SSD/HDD Time Machine Back Up Issue

I am having an issue with my 2010 13" MacBook Pro.
A few months ago I removed the optical drive, replaced it with the existing HDD, and then replaced the HDD with an SSD.
The SSD runs my OS (Mountain Lion 10.8.4) and Applications, while the HDD is where I store my Home Folder.
I did a Time Machine Back Up in March using a SeaGate external hard drive, with no issues.
Last week I updated the Time Machine Back Up using the same external hard drive, but this time something has gone wrong.
I am unable to move files within my system without Finder prompting me for a password.
I am unable to write to any external USB as I do not have 'permission to perform some actions'.
I am unable to connect to external servers via VPNs.
Finder does not open a new window when slected, I am forced to press 'Comman+N' every time.
Numerous other issues.
I have read that it's an issue to do with ACL's, but since my Home Folder is not on my Startup Disk, there is no way for me to do this.
I am the only account on the computer, and both drives have 'Read & Write' permissions.
Does anyone know how to fix this issue?
Please feel free to ask for more details.
Thanks.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software — potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions — they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac. 
These steps are to be taken while booted in “normal” mode, not in safe mode. If you’re now running in safe mode, reboot as usual before continuing. 
Below are instructions to enter some UNIX shell commands. The commands are harmless, but they must be entered exactly as given in order to work. If you have doubts about the safety of the procedure suggested here, search this site for other discussions in which it’s been followed without any report of ill effects. 
Some of the commands will line-wrap or scroll in your browser, but each one is really just a single line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then copy it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands. 
Note: If you have more than one user account, Step 2 must be taken as an administrator. Ordinarily that would be the user created automatically when you booted the system for the first time. The other steps should be taken as the user who has the problem, if different. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply. 
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways: 
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.) 
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens. 
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid. 
When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign (“$”) or a percent sign (“%”). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign. 
Step 1 
Triple-click the line of text below on this page to select it:
kextstat -kl | awk '!/com\.apple/{printf "%s %s\n", $6, $7}' | open -f -a TextEdit 
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Then click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste (command-V). A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. If the command produced no output, the window will be empty. Post the contents of the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. You can then close the TextEdit window. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that. No typing is involved in this step.
Step 2 
Repeat with this line:
{ sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix)|org\.(amav|apac|cups|isc|ntp|postf|x)/{print $3}'; sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook 2> /dev/null; } | open -f -a TextEdit 
This time you'll be prompted for your login password, which you do have to type. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. Type it carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. Heed that warning, but don't post it. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator. 
Note: If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before taking this step. If that’s not possible, skip to the next step. 
Step 3
launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple|org\.(x|openbsd)/{print $3}' | open -f -a TextEdit 
Step 4
ls -1A /e*/{la,mach}* {,/}L*/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,Keyb,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo,Sta}* L*/Fonts .la* 2> /dev/null | open -f -a TextEdit  
Important: If you formerly synchronized with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address may appear in the output of the above command. If so, anonymize it before posting. 
Step 5
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get name of every login item' | open -f -a TextEdit 
Remember, steps 1-5 are all copy-and-paste — no typing, except your password. Also remember to post the output. 
You can then quit Terminal.

Similar Messages

  • Time Machine back up issue

    Heya Guys!
    Not sure this is in the right place so please move it if needed.
    Ok, so I have an external hard drive, and I am trying to back up my mac through Time Machine. My issue is that it gets to a certain point where it will say 'The backup was not performed because an error ocurred while copying files to the backup disc. The problem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. If the problem persists, use Disk Utility to repair your backup disk'. 
    I repair the disc, and I thought I'd figured it out it, but now every single time it tells me to repair the disc. I have bought a brand new hard drive to do this with and it had the same thing.
    Also it will get to saying that it has only 148 mb to go, will do it really quick then will go on to back up more data that wasn't there before in the bar, and then will say as above about disc repair.
    I have no idea if it is actually backing up, as when I look into my hard drive, the .(file format) is .inprogress and the time machine sign always ends up saying back up failed.
    I haven't a clue how to resolve this, so any help would be wonderful. Even if someone could just reassure me that yes it has backed up properly, that would be brilliant.
    The hard drive I am using for this is a Seagate GoFlex 500GB and I did buy a Seagate External 1TB that I partitioned so I could use it on a Mac to use it with originally, but reverted back to my GoFlex.
    Thanks,
    Simon

