- Time machine is a built-in, pre-installed backup program found on macOS or OSX. In this video, we show you how to setup your Time Machine backup as well as l.
- Time Machine is a Mac utility that allows you to automate hourly, daily, and weekly backups on an external drive that's connected directly to your Mac or via a local network. It's seen as the first line of defense against data loss, and features simple setup.
- Mac Time Machine Tutorial
- How To Configure Time Machine On Mac
- What's A Time Machine
- How To Install Time Machine
- How To Configure Time Machine On Mac
This tutorial will show you how to configure Time Machine for the first time. Time Machine makes backing up your Mac's files, effortless. If you haven't configured Time Machine on your Macbook or iMac yet, right now would be the perfect time to do so. Why should you use Time Machine? They say, 'Storage is cheap, your data not so much.'.
You've got a Western Digital Elementsexternal hard drive. Or you're thinking of getting one.
Because of all that stuff you have on yourMac. The music you love. Those photo's of the kids with grandma. Thespreadsheets you run your business with.
And it would be the end if you lost it all. Or if anything happened to your Mac.
And that's where your WD Elements drivecomes in.
It's a reasonable priced bit of kit andnow you want to set it up for a Time Machine backup.
Before You Use Your WD Elements For Time Machine
The first thing you need to do after hooking it up to your iMac, MacBook Pro or Air is to format it.
When delivered your WD Elements portable drive is in something called NTFS format.
Your Maccan read the documents on an NTFS drive but can't use it for a Time Machinebackup. Not without formatting first.
When youformat WD elements for Time Machine be sure to format it as Mac OS Extended(Journaled) file system. And with apartition map as GUID.
If you've not done that yet go over to my document 'Format WD Elements for Mac. How? In 7 Quick Steps' – to learn how.
Got your WDElements portable formatted?
Great nowwe can start.
Using WDElements for Time Machine Overview
Here is atop level view of what you're going to do.
1. Fromyour System Preferences menu on your Mac you start up Time Machine.
2. If thebig button for Time Machine is off turn it to On.
3. Selectyour WD Elements drive as your Time Machine backup drive.
4. And thenany time when you plug in your WD Elements drive into your Mac, Time Machinewill do a back up.
How To Use WD Elements For Backup On Your Mac
1. Log Into Your iMac, MacBook Pro Or MacBook Air.
And connectup your formatted WD Elements drive.
Make sureit's already formatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system. (see what Isaid above).
2. Have A Fully Charged Mac.
Or one plugged into external power.
Plug inyour WD Elements drive.
3. Start Up System Preferences.
Has yourMac asked about using your WD Elements drive for Time Machine? If it has, say yes and jump down to step 4.
If ithasn't. How do i use a macbook pro. You can either find system preferences in your Mac's Dock. Or through aspotlight search.
Click onspotlight search and type in ‘System Preferences'. Double click to start systempreferences up.
Doubleclick on Time Machine in your System Preferences.
4. SetupTime Machine.
Hansel and gretel free online. The first timeyou setup Time Machine on your WD Elements drive you'll need to turn the sliderbutton from OFF to ON.
This turnson Time Machine.
Click thecheck box for Time Machine to backup automatically.
This waywhenever you plug in your WD Elements drive, your Mac will start a Time Machinebackup.
And alsocheck the box to show Time Machine in the menu bar at the top of your Mac'sDesktop screen.
This makeslife so much easier later when you want to check the progress of your TimeMachine backup.
Then clickon ‘Select Disk'.
The yellowarrows in the above picture show you where to click.
5. SelectDisk.
The nextpop up window you'll see allows you to choose your WD Elements drive as yourTime Machine target.
You'll seethe name you gave your WD Elements drive when you formatted it. It'll be thereon the list. Click on it.
Next youclick on ‘Use Disk'
Mac Time Machine Tutorial
The yellowarrows in the picture show you where.
And you'redone. Download acrobat reader for mac catalina. You have just set up your WDElements for a Time Machine backup.
YouTubeVideo Western Digital Time Machine Backup
Here is a 1 minute 37 second YouTube video for you by Western Digital. It shows you the linking up of a Western Digital drive to Time Machine.
