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ZDNET key takeaways
- At some point, your Mac might go haywire.
- With system restore points, you can roll that system back.
- MacOS has this feature built in, and it’s very easy to use.
You might think that MacOS is unbreakable, but in that assumption, you would be wrong. Things happen, either by way of an upgrade gone awry or a misconfigured option in Settings.
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Either way, when things go south, you’ll be thankful that you set up automatic snapshots.
What are automatic snapshots?
Snapshots are a saved point in time when your computer is working properly and can be used to restore your system. With a snapshot, you can roll back the clock on your computer so it undoes whatever bad thing has been done.
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Keep in mind that snapshots aren’t data backups. Because of this, you should not only set up automated snapshots but also configure scheduled data backups. Having both available will ensure you don’t miss a beat should your OS go full wacky on you.
With MacOS, you have a built-in tool for creating automatic snapshots: Time Machine. Let me show you how to use this helpful tool.
How to create an automatic snapshot in MacOS
What you’ll need: The only things you’ll need for this are a MacOS device and an external hard drive. Snapshots should always be saved to an external drive (an SSD) so they are accessible.
The first thing to do is plug in the external drive you want to use to store the backups. Make sure there’s plenty of room on the drive. I highly recommend using an SSD and not an old-school platter drive.
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Click the Launcher icon in your dock and search for Time Machine.
When you see the launcher, click it to open Time Machine. If this is the first time you’ve opened Time Machine, you’ll be prompted to plug in your external drive (you’ve already taken care of this). You will then be prompted to click Set Up Time Machine. Go ahead and do that as well.
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This action will open System Settings to General > Time Machine.
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Make sure you plug in your SSD.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
In System Settings > General > Time Machine, click Add Backup Disk.
When you do this, you’ll be prompted to set up the disk, so click Set Up Disk. In the resulting window, you’ll then be able to configure the disk. You might, like me, be warned that your disk isn’t large enough (I’m using this disk for demonstration only, as I don’t want to harm my production snapshot disk).
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By default, disk encryption is enabled. I suggest you leave that enabled to avoid someone having access to your snapshots. Type and verify an encryption password (making sure you use one that is unique and strong). After that, click Done. You will then be prompted to OK the erasing of the disk.
Depending on the size of the disk, this can take some time because it’s not only erasing and formatting but also setting it up for snapshots.
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You don’t have to encrypt your backup, but I highly recommend that you do.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
Hourly might be too frequent a backup schedule for your needs.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
How to restore your system from a snapshot
If something does go awry, here are the steps to restore from a saved snapshot.
- Shut down your Mac.
- For an Intel-based Mac, press the power button and hold Command + R until the Apple logo appears.
- On Apple Silicon Macs, hold the power button until the startup options screen appears, then choose Options > Continue.
- In Recovery Mode.
- Choose Time Machine System Restore.
- Click Restore from Time Machine Backup.
- For the backup location, select the external drive housing your backups.
- If required (which it should be), type your admin password.
- Select a local snapshot from the list (one that is prior to things going wrong).
- Read and ignore the warning.
- Click Continue.
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And that’s all there is to setting up automated snapshots on MacOS. Should something go awry, you can rest assured that you can restore your system using a system restore point created before things went wrong.
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Source: Robotics - zdnet.com
