Let me ask you something. When did you last back up your Mac?
Not sync to iCloud. Not the vague sense that "things are probably backed up somewhere." An actual, complete backup — every file, every document, every photo, every application setting — on a physical drive that you could restore from right now if your Mac was stolen this afternoon.
If the answer is "I am not entirely sure," you are in the majority. If the answer is "never," you are in more of the majority than you might think. And if the answer is "what is a backup?", I say this with genuine warmth: we should talk.
What Time Machine Is
Time Machine is Apple's built-in backup system. It is included with every Mac at no charge. It requires an external hard drive — the kind that costs between €40 and €80 at FNAC in Portimão or online. Once set up, it runs completely automatically in the background, backing up your entire Mac every hour, keeping hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for as long as the drive has space.
If your Mac is lost, stolen, or catastrophically damaged, you can restore your entire system — every file, every setting, every application — to a new Mac in the time it takes to have a very long lunch. Which, in Lagos, is the appropriate amount of time for lunch anyway.
The One Objection — And Why It Is Not Good Enough
"But my files are in iCloud / Dropbox / Google Drive." This is a sync service, not a backup. A sync service mirrors your current files. If you accidentally delete something, the deletion syncs too. If a file becomes corrupted, the corrupted version syncs. A backup is a point-in-time snapshot of everything, including things you did not realise you needed to keep.
Also: sync services do not back up your applications, your system settings, your email configuration, or the thousand small customisations that make your Mac feel like your Mac. Restoring from a sync service means reinstalling everything from scratch. Restoring from Time Machine means pressing a button and going for a walk.
Setting It Up — Right Now, Before You Forget
Plug in an external drive. System Settings → General → Time Machine → Add Backup Disk. Select the drive. Done. Time Machine will start backing up immediately and continue automatically every hour.
The first backup takes a while — hours, potentially, depending on how much data you have. Subsequent backups are fast because Time Machine only backs up what has changed.
The call I dread receiving — Lagos, 2025
She called on a Tuesday. Her MacBook had been dropped. The screen was shattered, and more critically, the drive had failed — the MacBook would not boot. She had been writing a book. Three years of drafts, notes, research.
"Do you have a backup?" I asked.
There was a pause. "I think so? I used to back up in London but I'm not sure I set it up here."
She had not set it up here. The data was recoverable, in the end — professional data recovery services can perform miracles, at a cost that makes the €60 external drive feel like the bargain of the century. The drive cost €400. The recovery took a week. The manuscript was saved.
She now has two backup drives. One lives at home. One lives at a friend's apartment across town, rotated weekly.
The Two-Drive Strategy — For Those Who Have Learned from Others' Experience
One backup drive is good. Two backup drives — one at home, one somewhere else — is considerably better. If your home is broken into, or flooded, or suffers a power surge that damages everything, your offsite drive survives. This is not paranoia. This is the same logic that makes insurance sensible.
Not sure if Time Machine is set up and working properly?
I check backup status as part of every Mac visit in Lagos. It takes five minutes to verify and another five to fix if it is not running correctly. An hour of my time costs considerably less than data recovery. Same day, in your language.
Book a visit →Lagos is a place where life is better lived without unnecessary anxiety. A proper backup removes one category of anxiety permanently. It costs €60 and an afternoon. There is no good reason not to.