How to Backup Your Mac With WD Storage and Time Machine
VideoCredit: WD
To Start A Time Machine Backup Yourself On Your WD Elements Portable Drive
Want tostart a backup right now?
To backupnow to your WD Elements drive.
Look at thetop of your Mac's Desktop. And then look for the Time Machine Icon.
It looks abit like a clock with an anti clockwise arrow on it.
When youclick on it you'll see a menu.
Pick backupnow from the menu.
And awayTime Machine will go creating your backup.
Your First WD Elements Time Machine Backup
Your firstbackup may take a little while in preparation and in backing up.
Dependingon how much you have to backup this could all take a couple of hours or more.
Time Machine prepares by working out what needs backing up in this backup.
The firstbackup is of everything.
How To Configure Time Machine On Mac
And thiscould take a while. But it all happens in the background and you can carry onusing your Mac while the backup happens.
Or youcould leave it overnight.
Just leaveyour Mac plugged into power and your WD Elements drive connected up.
And by themorning it'll be done.
Allfollowing backups to your WD Elements drive are of the things that changedsince your last backup. And so backups after that you'll find are much quicker.
What Will Your WD Elements Portable Backup On Your Mac?
Everything.Your operating system, your programs, your music, photos, movies. Time Machinewill backup anything that is on your Mac to your WD Elements drive.
Unless yougo into Time Machine and say there are certain folders you want excluded.
And when youbackup your iPhone, iPod or iPad to iTunes then they'll be backed up by TimeMachine too.
How Do I Know When My Mac's WD Elements Time Machine Backup Is Finished?
Click onthe Time Machine symbol at the top of your desktop.
I said checkingthis option would be useful for later.
It'll tellyou the progress of your backup. When it's complete. And the date of the lastbackup you made.
You can also check on your desktop. The icon for your WD Elements drive will turn green when your backup is complete (depending on your Mac's operation system version).
Remember To Eject Your WD Element Drive After Your Time Machine Backup
Just remember, as you would if you were using a USB stick that you need to eject your WD Elements drive from your Mac.
Do thiswhen your Time Machine backup is finished. You don't want to risk corruptingyour backup…
What Are Your Options When You Use Your WD Elements With Time Machine?
Will premiere pro run on macbook air. Either youuse your whole WD Elements portable drive for a Time Machine backup of yourMac.
Or if youhave partitioned your larger 1TB, 2TB, 3TB or 4TB WD Elements drive intosections. You can use a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system partition foryour Time Machine Backup.
To do thatyou simply choose the partition name you want to use. You do that on the TimeMachine pop up window where you choose your backup target.
How Much Space Do I Need On My WD Elements For A Time Machine Backup?
Ideallytwice the amount you're backing up.
If you have400GB of files, documents etc, you're using on your Mac's internal drive. Thenyou're going to need at least 800GB of space to backup to. Twice the amount ofspace you're using.
Super juegos gratis. This is sothat you can grow into your WD backup drive over time.
Formatting the Western Digital portable takes up space on the drive.
This meansthat your 1TB WD Elements is going to have less than 1TB of space for you touse.
But foryour backup of your Mac's 400GB of used space a 1TB WD Elements drive would befine.
Can I Encrypt My Time Machine Backup On My WD Elements Drive?
Yes, youcan encrypt your Time Machine backup with Time Machine.
What's A Time Machine
On thescreen where you pick your WD Elements backup drive. You'll see a check box toencrypt. Once you select it Time Machine will encrypt your WD Elements backup.
Last Words
And nowyou've learnt how to make a Time Machine backup with your WD Elementsdrive. With a backup you'll have taken acopy of your files, keeping them safe.
Bestpractice says you should have two backup's just in case one fails.
So doconsider buying another Elements drive to backup to.
And whileyou're here you can have a look at my other articles all about your WD Elementsdrive.
