How many times have you been told that you should have thought about backing up your data? Did you know that there are many solutions that allow you to backup your Mac without you having to worry about it?
Free local backups
Time Machine, a must
This simple backup solution integrated with OS X since version 10.5 is the easiest to set up and maintain.
It also offers incremental backup capabilities that allow the user to go back up to an X date and retrieve a single file.
For this system, you will only need an external USB / Thunderbolt hard drive, a NAS server or a Time Capsule if you are well equipped and a few minutes.
Go to System Preferences.
Then turn on Time Machine.
Leave time to your Mac for the first version.
All you have to do is enjoy, backup being done in the background, even if you restart your Mac!
For more information about Time Machine do not hesitate to visit Apple support.
Local paid backups
Carbon Copy Cloner
Bombich’s Carbon Copy Cloner is a disk-based backup and clone solution for Mac OS X.
Besides these features, CCC allows the synchronization of folders also called “mirrors”. This function is very useful when you do not want to get bogged down with a full backup, but a true copy of some directories.
In addition, the tool received a nice update with Yosemite and its interface is now much nicer than before. It now allows to access all the configuration on one and the same window. You will be able to choose:
- The source disk
- The destination disk
- Backup Schedule Mode
- And even select, one by one, the files not to be included in the backup.
It is this last point that makes Carbon Copy Cloner a really powerful tool in our eyes. For example, we can exclude the folder “Film” or only a few films from our backup so as not to clutter the external disk of useless Bluray téras.
CCC is available from 38 € 50.
Mac Backup Guru
Mac Backup Guru is also a relatively simple tool to handle. The software is basic, inexpensive but it does what it is asked. You only have to define the folder (s) to copy, save or synchronize and the software will do the rest. The differential backup method allows the software to analyze your files and their creation/modification dates, in order to save only what could be modified. This will save you a lot of time on every backup.
Only negative point for Mac Backup Guru, the complete cloning of the system is only available in the version of the publisher, sold more expensive on their website. The version proposed on the MacAppStore is less complete, but may be enough for some.
Here’s what you can find in the full version:
- The synchronization
- Cloning
- Incremental snapshots
- The ability to pause and resume a backup
- Managing scheduled tasks for backups.
Mac Backup Guru is available on the publisher’s website and also available on the MacApp Store for free
Backups in the Cloud
As for cloud backups or online backup for newcomers, they are in most cases paid for. You use an allocated storage space, on servers and therefore you must pay the hosts. There are many options available on the market for Cloud backup such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Zoho Docs…