I followed the instruction to their sixth step at which point the “recovery screen” was supposed to appear with a spinning globe. There is a wikihow article entitled “How to back up a Mac without Time Machine”. I’d prefer a method of backing up that can be done without being so connected. It appears that Time Machine involves an interaction with Apple that requires connection to the internet when backing up. The main takeaway here is to back up your Mac with Time Machine or another app, and create a second or third copy of those backups if you can. Although you could try a third-party Mac data recovery software, chances are they won’t get all your lost data back. Without a proper backup, it’s really hard to restore data. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of data backup these days. Backblaze and Carbonite are also popular options in the market, though I am yet to give them a try. One good option is to use cloud storage services like iDrive which I’ve been using and I really like the app because it’s super easy to use, and it also allows me to download Facebook photos automatically. It’s best to make a copy of the data on your external drive - as they say, a “backup of your backups”!

Like any other hardware device, an external hard drive will fail sooner or later. Then, you can safely unplug the device and put it in a safe place.

Instead, go back to the main desktop, locate the volume that your external hard drive represents, right-click and select Eject.

When the backup procedure is completed, don’t rush to disconnect your device as this could cause potential disk problems. After about an hour and a half, it says only 15 minutes remaining Step 5: Eject your external drive and unplug it.

How do i backup my mac