Time Machine is a free built-in backup software which copies Mac disk contents to external storage. When it runs first, the Time Machine makes a full backup and performs incremental backups after that. After the backup was done it is possible to restore individual files, applications or entire storage to a previous version. If you completely restore from the backup, you'll go back to macOS Sierra (or whatever OS is on the backup). If you just manually copy files, then the OS won't change. Of course if the older El Capitan backup is still on the Time Machine disk, you can restore to that older version (along with the older versions of your files). MacOS Big Sur supports Time Machine on APFS-formatted drives, but there are a few catches The updated macOS finally allows you to use a drive formatted with Apple’s not-very-new APFS filesystem. The Mac OS Time Machine allows you to restore Mac from backup usually on a hard drive. Those without external storage are not forgotten. Software programs such as Recoverit (IS) for Mac are always there to come to the rescue. There are also the cloud-based services that allows constant backups. Any time a file is changed, Time Machine backs it up, allowing you to choose which specific version of the data to restore. Moreover, if you delete a file, Time Machine will keep a copy for a while. Once you’ve set it up, you can literally forget all about it.
Summary :
Want a program like Apple Time Machine for Windows 10/8/7 to set up an automatic and complete backup of your entire computer? Today, we will show you the best alternative to Time Machine for Windows – MiniTool ShadowMaker, as well as how to automatically back up files to an external hard drive with this freeware.
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Why Need Time Machine Alternative for Windows
As you know, as a backup and disaster recovery tool, Apple Time Machine does a great job and it is built in Mac OS. And it can keep local snapshots as space permits, hourly backups for the past hours, daily backups for the past month and weekly backups for all previous months to an external hard drive or NAS.
In short, it always keeps an up-to-date copy of everything on your Mac including music, movies, digital photos, documents, etc. If you have a need, you can easily go back to the time point hours ago or days ago to recover anything.
It's a 'run-and-done' program: once started, you don't need to do anything else and your Mac is protected immediately and forever. So excellent it is!
Unfortunately, Time Machine is only available for Apple’s macOS computers. For users who are running Windows 10/8/7, the software like Time Machine is quite necessary to keep PC safe.
Is there a Windows 'equivalent' to Time Machine on Mac OS? What is the best alternative to Apple's Time Machine, but for Windows? Now, you can get the answers from the following part.
Time Machine Alternative for Windows
When searching for “Time Machine for Windows Reddit”, you will find many Reddit users have a need for Time Machine Windows equivalent since they would like to have periodic backups of their OS and important files to an external location. Fortnite battle royale offline installer.
In this forum, someone recommends using Windows built-in tool like Backup and Restore, or third-party automatic backup software as the alternative to Time Machine for Windows 10/8/7. Today, we will show you these utilities to create similar Time Machine backup for Windows.
The Best Alternative to Time Machine for Windows: MiniTool ShadowMaker
To know whether the software is excellent, you can check if some highlighted features are embedded with this program. Here, MiniTool ShadowMaker, powerful and free backup software, should be taken into account.
This is because it contains almost all outstanding features in Time Machine, meanwhile, some features that Time Machine doesn’t contain can be found in MiniTool ShadowMaker. Let’s see some of its advanced features. Google chrome download status.
For instance, this backup software for Windows 10/8/7 enables you to run an automatic backup plan to keep your files, the entire disk, partitions and Windows operating system under protection. At the same time, incremental and differential backups are supported.
Need automatic backup software to automatically back up files or operating system in Windows 10/8/7? MiniTool ShadowMaker is a good option.
Besides, MiniTool ShadowMaker can make a hard drive clone easily, which is an effective way to upgrade your hard drive and transfer everything from an old disk to a new hard disk. In addition, it allows you to sync files to other locations for backup.
Moreover, it offers a complete system restore in a quick way from hardware failure, system crash, virus, and more.
Even the system doesn't need to be the same Windows version. Even if your old computer is Windows 7, and your new computer is Windows 10, MiniTool ShadowMaker will be useful to recover it, without any question. This requires its Universal Restore feature.
Now, you can free download this Time Machine alternative for Windows 10/8/7 and enjoy all these features to protect your PC. Also, you can choose to upgrade to Pro Edition for backup all the time.
Tip: When searching for Time Machine for Windows, some of you may be interested in Time Machine for Windows Server. Actually, MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition is such a tool to back up your Windows server OS and files.
