How to Backup MacBook Air/Pro/iMac to External Hard Drive with Time Machine
Time Machine is a built-in tool on Mac, which works with internal and external disk drives to backup and restore data for macOS. It's one of the easiest way to save your Mac data to SSD or HDD, including mac apps, media files, DVD backup, documents and other. Follow Mac backup steps with Time Machine below. You have to format your new external hard drive for Mac before backup.
- Step 1: Highlight your drive and click 'Partition' in Disk Utility. Open the Disk Utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Make sure you select the disk icon right under 'External'. If you select the one below it, the Partition option will be greyed out and become unclickable.
- These two items could both have identical names, e.g., 'Time Machine,' but they represent different things. Also, beware that following these steps will delete everything on your external drive. In Disk Utility, 'unmount' (don't 'eject') the Time Machine partition. Erase the Time Machine partition.
Step 1: Connect external hard drive to Mac via USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt or so, and a message will pop up, asking whether you want to use the drive to back up with Time Machine. Click 'Use as Backup Disk'. You can check the box 'Encrypt Backup Disk' and enter password to encrypt the portable hard drive.
- Your external hard drive should at least be the same size as your Mac's internal drive. Check out our list of best external hard drive for Mac.
- If you don't see this message, click Apple menu > System Preferences and select Time Machine, click 'Select Backup Disk' and select the external hard drive for Mac backup on the list, and click Use Disk.
- You external hard drive should be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you formatted it as Windows format other improper formats, you have to erase and reformat the external hard drive with Disk Utility. If so, back up your current data on the external storage device as reformatting will erase all the data.
- Time Machine will use up all the storage on the external hard drive. If you don't want the backup take up all the space on the drive and need to store other data on this drive, follow to partition external hard drive on Mac with Time Machine.
Partitioning an external hard drive allows you to have separate drives for Mac, PC, and any other operating system. Now you don't have to go out and buy hard drives for every computer you use. A partition also gives you a dedicated space for your Time Machine back-up files or a bootable backup of your operating system. Here's how to format a drive using a Mac - including how to format a drive for Windows and Mac so the contents can be read on both platforms, and what format to use for Time Machine. Part 2: Format External Hard Drive for Mac with Disk Utility. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your Mac.
Step 2: Check the box 'Back Up Automatically' and Time Machine will auto backup your Mac computer. How to cut and edit music on mac. Time Machine keeps hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month or weekly backups for all previous months, and the oldest backups will be deleted when the external hard drive has no free space. Learn how to free up disk space on Mac.
- Click Time Machine menu, you can start your Mac data backup now without waiting for auto backup.
- Turn off Time Machine to stop backing up, or deselect Backup Automatically under Time Machine preferences on macOS Sierra to disable Time Machine. You can select Skip This Backup to cancel backup procedure.
- Go to TimeMachine preferences under the Time Machine menu, click Options, '+' icon and select any item you want to exclude from this backup.
Use Time Machine, the built-in backup feature of your Mac, to automatically back up your personal data, including apps, music, photos, emails and documents. Having a backup allows you to recover files that have been deleted or were lost because the hard disk (or SSD) in your Mac needed to be erased or replaced. Learn how to restore your Mac from a backup.
Create a Time Machine backup
To create backups with Time Machine, all you need is an external storage device. After you've connected the storage device and selected it as your backup disk, Time Machine automatically makes hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month and weekly backups for all previous months. The oldest backups will be deleted when your backup disk is full.
Connect an external storage device
Connect one of the following external storage devices, sold separately. Learn more about backup disks that you can use with Time Machine.
Best External Hard Drives For Mac
- External drive connected to your Mac, such as a USB or Thunderbolt drive
- Network-attached storage (NAS) device that supports Time Machine over SMB
- Mac shared as a Time Machine back-up destination
- AirPort Time Capsule, or external drive connected to an AirPort Time capsule or AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11ac)
External Hdd Format For Mac
Select your storage device as the backup disk
- Open Time Machine preferences from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Or choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Time Machine.
- Click Select Backup Disk.
- Select your backup disk from the list of available disks. To make your backup only accessible to users who have the backup password, you can select 'Encrypt backups'. Then click Use Disk:
If the disk you selected isn't formatted as required by Time Machine, you'll be prompted to erase the disk first. Click Erase to proceed. This will erase all information on the backup disk.
Enjoy the convenience of automatic backups
After you've selected a backup disk, Time Machine will immediately start making periodic backups — automatically and without any further action by you. The first backup may take a long time, but you can continue using your Mac while a backup is underway. Time Machine only backs up the files that have changed since the previous backup, so future backups will be faster.
To start a backup manually, choose Back Up Now from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Use the same menu to check the status of a backup or skip a backup in progress.
Learn more
- Learn about other ways to back up and restore files
- If you back up to multiple disks, you can press and hold the Option key, then choose Browse Other Backup Disks from the Time Machine menu.
- To exclude items from your backup, open Time Machine preferences, click Options, then click the add (+) button to add an item to be excluded. To stop excluding an item, such as an external hard drive, select the item and click the remove (–) button.
- If using Time Machine to back up to a network disk, you can verify those backups to make sure they're in good condition. Press and hold Option, then choose Verify Backups from the Time Machine menu.
