Automatic Backups & Time Machine

Get yourself an external hard drive! A portable hard drive powered by the usb port is what you want. They travel very well with your computer, and you can find them at any retailer that sells electronics. Make sure that you purchase one that is larger than the 120 gigabyte hard drive in your Macbook. A 160 gigabyte version of the the Western Digital drive pictured will set you back $94. WD Passports are available in several colors.

Setting up Time Machine under Mac OS X Leopard includes plugging in a hard drive, opening Time Machine under System Preferences, and clicking the large virtual switch to ‘On.’ Users then select the drive they just plugged in and don’t have to think about backups again. Time Machine silently and automatically tracks each version of every file, allowing users to metaphorically go back in time to retrieve any version of a document desired.

Apple’s software performs incremental backups to ensure all changes are saved between backups, and includes a Time Machine menu in the System menu bar that allows users to see the backup status or elect to back up on the spot. Restoring requires users to select the desired files or folders and click restore, causing Leopard to place the files exactly where they were previously.