How to Create Similar Time Machine Backup for Windows 10/8/7
After knowing so many functions of this Time Machine Windows equivalent, you may want to know how to automatically backup files to an external hard drive, as Time Machine does. Just follow these steps:
Step 1: Run MiniTool ShadowMaker on your computer to start a local backup.
Step 2: In the Backup interface, you can see this alternative to Time Machine for Windows will back up the Windows operating system by default since all system partitions are selected as the backup source. Of course, you can choose the entire disk to back up.
If you want to back up your important files like Time Machine, please go to Source > Foldersand Files to choose needed files for backup.
Step 3: As for Time Machine, it allows you to back up data to an external hard drive or network attached storage (NAS). Here, this Time Machine for Windows alternative enables you to save the backup to an external drive, NAS, USB flash drive, etc. Just choose a storage path to continue.
Step 4: How to automatically back up your data or system? Returning to the Backup page, you can view the feature Schedule, allowing you to automate the backup process at a specific time point.
As you know, Time Machine can do Hourly backup, Daily backup, as well as Weekly backup and all backups, run automatically, which is quite helpful for you if you are busy with other stuff or just has a bad memory.
When turning the Schedule feature on, you can see this Time Machine equivalent for Windows 10/8/7 offers you four setting options (more powerful): Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and On Event, also enabling you to create automatic backups, as Time Machine does.
Tip: In addition to schedule backup, you can use the Time Machine alternative for Windows to create incremental and differential backups. Meanwhile, disk management is enabled. Just click Scheme to manage the disk space by deleting certain old backup versions.
Step 5: Finally, you can go back to the Backup tab and click Back up Now to start a full backup in the Manage page. At the specific time point, this software will run automatic backups to keep your PC safe.
In addition, you can automatically back up files or folders by using the Edit Schedule feature in the Manage page after a full backup is completed.
Tip: MiniTool ShadowMaker offers you another backup method: disk cloning, which cannot be done by Time Machine. How to clone a hard drive to SSD? Just click the link to learn the steps.
The Alternative to Time Machine for Windows: Backup and Restore
In Windows, there is a utility called Backup and Restore, which is recommended as an alternative to Apple Time Machine for Windows 10/8/7. This tool can let you back up the Windows operating system & the files on your disk automatically and restore the system & files in case of computer accidents.
Similarly, this program can help you to free up disk space by changing how Windows retains older system images or deleting file backups.
Now, let’s see how to automatically back up files to an external hard drive. Take Windows 10 as an example.
Step 1: Navigate to Settings > Update & Security > Backup > Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7).
Step 2: Click the Set up backup button in the right side to start file backup or system backup.
Step 3: Select the path where you want to save your backup. Here, this alternative to Time Machine for Windows allows you to back up files to a USB flash drive, external hard drive or network.
Tip: If you need to create a system image to a USB flash drive, this tool doesn’t support since the drive is not a valid location.
Step 4: Select a backup option: Let Windows choose (recommended) or Let me choose. Here, we check the second one.
Step 5: Then, you can select the check box of the items that you want to include in the backup. Here, you can also include a system image.
What do I need to back up my computer? What files should I back up? Now, get the answers to these two questions in this post.
Step 6: Then, review your backup settings. To automatically back up files, you can click Change schedule to modify the default schedule settings. Here, Backup and Restore can help you to back up files or system daily, weekly or monthly, which is similar to Time Machine.
Step 7: Finally, click Save settings and run backup.
Tip: Likewise, this Time Machine alternative for Windows 10/8/7 can help you to delete previous file backups with the Manage space link. Besides, you can use this feature to free up space by keeping only the latest system image. The post - How to Delete Backup Files in Windows 10/8/7 Effectively shows you much information.
Further Reading: File History Isn’t a Good Alternative to Time Machine for Windows 10/8
In addition, some users recommend File History to be an alternative to Time Machine for Windows 10/8. As you know, File History is built in Windows 10 and 8 operating systems, enabling you to automatically back up your files to an external hard drive.
But in the Reddit forum, one user said that this tool isn’t like Apple Time Machine that has all of these properties: full system recovery; full history of all your documents, emails, etc; handling multiple drivers gracefully; integrated with other apps like Mail, so an individual mail can be restored even it is stored in a strange format.
File History only covers some of those functionalities. It cannot handle multiple backup drives well and you can only have one backup drive at a time. Switching to another drive is a troublesome thing.
