This article will walk you through the steps to back up necessary data from your Mac computer to your storage device so you can restore them on your new computer. You will need a storage device (external hard drive, USB flash drive, Google Drive, or staff network folder) to copy this data to.

*IMPORTANT* If you are backing up personal data, this data MUST be backed up to a non-Woodward storage medium. Examples of storage mediums - personal USB flash drives, personal USB hard drives, and personal cloud accounts.

WHERE TO START

FIRST STEP

  • Reduce Your Hard Drive Storage 
    • Delete unnecessary downloads 
    • Organize files and delete unnecessary data 
    • Remove personal files, photos, videos, etc. after they are transferred to your personal external storage device. 

SECOND STEP

  • Back up your data on MacOS:   

Open Finder

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From the "Go" menu

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Select "Home".

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  • Several folders will be listed, decide which folders you want to copy to your backup device (external hard drive, USB flash drive, Google Drive, or staff network folder). The following is a summary of the folders that you see.  

Folders that you are most likely to have data stored in:

  • Applications: List of applications that are only available to your user 
  • Desktop: This is all of the files and folders that you see on your desktop 
  • Documents: All of the documents that you have created and saved locally 
  • Downloads: All of the items that you have downloaded from the Internet and email 
  • Movies: All of the videos that you have downloaded or imported from another device 
  • Music: All of the music that you have downloaded or imported from another device 
  • Pictures: All of the photos that you have downloaded or imported from another device 
  • Public: Local folder that is used to share files with other users on the computer 
  • Sites: Stores web pages and related files for Web Sharing 

  • Right-click (control+click) on a folder you would like to copy and select Copy.  

Select your backup device (external hard drive, USB flash drive, Google Drive, or your staff folder on the network) and right-click (control+click) and select Paste.



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External Drive Flash Drive Google Drive Network Drive Time Machine
Drive


  • Repeat steps 2-3 as many times as necessary to back up everything you need. 

  • The amount of time that this takes depends on how much data is being backed up. 

Items NOT to backup:

  • Applications (Microsoft Word, Smart Notebook, TurningPoint Cloud, etc.) 
  • These applications will be downloaded once you get your new computer 
  • Google Drive / Dropbox 
  • These items are already in the cloud and can be accessed via the intranet 

THIRD STEP

  • If applicable, make a list of any additional applications/programs that you may have on your current computer that you may want on your new computer. 

Other Information:

  • Any other applications you may have installed on your computer are your responsibility to backup. Check with your building tech para if you have any further questions 
  • Sticky Notes cannot be backed up. If you want save these, copy and paste your notes into a Google Doc or copy them over to Google Keep