Time Machine and mounted sparse bundle disk image - file by file backup?

I think I had this system working in Leopard, but upon upgrade to Snow Leopard it seems to have broken. Does anyone have any idea how I can get Time Machine to back up the contents of a mounted sparse bundle disk image in real time - file by file within the disk image? For example, I have a 2GB sparse bundle disk image that i keep all of my bank statements/files/records in. It auto-mounts on boot and stays mounted. I use the disk image to keep it password-protected, so if I unmount it it is fairly safe. In Leopard, I would exclude the .sparseimage file from backup, but it would still backup the mounted image itself on a file-by-file basis, so I could enter Time Machine and explore the image folder by folder, file by file (say I deleted an old bank statement by mistake, I could go into time machine and recover as if it were a normal file/folder).
In Snow Leopard, after a clean install, and creating a new sparse bundle disk image and excluding the .sparsebundle file, I can't seem to get this to work even though the image is mounted. Is there any way to trick Time Machine into backing up the mounted image as it would any other folder? I know I can back up the .sparsebundle file incrementally but in order to recover a lost document I'd have to remount the old bundle and that seems rather roundabout.
Thanks,

I think you're trying to bypass the finder to mount the disk. Try this (I'll bold the key steps):
- *Turn off Time Machine* in the System Preferences.
- Option A: If you directly use a hard disk (not wireless) that has the sparsebundle you want to open, *connect the disk* but don't double click on the sparsebundle.
- Option B: If you are using wireless, this means use shift-command-k (or shift-apple-k), and if it says "Connect As..." in the upper right instead of disconnect, then use that button to *connect to that wireless drive*.
- Confirm the sparsebundle shows in that folder before proceeding...
- *Open Terminal* (Applications>Utilities>Terminal.app)
- Type: *hdiutil attach -noverify* (<-- notice a *space " "* must be included after typing this here but *DON'T hit return* yet.)
- *Drag the sparsebundle to the cursor in terminal*, and it should fill in something like /Volumes/HardDrive/COMPUTERNAME.sparsebundle for you. Now you can hit return, and the disk will mount.
- After you are done browsing sparsebundle's mounted image, *eject the mounted disk* like you would any other disk (not the sparsebundle image itself, just the disk icon that appeared if you successfully mounted it).
- Turn *Time Machine back on* in the System Preferences.
Hope this helps.

Similar Messages

Best approach for Time Machine / Entourage / FileVault / sparse bundle disk

I am looking to set up Time Machine belatedly on my G5 to provide hassle-free backup for me and my family. I use Entourage. I also want to provide a small amount of encrypted storage. I’ve scoured the obvious places which have plenty of ideas, but nothing which pulls it all together.
My thoughts so far have been:
1. Time Machine doesn’t work well with Entourage as Entourage uses a monolithic single file (which in my case is several GB big) – backing this up every hour will bring my machine to its knees, fill up the backup disk and will possibly give a corrupt backup as the file could be accessed by Entourage or the MS daemon process during the backup.
2. I thought of turning FileVault on which would automatically contain the Entourage file. This would mean:
a) the sparse bundle format (8 MB bands) of FileVault would limit the volume of changed Entourage data which would be backed up each time by Time Machine and
b) the backup would only occur during logout (which is fine with me) when Entourage and the MS daemon are not running so that the backup won’t be corrupt.
3. However I am not hearing good things about the reliability of FileVault (comments?) and don’t want all the data in my Home folders lost – I don’t need that much encryption anyway.
4. So I thought about setting up a couple of encrypted disk images made of sparse bundles – one for the Entourage data (symbolically linked to the right place for Entourage to pick the folder up) and the other for the other small number of files I need encrypted. This could be auto-mounted at login.
5. However I think that using disk images rather than FileVault loses the automatic backup by Time Machine at logout. Maybe there is a way to get Time Machine to automatically backup these disk images during logout.
6. Perhaps there is another way to get the disk images backed up at logout other than using Time Machine.
So my questions are:
A. What is the best overall approach to providing a low-maintenance reliable backup which deals appropriately with Entourage and provides a small amount of encrypted space?
B. Can Time Machine be made to backup disk images other than FileVault disk images at logout? (for example is there a particular location / filename format for FileVault images which I could emulate with the other disk images to fool Time Machine into backing them up?)
C. When Time Machine runs at logout, have MS Entourage and the daemon process already been shut down and the disks unmounted, to prevent corruption?
D. Is there another way of backing up the sparse image disks at logout?
C. Is this all going to get magically fixed in Snow Leopard?
D. Will MS come up with a sensible storage format for Entourage?
Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

