APRIL 2020 MACWORLD 91Apple’s iCloud storage offers 2TB for $10 per month.
macworld.com/thup].)
Migrate your old backup sets onto the
new, higher-capacity drive, if possible. You
can typically copy Time Machine backups
(go.macworld.com/tbup), for instance, or
copy a disk image used for cloning.
Retire your old drives, but make sure
and erase them securely or that they will
be securely erased (go.macworld.com/
scur) if you’re donating them.
GO ONLINE
Now is the time to ensure you have a copy
of critical data in secure online storage.
Which one you pick will depend on your
needs. Dropbox (go.macworld.com/d2tb)
now offers 2TB of synced storage for $12
a month or $120 a year. Apple’s iCloud
storage offers 2TB for $10 per month,
including automatic syncing for media files
via iCloud Photos.
Or you might go with an online
backup service. My top recommendation
for home users and macOS is Backblaze,
which has terabytes of data stored for
my household. The service is $6 a month
or $60 a year for unlimited storage.
Seeding a backup set can take a long
time or cause problems with caps. If you
had 6TB to upload, that’s 5 1/2 days at
100Mbps, but you might have an upload
speed only 10 percent of that or be
capped at 1TB per month.
For instance, Comcast would charge
you up to $200 for a single month (go.
macworld.com/cmcs) of that much overage
above the included 1TB cap, or $50 a
month for a flat-ride unlimited plan. Check
the terms of your plan before you start
uploading or syncing! ■