- After installing Smart Switch, you'll need to back up the content from your old phone and save it on your PC or Mac.Here's how: Connect your phone to your computer using a USB cable, and then touch ALLOW on your phone.Next, navigate to and open Smart Switch on your computer and then select Backup.Your computer will automatically start backing up your phone's data.
- I’ve used my LaCie Drive to backup my Mac a few times. Now my Mac is failing and I am looking at buying a new computer but this time it will be a Windows. I tried connecting the LaCie Drive to my work computer (hp, Windows 7), and am unable to access my files that I backed up from my Mac.
Computer Hardware Manual
Mac Geek Gab listener Jurgen doesn't like Time Machine, and would rather back up his Mac using third party software. Time Machine automatically chooses which files and folders to back up, but. How to Back up a Computer. These days, more and more people are using computers to store memories, important documents, and various other bits of information that may need to be kept for long periods of time. Backing up a computer is.
To restore a Mac, you can use a Time Machine backup from an external drive to bring back older versions of your computer. If you've activated Time Machine, restoring your Mac to an older Time Machine backup is relatively simple.Keep in mind, however, that it can take several hours to restore your Mac from a backup. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.There are many ways to backup your Mac computer and restore all of its data: cloud-based software, third-party apps, external hard drives. Time Machine is a software that's built into your Mac, and uses an external drive to save versions of your computer, taken at 24-hour intervals. If you've activated Time Machine, you'll be able to restore older versions of your Mac, where it has backed up things like music, photos, and applications.Here's what you need to know to restore older versions of your Mac using Time Machine:Check out the products mentioned in this article:MacBook Pro (From $1,299 at Apple)How to restore a Mac from a Time Machine backupBefore you start, make sure that your Time Machine backup disk is connected to your Mac and that it's turned on.1. Restart your Mac.2. If your computer starts in the Finder, you'll have to open the Migration Assistant, which is located in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder (if it starts in the setup assistant, you can skip this step).3. Within the Migration Assistant, select the option to restore 'from a Mac, Time Machine backup or disk' when it asks how you want to transfer your information. 4. Select your Time Machine backup and click 'Continue' (Note: If your backup disk is encrypted, you may also have to input your password — and you may also have to choose between several different backup versions, which are organized by date and time to help you choose the most recent version if that's what you want). 5. Pick the information you want to transfer, like your Applications and other files, then click 'Continue.'Depending on the amount of information that you choose to restore, it may take several hours for you to complete this process and get your Mac up and running again.If, for some reason, your computer doesn't start in either the Finder or setup assistant, you'll have to restore both your MacOS and your files. To do that, immediately after turning your Mac on, press and hold Command and 'R' to restart your computer from MacOS Recovery. Then, when you see the MacOS utilities window, select 'Restore from Time Machine backup' and continue through the prompts, selecting the backup version and save location. Finally, you'd simply restart your computer one more time, and your Mac will be restored.Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:How to reset a Mac computer to its factory default settingsHow to uninstall apps on a Mac computer in three different waysHow to clear the cache on your Mac computer to make it run more efficientlyHow to backup an iPhone to iCloud, your computer, or an external hard driveEveryone loses data at some point in their lives. Your computer’s hard drive could fail tomorrow, ransomware could hold your files hostage, or a software bug could delete your important files. If you’re not regularly backing up your computer, you could lose those files forever.
Ethernet.addressType='static'Because ESXi virtual machines do not support arbitrary MAC addresses, you must use the example format. The maximum value for a manually generated MAC address is shown in the sample. The value for XX cannot be greater than 3F to avoid conflict with MAC addresses that are generated by the VMware Workstation and VMware Server products. NoteIf you choose to use the VMware OUI, part of the range has been partitioned for use by vCenter Server, host physical NICs, virtual NICs, and future use.You can set a static MAC address using the VMware OUI prefix by adding the following line to a virtual machine‘s configuration file: ethernet.address = 00:50:56:XX:YY:ZZIn the example, refers to the number of the Ethernet adapter, XX is a valid hexadecimal number between 00 and 3F, and YY and ZZ are valid hexadecimal numbers between 00 and FF. Mac address manufacturer search. Ethernet.address = 00:50:56:3F:FF:FFYou must also set the address type in a virtual machine’s configuration file.
Backups don’t have to be hard or confusing, though. You’ve probably heard about countless different backup methods, but which one is right for you? And what files do you really need to back up?
It’s All About Your Personal Data
Dell Computer Manual
Let’s start with the obvious: what do you need back up? Well, first and foremost, you need to back up your personal files. You can always reinstall your operating system and redownload your programs if your hard drive fails, but your own personal data is irreplaceable.
Any personal documents, photos, home videos, and any other data on your computer should be backed up regularly. Those can never be replaced. If you’ve spent hours painstakingly ripping audio CDs or video DVDs, you may want to back those files up, too, so you don’t have to do all that work over again.
Your operating system, programs, and other settings can also be backed up. You don’t have to back them up, necessarily, but it can make your life easier if your entire hard drive fails. If you’re the type of person that likes to play around with system files, edit the registry, and regularly update your hardware, having a full system backup may save you time when things go wrong.
