to-date backup folder with working data and regularly create a backup a copy of the boot disk to restore the system.

How to back up working files

I prefer to store the data folder in the cloud. I chose the most versatile option for myself - DropBox... Long ago I expanded the space to 22 GB, which is enough for me for work data so as not to buy a paid subscription.

I periodically clean and delete unnecessary or obsolete data, storing about 15-17 GB of up-to-date information. If this is not enough for someone, it is always possible.

To synchronize the folder, the usual DropBox client is used, which instantly uploads all new and changed data to the cloud.

Very important data can be encrypted or simply archived with a password.

As a result, all the data necessary for work is at my fingertips and, if necessary, access to them can be obtained from any other computer or mobile device. Of course, after logging into DropBox. I recommend in this service.

How to back up your system drive

This is where the help of third-party utilities is needed. There are a couple of dozen similar solutions. One of the search criteria for me was the ability to create bootable copies.

Found three good solutions: Carbon Copy Cloner, ChronoSync and Get Backup Pro. Frankly, there was no time to deal with all the nuances and features, I was the first to install the trial version Carbon copy cloner... I realized that the utility suits everyone and did not want to deal with other programs.

When you start Carbon Copy Cloner for the first time, it prompts you to create a backup rule. We select the target disk, the destination disk (it can be networked) and the copy schedule.

In the future, the system will only record changed or new data, the process will take a few minutes.

After creating a backup, do not forget to confirm the creation of a bootable disk with a copy. Carbon Copy Cloner will write a few additional files and perform the necessary manipulations.

That's it, now this drive can simply be connected to any Mac or running hackintosh and boot from it. We get a familiar working environment with everything necessary at the time of creating a backup.

There is no need to restore or download data from the web or the cloud.

Carbon Copy Cloner is able to store changed or deleted data. The option is responsible for this. SafetyNet... When the copy is updated, the old copies of the changed or overwritten data will be in a special folder. This will continue until the end of free space on the disk with a backup, then the oldest data will begin to be deleted.

How to protect a system disk backup

After the first creation of a backup of the system disk on the drive, we get our working system in an open form. It is not encrypted in any way, which is not very secure.

There are two solutions: initially, when formatting a disk for backups, make aPFS encrypted drive or once boot from the backup disk and on it enable FileVault encryption.

In the first case, you will have to remember the password to access the protected drive and enter it at boot, and in the second, the backup will continue with the built-in encryption enabled.

After that, I disconnected the drive from the computer and connected it to the network media player based on Raspberry Pi... After that, I reconfigured the backup rule in Carbon Copy Cloner and set the appropriate frequency for creating backups.

You can make copies every 3-6 hours or back up data once a day. Here everyone will customize according to their needs. Conveniently, the creation of backups can be limited, for example, during a heavy load on the home network.

It is even possible to wake up the computer or turn it on at night to create a copy.

If there were not so many changes since the previous backup, then the copy update will take several minutes. The load on the system will be minimal, and network activity is comparable to the transfer of a similar amount of data between home devices.

As a result, you can stop at creating 1-2 backups per day. This can be done even during working hours.

To “back up the backup”, I decided to upload it to the cloud. I had the required volume in the pumped one for free Yandex.Disk... Configured to unload all content from the connected drive on the "Malinka".