By default, this free tool will only help you to back up data in the user account folder (C:Usersaccountname), including the Desktop, Pictures, Downloads, Documents, Music, Videos folder, and so on. Some folders on other locations cannot be backed up.
Thus it can be seen that Windows File History cannot be the Time Machine equivalent for Windows.
Does Time Machine Restore Operating System
Want to create automatic file backups in Windows 10? This post shows you how to automatically back up files to an external hard drive with ease.
Note: By contrast, Backup and Restore is not flexible and it doesn’t support incremental & differential backups. File History is not a good equivalent. Thus, the third-party software - MiniTool ShadowMaker with many powerful features, is the best alternative to Time Machine for Windows. If you like it, just get its Trial Edition from the following button to start automatic backups to an external hard drive.
The End
Right now, the alternatives to Time Machine for Windows has been told to you and MiniTool ShadowMaker is the best Time Machine alternative for Windows 10/8/7. If you are still looking for an equivalent to Time Machine but for Windows OS, just get this tool and follow the above steps to back up files to an external hard drive.
On the other hand, if you have encountered an issue when creating automatic backups for system and files with our software, please let us know. Or if you have any suggestion, also tell us. Sending an email to [email protected] or leaving a comment below is available.
When you started your Apple computer for the first time, you were likely amazed with its speed and ease of use. Computers generally run smoothly and efficiently at first. However, as time passes, a device can slow for several reasons. When this occurs, there’s a few things you can do, like reinstalling macOS. Additionally, this post covers how to recover and recover your Mac operating system if the need should arise.
If this task is too difficult or you don’t feel confident performing this procedure on your own, consider reaching out to HelpCloud Technician by-the-hour.
Backup Before Starting
You never know how recovering, restoring and restarting your macOS will go. Although most methods won’t delete your files, there’s always a slight chance something will go wrong and files will be erased. To avoid associated headache, you’ll want to backup your files.
One of the easiest ways to backup your computer is with an external hard drive. This type of drive is a portable storage device that connects to your computer. Due to their large storage abilities, external hard drives are great candidates for computer backups.
If you don’t have a hard drive, you can purchase one online or in a computer-friendly store for a reasonable price. A device that costs around $50 should have enough storage capacity to handle an average computer user. Before you purchase an external hard drive, make sure it’s compatible with your Apple computer.
After your hard drive is plugged into your computer or connected wirelessly, open the main menu by clicking the Apple logo on the top of your screen. Under your preferences, select Time Machine.
You may also use the search bar to find this application. On the left, you will likely see a “Back Up Automatically” check box. Automating your backups can be very useful and save you time and trouble if your device loses data.
To backup, go to “Select Disk …” Under “Available Disks.” You’ll want to click on your drive followed by “Use Disk.” Depending on the computer, it can take around an hour or more to backup.
Look for Updates
Mac Restore From Time Machine
You may feel that you need to recover, restore and reinstall your macOS when you really just need a software update. A lot of issues are resolved when you update software.
To update, open your System Preferences from the Apple menu. Click on “Software Update” to see if any upgrades are available. If one or more is listed, click “Update Now.”
Top Recovery Options
If downloading a software update doesn’t work, there’s several more things you can try. The “Command+R” recovery method loads macOS Recovery so you can install whatever version you have on your computer before getting into the utility.
Does Time Machine Restore Os
The second choice is “Option+Command+R,” which will bring up macOS Recovery, allowing you to install a compatible update for your computer. Lastly, there is “Shift+Option+Command+R.” This final approach will provide you with whatever macOS was on your machine when it was first launched (or if it’s no longer available, the closest version).
Determining which of the methods above best suits your needs can be confusing. If you have any kind of difficulty making this decision, consider reaching out to HelpCloud Technicians for remote support.
To start the process, click the Apple icon in the upper left-hand corner of your computer screen. From the drop-down menu, left click “Restart.” The computer will start to reboot, and as it does, you will want to press and hold the “Command” and “R” keys until the Apple logo appears.
After several seconds have passed, the Apple logo should populate. When you see the logo, you can remove your hands from your keyboard.
Your computer will boot into macOS recovery at this time. After the loading process is complete, the computer will lead you through a series of account questions, like what language you want to use. During this process, macOS Utilities will load. You should see several options when this menu opens. Depending on your device, you might see options like “Restore From Time Machine Backup,” “Reinstall macOS,” “Get Help Online” and “Disk Utility.”
