Time Machine question from an ex Windows user

Simple question that sounds stupid but I just wanted to be sure. I'm new to Mac OS so bear with me on this
Let's say I install a program and I want to be rid of completely or it causes some issues, if I use Time Machine to go back to before I installed it will all of the folders/directories that the program created be gone or will it just pull the icon?

There is another way of using Time Machine that I don't think Camelot has mentioned. He is talking about using the in-system interface to flip back and forth in time and restoring individual files, but what you, metalrocker, originally asked was if you could go back to before you installed your program, and you can.
First, a warning. Doing what I describe below will put your entire computer back the way it was before you installed the program you are having issues with. All documents, files, e-mails (if stored locally) will go back to what they were before. You can still get newer ones from your time machine, though.
Second, the concept: Go find the DVDs that came with your computer. The first one is all you need, also called Mac OS X Install DVD. Put that into your computer. Now shut the computer down. When it starts back up, hold the C key pressed. This will make the computer start from the DVD. Starting up will be noticably slower from the DVD. You will eventually get a few questions about language, and you have to agree to a user license. Stop after that. You do NOT want to reinstall the operating system. Instead, look at the menu on the top of the screen. There should be one item called Utilities. On that menu, there should be an item called "Restore from Time Machine" or something similar. THAT function WILL bring your entire system back the way it was at a selected date and time.
Normally this is only used if you messed something up really bad, or if you had computer problems on one machine so serious that you decided to switch to a new computer, but wanted all the stuff from your old one... from before the troubles began.
Of course, this alternative is serious overkill if all you wanted was to remove a program. Most of the time, I just chuck the App icon out, and possibly take a look into your user Library/Application Support folder, to see if the application put anything in there, and if so, throw that out too.
There IS yet another method - there IS such a thing as uninstalling a program. It is usually not necessary, and rarely recommended, but if anyone wants to hear more about it, and is a little handy with the Terminal, give me a shout.

Similar Messages

Dock Questions From a (Former) Windows User

Hi, I recently replaced my Windows machine with a Macbook. For the most part, I'm happy with the switch, but I can't help but feel there are a few things I miss from Windows.
For instance, the Start Menu. I've gotten so used to having it from my PC days -- is there something like it that I can download for OS X? Having everything in a single click would make the transition much easier for me.
My second issue is a bit difficult to explain. I work with a lot of Firefox windows while browsing the Internet; on a PC, if you have several browser windows open, they're all displayed seperately on the taskbar. But on Mac OS X, extra Firefox windows don't appear as a seperate objects on the Dock unless you actually hit the minimize button. Is there a way that extra windows -- whether it's multiple Word documents or multiple Excel spreadsheets -- can each appear on the Dock, seperately? It'd make it all easier to navigate. At least, for a previous Windows user.

Hello,
I understand where you are coming from, I just switched from YEARS of PC use to my Macbook last month.
After fighting OS X for weeks, the best thing to do really is to get used to using F9 (or for your Firefox example F10 which will display just the windows from the program that is currently "active" instead of all windows with F9).
I know youre not a keyboard guy but trust me this works great. Also on my PC I used alt-tab like it was my job, and luckily apple-tab does the same thing. Another nice trick to go through your firefox windows is to use apple-`(right above tab).
As for the start menu thing, I havent missed it one bit. I recommend replacing the start menu with apple-spacebar. This will bring spotlight up and just start typing the program and it will appear at the top of the list in about 1/10 the time (seriously) as it would going through the start menu. But if you really want to stray away from the keyboard then moving applications to the dock is a good suggestion and you could also clutter your desktop with aliases (shortcuts). Use F11 (**** ANOTHER keyboard shortcut) to show your desktop.
Good luck!

Basic time machine question from a new mac owner

Hello. I have an icon on my computer that says time machine and when i select the open time machine preferences, it takes me to my set up for my airport extreme.. is this correct or is time machine something additional that i would purchase to set up?

Thanks for the star and no problem, I would recommend that you get yourself an external drive though for backup. With any computer not having a backup system is gamble and sooner or later you will lose. If you do decide on a TM backup drive it would be wise to get one that has Firewire or Firewire 800 connections (for speed) and it should be about 2x the size of your interal drive if possible. Once you connect one TM will automatically back up your system and continue to back up every hour only backing up changes and addtions. So for example if you keep music and pictures and are continually adding material to your computer those are memories that you don't want lost if your machine has a failure, TM will help prevent that from occuring. It is one of the coolest features of Leopard. Two pieces of good news, TM is simple and external hard drives are fairly inexpensive these days.

