Time Machine is a very simple tool to use on your Mac. It backs up your whole hard drive onto an external hard drive. Once you set it up, it backs up your files as you work, saving you the hassle of remembering this task. Read on to find out how to use one.
Below are the steps required to configure TIme Machine.
1. Configure your external hard drive, server, or a formatted HFS Extended format drive. Check to see if the drive has a Master Boot Record partition; it’s best to avoid it if possible.
If so, you will need to format the drive or Time Machine may malfunction when data is copied.
2. Open System Preferences and click on “Time Machine”.
3. Click “Select Backup Disk”
4. A menu will appear which should have your hard drive listed on it. Choose it and click on “Use for Backup”.
5. Let it back up your whole hard drive. This could take many hour for the first full backup, but the rest of the backups will happen in the background and won’t even notice them running.
6. When it’s finished you will be brought back to the main screen where you can select whether or not to show Time Machine in the menu bar. This has options like “Back Up Now” and it also tells you when the next backup should take place.
If you click the “Options” button, you can select files and folders that you don’t want backed up
7. Notice that in your Applications folder or on your dock, there should be an application that is called Time Machine. If you want to retrieve a file that you’ve deleted, you can open up the folder that the file was in and click Time Machine. You will get an outer space screen that shows all of the backups ever made. You can then scroll back in time to the spot where you last saw the file. Choose the correct file and then press restore.