If you have an external drive and have been creating Time Machine Backups, you can select the restore from backup option. You will need to plug in the external drive that stores the data in order to select a restore source.
Another option displayed that might be useful is to reinstall macOS. If you have a compromised OS, reinstalling macOS is a good plan. Keep in mind that reinstalling macOS shouldn’t delete your files, but things can go wrong with any process. In order to make sure you safeguard your photos and other important computer files, backup your computer first.
The Get Help Online choice will take you to Apple’s support website as long as you have an internet connection in place. The last listing on this menu, Disk Utility, can help if you would like to repair different drives, change their mounting, etc. For most people, this is not needed until selling a computer.
When you sell your device, you do not want any of your personal information accessible to the new user. So, before selling a device, you will open the utility menu and erase all of the data stored on your internal disk.
Before erasing, make sure the format reads “APFS.” This way, future users will be able to access the device without needing your predetermined passwords. After this is done, you’ll go back to the menu and click “Reinstall macOS.”
One thing to keep in mind when going through the steps above is that if you don’t have macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later, your recovery options are slightly different. “Shift+Option+Command+R” won’t be available. However, “Option+Command+R” will still install the mac OS that came with your computer, and “Command+R” will launch macOS recovery.
Other Troubleshooting Options
After reinstalling your macOS, you might find that you’re still experiencing issues. Luckily, there are other quick fixes you can try to improve your computer’s performance. You can always try power cycling to start. Although it might seem silly to fix an issue by turning your computer off and back on again, it can often resolve many issues you’re having.
When you turn your computer off, make sure you restart through the Apple menu. If you force shutdown your computer when you don’t need to, there’s a slight chance you’ll do more harm than good.
Another option is to delete the applications you’re not using from your computer. Sometimes you’ll have slow software because it’s overloaded. It’s also possible for an app to slow down your software because it’s incompatible.
To clean your computer, you delete apps you’ve downloaded from the Mac Apple Store. When you do this, all of the app’s associated files should be deleted. In other words, the app shouldn’t be storing any extra info elsewhere on your computer.
A NVRAM reset can also be very useful. Your system memory has an area called NVRAM that stores hardware settings, like speaker volume and startup disk processing. To reset, power off your computer.
When you turn it on again, press and hold the keys “Command+Option+P+R.” Your computer will make a chiming sound, and then your screen may flicker. Your computer will chime again, and on the second chime, you can remove your hold of the keys. After this, your NVRAM will be reset.
Looking into disk permissions is another trick that can fix a lot of issues. A permission provides your computer rights to access various files. Repairing these permissions seems complicated, but it doesn’t have to be.
Start by opening the Disk Utility program from your applications. Your startup disk will likely be the first one pictured. After you select your startup disk, you can click “Repair Permissions.” While you’re in this menu, also click “Verify Disk” to make sure there aren’t any other issues going on with your utilities.
More On macOS
macOS is a program that allows a computer to carry out basic functions. Every Mac is equipped with a macOS, Apple’s operating system. Apple’s current OS is macOS Mojave. With Mojave, which gets its name from a desert in California, users have access to improved security and privacy features.
There are also several advantages on this operating system that are new to Mac computers. First, there’s a dark mode. This setting makes the whole system appear darker in color. The feature was used as a design aesthetic on apps in the past, but it’s now available as s system-wide offering.
The App Store has also been upgraded. With new search options, it’s easier to find what you need. There are also curated collections designed by Apple editors that can introduce you to apps you might benefit from and enjoy working with.
Another fun new feature is dynamic desktop. Depending on the time of day, your computer can show you images that correspond with what’s going on outside. For example, your desktop will display photos of beautiful sunrises in the morning, sweeping landscapes in the middle of the day and darkening skies in the evening.
On the privacy side of things, your search history is better protected with Mojave. The Safari app has Enhanced Tracking Protection built into it, which means it helps keep you safe on the web. There is also an Intelligent Tracking Prevention technology that will hide your “Likes” and other social media activities from being tracked.
Apple’s Operating System
Although macOS works well, it’s not always perfect. When you experience setbacks, see if the issue can be resolved by simply turning your computer off and on again. If not, you’ll want to backup your computer.
At this point, you can recover, restore and reinstall your macOS. However, this is not always needed. If you reach out to a HelpCloud Technician for remote support, you can access one-on-one assistance to get to the root of the issue before unnecessarily reinstalling your operating system.