Introduced in OS X 10.6, or Leopard, Time Machine is OS X’s built in backup utility. There are many options you have when backing up your computer, manually copying files, cloud storage, external hard drive, etc. It is certainly advised to backup regularly though, and a method which does this automatically is best. It’s best to use an external drive with enough space to match or exceed that of your Mac. 500GB to 1 Terabyte is a good size for the average computer.
Connect the external drive you wish to use for Time Machine and open System Preferences found in the Dock or Applications folder.
Under the System section of Preferences, click on the Time Machine icon.
This will open the Time Machine window. Begin by moving the Off/On slider to the On position.
Click on the Select Disk button to choose which connected drive to use. A list of all external drives will appear in the window. Time Machine will format the drive you choose, so be sure any important information is removed from the drive before continuing. Click on the hard drive you wish to use and select Use for Backup.
Choose the Options button in the Time Machine window to adjust settings. Here you can exclude certain folders or discs form the back up. If you have additional external hard drives connected to your computer and don’t wish to copy that to your Time Machine backup, add these to the list by pressing the (+) Plus icon and choosing it from the browser window. Checking the box next to Back up while on battery power will make sure your laptop is always backed up while connected to the external drive.
The back up process can take several hours depending on how large your internal hard drive is and how much data is on it. Further details in the Time Machine window explain that a backup is made every hour for the current day, daily backup images are made for the past 30 days, and weekly backups are made for months past. Once the hard drive you’ve selected to use for Time Machine is full, the oldest backups will begin deleting to make room for new images.
Once Time Machine has finished backing up your computer, check the box in the Time Machine window to Show Status in Menu Bar.
The icon for Time Machine in the menu bar will rotate when a backup is being made. You can also manually backup using the menu icon or go into Time Machine Mode.
Entering Time Machine will give you a graphical depiction of the history for a specific Finder folder. Any items that were deleted can be restored using this interface.
Time Machine is a great way to make sure your data is always safe. If your Mac hard drive fails or is damaged, a new Mac can be restored using your Time Machine hard drive and make it as though you never switched to a new computer.
