Summary
It is critical to have a backup plan in place in case files are accidentally deleted or corrupted. OS X's Time Machine utility is an easy-to-use, powerful backup-and-restore tool that everyone should use.
Time Machine backs up data automatically to external hard disks, and it provides options as to what disks on your Mac to back up, whether to encrypt those backups, and what disks, folders, and files to not back up. Apple's Time Capsule combines a wireless router and a hard disk to allow wireless backup for one or more Macs.
If you need to restore old files and folders, the Time Machine browser lets you navigate through Finder windows that contain those old items; you can then tell Time Machine to restore those old files into the current Finder window, thus bringing back a missing file or replacing a damaged one. Time Machine can restore past settings in some applications, such as Mail and Contacts. Time Machine also lets you restore an entire volume, such as in the case of disk failure, to another disk. It also can restore one Mac's contents to another Mac when used with the Migration Assistant.
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