How can I remove all Time Machine data from an external HD, while retaining the other folders/files on the disk?

I recently replaced my old Macbook Pro with a new Macbook Pro Retina.
The original MBP had Time Machine set up on an external HD, and I also had some manually saved/backed up files (stuff that didn't need incremental backups; very old stuff) on the disk as well, in folders. This worked fine and well for the life of the original MBP.
When I set up the MBPr, I did not elect to transfer everything over from a Time Machine disk, as I wanted a Fresh Install; I chose to just re-download/install the apps I needed from the App Store. Much cleaner, more stable. I updated to Yosemite immediately so, it gave me more of a clean install.
The problem is, Time Machine now won't read any Time Machine backups from that disk. Migration assistant can pull data from it, but it's a bit wonky. It was easier to just manually copy over what I needed.
Now, I just want to "reset", and completely remove the old Time Machine data from the external hard drive, since it is completely useless to me now (I can't access it on this computer, and it's taking up space). I want to remove the Time Machine data, as if it were never there, but keep my other folders/files that are on the disk (so, a format is not feasible).
I will then set the disk up as a new, fresh Time Machine disk for the new MBPr.
What is the proper method for removing Time Machine data from an external disk (which doesn't seem to be associated with this machine anyway)? I know a simple rm -rf will cause problems.
Thanks for any help provided.

See the yellow box in #12 of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Importing Time Machine backup from an external hard drive

Hi...to all
Last week i bought a Macbook. I pluged in my external hard drive Maxtor OneTOuch 4 Plus and it did a time machine backup on the Maxtor OneTOuch 4 Plus. The folder that was generated by the time machine on my external hard drive has the name backups.backupdb.
Then, i decided to return the Macbook and bought a Macbook Pro.
When I pluged the same external hard drive, Maxtor OneTOuch 4 Plus, although I am able to access and open individual files and folders, I am not able to copy neither any nor all the folders/files from my external hard drive to my new Macbook Pro. Moreover, I am able to access/open the files located in my external hard drive but when try to copy specific files from this drive to my Macbook Pro I get the following error message: Sorry the operation could not be completed because an unexpected error ocurred (Error code -50). Now, here is where it gets interesting: after 2 failed attempts to copy any single file from my external hard drive to my Macbook Pro desktop and receiving the above error message I am then able to copy the specific file (singular). This would mean that to copy the files and folders in the external hard drive i would need to do it on a one by one basis? If so, it would take forever...
Can someone please kindly help out.
Thanks on advance

Are you referring to the files in Time Machine's backup directory on your hard drive? If so, and if what you are trying to do is to recover those from the backup to your working volume on the Macbook Pro (which is not what your title says you want to do but seems to be implied by the body of the question) then you need to have the computer name of the Macbook Pro the same as the computer name of the original Macbook (I think that step is required), then on the Macbook Pro choose "Browse Other Time Machine Disks" from the Time Machine menu in Dock. This will allow you to recover files or folder in the usual way.
Alternatively, if you wanted to transfer all your user data in one go, you could fire up Migration Assistant and choose the Time Machine backup as the source to transfer the user data from (again I think the computer names have to be the same but I'm not totally sure).

A few good time machine questions...

Mac Users,
I had a Macbook Pro that was stolen at the end of June and I am now getting ready to replace it with an iMac. In as much as that is the case, I have some questions about using Time Machine to get my Macbook Pro backup loaded onto the new iMac.
Presumptions
1) The Macbook Pro came with Leopard and was upgraded to Snow Leopard with a "retail Snow Leopard DVD" (10.6.0), which I still have in my posession.
2) The Macbook Pro was backed up with Time Machine using Snow Leopard end of June (whatever current version of Snow Leopard 10.6.3?) that was.
3) The iMac will come with Snow Leopard with all updates as of the end of November (when I receive it)
4) The Time Machine restoration will be done with "setup migration" with all restore options selected.
Questions
1) Someone told me that because the Time Machine backup from the Macbook Pro was done from a machine that was upgraded to Snow Leopard with a "retail upgrade DVD", that I should start out by wiping out the new iMac's preinstalled variant of MacOS, then reinstall MacOS with the "retail upgrade DVD", do the Time Machine restore with "setup migration" and then update the OS to the latest variant of Snow Leopard via the softwareupdater. Why not just do the restore via "setup migration" from the version MacOS that is coming on the iMac stock from the factory pre-installed? Why all this work and concern with switching to the olde "retail upgrade DVD" first?
2) Once the Time Machine backup has been restored to the new iMac, I do not want the new iMac to immediately start a new Time Machine backup that might otherwise begin to wipe out the olde one I just restored from. How can I prevent this from occurring?
3) What will be missing when I do this restore?
a) 3rd party drivers I had before?
b) 3rd party installation keys and configuration parameters?
c) anything else I need to be concerned about?
Thanks,
Stuart

