MacBook backup. Arq Review - Backup Data from Mac OS X and Windows to the Cloud
The developers of Carbon Copy Cloner announced new version utility that is fully compatible with macOS Sierra. This application allows you to clone hard section disk and store it separately, on another computer or external media. In the future, the Mac driver can quickly restore its system, with all applications, drivers, documents and other files.
The utility will also help with regular backups. To do this, simply select source disk, check/uncheck the boxes next to the required elements and indicate the location where the copying will be made. All these operations can be carried out even from another PC over the network. Now, in the event of data corruption, equipment failure or any other disaster, it will be very easy to restore all information.
Carbon Copy Cloner allows you to create a full or partial clone of your Mac, moving it to another drive or saving it as a .dmg (disk image).
Step 1: Download Carbon Copy Cloner, run the application.
Step 2: Click the Source button and select Macintosh SSD.
Step 3: Now you need to specify the copy format by clicking the button in the Destination section.
Step 4: Select New disk image. Select the folder where your disk image will be stored.
If you need an image that you can modify, in the Image Format item, specify read/write sparse disk image. This will create a .sparseimage file. Otherwise, the utility will create a read-only dmg image. Optionally select encryption. Click OK.
Step 5: Click the Clone button to start creating a backup.
Step 6: The program will warn you that you will not be able to boot from the specified drive. Click Continue Anyway.
Step 7: After a few hours (depending on the amount of data), an image of your entire Mac disk will be created.
I very often write in my articles that “before you start, create backup copy...”, and now, I want to tell you in detail about creating those same backups using Time Machine! You can ignore backups (), but only until important data from your computer or iPhone/iPad is lost. But anything can happen - loss of the device, accidental deletion necessary files, drive failure in a Mac - almost always in such cases the thought of data recovery arises. And this is where it comes to our aid Time Machine, if it was activated before, and if not, then backup copies will be created after the incident, I'm sure! Agree, it’s better to buy a disk in advance for 2-4 thousand than to restore data later for 10 thousand! This way your nerves will be fine :)
What is Time Machine, and how to create backups using it? The backup function has existed in Mac OS since 10.5 and is present in all subsequent ones operating systems from Apple. To start creating copies, we need a storage medium on which we will save the data - external hard drive (USB, FireWare or Thunderbolt), network attached storage (NAS) or Time Capsule(for the first copy I recommend connecting the capsule via a wire Ethernet). If you want to use a disk, I recommend using new disk, preferably stationary - this way the volume will be larger, the speed will be higher and the price will be lower. Plus, you won't be tempted to take it with you somewhere and accidentally drop or lose it.
The backup copy contains: systemic Mac files OS, programs, personal data— the user folder with all the contents, including libraries and settings, if you have not made changes in the Time Machine settings, but more on that later.
The main thing is not to make a mistake with the disk size for copies: the best thing is to use a disk at least 2 times larger than what is installed in your Mac. For example, you have an iMac with a 1 TB HDD, so it’s better to take a disk of 2 TB or more (although there is an exception - if your disk is very large, and you only work with documents and use 5-10% of the volume, then and the disk can be taken based on the maximum amount of your data). If the disk is there and it is empty, then you can start creating a backup copy, but you need to make sure that it is in the HFS+ file system! If not, then you need to save all the data from it and format it into the desired format through the program. For OS X El Capitan users I have the same :)
Set up Time Machine
So, there is a disk, now you need to connect it and launch the Time Machine program, which is located in the Apple menu () -> System Settings.
In the window that appears, click on the “Select disk” button and then click on the disk intended for backups and click on “Use. disk".
If all conditions are met: the disk is connected, the volume is sufficient for copies, and the disk is in the desired file system, then the process will begin in 120 seconds. Please note that the first copying session is the longest in time, because... Time Machine copies all the contents of your built-in Mac disk! So it is better to leave this process overnight. Subsequent copies will be made faster, although much depends on the amount of data changed and time last connection external drive for copies.
“How will copies be created?” - you may ask, because I have 1 TB of space occupied, and a 2 TB disk - after all, it will use up all the space for 2 copies! A reasonable question, and therefore copies are made as follows - during the first backup, the system creates a “clone” on the external drive, after which, each subsequent backup session, it will only add to the disk modified files. For example, you made the first backup copy, after which you downloaded 2 documents from the Internet to your computer and bought 1 album from iTunes Music Store. At the next backup session, the system will scan the data on the disk and, “seeing” that nothing has changed except a few files, will save them to the disk. This way your copy disk won't fill up in a couple of sessions!