    I've just run Carbon Copy Cloner to back it up too and that has revealed where the problems are. Most of these I already have on my External Hard Drive safe but not the others, and since it is my first ever back up I don't want to delete something off my Hard Drive that I can't get back on it somehow. The problem areas are below:
    ATIRadeonX2000GLDriver (located in system/library/extensions/atiradeonx2000gldriver.bundle/contents/macos)
    Media Toolbox (located in system/library/privateframeworks/avfoundationcf.framework/support/mediatoolbox/ framework/versions/A/mediatoolbox)
    Core AUC (located in system/library/privateframeworks/coreauc.framework/versions/A/coreauc)
    I was also told that one of my files needs to be repaired as it failed to open, but I have no idea how to do it. It is located here: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Install.framework/Versions/A/Resources/runner
    I'm guessing these are what is causing my issues, but I'm not exactly computer savvy when it comes to these sorts of things, so I don't know whether deleting them is a good idea, especially when I'm not sure if they are on a disc somewhere or not.
    Thanks for the help so far guys! :-)
    Simon

  • Time machine back up issue continues with Mavericks

    I keep getting the errors "Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup to “Time Machine”. "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder." anytime Time Machine tries to backup after it goes into Energy Saver mode. I have had this issue since Lion and hoped either Mountian Lion of Mavericks would correct this issue.
    I am using a USB 2.0 external HD attached directly to my Mac Mini via USB 3.0. If I restrt my Mac, Time Machine has no issues as long as it doesn't go to Sleep. If it tries to backup after sleep, I get the message.
    Any ideas?

    Bueller? Anyone have any suggestions?

  • Time machine back-up issue in Mavericks

    Hello,
    I have a query about Time machine back up to an external drive.
    Initially, I installed Mavericks and was using the back up disc and everything was running fine.
    Then, I had to clean install Mavericks as I had to submit my MBP to repair at Apple store.
    Following the return of the machine, I migrated the backup data to my MBP.
    Since then, I ran a back up and then it took 3-4 hours where the Time Machine cleaned the old backup. and I presume that it deleted the old back up removing approx 188 GB or the partition of 350 GB. And then, I got a notification that the back up failed, and the message states that it requires minimum of 200 GB and asks me to get a drive with larger capacity.
    So I am not sure what to do now. Should I just erase the back up partition? I think it is not advisable.
    Please suggest a solution.
    I am also confused about the larger size of the back up which requires larger drive for Time machine backup. Is that because of Mavericks?
    Thanks,

    Time Machine needs to perform a complete system backup after upgrading to Mavericks. Before you erase your Time Machine backup do the following.
    Turn off Time Machine in Time Machine's Preferences. Eject and disconnect the backup disk, if it is locally connected (not a Time Capsule).
    Select the following line (triple-click to select the entire line), then control-click, and from the contextual menu that appears, select Services > Reveal in Finder:
    /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
    Drag the selected file directly to the Trash. You will need to authenticate.
    This procedure will not delete your existing backups any differently than Time Machine would normally perform that task.
    Reconnect your backup device, then from Time Machine's Preferences, turn on Time Machine, select your backup device, then select Back Up Now from the Time Machine icon. TM will remain in "Preparing Backup..." for a long time. When it eventually begins backing up, you may notice that the "backing up xxx of yyy" numbers will appear to change unpredictably. That's normal, and TM activity will return to normal after the initial backup of the Mavericks installation.

  • HT3275 Time Machine back up issue

    Hi, I have been using Time Machine for a couple of years backing up to a Tim Capsule. Now getting the following error message "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder". Does anyone know what the issue may be?

    Standard Lion/Mountain issue.
    See C17 Pondini.
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

  • Time Machine Back Up issue - read only?

    HI There,
    All of a sudden the Time machine could not complete the backup. it says
    Files can't be copied on to the backup disk because it appears to be read only.
    Any clue why that says that now all of a sudden?
    Thanks
    Carol

    That means your backups are corrupt.
    Try Repairing them (not permissions), per #A5 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
    If Disk Utility can't repair them, or the +*Repair Disk+* button is grayed-out (meaning OSX has already decided it can't fix them), you're out of options. All you can do is delete the sparse bundle via the Finder, or erase the disk. Use +*Airport Utility.+* Select +*Base Station > Manual Set-Up+* from the Menubar, then Disks in the tool Bar, then Erase.