I don't know if there is a complete solution, but here are some things you could consider.
1. TM does not run automatically at logout unless FileVault is enabled.
2. You can change the backup period using third-party utilities like TimeMachineEditor - VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
3. You can exclude the Microsoft User Data folder from the TM backup and back it up separately using third-party backup software.
4. You can use third-party backup software instead of TM, such as:
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware)
6. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
7. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
9. SilverKeeper 2.0 (Freeware)
10. Tri-Backup (Commercial)
11. Apple Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Third-party backup utilities can run backups on schedules you set up. Thus, you can schedule your backups to occur at a time when you do not use the machine such as early in the AM for example.

Does Time Machine still ignore mounted disk images? Specifically, encrypted sparse bundle disk images?

My Time Machine backs up to Time Capsule which cannot be encrypted. I also have confidential data in an encrypted sparse bundle disk image in my home folder. When TM backs up and the encrypted sparse bundle disk image is mounted and I'm accessing the data, does TM back up the data "in the clear" decrypted form or does it exclude the disk image because it's mounted? I've done a little research, but there's conflicting information. Not sure what happens in Lion now...

Time Machine does not backup mounted disk images! The encrypted sparse bundle disk image was mounted, I updated a doc and did a TM backup - the file was not listed in the TM repository and the doc remained unchanged in the encrypted sparse bundle disk image on TM. Then I ejected the disk image and did a TM backup - the updated doc was backed up in the encrypted sparse bundle disk image! Thank you!

How to recover partition (with encrypted sparse bundle disk image) that won't mount?

I have a Late 2013 27" iMac running OS X 10.9.4. I have an external drive that I use for Time Machine backups which also has an encrypted sparse bundle disk image. Yesterday, the drive stopped showing up in Finder, so I went to Disk Utility and tried to mount it. No go. So I tried repairing it, and it said it couldn't. I'm not worried about the Time Machine backup since my iMac is find so I can just make a backup to a new external drive. However, the encrypted sparse bundle disk image has some files in it that I don't have elsewhere. Is there a way to recover these files without sending it in to a drive recovery service (since those would cost a LOT of money)?

No such options. As I mentioned in the post title and in my first post, the partition won't mount.

Can I put Network Users on a sparse bundle disk image?

Hello! Can anyone out there help me figure out what seems to be a rather complicated feat? I'm trying to get users to log in to client iMacs as if they were local accounts, but the user account information is stored on a sparse bundle disk image.
Long story short, I've currently got OS X Server running network user accounts tied to Active Directory. When the users log in, they have a sparse bundle disk image that automatically mounts on their desktop. This has been an effective solution for some of our software that doesn't play well with Network storage, as the sparse bundle is treated like local storage by the Macs.
However, what would be a much better solution for us is to actually have the whole user account stored on the disk image. It's a little like the way FileVault 1 worked, except the disk image is actually stored on a network drive. So far, as a proof-of-concept, I've been able to make this work manually: I've had to log in to a local admin user and then mount the user's sparse bundle with all their user folder contents contained within. Then, once the user path is changed to point to the disk image, the user logs right in, everything works exactly as expected (once I got the permissions set correctly). This method works exactly like a Network User account except that all the applications see it as local storage instead of network storage.
The trick, though, is automating this process. I want a user to sit down in front of any iMac, log in and go straight to their account. It would be nice if OS X Server was able to accommodate this with a setting, but it doesn't. So, my plan so far has been to create a generic local account with a script on the desktop that users can open to login in. The script would then mount the network share, then mount the sparse bundle disk image, then log the user in to their "local" account on the iMac. When they log out, there's a login hook that restarts the machine.
So far, I'm stumbling over the fact that the sparse bundle unmount when logging out of the generic "login" account, preventing the user from logging in. But if I leave the generic account logged in, then the loginhook to restart the computer doesn't work.
Any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

IIRC, sparse images only grow as things are added, but do not shrink. Create a new one, mount the original, transfer your stuff from the original into the new one, and delete the original one.