In addition, in parameters Time Machine, you can specify those folders that No need reserve, for example, movies (they are either downloaded from the Internet, or purchased in iTMS, or are already stored on an external drive). Just click on the “+” icon and select required folders for exception:
Once the backup is complete, the external drive can be disconnected from the Mac and put away on the shelf until next time. If you have a stationary Mac, then you can leave it connected to it - the disk is in background, every hour, will scan the data and make copies. As you can see from the screenshots, I don’t make backups very often, and the disk for copies is not constantly connected to the Mac - I only periodically, once every 1-2 weeks, receive a message in Notification Center that the copies are not entirely fresh, after which I connect the disk and Time Machine independently carries out the backup procedure.
Now on to recovery (hopefully you'll have a nice excuse to recover, like moving to a new Mac!). When you turn on your new computer for the first time, it is enough to select the disk with backup copies as the recovery source. If you have already made initial setup Mac, then Migration Assistant will help you - through it you can transfer data, including programs, settings and personal files- in general, everything that was saved using Time Machine! In addition, you can go back in time at any time through the Time Machine program (in the Programs folder) and restore deleted file. Naturally, you can only restore the file/files that were once backed up in Time Machine.
I would also like to add a little about Parallels and VMware, if you use them, you need to make changes in the virtual machine settings to proper organization backups from them. The most correct information will be on the Parallels website - and for VMware -!
I really hope you back up via Time Machine and never need to! 🙂 If you didn’t have time to create a copy, and something happened to your computer, for example, it won’t turn on or load Mac OS, you can feel free to contact me - I’ll help save your data and return it to you!
Answering the question of how to make a backup on Mac OS X is easier than answering the question, why is it necessary at all? backup systems. Although, why you need to make backups becomes obvious if you accidentally delete all your documents, photos and music with movies a couple of times while reinstalling the system or damage the files of a project you’ve been working on for a couple of months.
And if you know that everything can be fixed in ten minutes by connecting an external drive with a backup, then life becomes much easier. And in general, you feel much more confident when you know that you can always return important data.
And for creating backups in Mac OS X there is a built-in tool - Time Machine. When I started using it, I had a lot of questions, so I decided to collect the answers to them in one place, in this article.
How to make a backup on Mac
In general, it’s quite simple: you need to take an external hard drive, attach it to your Mac and it should ask you if you want to use this drive for backup copy time Machine.
An important tip that can be given here: do the first backup in the evening, because the process may take all night the first time, especially if you have a lot of data on the disk.
Questions and answers about how Time Machine works
How does Time Machine work?
When Time Machine makes its first backup, it copies all data hard drive, except for the contents of the recycle bin and some system files. Then, on the disk where the backup is stored, a folder is created with the backup creation date in the name:
/Volumes/Backup/Backups.backupdb/ixrevo’s Mac/2013-05-28-010212/
When creating subsequent backups, only those files that have changed since the first backup are copied, and for unchanged files, hard links are created to these files in previous backups. If none of the files in any directory have been changed, then a hard link is created only to this directory.
Thus, Time Machine backup is incremental, which means that when a new backup is created, only the changed files are copied, which helps to significantly reduce the disk space required to store the backup.
What do you need to get started with Time Machine backups?
You need a Mac and an external hard drive or Time Capsule.
Airport Time Capsule is a Wi-Fi access point combined with a hard drive.
An external hard drive can have any interface (USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt, eSATA), but the faster the better, of course, so when choosing a drive for Time Machine, I chose USB 3.0, because it provides compatibility advantages due to due to the widespread use of USB, as well as high speed third version of this interface.
In this case, the external drive must be formatted to use one of the types file system. I myself, as Apple advises, formatted it in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
How big a hard drive is needed for Time Machine?
The simple answer is that 2 TB will be enough, but 3 TB will be fine. This depends on the amount of data on your Mac's disk and how often that data changes (for example, editing several video projects of several gigabytes each can be considered frequent change data). If you multiply the amount of data on your disk by 3, you get the minimum disk space required for backup.
