
Mac compatible file formats: APFS, Mac OS Extended, MS-DOS (FAT), and exFAT.ģ. If the drive has been formatted before, make sure the file format is macOS compatible.

The external hard drive should be big enough to store the data you want to backup.Ģ. Here we mainly introduce what kind of external hard drive you should prepare:ġ. If you are interested in other storage device choices, you can go to Apple's support page for more information. Most users will use external hard drives or USB drives as a backup disk. For Mac users, the choices include an external hard drive, USB drive, FireWire drive, NAS devices, a shared Mac computer, and AirPort Time Capsule. Now users have more choices than just the external hard drive.

Most data security experts will suggest users back up data to an external hard drive for safety. Prepare a Backup Disk: What Disk Can You Use? What kind of storage device can you use? Let's start from the very beginning. To back up Mac data with Time Machine, you need to prepare a backup disk. The next question is - how to use Time Machine to create a backup on Mac? Like any other built-in backup utility, you must set up Time Machine the first time you use this tool. Now that you have known what Time Machine can and can't backup. For example, Time Machine will not back up: It seems Time Machine saves most of the personal data. Does Time Machine back up everything on my Mac? Do I need other backup software? In this part, you will get the answer.

If you're new to Mac Time Machine, you might wonder if Time Machine is enough to create a full backup. According to the introduction from Apple support, the data Time Machine supports backing up includes apps, music, photos, email, and documents. Once set up, Time Machine can automatically back up the user's data. Time Machine lets you back up your files and the different versions of those files over time. Time Machine is the built-in backup feature of macOS.
