Have you ever encountered a fear of losing all your personal data? If yes, then this article might help you a lot. In this article, we will look at the various ways to backup your Mac. Different kinds of backup methods include wired or wireless backups, live backups, remote backups, and online backups. But before going any further, let’s find out what a data backup is.
A data backup is a copy of your files and personal data, which gets stored in a different space. Now, the question arises why do you need to back up your Mac? One needs to have a backup because the fear of losing data always exists. What if the computer gets stolen or the malware or virus inside your computer corrupts your data beyond the scope of repair?
4 Different Ways to Backup Mac Discussed
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If a backup is available, you can access your data from another device, and if you get a new Mac, you can easily copy your data to it.
Finally, keep in mind that it is not cyber security threats that could lead to data loss. Accidentally deleting a file or experiencing hardware problems are also possible causes.
Time Machine
There are a lot many ways in which you can back up your data, and the easiest one is to backup using a Time machine. Apple offers access to a backup utility called Time Machine. It is the cheapest way of backing up your data for Mac; all you need to do is plug in your external drive or SSD and start backing up with the software.
Time Machine won’t just back up your Mac, it will keep hourly backups of data for the previous 24 hours, as well as daily, weekly, and monthly backups, so one can easily recover an earlier version of data. However, you may find issues if the time machine not backing up data properly and the reason could be that the external storage device is not connected appropriately.
But this might not be the best way as for this you will need to spend extraneously on an external device. What if someone steals both your Mac and the external device? Your data will be lost again. Therefore, it’s probably the cheapest way to have a backup of your data but not the best one.
iCloud Storage
Another option that you can use to back up your data is via iCloud. It is a cloud storage media that allows you to back up your data such as desktop and documents folders, pages, keynote documents, email attachments, and much more.
Although it offers 5 GB free storage on Signup, you need to opt for a monthly subscription if you need more. It is a useful solution if you have more than one Mac or you want to access your Mac files from an iPhone or iPad.
There are a lot many other things that you can do with iCloud such as you can sync your Photos to iCloud Photo Library and store all your music in iCloud using iTunes Match. If you have already subscribed to Apple Music, you can use the iCloud Music Library to access your music right from anywhere.
Another benefit of iCloud is that you don’t need to have an external device attached to your computer. All your photos, files, apps, personal data, music, and everything else are stored in iCloud, so you don’t have to worry about your data even if your Mac gets stolen.
Third-Party Backup Solutions
You may clone your data to have an additional copy of it. Several third-party apps can help you clone your data to another drive. For uninitiated users, cloning your data means creating an exact carbon copy of your files.
A clone is slightly different from a Time Machine backup because it can be used to boot a computer, so you could plug it into another Mac and boot up from it without recovering your Mac. This can be useful as a temporary measure.
Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive
Alternatives to iCloud include Dropbox, Google, OneDrive, and other similar solutions. If you need to sync and share your files with your friends or colleagues, the Cloud drive can be the best option for you, and they are also free of cost to some extent.
You will have the benefit of being able to access the files from any device, and you will essentially have a low-cost off-site backup. As said earlier, these can be used for syncing, sharing, and storing your data, as well as to access it from anywhere.
Conclusion
Having a backup of your data is much needed as it provides security to all your content stored on the hard drive. There are multiple ways shown above to back up your data; however, the one you pick is based on your personal preferences.