  • Time machine back up issue - external hard drive

    Bought a new 1T USB 3.0 external hard drive. Backed up fine first time but now my mac is not 'seeing it'. Doesn't show in finder or anywhere, power light doesn't come on on hard drive though I can feel it working ('vibrating and heats up slightly). Sometimes when I plug it in it says drive wasn't ejected properly even though it didn't show in the finder to begin with and power light didn't come on. All ready done software update in first instance. What to do?

    Check that the data cable is securely inserted at both ends.
    Try a different cable.
    If you're connecting the drive through a hub, connect it directly to a built-in port on the Mac.
    If you're connecting it directly, try a different port.
    Test the drive with another Mac. Test another drive with this Mac.
    Boot from your recovery partition (Mac OS X 10.7 or later) or from your installation disc, and launch Disk Utility. Is the drive recognized?
    If the drive doesn't work under any of the above conditions, and if another drive does work with the same Mac, then the drive has failed. You may be able to salvage the mechanism by removing it from the enclosure and installing it in another one, or in a drive dock.

  • Getting Time Machine back up to a Sparsebundle on external HDD (Drobo)

    Hey,
    I've been chasing this issue around for a while but can't seem to find the answer.
    There are a lot of resources out there describing how to get your Mac to backup to a Sparsebundle on a NAS, and more resources telling you how to write protect the Info.plist file so that Mac OS doesn't resize the image to take up all of your NAS.
    However I've got a Drobo connected directly to my Mac Mini. The Drobo pretends to have a 16TB drive so that you can add storage as and when you need it.
    I am already using it to back up my MBP over the network to a Sparsebundle and until recently I was using the same scheme (a size limited sparsebundle) to back up the Mac Mini that the Drobo is connected to.
    I achieved this by following the excellent directions on http://anitechtalk.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/time-machine-dns323/ (one of the only sites that mentions the new way that Apple handles Time Machine Sparsebundles)
    However this has recently stopped working and no matter what I do I still cannot get my Mac to see the Sparsebundle as a TimeMachine aware 'drive'- instead it just backs up to the root of the '16TB' Drobo- and at some point it's going to get rather full.
    Argh.
    (And yes, I know that the other solution is to re-partition my Drobo to have a small partition at the start of the disk for Time Machine to use- but it's too late for that as I've already got 1.85TB of data on there and I doubt that I can re-partition that without losing all of the data.)
    Can anyone help me get Time Machine to accept my Sparsebundle as a 'disk' that it can backup to?
    Thanks in advance.

    Thank you for the video link. I did it pretty much exactly the way the young man explained. The one thing I didn't do was click "customize" as he does and unclick the multiple language support and he also clicks "rosetta" to support older programs. I wonder if that's the issue? The guys at Macmall told me that I would need to update the o.s. before I restored. I did that originally but have since (as mentioned before) erased the main drive. I noticed that when he does his install, his external drive does not show up on the list in which you want to install the o.s. on... should I unplug my external? I'm just trying to look at ever detail. I know the recovery file is there. The one thing it (the external) did say before I started posting here was "in progress". I'm not sure what that means? I promise I'm not an idiot. I consider myself an above average user. I usually help other that have issues... but I've yet to restore from a Time Machine back-up and I'm looking forward to learning how to do it.... the right way. I appreciate all of the advice. I have some pretty important files on my external back-up. I am really hoping that this is possible. I'm beginning to think the external is where the issue lies. The "in progress" next to the file name concerns me. I know there's a lot of data on the drive because it's nearly half full. So there's stuff there....
    Deep breath in...... reeee laaaaaaaxxxx

