How to Use Time Machine on Os X Lion

Step-by-Step Guide

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   Step 1: Purchase a Mac-compatible external hard disk drive with plenty of storage capacity.

   Make sure you allow for all of your existing data as well as your future storage needs.
   
   If you need to ascertain how much capacity you are using on your system to help you choose the capacity you need, you can use the “About my Mac” feature.
   
   Click on the “Apple” menu, and then click “About this Mac.” Click the “More Info” button, and then the “Storage” tab.
   
   You computer will show you a graphical representation of the drive space in use.
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   Step 2: Connect the external drive to your Mac.

   Shortly after connecting it, you will notice a new icon appear on your desktop complete with the name of the drive., Then, click “Open Time Machine Preferences…” If the Time Machine menu bar icon has been disabled, you can access Time Machine’s options via the “System Preferences” option on the “Apple” menu. , If you are using Mac OS X Lion’s full disk encryption feature, and you wish to protect your backups with encryption, click the checkbox entitled “Encrypt backup disk.” Then, click the “Use Backup Disk” button. , If you see this message, ensure that there is no existing data on the drive that you need before you press the “Erase” button. , It starts automatically after a two-minute countdown.
   
   Expect the initial backup to take a substantial amount of time while it creates the first copy of your entire system.
   
   Once the backup begins, a progress bar appears showing you how much data remains to copy, along with an estimate of the remaining time. , You can continue to use your computer.
   
   If you wish to glance at the status of the backup, click the Time Machine menu bar icon again, and the drop down menu will show you how much data remains to be backed up. , Time Machine will now continue to run backups hourly, daily and weekly, as long as your configured backup hard drive remains connected.
   
   Time machine erases the oldest backups as the disc space fills up, so be sure to use a disc with sufficient capacity.
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   Step 3: Click the Time Machine icon on your Mac’s top menu bar (the icon is circled in the screenshot).

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   Step 4: Click the “Select Disk…” button and then click on your new external drive

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   Step 5: which should appear in the list.

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   Step 6: If the disk you have connected has previously been formatted for use with a Microsoft Windows computer

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   Step 7: you may see a message stating that the disk must be erased before it can be used with Time Machine.

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   Step 8: Wait for the initial backup to begin.

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   Step 9: Close the Time Machine window while the backup takes place if you wish.

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    Step 10: Once the backup is complete

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    Step 11: the drop-down Time Machine menu will show the time and date of your last backup

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    Step 12: as shown in the screenshot.

Detailed Guide

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