Archiving is very different from backing up, from the storage media used to integrity checks. Here are pointers to help you preserve important documents.
Time Machine
APFS backup disks offer different possibilities for adding volumes for your own use, alongside the backup volume. How do you decide what’s best?
In macOS 12.4, it’s impossible to run First Aid on any container or APFS volume on a disk with a Time Machine APFS backup volume, except in Recovery.
Internal or external? Hard disk or SSD? USB or Thunderbolt? Cooled or compact? Branded or separates? An external boot disk? Do you have a return and refund option?
What’s the Update volume doing weeks after the last macOS update? What can I do if ejecting my Time Machine backup storage causes an improper ejection error?
M1 Macs don’t support SMART monitoring over USB-C, forcing us to choose between Full Security without SMART, or Reduced Security with SMART support.
Signs of an SSD going down may be confusing, but when random apps seem to freeze, be suspicious. Diagnosis and recovery are also covered.
Is a NAS system worth considering for your backups? Could one replace your existing Time Capsule? Here’s additional information to help you decide.
Can you get Time Machine to back up faster by turning I/O throttling off? If so, it this something to do only for large backups, or can it be set as the default? Does it also affect other background processes?
iCloud Drive just works. Time Machine just works. So Time Machine should back up the contents of your iCloud Drive? Maybe not.
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