01-03-2012, 12:17 PM

Hello,

I am new to this forum and am looking for a little advice. I would like to back up my mac - mainly photos, videos and some word documents. I do not have a external hard drive and can't afford to buy one at present.

My friends directed me to iCloud which they said would store information for free. However, I believe you need Lion OS x in order to do this? I don't think I have this? I can also not find iCloud. It is not in my system preferences as shown on the "How to get iCloud" section on the apple website.

Any suggestions??

Many thanks

01-03-2012, 12:20 PM

Yes, iCloud is limited to OS X Lion users. If you don't have it in System Preferences, it could be because of two things: you aren't running Lion or you are running Lion but not the most recent version (which is required). If you go to  > About This Mac, what does it list as the version number for OS X? Lion is 10.7.

01-03-2012, 12:24 PM

Thanks for your reply. It says I have 10.5.8. In order to update to 10.7, I'm going to have to pay for it aren't i?

01-03-2012, 12:25 PM

Welcome to the Mac forums.

You need to be running OS X Lion in order to use iCloud. After Lion is installed an iCloud icon will be present in System Preferences. Also, iCloud is not for backing up your entire computer. For that you should be using Time Machine and an external hard drive. I know you said you can't afford one right now, so it's best to start saving for one as they are not expensive. Making backups is a must in order to protect your data.

For the time being you can backup some important things such as photos and documents to DVDs until you get an external hard drive.

01-03-2012, 12:29 PM

Aha, could you please clarify what exactly I can do with iCloud? I don't really understand? Is it just for transferring documents etc between different apple devices? I don't have huge amounts to back up other than photos, music and word documents. Thanks for your help.

01-03-2012, 12:31 PM

Originally Posted by munchkinmiu

Thanks for your reply. It says I have 10.5.8. In order to update to 10.7, I'm going to have to pay for it aren't i?

Yes you will. You can pick it up at an Apple Store or you can buy Snow Leopard, install that, install the App Store and upgrade to Lion from there (I don't know which will be more cost effective - it all depends on how much you pay for SL). Note though that you'd need an Intel Mac - if you own a PPC Mac, you won't be able to install Lion.

Originally Posted by chscag

Making backups is a must in order to protect your data.

Couldn't agree more. It only takes getting burned once to appreciate the value of a backup (take it from someone who has been burned before). If you can, try to save up for an external drive. In the meantime, you can make use of free services like Dropbox to store your important files. While I wouldn't use this permanently, it will at least provide some protection for the most important data on your machine.