Use Time Machine for Scheduled System Backups on Macs

Time Machine Overview

Time Machine is a backup program that's included as a standard feature of Mac OS X. Once properly set up, Time Machine automatically backs up your computer periodically and allows you to look through the past backups and retrieve older files or accidentally deleted files. This makes it very easy to maintain a proper backup routine.

System Requirements

• MacOS 10.13 and above
• External hard drive, with enough space to store all of your data.

Process

1. Connect the external hard drive to your computer
2. Power on the external drive
3. Click the Apple logo on the upper left side of the screen.
4. Click System Preferences
5. Click Time Machine
6. Click on Set Up Time Machine when a window pops up that says A storage device for Time Machine isn't set up.
7. Click On or Choose Backup Disk; either one will work.
8. Select the Hard Drive you want Time Machine to use and click Use for Backup. To exclude specific folders or items from your backup, click here.
9. You're finished, Time Machine will back up automatically in just a few minutes. Once Time Machine has performed its backup routine, when you click on Time Machine again, you'll be able to navigate through your backed-up files.

Excluding items from your backup

1. Click Options to specify folders to exclude if you want.
2. Under the Do Not Back Up area, click on the plus sign to add items to exclude from your backup.
3. Select the folder or other items to exclude from Time Machine's backup and click Exclude.
4. You're finished, Time Machine will back up automatically in just a few minutes. Once Time Machine has performed its backup routine, when you click on "Time Machine" again, you'll be able to navigate through your backed-up files.