If you want to control what is and isn’t being backed up, hit the Options button inside System Preferences in the Time Machine menu (If this is your first time doing a Time Machine backup, it may take a while).Choose Back Up Now from your Time Machine menu.Select Use Disk, and this will save your hard drive as a time machine backup drive.Click on Select Backup Disk and choose your external hard drive.Plug your external drive into your computer and open the Time Machine application on your Mac (this is accessible either through Launchpad or in System Preferences).Apple offers the AirPort Time Capsule, built specifically for Time Machine backups.Īlternatively, there are plenty of 1 and 2 terabyte drives on Amazon under $100, and if you’re looking for a recommendation, check out the Western Digital MyPassport drive or the Seagate Backup Plus drive, which are designed to work with macOS directly out of the box. If you don’t have a dedicated external hard drive, it’s a great time to pick one up.

Time Machine and an external hard drive will allow you to backup all of your documents, applications, and other important information. Apple makes it really easy to backup your data on your MacBook Air.

How to reset my macbook air password