Can't share sparse bundle disk image

I'm trying to create a sparse bundle disk image in /Users/Shared for sharing between two users on the same computer. No matter what I've tried, the disk always mounts as read only for the non-owner user. I've tried creating the disk image in both accounts, adding the non-owner user with "read & write" permissions, changing all permissions (including everyone) to "read & write," but nothing seems to help. Does anyone have any experience sharing sparse bundle disk images using the shared folder?
Christopher

I realized after reading the replies above (thank you, A.Carlo and KJK555) that I was only applying permissions to the top level of the sparse bundle image and not to the underlying directories and files in the package. This was what was keeping the second user from making changes to the mounted disk image. After digging a little deeper into possible solutions, following is what I decided to do.
First, here are the requirements for my sparse bundle disk image:
1. Full permissions (rwx) for user1 and user2
2. No permissions (---) for everyone else
3. Directories and files created by user1 or user2 need to be fully accessible (rwx) by the other user
In order to block access to the sparse bundle from unwanted users and to allow for inherited permissions for all future directories and files, I took the following steps:
1. Created a new group (group1) with user1 and user2 as members
2. Created a new folder (Example) under /Users/Shared
3. Removed all permissions from the new folder for everyone but user1 (chmod 700 Example)
4. Added an ACL to prevent group everyone from deleting the new folder (chmod +a "group:everyone deny delete" Example)
5 Added an ACL to give group1 full permissions (rwx) to the new folder and allow those permissions to be inherited by new directories and files created within that folder (chmod +a "group:christophertemple allow list,addfile,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeex tattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directoryinherit)
This is what the new folder looks like from Terminal:
$ ls -le
total 0
drwx------+ 4 user1 wheel 136 Sep 18 12:45 Example
0: group:everyone deny delete
1: group:group1 allow list,addfile,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeex tattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directoryinherit
This folder is now accessible only by user1 and user2 and any files or directories created in this folder will be accessible by both users, regardless of which of the two users created them.
Next, I created an encrypted sparse bundle disk image within the new folder. In Terminal, the disk image looks like this:
$ ls -le
total 0
drwxr-xr-x@ 6 user1 wheel 204 Sep 18 13:03 Example.sparsebundle
0: group:group1 inherited allow list,addfile,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeex tattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directoryinherit
As can be seen above, the new sparse bundle has inherited the group permissions from the parent directory, giving user1 and user2 full access to the disk image.
While I could have added a few extra steps and changed the permissions of the mounted disk image, I decided against doing so; the default permissions were perfect for my use. By default, the mounted disk image is set to "Ignore ownership on this volume."
When mounted by user1 this is how the disk image looks in Terminal:
$ ls -le
total 8
drwx------ 7 user1 staff 306 Sep 18 13:01 Example Disk Image
When mounted by user2 this is how the disk image looks in Terminal:
$ ls -le
total 8
drwx------ 7 user2 staff 306 Sep 18 13:01 Example Disk Image
With these permissions, no user, other than the user that mounted the image, has access to the image while the image is mounted. This is useful from a security standpoint, keeping others from viewing the contents of the disk image, as well as from a data integrity standpoint, allowing only one person to access files on the disk image at a time (important for some of the data base files the image contains).
Thanks again to those that responded. I hope this post is helpful to others who might have similar requirements as I did.
Christopher

Use Sparse Bundle Disk Image for sharing library among users?

