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My Macbook's battery is at 519 charge cycles with a (fluctuating) <20% design capacity and doesn't charge anymore. So I decided to get it replaced. I was told that it was recommended to do a backup of my computer on an external hard drive and I was wondering if an external hard drive is my only option? What are some recommended brands/types of external hard drives? Is that all I have to do before getting my battery serviced?
While most any external hard drive should work, you should try the OWC drives as they make good quality enclosures. If the drive ever fails, then you can purchase a bare drive and install it inside the enclosure. The OWC Mercury Elite Pro drives will work for your backups.
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/external-storage
Whatever you choose do NOT use the proprietary software included with many third party drives as it can cause system problems and also prevent you from accessing your data. Use macOS and Disk Utility to properly erase the drive for use on your Mac. Erase it as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled).
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250
You should always have good verified working backups or you risk losing all your important files.
While most any external hard drive should work, you should try the OWC drives as they make good quality enclosures. If the drive ever fails, then you can purchase a bare drive and install it inside the enclosure. The OWC Mercury Elite Pro drives will work for your backups.
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/external-storage
Whatever you choose do NOT use the proprietary software included with many third party drives as it can cause system problems and also prevent you from accessing your data. Use macOS and Disk Utility to properly erase the drive for use on your Mac. Erase it as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled).
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250
You should always have good verified working backups or you risk losing all your important files.
+1 for OWC Mercury Elite Pro drives.
I'd also suggest setting up a standard user account, you can name it "test" with an easy password you can provide to repair. Then log out of your Admin account.
What to do
