Macs All-in-One For Dummies, 4th Edition

Chapter 1

Backing Up and Restoring Your Data

In This Chapter

Considering your options for backing up

Using Time Machine to recover files

Transferring your data to a new Mac with Migration Assistant

Recovering files you’ve lost

Backing up data is something that many people routinely ignore, like changing the oil in the car on a regular basis. The only time most people think about backing up their data is after they’ve already lost something important, such as a business presentation or a folder full of close-to-the-heart family photos. Of course, by that time, it’s already too late.

Backing up your data may not sound as exciting as playing video games or browsing the web, but it should be part of your everyday routine. If you can’t risk losing your data, you must take the time to back it up. The good news is that your Mac came with Time Machine, the application that makes backing up a routine that your Mac can do on its own.

In this chapter, we explain some of the different backup options. Next, we show you how to set up Time Machine to perform regular automatic backups. We also ...