Stuart Blake Tener wrote:
1) Someone told me that because the Time Machine backup from the Macbook Pro was done from a machine that was upgraded to Snow Leopard with a "retail upgrade DVD", that I should start out by wiping out the new iMac's preinstalled variant of MacOS, then reinstall MacOS with the "retail upgrade DVD", do the Time Machine restore with "setup migration" and then update the OS to the latest variant of Snow Leopard via the softwareupdater.
Do not take advice from that person. That's completely wrong
Why not just do the restore via "setup migration" from the version MacOS that is coming on the iMac stock from the factory pre-installed?
That is the best way, by far. See #19 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), for details.
2) Once the Time Machine backup has been restored to the new iMac, I do not want the new iMac to immediately start a new Time Machine backup that might otherwise begin to wipe out the olde one I just restored from. How can I prevent this from occurring?
As noted in the yellow box at the end of #19, immediately turn Time Machine OFF.
Even if a backup gets started, the first thing it should do is send this message:
|
|
Just click +Do Not Backup Now.+ See #B5 of [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), for details.
Some folks claim they never saw that message, so turn Time Machine OFF anyway.
As explained in #B5, it will do a new, full backup, which will take a lot of space, so it may have to delete a lot of old backups, and may still not have enough room. But in no case will it erase your last remaining backup.
3) What will be missing when I do this restore?
Anything you specifically excluded from backups. Otherwise everything should be just as it was on the old Mac.

Moving Time Machine Drive from Direct Connect to Network Share

I have a 1 TB external USB 2 drive I use for my Time Machine backup. I'd like to move that drive to a file server and continue backing up to it. The problem appears to be that when backing up to the drive as a network volume, Time Machine wants to create a new sparsebundle for the backup and not use the existing TM backup folder on the drive.
Is it possible to migrate a Time Machine drive from direct connect to network while preserving the backed up data? Thanks!

Kenneth Kirksey wrote:
I have a 1 TB external USB 2 drive I use for my Time Machine backup. I'd like to move that drive to a file server and continue backing up to it.
Depending on what "file server" you're using, that may or may not work reliably. Here's the criteria they must meet: Disks that can be used with Time Machine. And be careful here: just because some 3rd-party hardware claims to support Time Machine doesn't necessarily mean that Apple supports it, or that it will work in all circumstances.
The problem appears to be that when backing up to the drive as a network volume, Time Machine wants to create a new sparsebundle for the backup and not use the existing TM backup folder on the drive.
That's correct.
Is it possible to migrate a Time Machine drive from direct connect to network while preserving the backed up data? Thanks!
See #18 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Does time machine back up data for all users on a shared computer?

If I set up Time Machine backups from my own login, does this mean that all data on the computer is backed up, including that for other users?

Good question.. yes, it should.
http://pondini.org/TM/2.html

I just restored my 13" MBP i5 at the apple store to the newest version of Lion after issues with a previous Time Machine backup from Snow Leopard- this time I created a new account and just ported files and folders, and now MS Office doesn't work. Help?