Apple's knowledge base article HT1198 (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1198) on sharing iphoto libraries among multiple users on the same Macintosh describes using a sparse disk image in the /users/Shared/ directory. For a Mac that uses a Time Capsule for Time Machine backups won't this require the entire iPhoto library to be backed up anytime a picture is added or modified?
Would using a sparse bundle disk image instead work better?
Also, HT1198 doesn't say anything about "Partitions" parameter setting in Disk Utility when creating a blank sparse image or sparse bundle disk image. Does it matter what setting is selected if the image is being kept on the Mac internal disk drive?
Is there any difference between iPhoto '08 or iPhoto '09 when attempting sharing the iPhoto library among users?

I believe it may require the entire bundle to be backed up. You'd best ask that question in the Time Machine forum. They would know more about the ins and outs of TM there.
If you can afford an external FW hard drive that would be the best option by far. No worry about filling up the sparse bundle, and you could use the external HD as a work platform to help keep a minimum of 20 GB of free space on your boot drive for optimal performance of system and applications.

Time Machine can't use the disk image because it can't be written to.

Time Machine can't use the disk image because it can't be written to. help!

VictorSMiller wrote:
I just started getting the same message. I'm using a Western Digital My Book 3TB disk. Normally I have the backups done with the disk attached to Airport Extreme.
I hate to have to tell you this, but backing-up that way is unreliable and not supported by Apple. See: Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk.
Backup failed with error: The target disk image volume is read-only.
Most likely, you got this message before all this started:
What that doesn't explicity say is, the backups failed the verification. When that happens, Time Machine marks the sparse bundle as damaged and won't back up to it anymore (even if Repair Disk can't find the problem). See #C13 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for details.

Can't get free space after deleting a file-sparse bundle disk image

I have a 150 GB Sparse bundle Disk image with a 256 AES enc. I just deleted about 30 GB worth of tv shows to free up some space but the Disk Image is still the same size with no more free space on the virtual disk either. I know that with Filevault the user has to log out in order to recover free disk space but how does this work with a normal Sparse disk image? Thanks in advance!
-Macguy3000

IIRC, sparse images only grow as things are added, but do not shrink. Create a new one, mount the original, transfer your stuff from the original into the new one, and delete the original one.

Problem with sparse & sparse bundle disk images

Lion (OS 10.7) is driving me carzy.
Setting up sparse and sparse bundle disk images goes fine. But sometimes when attempting to open the image later, particularily after adding content (JPGs) I get the spinning beachball and then I must restart the computer. I have restarted this computer more than all my others put together, going back to OSA 7.
Other times everything seems to work fine
I have a G-5 running OS10.5, and there is no problem. The system is very stable re disk images.
I've tried all kinds of work-arounds with limited success. These include changing the names of the disk images or the files in them. Usually, I'm back to restarting the computer. If I copy an image that doesn't work on the Mac Pro to the G-5, it'll work. Sometimes the number for the size of the image in list view is grayed out and I don't know what that means.
It's interesting that when I first got the Pac Pro with Lion installed, sparse and sparse bundle images wouldn't work at all. After several updates to 10.7.2 or 3, the disk images work, but are not stable.
I would be very grateful if anyone out there has any info or hopefully an answer for this situation.
Thank you - kajz

More from kajz
Sorry about the typos in my first message. I was tired after fighting the sparse image problem with Lion.
Today I have tried read/write disk images (dmg) and so far they seem to work fine. I would prefer sparse or sparse bundle disk images since they only take as much room as their contents, but I'll have to be practical about this.
The frustrating thing is that sometimes the sparse or sparse bundle images seem to work, but just when I relax, I'll open one and see all the blank square icons for each of the jpg files, and then I know I'll have to restart the computer.
I'm still hoping that someone else has had this problem and that maybe there's an answer. Maybe it'll take a future update by Apple to fix this.
Thanks in advance - kajz