If you have a 512 GB drive and 350 GB of it is occupied, then a 1 TB drive should be enough. But this is not an absolute minimum, because if you do not change your data often and you do not need backups for every day, then it is quite possible to get by with a factor of 1.5, that is, multiply the amount of data by 1.5 (350 GB x 1.5 = 525 GB). In any case, such a backup is much better than no backup at all.
For example, my MacBook Pro 751 GB disk, of which just over 300 GB is occupied by data.
For backups, I use a two-terabyte external drive, and Time Machine backups on it take up 450 GB. I make backups several times a week.
What happens when Time Machine backup disk space runs out?
It's very simple - Time Machine will start deleting the oldest backups.
On what schedule does Time Machine create backups?
Time Machine creates a backup every hour if the backup disk is connected to the Mac. If the disk for backups is not connected, then when the function of creating local snapshots is enabled (on MacBooks it is turned on along with Time Machine), local backups are also created every hour.
You can start creating a backup copy manually, but other than that you cannot change the schedule in any way and it is better not to try to do this by editing system files, because if you break the backup, it can have very sad consequences.
As reserves accumulate copies of Time Machine begins to “compress” them, leaving only:
- hourly backups for the last 24 hours,
- daily backups for the last month,
- Monthly backups of previous months as long as available space allows.
What data is saved during backup?
All data from all internal drives of your Mac computer, which have any of the file system types. Therefore, for example, section Boot Camp, like any other formatted for Windows or Linux partitions, will not be included in the backup. Also, data on external and network drives cannot be backed up.
Can a Time Machine drive be used to store something else?
Time Machine won't delete other data you put on the drive you use for backup. Just keep in mind that storing important data on a disk used for backups can be dangerous if you do not back up this data somewhere else.
You also need to understand that the more disk space is occupied, the less space will be left for backups.
Can I use a disk for Time Machine that already has other data on it?
If the disk has the correct partition formatting required for Time Machine, then this may well work. But I would advise temporarily saving the old data from the drive you want to use somewhere else, just in case.
Can the drive be used to back up multiple computers?
Yes, there are no restrictions here, except for one very important one: size free space on the backup disk. Each computer will require a certain amount of free space for backup, which we discussed a little higher in the article.
How to reduce the size of Time Machine backups?
The simplest and effective way Reducing the size of your backups means eliminating files that take up a lot of space and are of little value.
The release of new MacBook Pro models makes you want to buy one, but before doing so, it's a good idea to back up your current Mac.
If you're planning to get your hands on one of the new MacBooks, you have two options for setting up your new machine: migration or clean install. If you choose the first option, you will need a recent backup of the current Mac you will be migrating from to new car. And if you go down the path clean install, you'll still want to move important files, from work documents and favorite applications to music and photos.
Luckily, Apple provides the tools you need to perform a full system backup or file backup. I'll show you how to use Time Machine to copy everything on your Mac to an external hard drive and how to use iCloud to make copies of selected apps and folders. And there is also iTunes. I'll show you how to backup your iTunes library.
Time machine.
Apple preinstalls its own application for backup on every Mac. Called Time Machine, it's the easiest way to back up your Mac to an external hard drive. This drive can either be connected directly to the Mac or to the network using Apple's Time Capsule, or external storage connected to a router with a USB port.When you connect an external drive to your Mac, your Mac will ask you if you want to use the drive for Time Machine backups. If your Mac forgets its manners and doesn't ask, you can select a drive for Time Machine by going to System Preferences > Time Machine and clicking on the Select Drive button. When selecting a disk for Time Machine, you can also check the box to encrypt backups. This will prompt you for a password when you try to restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup.
In System Preferences, there's also a checkbox for automatic backup, so the next time you connect the designated drive to your Mac, Time Machine will launch and create a system backup.
If you keep your backup drive online or directly connected to your Mac at all times (on a desktop Mac rather than a laptop), Time Machine will create hourly backups for the last 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups. for all previous months. Time Machine will delete your oldest backups when you run out of disk space, replacing them with new copies of your system.
Click the "Options" button in the Time Machine panel of System Preferences and you can select or exclude items to copy. Without junk files You can speed up Time Machine backups, and you can continue to use your Mac as normal during the backup process. Time Machine will run in the background, although older Macs may lag during the backup process.
