Backing Up Files on an External Hard Drive (Mac 2x)

Summary:

You can back up files on a Mac external hard drive from the Carbonite application.

This article applies to:

Solution:

1. Ensure you have a Carbonite Safe Plus or higher
   • Check your current Carbonite plan to see if it supports external hard drive backup or upgrade your Carbonite subscription.
2. Restart your computer.
3. Connect the external hard drive directly to your computer by USB (all USB types supported).
   • Carbonite does not support backing up flash drives, SD drives, shared drives, Thunderbolt drives, and remotely located devices.
4. Ensure the drive is formatted to HFS+ (also known as Mac OS Extended), APFS, or exFat format.
   • Carbonite does not support backing up drives that use Time Machine.
   • Reformatting a drive will erase all of the data on it so copy your important files off the drive before you proceed. Apple features a detailed guide on how to format a drive to the correct format.
5. In the Apple menu bar, click on the Carbonite icon and select Open Carbonite.
   
6. Under the My Drives section of Carbonite, select the external hard drive and click Back this up.
   

Now that the drive is selected, Carbonite will back up the default files on the drive and you can select additional files if needed. Carbonite will continue to back them up as long as the drive is connected.

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