From the Apple menu in the corner of your screen, choose System Settings.
Select General in the sidebar, then click Time Machine on the right. Select Add Backup Disk, or select the Add button (+).
Select your connected storage device and select Set Up Disk.
During setup
Your Mac might ask you for an Administrator password. If you do not have administrator access on your computer, please contact the IT Service Desk at 973-655-7971 for assistance.
Your Mac might ask if you want to erase the storage device so that it can be used for Time Machine. Either erase it or select a different backup disk or volume.
Be sure to use encryption on external drives.
Your Mac might ask whether this computer should claim existing backups created on a different computer. Claim the backups if you want them to become part of the backups for this Mac.
How to access backed up files
Select the Time Machine icon in the menu bar, then choose Browse Time Machine backups. If the Time Machine icon isn’t in the menu bar, choose Apple menu > System Settings. Select Control Center in the sidebar, scroll down to Time Machine , then select “Show in Menu Bar” from the pulldown menu.
Use the arrows and timeline to browse the Time Machine backups.
Select one or more items you want to restore (these can include folders or your entire disk), then select Restore.
Restored items return to their original location. For example, if an item was in the Documents folder, it’s returned to the Documents folder.
