Worried about losing all of your precious and critical files on your Mac? I drove myself crazy thinking about all of the possible ways my iMac hard drive could break down and delete all of my photos, contacts, portfolio files, etc. Now that would ruin your day – Probably your year.

“It’s time to get smart and start backing up my stuff” I thought. The safe, secure and stress free feeling of knowing ALL my data is safe is worth the price of a new hard drive… So I got a new hard drive, set up Time Machine and thought people like you should protect your Mac too.

This is How To Setup Time Machine (and reduce stress!)

What’s Required For Time Machine To Work?

If you want to run Time Machine, you’ll need two things:

1. The latest version of OSX – Leopard.
2. An external hard drive.

Got both? Sweet! Continue reading…

If you don’t have Leopard or haven’t found an external hard drive yet, I’ll show you where to find Leopard and the hard drive I use – at the end of this Time Machine Tutorial. (Skip to the bottom if you’ve gotta have it now)

Plug In Your Hard Drive

Plug the hard drive into your Mac. I recommend using the Fire Wire cable – NOT the USB cable.

Give Your Hard Drive A Name (Optional)

Sorry, but VERBATIM isn’t very sexy. So I’m changing the name of my Hard Drive to Felix AppleSlut.

To change the name:
1. Click on the drive
2. Click File in the top left corner of your screen
3. Click Get Info
4. Type a new name in the Name & Extension field
5. Close the window

Open Time Machine

The Time Machine icon should be in your Dock. Click it!

Set Up Time Machine Storage Location

Time Machine needs to know which drive you’re using for the backup and then you gotta set some options too. Click Set Up Time Machine

Choose Your Backup Disk

Now you need to select the hard drive you’ll use as the back up for Time Machine. Click on Choose Backup Disk…

Select Your Hard Drive

If you have more than one hard drive connected to your Mac, you’ll see them all here.

1. Click on the drive that you’ll use with Time Machine.
2. Click Use for Backup to continue

Time Machine Settings

Time Machine has found your hard drive and is ready to start the magic!

1. The Time Machine On / Off slider is now set to ON.
2. The counter has started for your Next Backup. When the counter reaches zero, Time Machine will begin copying files from your Mac to your new, external hard drive.

NOTE: You can move the slider to OFF and shut down Time Machine before the backup starts. Also, if you let the counter reach zero, the backup will begin – make sure you don’t need to use your Mac for a while…

Backup Started

The Next Backup counter reached zero and the Time Machine Backup started automatically.

1. The Backup progress bar is shown in a small pop up window
2. The Backup progress is also shown in the main Time Machine preferences window

NOTE: This process will take some time. As you can see in the image above, I had 61.85 GB of data to transfer to my external hard drive. It took a couple of hours to finish. If you’ve got more data on your Mac, it could take much longer. You’ll also find that your Mac will run much slower while the backup is in progress. So watch a movie or some TV… Maybe go outside fore a while and come back when the transfer is finished. You can KILL the backup by clicking the X above the #3 in the image above.

Time Machine Green

You might have noticed that your backup hard drive has turned Time Machine Green (sweet!) and sports the rockin Time Machine Logo (double sweet!)

Optional Time Machine Settings

1. (Optional) Click the check box next to “Click the lock to prevent further changes” to make sure nobody can edit the Time Machine Preferences. After it’s locked, you’ll need a password to unlock it and make changes. Make sure you know the password before locking the settings!

2. (Optional) Click the check box next to Show Time Machine Status in the menu bar and guess what it does? It shows the Time Machine status in the menu bar!

3. Click the Question Mark to open up the Time Machine help files.

Time Machine Is Ready And Rockin!

When the first Time Machine backup is finished, you can relax because all of your data is safe (finally!) Anytime you need to see your backup files, just click the Time Machine Logo in your Dock. And to change the Time Machine Settings, you’ll have to go into the System Preferences – also in your Dock.

And that, my friends, is how you set up Time Machine.

Requirements For Time Machine

1. Leopard. If you don’t already have Leopard, you can get it at any Apple Store or you can grab it online, with free shipping, from the Apple Store.

2. External Hard Drive. Time Machine must have an external hard drive to work so you’ll have to get one. I got the Verbatim 160GB SmartDisk hard drive from the Apple Store. Why the Verbatim 160GB SmartDisk?

• It’s very small and can sit behind my iMac, out of the way.
• The 4 reviews at the Apple Store said it was a great hard drive
• Given 4 stars by Macworld Magazine
• It’s extremely quiet. It’s only 2 feet away and I don’t ever hear it. And it doesn’t vibrate like older hard drives
• Gets power from the USB or FireWire cord. No 2nd power cord required – Awesome if you’re short on plugs in your surge protector
• The drive is already formatted for Mac OS X Leopard and Time Machine
• It’s cheap! The 160GB is only $129.00 (US) at the Apple Store – free shipping too!
• Here’s the link to the customer reviews on the Verbatim 160GB Hard Drive I use

I went with the cheapest option, but if you’ve got a few extra bucks, you’ll love Apple’s New Time Capsule. It’s an automatic, wireless backup hard drive for your Mac and Time Machine. Huge 500GB or insane 1TB models available.

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