(Complete Guide) How to Backup Your Mac to an External Hard Drive

The Importance of Backing Up Your Mac to an External Hard Drive

Backing up your Mac is just as important as it is with any other kind of computer. After all, your Mac contains all of your important files, photos, and memories. If something happens to it, you could lose everything.

The best destination for a Mac backup is an external hard drive. There are many advantages to backing up a Mac to an external hard drive. Perhaps the most important is that it protects your files in case of a computer crash or other disaster. If your built-in hard drive fails, you'll still have copies of all your important files on the external drive.

Another benefit of backing up your Mac to an external hard drive is that it frees up space on your internal drive. If you have a lot of files, photos, and other data, your internal drive can fill up quickly. By storing some of that data on an external drive, you can prevent your internal drive from becoming overloaded.

Finally, backing up your Mac to an external hard drive gives you peace of mind. Knowing that your important files are safely stored off-site is a great comfort.

You may also like: [Best Backup Software for Mac (Free & Paid)](/mac-backup-recovery/best-backup-software-for-mac.html)

How to Back Up Your Mac to an External Hard Drive (Time Machine +)

There are many useful tools to help you back up your Mac to an external hard drive. This section will include both built-in macOS tools and third-party backup tools.

Tool 1: The Time Machine

"Time Machine" is a built-in backup utility in macOS that helps users create backups of their entire system. It periodically saves snapshots of system files, applications, and user data, allowing you to easily restore your Mac to an earlier state when needed.

In your Mac's menu bar, there's an Apple icon. Click it, then select "System Preferences." Find and open Time Machine. Now, you can follow a step-by-step guide to learn how to back up your Mac using Time Machine.

Step 1: Choose an external hard drive as your backup destination.

Click the “Select Disk” button, then choose the external hard drive you want to use.

Step 2: Initiate the first backup with Time Machine.

Click “Use Disk,” then click “Finish.” This will initiate your first backup, which can take a while depending on how much data you have.

Select the backup disk and click “Use Disk.”

Step 3: Tell Time Machine what you want it to back up.

After you select the backup disk, you can choose what to back up and also exclude items that you don't want to back up.

Next up, we've got the "Time Machine Backup Options" screenshot: 

Step 4: Choose how often you'd like Time Machine to back up your Mac.

By default, Time Machine backs up hourly. But you can change how often Time Machine performs backups by clicking the Options button. Here, you can specify how often you'd like Time Machine to back up.

Time Machine Prompt:

Tool 2: Todo Backup Tool for Mac

Todo Backup for Mac is a professional backup tool that can help users back up files, folders, partitions, or even the entire system. Todo Backup can also help you clone hard drive and upgrade your hard drive. It has both Windows and Mac versions. Here, we will show you how to use this tool by taking backing up a Mac to an external hard drive as an example.

First, connect the external hard drive to your Mac and make sure that your computer recognizes it. Then, download, install, and launch Todo Backup on your Mac.

Now you can back up your Mac as directed.

Step 1: Launch and run Todo Backup for Mac. Click the first Backup tab, or directly click the + button at the bottom left to create a backup task – name the backup task and then click OK.

Step 2: Choose the backup destination, the location where your Mac files will be backed up, and the frequency of the automatic backups, then click OK.

Step 3. Add files and folders to the backup set.
Click on Add Files + to selectively include files and folders in the backup, then hit the blue Start button to back up your Mac to another drive or external device.

How to Back Up Your Mac Without Time Machine

There are several ways to back up a Mac without Time Machine. One of the most common methods is to use iCloud or another cloud storage service. iCloud is a cloud storage service provided by Apple, which offers 5GB of free storage and additional paid plans for more space. You can use iCloud to back up your entire system or choose specific files to backup.

To use iCloud to back up your Mac, you'll first need to enable iCloud backups on your Mac. To do this, open "System Preferences," and then click the iCloud icon. Next, click "Options" next to "iCloud Backup." Finally, check the box next to "Back Up Now."

Another cloud storage service you can use to back up your Mac is Google Drive. It offers 15GB of free storage, with paid plans available if you need more space. To back up your Mac using Google Drive, first download and install the Google Drive application on your Mac. Then, launch the app and sign in with your Google account. Finally, click on the "Backup" option and select the files you want to back up.

Aside from Time Machine, there are other methods to back up your Mac, such as using Disk Utility or creating a bootable clone.

What do I need to do before backing up my Mac to an external hard drive?

There are a few things you need to do before backing up your Mac to an external hard drive.

1. Check the storage capacity of your external hard drive. Make sure you have enough space on it for the backup. 2. If the external hard drive is not formatted, you'll need to format it. You can use the Disk Utility to do this. 3. Connect the external hard drive to your Mac. Ensure that the drive is powered on and connected to your Mac via USB or Thunderbolt. 4. Verify that your Mac has an Internet connection. Time Machine requires an Internet connection to perform backups.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. How do I back up my entire Mac to an external hard drive? To back up your entire Mac to an external hard drive, you can use Apple's built-in Time Machine feature. Here's how: 1. Purchase an external hard drive compatible with your Mac and ensure it is properly connected to your computer. 2. Open "System Preferences." 3. In the preferences window, click on the "Time Machine" icon. 4. Click "Select Backup Disk…" and then choose your external hard drive from the pop-up list. 5. If prompted to erase the external hard drive for use with Time Machine, confirm whether you are willing to delete all data on the disk. If you're sure, click "Erase and Back Up." 6. Once you've selected the disk, Time Machine will immediately start creating an initial backup. This may take some time depending on the amount of data on your Mac. 7. After the initial backup is complete, Time Machine will automatically perform incremental backups in the background to track changes to your files. Remember to keep your external hard drive connected and keep Time Machine up to date to ensure your data remains protected.

You can use Time Machine to back up your entire Mac to an external hard drive. First, connect the external hard drive to your Mac and format it. Next, open Time Machine preferences and select the external drive as your backup disk. Finally, click "Backup Now" to initiate the backup process.

How do I back up specific files on my Mac to an external hard drive?

There are a few ways to back up specific files on a Mac to an external hard drive. One method is to use iCloud or another cloud storage service. Another is to use Disk Utility or create a bootable system clone.