The Many Ways to Back Up Your Files
There are many ways to back up your data, from using an external drive to backing up those files on a remote server over the Internet. Here are the strengths and weaknesses of each:
- Back Up to an External Drive: If you have an external USB hard drive, you can just back up to that drive using your computer’s built-in backup features. On Windows 10 and 8, use File History. On Windows 7, use Windows Backup. On Macs, use Time Machine. Occasionally connect the drive to the computer and use the backup tool, or leave it plugged in whenever your home and it’ll back up automatically. Pros: Backing up is cheap and fast. Cons: If your house gets robbed or catches on fire, your backup can be lost along with your computer, which is very bad.
- Back Up Over the Internet: If you want to ensure your files stay safe, you can back them up to the internet with a service like Backblaze. Backblaze is the well-known online backup service we like and recommend since CrashPlan no longer serves home users, but there are also competitors like Carbonite and MozyHome. For a low monthly fee (about $5 a month), these programs run in the background on your PC or Mac, automatically backing up your files to the service’s web storage. If you ever lose those files and need them again, you can restore them. Pros: Online backup protects you against any type of data loss–hard drive failure, theft, natural disasters, and everything in between. Cons: These services usually cost money (see the next section for more details), and the initial backup can take much longer than it would on an external drive–especially if you have a lot of files.
- Use a Cloud Storage Service: Backup purists will say this isn’t technically a backup method, but for most people, it serves a similar enough purpose. Rather than just storing your files on your computer’s hard drive, you can store them on a service like Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or a similar cloud storage service. They’ll then automatically sync to your online account and to your other PCs. If your hard drive dies, you’ll still have the copies of the files stored online and on your other computers. Pros: This method is easy, fast, and in many cases, free, and since it’s online, it protects you against all types of data loss. Cons: Most cloud services only offer a few gigabytes of space for free, so this only works if you have a small number of files you want to back up, or if you’re willing to pay for extra storage. Depending on the files you want to back up, this method can either be simpler or more complicated than a straight-up backup program.
While backup programs like Backblaze and cloud storage services like Dropbox are both online backups, they work in fundamentally different ways. Dropbox is designed to sync your files between PCs, while Backblaze and similar services are designed to backup large amounts of files. Backblaze will keep multiple copies of different versions of your files, so you can restore the file exactly as it was from many points in its history. And, while services like Dropbox are free for small amounts of space, Backblaze’s low price is for as big a backup as you want. Depending on how much data you have, one could be cheaper than the other.
Backblaze and Carbonite do have one big limitation you should keep in mind. If you delete a file on your computer, it will be deleted from your online backups after 30 days. You can’t go back and recover a deleted file or the previous version of a file after this 30 day period. So be careful when deleting those files if you might want them back!
One Backup Isn’t Enough: Use Multiple Methods
RELATED:You’re Not Backing Up Properly Unless You Have Offsite Backups
So which should you use? Ideally, you’d use at least two of them. Why? Because you want both offsite and onsite backups.
“Onsite” literally means backups stored at the same physical location as you. So, if you back up to an external hard drive and store that at home with your home PC, that’s an onsite backup.
Offsite backups are stored at a different location. So, if you back up to an online server, like Backblaze or Dropbox, that’s an offsite backup.
Onsite backups are faster and easier, and should be your first line of defense against data loss. If you lose files, you can quickly restore them from an external drive. But you shouldn’t rely on onsite backups alone. If your home burns down or all the hardware in it is stolen by thieves, you’d lose all your files.
Offsite backups don’t have to be a server on the Internet, either, and you don’t have to pay a monthly subscription for one. You could back up your files to a hard drive and store it at your office, at a friend’s house, or in a bank vault, for example. It’d be a bit more inconvenient, but that’s technically an offsite backup.
Similarly, you could also store your files in Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive and performing regular backups to an external drive. Or you could use Backblaze to back up online and Windows File History to create a local backup. There are a lot of ways to use these services in tandem, and it’s up to you how to do it. Just make sure you have a solid backup strategy, with onsite and offsite backups, so you have a wide safety net against ever losing your files.
Automate It!
All that may sound complicated, but the more you automate your backup system, the more frequently you’ll be able to back up and the greater the odds you’ll stick with it. That’s why you should use an automated tool instead of copying files to an external drive by hand. You can just set it up once, and forget it.
That’s one reason we really like online services like Backblaze. If it’s backing up to the internet, it can automatically do that every single day. If you have to plug in an external drive, you have to put in more effort, which means you’ll back up less often and you may eventually stop doing it. Keeping everything automatic is well worth the price.
If you don’t want to pay anything and want to primarily rely on local backups, consider using a file-syncing service like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive to synchronize your important files online. That way, if you ever lose your local backup, you’ll at least have an online copy.
Ultimately, you just need to think about where your files are and ensure you have multiple copies at all times. Ideally, those copies should be in more than one physical location. As long as you’re actually thinking about what you’ll do if your computer dies, you should be way ahead of most people.
Image Credit: Mario Goebbels on Flickr
READ NEXT- › How to Enable Google Chrome’s New Extensions Menu
- › How to Stop Spammers From Attacking Your Google Calendar
- › How to Power Off Your Samsung Galaxy Note 10 or 10 Plus
- › How to Switch from a Windows PC to a Mac
- › Want to Survive Ransomware? Here’s How to Protect Your PC