MacOS : How To Back Up And Restore Mac Using Time Machine

Topic

New Reply

[Alex5723]

https://ioshacker.com/how-to/back-up-restore-mac-using-time-machine

Backing up your Mac is an essential step in making sure you don’t lose your data in an event of software and hardware failure.

Thankfully macOS offers the Time Machine feature, which makes it easy and convenient for Mac users to create a back up of their Mac data and restore it at a later time…

Contents:
1 Back up your Mac with Time Machine
2 Create a Local Mac Back Up
3 Restore Mac From Back up
3.1 How to Use Migration Assistant…

Keep in Mind:

Every hour, Time Machine makes a backup of the past 24 hours, every day for the past month, and every week for all previous months. As soon as your backup disk fills up, the oldest backups are deleted. It may take a while for the first backup to complete. You can keep using your Mac without any interruptions during that time.
You have the ability to remove items from your Back Ups. This can be done by going to System Preferences -> Time Machine and then clicking on Options. There click on the ‘+‘ button to add times that you wish to be excluded from your backups. You can remove items from the exclude list by clicking on ‘–‘ button…

• This topic was modified 7 months, 4 weeks ago by Alex5723.

2 users thanked author for this post.

RiyanManwik, BobbyB

Reply | Quote

Replies

optimize your files go poof ask me how I know

 

By David Gerwitz

“Optimize Mac Storage has a dark side. Here’s what you need to know if you rely on it.

 

It recently became clear to me that there is a serious architectural problem with how Apple manages files on the Mac with iCloud, and that design flaw can lead to extensive data loss.

If you have more data in your iCloud Drive storage than you have space on your Mac’s internal SSD, you stand a good chance of losing files, even if you back up with Time Machine.”

Recommendation:

“So, to be safe, I’m now recommending that you have at least one machine with enough local storage to contain full copies of all your files, which you can then back up using a mechanism other than Time Machine (I use ChronoSync to the Synology NAS). This machine needs to be equipped with at least 2TB internal storage and have Optimize Mac Storage turned off.

It’s an expensive option, but losing your data to Optimize Mac Storage’s completely non-optimal storage architecture can be far more expensive.”

 

2 users thanked author for this post.

Alex5723, b

Reply | Quote

I am planning to buy a Mac Mini next week. I am trying decide on storage, I do not think my needs are great:  no gaming, no video editing, movie making, I don’t have a lot of apps.  I have a lot of photos on my ipad & iphone.  I have a lot of MS365 Word & Excel documents. Current storage on Ipad – 53gb of 128gb used, I know it’s not the same, but can I use that as a guide? Can I use current storage on Windows/Dell laptop to determine how much Mac Mini storage I will need – 158gb out of 1TB (I thought I needed more storage! : ) Or is not comparable?

We have Icloud + 50gb plan – me & my husband 29gb of 50gb used (me 22.7gb)

Should I spring for the $200 more for 512kb? Or should 256kb suffice for me? Also, I had read that the New Mini is slower than the prior models due to Apple engineering choice of one chip vs. two. But I also read the 512kb has just one chip.  I really don’t know how much slower it will be for my usage….like I said, I am not a power user.

And I read the article about losing files due to Optimization/Icloud/Time Machine backup, but didn’t totally understand. I have to read it again, but I think it shouldn’t impact me if my storage (22.7gb on icloud is less than 256gb, am I right? Thanks!  Donna

.https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/01/24/entry-level-m2-mac-mini-2023-macbook-pro-have-slower-ssd-than-predecessors

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/apple-mac-mini-m2-buying-guide/

Reply | Quote

I have an M1MacMini with a 1TB SSD. I run a lot of non-Apple programs (Libre Office, Firefox, Waterfox, Thunderbird, Adobe Reader, VLC Player, Kindle App, and more).
I sync most of my personal User folder data from my Win8.1 daily driver (Pictures, Documents, Music, etc) to my User folder on the M1 MacMini.
I am running a Parallels VM with Win11 on ARM which has a maximum disk capacity of 128GB, but only occupies 17.41 GB.
With all that, the stats are this: Capacity = 994.66GB, Used = 82.9GB, Available = 915.1GB

My iMac has a 512GB SSD, running TWO Parallels VMs (Win8.1 =44.87GB and Win10 = 25.67GB). The Win8.1 is my daily driver with all my current data. Even so, 158GB used and 339.21GB available.

You don’t want to fill an SSD. Note how much space is used on your C: drive and how much of that is used by your User folder. You will have to have the MacOS (bigger than iOS on the iPad) in place of Windows OS. And you can transfer most of your data. Give yourself some space to grow with disk space.

And I would definitely get at least 16GB RAM.You may regret it down the road if you don’t.

1 user thanked author for this post.

dmt_3904

Reply | Quote

dmt_3904 wrote:

Should I spring for the $200 more for 512kb? Or should 256kb suffice for me? Also, I had read that the New Mini is slower than the prior models due to Apple engineering choice of one chip vs. two. But I also read the 512kb has just one chip.  I really don’t know how much slower it will be for my usage….like I said, I am not a power user.

The Mac Mini with 512GB has 2 x 256GB chips so it is faster compared to 1 X 256GB SSD.
As you can’t upgrade Mini storage go for the max your budget allow.
You will also need an external drive SSD/HDD for Time Machine backups (USB-C/Thunderbolt).

If your budget allow for for 16GB RAM (again, no RAM upgrades).

You will also need a good Mac compatible external display.

Mac mini M2 512GB for $699

Reply | Quote

Thank you Alex.  I plan to also purchase:

A Keyboard (maybe Magic)
Portable monitor – touchscreen (maybe Asus)
I have an old Dell monitor that will work for home. I need a DVI cable to attach it.
Magic mouse. Or Logitech MX Master 3S for Mac

And the SSD/HDD

 

1 user thanked author for this post.

Alex5723

Reply | Quote

Thank you for your detailed advice PK! I will get 512gb & 16gb.

Reply | Quote