  • Hdd upgrade Lion 10.7.5 Macbook Pro 8,2 -Using Time Machine back-up

    Hi there. I am searching for the best way to do this and cannot seem to find out the correct method.
    I just bought a new HGST Travelstar 1 tb. laptop hdd and I want to replace my current hdd in my Macbook Pro. I'm reading that there is a recovery partition and I need to make sure I create it on the new drive and also read something about making a bootable Lion installer USB drive.
    I'm just really confused right now. I did this before on my old white Macbook and it was super easy. I installed new hdd, restored from Time Machine, done.
    Any help on this would be greatly appreciated! I've had the new drive for a few days now and would really like to install it because my current hdd is quite full.
    If someone ould just give step by step directions I would be forever grateful. Thank You in advance
    Macbook Pro - Late 2011 Model Identifier 8,2
    Lion 10.7.5
    I have Time Machine back-up on an external drive
    I want to restore my entire system from Time Machine and install a new 1 tb. drive in my Macbook Pro.
    P.s. Is restoring from Time Machine the best method? I use my computer for music production and have many sample libraries, VST's, DAW's, DJ soft-ware. Obviously if I did clean install I'd have to re-authorize all those programs.
    Should I upgrade to Mountain Lion. ?
    Thanks

    You need to erase and format the new HD as OS X Extended (journaled), restore the TM backup onto it, and then reinstall Lion to put on the Recovery HD. Best is to do all of that in an ext HD enclosure, ensure that it boots the MBP, and then put it into the MBP. Once that's done and, if the MBP supports it, upgrade to Mtn Lion, which is what Lion should have been when it shipped.

  • Can I use my time capsule for time machine back ups and as an external storage device?

    I have a time capsule and have set it up so that my time machine back ups are saved on it, but I would also like to use it as an external hard drive. Is this possible?
    I know nothing about computers so please tell me in very basic terms. thankyou!

    By external hard disk we usually mean one plugged into the computer by USB or Firewire or Thunderbolt.
    None of those works on the TC.. it is plugged in by ethernet or use wireless connection.. that means it is a network drive.. not an external drive. The difference might not mean much to you.. but it is totally different to the computer. In the former case the computer has full control of the disk. In the case of the network drive, the disk is controlled by the TC firmware and the files are stored and accessed by network. This has large implications.
    So here is my standard response.
    Store files on the TC.
    This is asked several times a day.. obviously people are struggling with their latest SSD being too small.
    The TC is not suitable for network file server.. but many people having no choice press it into service as such.
    Major issues.
    1. No backup.. no way Time Machine can backup a network drive. No place to backup to.. So all your files will be at risk. And you will need to buy a third party like CCC to do backup.
    2. The TC cannot be partitioned and mixing TM backups and data is not great. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.
    3. The drive is slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. there is no control. In fact the TC is so lacking in controls for even the router side.. that you cannot do more than the most basic of setups.
    The following are controls on the hard disk side.
    Reformat it. You can name the share. You can do a full archive of the whole disk. This will go at a speed of aprox. 30-50GB/Hr so calculate how long an archive of a full 2TB will take.
    4. iPhoto in particular can easily corrupt its entire library with wireless networking causing a disconnection to one photo. Even if you do this;;; do not move your photo library... you have been warned!!
              Even apple btw say don’t do it.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168 Although mostly about FAT32           it adds network drives.
    5. iTunes can constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is slow to respond.. itunes on the computer will constantly spit out errors. Even in the midst of streaming the TC can spin down the disk due to caching.
    6. Do not use any live files on the TC no matter what else you do.. if you edit files in whatever program the file must be on the local hard disk.
    7. The only suitable location for most libraries is a computer. You can plug in an external hard disk.
    Read pondini for some work arounds.
    Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html

  • How do I delete Time-Machine back-ups on external HD

    Hello everybody, I would like to delete all the Time Machine back-ups on my external hard drive and create a new full back-up.  This is because after several months my HDD is quickly filling up and I would like to clean out all the old back-ups.  What is the best way to do this?  Sould I simply delete the old back-ups through finder, or is there another and better way to do this?  Many thanks for your help!

    peiper1 wrote:
    ....... the suggestion to enter the TM "Star Wars" display only applies to back-ups residing on my internal SSD, right? ...
    No.
    peiper1 wrote:
    ...Also, if TM is backed up to an external HDD, why does it also keep back-ups on the MBA's internal SSD?
    As far as I know it doesn't. You may be meaning this...
    Time Machine Local Snapshots Laptops
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4878
    peiper1 wrote:
    .. I would like to delete the back-ups on my external hard drive, do I still do it the same way?  ...
    Follow Pondinis Instructions for Deleting Backups on the TM external Drive.

