Here's something no one likes to think about: backing up your Mac. It's an arduous task, but backing up your system periodically is important to ensure you don't lose data to hardware malfunction, human error, or software corruption. With multiple backups both onsite and offsite, you can keep yourself from becoming just another victim to data loss.

It is estimated that more than 140,000 hard drives fail each week in the U.S., and more than 2,000 laptops are lost or stolen each day. Don’t become a statistic. Read our guide and protect yourself from losing all of that precious information.What You’ll Need:

• External hard drive (we like these)
• Carbon Copy Cloner
• Backblaze

You should always have multiple backups of your computer, because one backup simply isn’t enough. At a minimum, you should have one onsite backup that you backup to daily; an offsite backup (stored off your premises) that is backed up weekly; and (optionally) an online backup solution that is kept up-to-date as much as possible. We’ll show you how to get started backing up with Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner, and Backblaze.

Backing Up with Time Machine

If you have Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) or higher, then you already have Time Machine. This is a “set it and forget it” type of back up solution that lets you plug in a hard drive and not worry about your backups until you need them.

To get started with Time Machine, plug in an external hard drive that’s at least the same size of your internal drive, and then navigate to System Preferences > Time Machine. Flip the switch from OFF to ON, and then click “Select Disk.” Select the external drive you plugged in and go ahead and check the box labeled “Show Time Machine status in menu bar.”