I just restored my 13" MBP i5 at the apple store to the newest version of Lion after issues with a previous Time Machine backup from Snow Leopard- this time I created a new account and just ported files and folders, and now MS Office doesn't work.
^^ that's the main problem. Here's the full history.
I bought a new 13" i5 MBP, early 2011 edition. I had an old white Macbook 2.14 ghz core2duo on Snow Leopard. I attempted to port over my time machine backup, but encountered problems in that my User was inaccessible from the new computer after the import finished, and I had to go in and change the root password, etc, and for some reason or another, I couldn't install any programs at all from that administrator's account. By "couldn't" I mean I could install them, but upon installation they would never boot. So, I took it to the apple store and did a clean install from the most up to date Lion OSX. Then, I created a brand new admin account, instead of trying to import the old one, and things seemed great. Then, I just imported my old files from the TM backup, but not any system settings, permissions, or user data. Just my Docs, pics, vids, apps, and itunes stuff.
Here's where things get weird again. I imported this stuff under the name "old", but all of these folders have a red negative sign on them, marking them as restricted. So, from my main admin account, I cannot even peruse these folders. Since I didn't import user data, I can't sign in to the "old" account to change permissions. I already tried to change the permissions from system preferences, but that didn't change anything. And now, for whatever reason, of all the apps that were imported then, MS Office is the only set of apps that does not work. When I click on it, it just says there was a problem and asks if I'd like to send a report to apple. I tried reinstalling it to no avail. I'm an English student, so i really need access to Word. Can anyone help? The Apple store is a major detour for me and would like to fix this issue myself.

Most likely you have Office 2004 which are PPC-only applications and will not work in Lion. Upgrade to Office 2011. Other alternatives are:
Apple's iWork suite (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.)
Open Office (Office 2007-like suite compatible with OS X.)
NeoOffice (similar to Open Office.)
LibreOffice (a new direction for the Open Office suite.)

Move Time Machine backups from old drive to new, larger drive?

Hi folks,
My external HDD that TM writes to is full. Its oldest backup is only a month ago. I'd like to keep older backups so I'm going to buy a new, larger HDD to use with TM.
I'd like to keep the existing backups that I have, the ones that go back one month.
Is there a way to transfer these from my existing external HDD to my new one, and have TM still recognise them on the new drive?
Many thanks,
Ken.

Hi Pondini,
I've another Time Machine question here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2732322&tstart=0
Got no replies.
Have searched your excellent Time Machine documentation, but no joy.
Just wondering if you've any ideas on how to use TrueCrypt with Time Machine. Would be most grateful.
Tx and best regards,
Ken.

Is it possible to boot or Time Machine restore from an external Thunderbolt disk drive?

(There are several questions - search for "?".)
I purchased a Seagate Backup Plus for Mac Desktop Drive 3 TByte with default USB 3.0 interface, and also acquired the Seagate Thunderbolt Adapter for Backup Plus Desktop Drives and Thunderbolt cable.
I do a redundant backup to the Seagate Drive using both Carbon Copy Cloner (nightly) and Time Machine (hourly) using its Thunderbolt adapter. BTW: One never knows when Time Machine will choke - see discussion titled, "UPDATED: Serious Time Machine bug on Mountain Lion", which I had; Rest In Peace Pondini (James Lewis Pond).
Booting from the external Seagate Backup Plus via Thunderbolt inteface from System Preferences -> Startup Disk:
I select the Time Machine OS X, 10.8.5 Startup Disk (Thunderbolt attached drive), click Restart, confirm my choice, the computer reboots, however, it reboots from the internal Macintosh HD OS X, 10.8.5, NOT the selected external Thunderbolt drive. The SSD drive was used as the Startup Drive, not the selected external Time Machine volume as indicated by the display free disk space command (df(1)) and seeing that the Macintosh HD OS X, 10.8.5 volume is mounted as root. That is very deceptive in that both the internal and external drives will appear in the same manner from a GUI point of view! OS X doesn't even inform me that it did not boot off the selected volume. This is the first half of the problem, that is, Is it possible to boot from an external Thunderbolt disk drive? In my case, the answer is deceptively No. Can anybody else boot off a Thuderbolt attached disk drive? Note that if I remove the Thunderbolt adapter, and attach the drive via its USB 3.0 cable, the MBP boots off the external Seagate Backup Plus just fine, as is expected.
Booting from the external Seagate Backup Plus via Thunderbolt inteface from boot-time "Option - Select startup disk" method:
When I restart the MBP using the startup Option key to select the startup volume, the externally connected Seagate drive ONLY SHOWS UP if it is attached with the USB 3.0 cable, not when it is attached with via the Thunderbolt interface. Can anyone else boot off a Thunderbolt drive with the startup Option key sequence? At least the MBP doesn't deceive me in this case - I know right away that the external Thunderbolt drive is not an option when connected as such.
Time Machine restore from the external Seagate Backup plus via Thunderbolt interface from the "command-R - Recovery Parition" method:
After booting from the recovery partition, I attempt to perform a Time Machine restore from the Thunderbolt connected Seagate Backup drive. When Time Machine attempts to present me with a viable backup Time Machine volume, the external Thunderbolt drive is never offered as an option. So I switch the Time Machine volume to use its USB 3.0 interface, and then Time Machine displays that drive as an option, and the MBP proceeds with the restoration as expected. The interesting thing to note is that while booted in the recovery partition via the Thuderbolt cable, the MBP Disk Utility may be selected, and the Thunderbolt attached drive may be operated on just fine. Can anybody else restore their MBP using Time Machine and the Recovery Partition via the Thunderbolt interface?
This is also a big problem for me in that I am forced to restore my MBP via Carbon Copy Cloner using the USB 3.0 interface, because I cannot even boot off that volume's Thunderbolt interface. Of course, the option may be that I could use yet another eternal USB 3.0 drive, boot from it, and then use Carbon Copy Cloner to restore the Macintosh HD via the aforementioned drive connected by a Thunderbolt cable, but that is less than ideal and not elegant, so I'm not going there.
Another side issue is that the commercially available program, TechTool Pro 7's eDrive, which I installed on the Time Machine volume, will not boot off that eDrive as advertised, but I won't got through those steps here, because that would be beyond the scope of this issue, however, I must say, It does not work either when the Time Machine volume is connected via the Thunderbolt interface, but works just fine when connected via the USB 3.0 interface.