OtherResources:
Apple Support: Backup your Mac with Time Machine
Guide: Setting up a Time Machine Share on your Unraid Server
Apple's Time Machine is a built-in backup feature for your Mac that will automatically backup all of your files, apps, music, photos, emails, documents, and system files. When you complete a backup, you can even restore files from your backup if the original files are deleted from your Mac or the hard disk (or SSD) in your Mac is erased or replaced. With Unraid, you can now use Time Machine with the SMB protocol and store your Time Machine backups on your Unraid server!
How To Install Time Machine
Note: This guide works with MacOS High Sierra.
Create a Time Machine Backup on your Unraid Server
To create backups with Time Machine and store them on your Unraid server, all you'll need to do is connect it to your Unraid server and then Time Machine will automatically make:
- Hourly backups for the past 24 hours
- Daily backups for the past month
- Weekly backups for all previous months
- The oldest backups are deleted when your backup disk is full
How To Configure Time Machine On Mac
If you want to control when backups are completed, we suggest you use a tool such as Time Machine Editor so you can customize when backups are made and select a host of other options not available in Time Machine itself.
Unraid and Time Machine Setup
Before you begin, make sure SMB is enabled in the Unraid webgui by going to:
- Settings --> SMB under 'Network Services'
- Set 'Enable SMB' to 'Yes' and click 'Apply' (Array must be stopped to change this).
- Also, set 'Enhanced macOS interoperability' to Yes as well.
Now:
- In the Unraid webGUI, go to 'Shares' and click 'Add Share'.
- Name the share (Ex: Time Machine).
- Set your minimum free space or leave default. This is the minimum free space available to allow writing to any disk belonging to the share.
- Under 'Included disk(s)' select the disk in the array that you'd like to use for your Time Machine share. You can still use this same disk for other shares.
- Keep 'Enable Copy-on-write' on 'Auto'.
- Under SMB Security Settings.
- Under 'Export' select 'Yes (Time Machine)'
- Set your 'TimeMachine volume size limit'. This limits the reported volume size, preventing Time Machine from using the entire real disk space for backup. Example: setting this value to '1024' would limit the reported disk space to 1GB.
- Set your Security parameters to what you prefer.
- Click Apply/Done.
Next, we need to make the new Time Machine share a Remote Share:In the Unraid Webgui: (note: this section isn't necessary and should probably be removed entirely)
- Go to 'Main' and under 'SMB Shares', click 'Add remote SMB/NFS Share'
- Select SMB and find your server by putting in the IP address and clicking Search for Servers:
- Fill in the rest of the information and select the Time Machine share you just created.
- Click Add and then under Main --> SMB Shares click Mount to mount the Time Machine Share.
From here, there are just a few more steps:
- Connect to your Time Machine share by connecting to it through the Finder.
- Next: go to Time Machine Preferences on your Mac and 'Select Disk'.
- Your newly mounted Time Machine share should show up. Select this share, enable encryption if desired and click 'Use Disk'.
- Now, Time Machine will say it's trying to connect to your share. Before clicking connect, it's recommended to eject your mounted share from your desktop and then connect.
- Time Machine immediately begins making periodic backups—automatically and without further action by you.
Note: The first backup may take a long time, depending on how many files you have and the size of your Mac's harddrive.Thereafter, Time Machine backs up only the files that changed since the previous backup, so future backups should be faster.
Reminder: We suggest you use a 3rd party tool such as Time Machine Editor so you can customize when backups are made and select a host of other options not available in the Time Machine program itself.
That's it. Now, all of your Time Machine backups will be stored on your Unraid server and if something bad happens to your Mac, you will be able to restore files, settings, and apps from these backups!
Creating Multiple Time Machine Shares for Different People/Macs
So, say you want to create multiple time machine backups for different people/Macs in the house? You will need to create a separate share for each Time Machine backup and separate users in Unraid. For example, say the Stooges want to backup their Macs. If the username on each of the Macs is larry, curly, and moe, you would create Unraid users larry, curly, and moe. Once the users are set up then you would create the individual Time Machine shares (ex: tm-larry, tm-curly, tm-moe). From there, simply follow the instructions above!
For more info on Time Machine shares, be sure to also check out Space Invader One's excellent video on Unraid Shares and MacOS!
