#Mac backup software to network drive mac os x#
#Mac backup software to network drive portable#
#Mac backup software to network drive mac#

Most people will think of Apple’s Time Capsule for this method-a network router with a built-in hard disk-and indeed it’s the simplest option, but you don’t have to go with that. Time Machine can be used with a network-attached storage device.

#Mac backup software to network drive mac#

This is great for laptops especially: now you don’t have to remember to connect your backup disk it just does it automatically whenever the Mac is awake. This means it’s available to all the computers on your network so you can have them backing up centrally, and best of all, they back up completely automatically over the network every hour (either via Wi-Fi or ethernet, depending on how they connect to it). Time Machine to a disk connected to your networkĪlternatively, you can use Time Machine to back up to a disk that is connected directly to your network rather than to a specific Mac.

#Mac backup software to network drive portable#

Time Machine can be used with a portable hard drive, so you can bring your backups with you.Īnd certainly, if you’re using Time Machine on a laptop with a physically connected disk, consider those smaller disks based on 2.5-inch mechanisms rather than 3.5-inch desktop drives they’re usually more expensive per gigabyte, but they’re “bus-powered,” drawing the power they need through the USB port rather than requiring a separate power supply, all of which means you’re more likely to plug the disk in and actually back up. (It’s all handled automatically for you.) Hard disks are cheap-a little over a hundred bucks for a 4TB drive, at the time of writing-but if you have a laptop with an SD card slot you could also consider fitting an SD card (even a Micro SD card inside a Nifty MiniDrive so that it’s nice and flush) to use as your Time Machine drive for extra convenience. For this reason it’s a good idea to buy a hard disk that’s two or more times the size of your internal drive-so you have space to store lots of versions. There are other apps that can back up your files to an external hard disk, but Time Machine is simple, built-in, sure to be supported, and offers file versioning as well as simple backup that is, older copies of your files are stored alongside the current one so that you don’t have to restore the most recent version, but can step back through time to grab older drafts.

Time Machine to a disk connected to your Mac For more on all these as well as some other options, see below. Plus, as well as their individual strengths, you also have three copies of your data, which is great if one or more fails.

Use a cloud backup or peer-to-peer backup serviceīy mixing these three strategies, you get file versioning from Time Machine (great if you overwrite or delete something, or want to go back to an earlier draft of a file), the ability to quickly boot from your cloned disk if your internal drive fails (so you can keep working without missing a beat), and are safeguarded against theft or damage (whether that’s something like dropping your MacBook or a more serious disaster such as fire) by having your data also stored elsewhere in the world with a cloud or other remote backup system.

Clone your hard disk daily to a disk connected to your Mac.

Back up using Time Machine (to a disk connected to your network for extra convenience, particularly if you use a laptop).

To give your data the best chance of surviving a range of problems, and to minimize your down time if disaster strikes (which is especially important if you rely on your Mac for you livelihood), you should do three things:

If you stop reading here and do this rather than nothing at all, you’ve done a good job. We encourage you to read more-to adopt instead our recommended system immediately below, and to discover more about the limitations of this simple backup process in “Time Machine to a disk connected to your Mac” further below-but don’t be put off by all the text that follows. Time Machine comes with every version of OS X since OS X 10.5.

#Mac backup software to network drive mac os x#

(If it’s the wrong format, your Mac should offer to reformat it for you if not, launch Disk Utility, repartition the drive as a single partition using the GUID map, and Mac OS X Extended format.) If you don’t see that prompt, just launch System Preferences and pick the hard disk in the Time Machine backup pane. Buy a hard disk, plug it into your Mac and then, when prompted to use it for Time Machine backup, accept.