If this helps anybody else make a decision about whether to consider Apple because of Apple's superior customer service:
Apple sells this entire line of drives right in their store, from 1TB to 4TB. I spent 1 and 1/2 hours, yesterday, confirming that the 3TB model IS NOT 100% Thunderbolt compliant. A MBP cannot boot, nor can it Time Machine restore from this drive, though EVERYTHING about the drive is normal.
Apple's South Coast Plaza store management had at least two responses to me personally about how to proceed:
1. Buy a different drive from another drive manufacturer, and to attempt to return the drive to COSTCO. A lead genius suggested going with GTech drives, for instance.
2. Wait for Seagate to fix their problem.
I told Apple management in the store that the drive is advertised as Mac Compatible (see picture) and that it is advertised as being a Thunderbolt drive (see picture). I pressed management that my purchasing decsion to get the best possible MBP Retina was based on the availablity of Inexpensive Devises (raID), and that not having this complete compatibility is a show-stopper for my needs, and that I wanted a refund. Their response? They needed to talk with "Merchendising" to see if they are on or off the hook for these kind of 3rd party assertions, and would get back to me.
I am not holding my breath.
Note: I do not hold this against the Geniuses that helped me, nor against the management I've dealt with, nor the upper level engineers that I've corresponded with through Apple Care - their problem solving skills were helpful - although I could have arrived at similar conclusions given enough $$$. (For instance, try a Lacie TB drive and see if that works - we did, and it did not work. Or, we have a different TB cable and a different TB adapter, let's try those - we did, and it did not work.) I blame myself for not doing enough homework before going with Apple's solutions.

Cannot transfer Time Machine backups from one external drive to another

Since I bought my 13 inch MacBook Pro in September 2014 I've been keeping Time Machine backups on an external 1TB Lacie Rugged. This is partitioned into three and one of the partitions contains my iPhoto library.
Last weekend I left my MBP disconnected from the power source but with the external hard drive still plugged in. Long story short - the battery level fell below the minimum needed to operate so it turned itself off and 'disconnected' the external hard drive. This resulted in a corrupted iPhoto library which is no longer accessible.
In order to restore my iPhoto Library from another backup I needed to buy a second external hard drive. Yesterday I bought a 2TB Lacie Rugged which I've now partitioned into 5.
I want to move my Time Machine backups from the 1TB Lacie Rugged to a partition on the 2TB Lacie Rugged (to take advantage of the new Lacie's Thunderbolt connection).
I read the Apple article -
HT202380: Time Machine: How to transfer backups from the current backup drive to a new backup drive
and followed the instructions precisely. About 2 hours into the transfer I came back to my MacBook Pro and saw a message saying that it was not possible to complete the transfer because I did not have the correct permissions. The only option was to click the OK button which stopped the transfer.
Can anyone advise what I should do next?
Cheers
Tricia

