In this lesson on backing up your Mac, I discuss why you want to use Time Machine to back up your Mac as opposed to iCloud. iCloud is great for the iPhone and iPad, and it is the way I recommend backing those devices up, but the Mac is different. iCloud does not back up everything on your Mac, it basically keeps some items in sync. It is not considered a backup for the Mac. See why you want to use Time Machine instead of iCloud to back up your Mac in this video.