  • My external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive. Same thing has happened with Final Cut Express.

    My new LaCie external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive.
    The same thing happened recently between Final Cut Express and my other LaCie external hard drive used as the Scratch disk. It fixed itself.
    I've run out of ideas. Help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

    have you done some searches on FCPx and time machine? Is there a known issue with using a TM drive with FCPx? dunno but ...wait...I'll take 60 sec for you cause I'm just that kind of guy....   google...." fcpx time machine problem"  Frist page link 
    http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/fcpx-bug-best-practices-for-using-external-hard- drives-and-final-cut-pro-x/
           You cannot have time machine backups on your hard drive if you intend to use it in FCPX.
    booya!

  • I have partitioned my time capsule, but I can't get it to work as a Time Machine back up and permanent media server for both mac and PC. What format do I need to partition the drive to so that it works for both mac and windows and so that it will be visab

    I have partitioned my time capsule, as I want part of it to act as a media server for both mac and windows. However I don't know what format that I need to partition it to. I also can't make it a permanently accesible drive. I want to restore the drive to the original format (which I don't know) and start again and re-partition the drive in a format that can be used for media by both mac and PC and for time machine back-ups and make the media part of it permanetly accesible so I can add and acccess my files.
    Thanks

    You are mixing up a couple of things here.
    The TC drive cannot be partitioned without removing it.. did you do that?
    If you partition it you must use a Mac disk utility and use the HFS+ ie standard Mac format. And GUID partition table not windows type.
    You can select erase disk in the airport utility.. that will take the disk back to original format. No partitions. TC is deliberately not partitioned as it is not a media server.. it is a backup device for TM. Over time .. the disk will be filled with TM backups so you have a long history of file changes to your computer.
    There is no media server in the TC.. it is merely disk storage.. you can serve files from it to a media device.. but the TC itself is dumb as dumb.
    Now the actual format of the drive is irrelevant to the PC.. The TC offers SMB file services to the network. You can copy files to and from the TC as if it was a local disk without caring one iota about the format. The TC handles that .. it is not a local disk .. it is a network drive.
    Although you cannot partition the TC. you can still copy files to it.. this does have implications for TM.. but as long as there is plenty of free space should not be a major issue.
    You can create a disk image via the disk utility in a Mac.. and as stated you can create partitions if you do it on a Mac with the disk directly connected which means breaking warranty if any exists on the TC.

  • Can't restore new hard drive from time machine back up

    Looking for some help on this one....
    Briefly: iMac 24" aluminium early 2008 (model 2134) trying to upgrade the original 320 gb HDD. So I bought a WD Caviar Black 64 mb, 6gb/s 1Tb drive, intalled it pretty smoothly and then using an install disc restored it from a time machine back up. That went fine then I could not restart the mac (kernel panic). So i trouble shooted with an extended hardware test, disk repair and everything seemed fine. I reinstalled my old HDD again and worked perfectly so I figured my iMac doesn't like this Caviar (due to sata3 perhaps??) so I went and bought a Seagate barracuda sata2 1 TB 7200 rpm and repated the whole process. Again everything went super smooth until the restoring process ended and the iMac was restarted. Kernel panic again. Already tried PRAM, option key. Booting from the CD or my old drive is not a problem at all but from the newly installed drive (x2) ... Impossible
    Any thoughts ???
    Thanks

    Booting from the CD or my old drive is not a problem at all but from the newly installed drive (x2) ... Impossible
    Disconnect all peripherals from your computer except for the keyboard and mouse. Double check to make sure that you installed the hard drive correctly - http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Browse/iMac#SectioniMac_Num20
    Select your imac then select hard drive replacement, and there are the instructions.
    Video instructions - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzuBW3mu7LI and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVzYXgUhygI

  • Will existing Time Machine back ups build after 1 account migration

    I have one i-Mac happily backing up with Time Machine to an external hard drive.
    I have just bought a second i-mac (the old one's filling up) and propose to use migration assistant to move an admin account from the old to the new i-mac leaving two other accounts (and their files etc) on the old one. I see from some posts that it seems as if Time Machine will start a new back up series for the new i-mac's back ups (cos its a new MAC address). But what about the old i-mac? Will that continue to extend the existing (old) Time Machine back up files, albeit without my transferred account and its files? I'd like to end up with the old i-mac continuing to work with and build its Time Machine back ups (less my account and its new files) and have a new back up series from the new i-mac building to a separate partition on the external drive.
    Second minor point: I have read that putting a partition on the external drive is the best way forward as it will stop competition for space and allow changes in one set up in future to have no impact on the other. Is this the best way forward?
    Does this all make sense?
    Sorry but I can't see an answer in the forum to what must be a reasonably common issue in this expanding mac world.