Hi Eric,
Thank you for your response. I came across another thread yesterday which suggested the Restore via Disk Utility method. It worked for me, too. This was after I had tried following the method suggested in the Apple article above three times but each time the message was the same ....
The operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access some of the items.
I dare say that Apple would like to have us believe that it's a simple matter of 'drag and drop' but it certainly wasn't for me. From what I've read the permission problem crops up fairly frequently. Before the second and third attempts I had already amended Permissions on the Time Machine backups so that everyone could read and write, so that mustn't have been the problem. I'm the only person who uses my computer so that's not a problem.
The next problem I have is that I decided I would use the Restore route to transfer my SuperDuper clone rather than start from scratch. Unfortunately, the partition size on my original backup disk where SuperDuper clone is is 350GB and the size of the SuperDuper clone partition on my new backup is 300GB.
Of course, Apple says you can resize partitions using Disk Utility. What they don't say is you can downsize partitions but (in my experience and that of many other frustrated users on various forums) you CANNOT upsize using Disk Utility. I have 100GB spare on my external hard drive (from downsizing two partitions by 50GB each) BUT there is no way Disk Utility will let me increase the size of SuperDuper partition to 350GB :-(((
Cheers
Tricia

I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and i can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help

I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and I can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help? I can find the mail folder in my libraries, but the Restore Button is grayed out

OSX treats the reformatted drive as a different one; it's the same as replacing it, and the old one is no longer connected.
See #E3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting to see and restore from the "old" drive.
And, you may not want to restore via the Finder; see the blue box in #15 of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Time Machine and VMWare (backing up Windows file too???)

Hello all ... I'm using VMWare to run Windows 7 from my MacBook Air. Does anyone know if I'm running a Time Machine backup from the 'Mac side' of my computer -- will it back up files from the 'Windows 7 side' of my computer? Thanks!

Hello,
Since there really is only a Mac side when you use an emulator like VMWare, everything will be backed up, including Windows, as the whole Windows Disk Drive is really a file on the Mac.
This assumes you didn't go out of your way to place that file on another Partition or Drive.

Moving Time Machine backups from Time Capsule to External USB Drive

Hi all,
hoping someone out there can help I'm trying to move my time machine backups from my old Time Capsule to my external USB drive. I've already used the Airport Utility to "archive" my Time Capsule to a USB connected WD MyBook Elite.
Right now my WD MyBook Elite has both the archive, and recent (roughly 5 backups) of both my MacBook & MacMini. I've tried to follow the seemingly simple steps located in the FAQ's here [URL="http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/18.html#id22"]Copy NETWORK backups to be used LOCALLY[/URL] , but I cannot past step 1.
[Quote]Right-click the new volume on your desktop or Finder sidebar and select Get Info. If the Ignore ownership on this volume box is checked, click the padlock at the lower right and enter your Admin password at the prompt. Then remove the check mark from the box and close the window.[/Quote]
There is no option to "Ignore Ownership" in Snow Leopard for the Spars Bundle or when expanding it to see its folders.
Any advice?
I'm basically trying to combine my backups to unit them into one seemless backup each for:
Mac Mini & MacBook.
Thank you in advance.

Dark Heart wrote:
[Quote]Right-click the new volume on your desktop or Finder sidebar and select Get Info. If the Ignore ownership on this volume box is checked, click the padlock at the lower right and enter your Admin password at the prompt. Then remove the check mark from the box and close the window.[/Quote]
There is no option to "Ignore Ownership" in Snow Leopard for the Spars Bundle or when expanding it to see its folders.
That's not referring to the sparse bundle you're copying FROM, but the new volume you just formatted on the USB drive you're copying TO.
If you didn't just format the partition, that box may not be shown -- it not, there's no problem and you don't need to do anything in that step.
I'm basically trying to combine my backups to unit them into one seemless backup each for:
Mac Mini & MacBook.
I'm not sure what you mean by that: you cannot combine the backups of two different Macs. You can put them both on the same hard drive, either in two different partitions, or, if any are going to be backed-up over a network, in a sparse bundle.
If I've misunderstood, please clarify exactly what you're trying to do.

Time Machine question from an ex Windows user

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