There is also an option to "Show Time Machine in Menu Bar". By the icon in the menu bar, you can monitor the backup status, stop the process and start the backup manually.
In order to restore the system to previous point in time, click on the menu bar and select "Enter Time Machine". You will see your previous backups; scroll and find the one you need, and click on the "Restore" button.
iCloud.
In addition to performing regular Time Machine backups, I use iCloud to create copies of selected folders. I mainly use it for a large photo library, because if the computer burns down or a meteorite hits it (while I'm away), I want copies of my photos to be stored in a safe place outside the office.To back up your photos to iCloud, go to System Preferences > iCloud and check the box for Photos. Then click the "Options" button for Photos and check the " iCloud Photo Library". This will download copies of the photos to maximum resolution For safe storage in the cloud. This also includes additional benefit, making your Mac's photo library easily accessible from your iPhone and iPad.
Since I was about to switch to paid tariff iCloud for storing photos, I also use the option iCloud Drive- backup your Mac desktop and documents folder to iCloud, as well as reminders and notes so that they are synchronized on Mac and iPhone.
iTunes.
An alternative to iCloud is iTunes. It's so big and bulky that it could use its own backup system. Your iTunes library is included in the Time Machine backup, of course, but since I used to buy a lot of CDs and import them into iTunes, I keep separate copy iTunes libraries on an external drive.Before you create a copy of your iTunes library, you can do a search for all the media files that it can use that are not already in the iTunes folder. To do this, open iTunes program and go to File > Media Library > Organize Library. Check the "Collect files" box and click "OK".
Next, open Finder and go to your home folder(one with your username) and find the Music folder. Inside the Music folder there is a folder called iTunes. This is the folder you want to copy.
If you've moved your music folder from the default location, you can view its current location by going to iTunes > Preferences and clicking on the Add-ons tab. At the top of the window is the path to your iTunes Media folder.
In Finder, open the iTunes library folder, connect the external drive to the Mac. The drive will be listed in the left pane of the Finder window. Just drag and drop iTunes folder from current location in Feidner to an external drive to copy it.
Fair, not overpriced and not underestimated. There should be prices on the Service website. Necessarily! without asterisks, clear and detailed, where technically possible - as accurate and concise as possible.
If spare parts are available, up to 85% of complex repairs can be completed in 1-2 days. Modular repairs require much less time. The website shows the approximate duration of any repair.
Warranty and responsibility
A guarantee must be given for any repairs. Everything is described on the website and in the documents. The guarantee is self-confidence and respect for you. A 3-6 month warranty is good and sufficient. It is needed to check quality and hidden defects that cannot be detected immediately. You see honest and realistic terms (not 3 years), you can be sure that they will help you.
Half the success in Apple repair is the quality and reliability of spare parts, so a good service works with suppliers directly, there are always several reliable channels and its own warehouse with proven spare parts current models so that you don't have to waste extra time.
Free diagnostics
This is very important and has already become a rule good manners For service center. Diagnosis is the most difficult and important part repair, but you do not have to pay a penny for it, even if you do not repair the device as a result of it.
Service repairs and delivery
Good service values your time, so he offers free shipping. And for the same reason, repairs are carried out only in the workshop of a service center: they can be done correctly and according to technology only in a prepared place.
Convenient schedule
If the Service works for you, and not for yourself, then it is always open! absolutely. The schedule should be convenient to fit in before and after work. Good service works on weekends and holidays. We are waiting for you and working on your devices every day: 9:00 - 21:00
The reputation of professionals consists of several points
Company age and experience
Reliable and experienced service has been known for a long time.
If a company has been on the market for many years and has managed to establish itself as an expert, people turn to it, write about it, and recommend it. We know what we are talking about, since 98% of incoming devices in the service center are restored.
Other service centers trust us and refer complex cases to us.
How many masters in areas
If there are always several engineers waiting for you for each type of equipment, you can be sure:
1. there will be no queue (or it will be minimal) - your device will be taken care of right away.
2. you give to Macbook repair an expert in the field of Mac repairs. He knows all the secrets of these devices
Technical literacy
If you ask a question, a specialist should answer it as accurately as possible.
So that you can imagine what exactly you need.
They will try to solve the problem. In most cases, from the description you can understand what happened and how to fix the problem.