    I then tried to move it (TM back up files) off with Restore, whilst preserving the TM back ups but I couldn't seem to do it to the i-Macs hard drive nor to partition that to allow this to happen (assuming the lack of a discrete partition was the problem).
    That's likely correct. This only works if you restore one entire partition to another, and check the +Erase destination+ box.
    The problem was that I could not (maybe for the same contiguous reasons) create a new partition on the old i-Mac just to temporarily move the TM back up to. Without it I could not 'empty' the WDC firewire drive and partition it prior to returning the TM back ups to it albeit contiguously in a dedicated partition.
    Unfortunately for me to retain the TM back ups for the account I moved to the new i-Mac, I will have to leave that account on the old i-Mac as well. I can't see a way around that? If I delete the account on it then surely I will lose the ability to Log onto it and then to click TM and see back in time on that account?
    If I understand you correctly, that will be true eventually, but not immediately, as TM will, eventually, delete it's copies of anything that's no longer on your internal HD. That will depend, of course, on how long TM can keep it's backups. But while they're still there, if you log on with Admin privileges, you should be able to view the old backups.
    Not sure I explained myself clearly. Sorry. Having understood from your earlier help that 'migrate' actually means 'make a copy in another place', I have the migrated account in two places: one now dormant, on the old i-Mac and two, where it is migrated to (the new i-Mac). But TM continues to back up all accounts, indeed everything, on the old i-Mac by dint of its MAC address. So to see the migrated account's past history I assume I have to access the version on the old i-Mac. To put it another way, when logged into one account on the old i-Mac I believe it is not possible to see the TM history and files of another account on that i-Mac despite TM backing the entire HD. You have to be logged in to that account to see it. On the new i-Mac, with its different MAC address, TM is busy creating the first TM back up and I assumed that in the migrate it did not bring TM history as I had read that it is MAC address specific.
    The only issue (apart from having this account's history spread over two machines (pre-today on the old i-Mac's TM and today onwards on the new i-Mac) is that I have all the files on both machines. I am not worried about security only unnecessary usage of disk space. It isn't critical, there's lots of it, but it just seems wasteful and untidy. Unless you guys know otherwise?
    If I understand what you've done, you do have duplicates of the current contents, but only one copy of the old backups (on the old F/W drive).
    On the old i-Mac I have the two accounts I wanted to stay there plus the now dormant account I migrated. TM continues to work away at memorising ALL these although there will be no further changes to the dormant migrated account as I will not be running it on the old i-Mac. On the new i-Mac I have the migrated account of which TM is now creating its first (huge) back up but starting today. There is no history here. So I have copies of everything; its just that the old history of the migrated account remains on the old i-Mac and a new history (does that make sense?) is building from the new one. My point was that if I were to delete the dormant account from the old i-Mac, then I could not access it to use TM with it. I believe TM only shows the history of the account and screen you're in at the time?
    There is an option in TM that will allow you to selectively +Delete all backups of+ selected items. +Enter Time Machine,+ locate and select the item(s), click the "gear" icon in the Finder window's toolbar, and select the +Delete all backups of ..+ option.
    What you can't do is, keep the backups of only previous versions of things that were changed or deleted. It's all or nothing.
    Not sure I understand this. What would have been nice but I do not think is possible is to have moved the account to the new i-Mac together with the TM's back ups of that account and continue to build it up (whilst having access to its history) on the new i-Mac. If that were (is?) possible I could have totally deleted the old account and with it its files from the old i-Mac, freed up some HD space and had a full AND growing TM history all on the new i-Mac.
    Many thanks for staying the course and for your continuing help.

Maybe you are looking for