How to Backup Mac Without Time Machine [with 3 Effective Ways]

Can You Back Up a Mac Without Time Machine

How to back up a Mac without the Time Machine? As a Mac user, you may be no stranger to Time Machine, a built-in backup program for macOS that allows you to easily back up your Mac data and restore your Mac from Time Machine to a certain point in time, including data and settings, in case of data loss.

But there are a lot of drawbacks to using Time Machine, such as not backing up log files, applications, and iCloud content. You may be wondering if it's possible to back up your Mac without the Time Machine.

The answer is Yes; you can back up your Mac without the Time Machine by using an external hard drive. There are two possible options available to you:

1. 🔥Method 1. Back up your Mac using the professional recovery software.
2. 💾Method 2. Manually back up your Mac disk to an external hard drive.
3. ☁️Method 3. Back up your Mac with iCloud.

Keep reading to learn the detailed steps of each method!

Back Up a Mac Without the Time Machine Using Software

If you don't want to use Time Machine to back up your Mac data, you can consider using EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Pro, an all-in-one backup and recovery software to back up your data in just 3 steps. With the EaseUS Software on your Mac, you can recover deleted files on Mac without Time Machine.

This handy tool has a number of advantages over Time Machine, which is built into macOS. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Pro is not just a backup utility, it's an excellent data recovery tool that can recover permanently deleted files on Mac. Check out the following steps to back up your Mac:

Step 1. Click "Disk Backup" > "Create Backup" > "Next" in EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac's main interface. You can create a drive backup image file in case the data is overwritten.

Step 2. Select an internal volume to back up, and click "Create Backup". If you want to create backups and recover data from an external hard drive, USB flash drive, or SD card, remember to connect the storage device to your Mac in advance.

Step 3. Choose a place to save your backup files, and change the name of your backup file, then click "Save". It is not wise to save backups in the same storage device that you want to recover data from.

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Back Up a Mac to an External Hard Drive Manually

Apart from using the professional data recovery software EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Pro, you can back up your Mac to an external hard drive without a Time Machine. Check out the following steps:

Step 1. Plug the external hard drive into your Mac, open "Disk Utility", and select the external hard drive from the left list.

Step 2. Click "Erase" in the top menu to format an external hard drive on your Mac.

Step 3. Choose the Mac external hard drive format type and a new name of the external hard drive, and click "Erase" to confirm.

Step 4. Restart your Mac by clicking the "Restart" option in the Apple menu.

Step 5. Press and hold "Command + R" to enter Mac Recovery Mode.

Step 6. Choose "Disk Utility" in the recovery window, and click "Continue".

Step 7. Select the formatted external hard drive, and click "Edit > Restore" in the top menu.

Step 8. Choose the Mac disk, click "Restore from", wait for the coping process to finish, and right-click the external hard drive to eject it.

Note: FileVault makes cloning Mac drives impossible, so if you've ever enabled FileVault, you'll need to disable it. After completing the cloning process, you can turn on FileVault on Mac.

Back Up Your Mac with iCloud

If you don't have a lot of important files on your Mac to back up, iCloud is a good choice (you can also use other online storage tools to back up your important data). Simply upload selected files to a designated cloud storage location and download them from the cloud when you need them.

Check out the steps below to back up your Mac to iCloud:

Step 1. Click the Apple icon and select "System Settings".

Step 2. Login with your Apple ID, choose "iCloud".

Step 3. Click "iCloud Drive > Options", and check the box for any data you want to back up.

Conclusion

This article introduces 3 effective ways to back up your Mac data without a Time Machine: including using EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Pro, manually backing up your Mac to an external hard drive, and using iCloud.

Install the all-in-one backup and recovery software EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Pro on your Mac, and you will never worry about data loss in the future!

How to Backup Mac Without Time Machine FAQs

Here are questions people frequently ask when they search for how to back up their Mac without the Time Machine:

1. How do I back up my Mac without Time Machine or iCloud?

Follow the steps to back up your Mac without Time Machine or iCloud:

Step 1. Install EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Pro.

Step 2. Click "Disk Backup" > "Create Backup" > "Next" in EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac's main interface.

Step 3. Select an internal volume to back up, and click "Create Backup".

Step 4. Choose a place to save your backup files, and change the name of your backup file, then click "Save".

2. How do I back up my entire Mac to iCloud?

You should open "System Preferences" or "System Settings" in the Apple menu, go to "iCloud", and check all the items you want to back up in the iCloud settings options.