Sparse bundle disk images

I've been doing a lot of reading about (and watching tutorials about) sparse disk images and sparse bundle disk images.
Most of what I've read has addressed using sparse disk images as a way to archive and move from Mac to Mac FCPX projects and their associated events. But I have a some questions:
1) Isn't it better to always use a sparse bundle disk image rather than a sparse disk image? I use Carbon Copy Cloner, and it seems like for backup programs that periodically do incremental back ups of changed files, the sparse bundle disk image is a better choice. But is there any downside to using a bundle image? Is it somehow slower?
2) Why not create and edit every project and its event(s) from the start on its own sparse bundle disk image? I know that isn't a good idea with at least some networks, but I don't have a network. The advantage that I can see is that if you make make duplicates of projects to preserve certain versions as backups, and the associated events are all on the same sparse bundle disk image as the project, you can use Finder to move the image around and all of the references between the projects and events will remain the same no matter how many times you move the project.
3) Are there any downsides to using disk images from the start? For instance, would they somehow slow down the editing process?
Thanks

ken |ken|noun [ in sing. ]one's range of knowledge or sight: such determination is beyond my ken .

How do I change the password of an encrypted Sparse Bundle disk image?

I tried to change the password of an encrypted 'Sparse Bundle' disk image but it seems Disk Util doesn't let me choose this type of disk image for the Change Password function (Menu Imgaes->Change Password...)
How am I supposed to change the password? Do I really have to create a new disk image with a new password and copy the old one? (I'm using the 256 bits encryption)

There is no error. Just nothing happens. The problem is a little different for the sparse image and the sparse bundle image. When using the menu command Images->Change Password... you get a file dialog where you must point to the image. The sparse image is selectable (not grayed) but when selected nothing else happens. The sparse bundle image is grayed out in the file dialog so you can't even select it.
Something else. When creating a new blank disk image it shows up in the left pane of the Disk Utility app. But after unmounting the images I'm left with Disk1, Disk2 in this list. Re-mounting doesn't change that. It seems rather useless as you can't do anything with them.
All this happens consistently on multiple Mac's, all with 10.5.2

My time machine does not want to save any more the data from my powerbook 13" Snow Leopard; i get the message "Time Machine could not suppress the disk image of saving "Volumes/Time Capsule Disk/PowerBook _2011_03_21_123627 sparsebundle" What should I do?

My time machine does not want to save any more the data from my powerbook 13" Snow Leopard; i get the message "Time Machine could not suppress the disk image of saving "Volumes/Time Capsule Disk/PowerBook _2011_03_21_123627 sparsebundle" What is the problem? What should I do?
Thanks !!
Alain

Could that read " . . . could not access . . ."? If so, try repairing your backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
If not, or if that doesn't help, see #A1 there. Use the TM Buddy widget it details to copy and post the messages here.

Sparse Bundle Disk Image

Hello,
I've come accross a little issue that I cannot seem to find the solution for.
I don't use TimeMachine but do use FileVault which I have enabled on my account.
Now, my account is stored in the main partition of my harddrive which has roughly 100GB and it is now full! However, I know I don't have that much stuff stored on the laptop and started investigating where all that space was gone.
It seems that my /Users/.paul sparse bundle disk image is around 80GB large!!
However, if I du -kh on my /Users/paul folder, I only get 23GB...
Several questions that someone might know the answer to:
1) Why is there such a big difference
2) how can I administer what's inside of the Sparse bundle disk image?
3) How can I delete stuff from inside it that I don't see anyway in my user folder...
Kind regards,
Paul

Hi and Welcome to  Discussions!
Sparse images automatically adjust their size when needed, but they do not decrease in size automatically when you delete stuff inside. But you can compact the image to the space acutally needed via Terminal. To do so you need to use hdiutil as explained here: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040625012304236
Have fun!
Björn

The error that I am getting is this "Time Machine can't use the disk image because it can't be written to." Any ideas on the fix for this?

The error that I am getting is this "Time Machine can't use the disk image because it can't be written to." Any ideas on the fix for this? When I go to the Time Capsule my Macbook Pro shows that it is locked, I think I did something wrong, but can't figure how to unlock it to see if that fixes it.

As far as we know, Time Machine cannot write to a disk image. It needs to write directly to the Time Capsule disk.

Time Machine and mounted sparse bundle disk image - file by file backup?

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