Use drive on iMac for Macbook Air time machine backup

I have an external drive hooked up to my Imac and want to use it for backing up my Mac Air via time machine.  Is it possible?  I can see the drive and Imac in finder...

Yup. 
See #22 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Similar Messages

  • MacBook Air, Time Machine backup

    My wife's Macbook Air (late 2010, snow leopard) is being replaced by Apple (warranty) this weekend with the new MacBook Air ,(Lion)  I had her old 'Air backed up over wifi to my iMac's Time Machine and it shows as xxxx  Air1.sparsbundle.  I read the faq on time machine and it states that each backup is not related to the computer name but a hardware address.  In order to regain all my wife's documents and emails what exactly do I have to do with the new MacBook Air to enable it to access the sparsbundle from the original 'Air if it is indeed looking for the original hardware address?
    Thanks
    Neil

    If you use the Setup Assistant that pops up the first time you turn on the new Air, use the option to transfer the old info from the TM backups. It will have you join the WiFi network and then guide you through the rest, but it should be fairly easy.
    See this article for more details that you'll probably ever need: http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/SetupLion.html
    Just curious, but did you create a separate partition for her TM backups to go to on the drive? If not, this could potentially cause some problems, but nothing that are unworkable. As a general rule for TM backups it's best to have a unique partition for each machine's backups if you're backing up multiple computers on one physical drive.
    Cheers

  • HT201250 Circle and cross through iTunes icon afte the seagate hard drive replaced and restored data from time machine backup.

    Circle and cross through iTunes icon: had the seagate hard drive replaced and restored data from time machine backup. Why does the iTunes icon have a circle and cross through it? As though incomplete? tried everything and still Circle and cross through iTunes icon.

    No it isn't something you'd find on the computer, it has to be custom installed from the 10.6 installer disc or Software Update if it wasn't before.  It allows you to use older PowerPC applications on your Mac.   On the other hand double check the version of iTunes you have does not require 10.7 minimum either.

  • I used migration assn't to load a Time Machine backup onto a new mac.  The first TM backup after that took some time, perhaps not surprising.  But the backups thereafter have all taken hours, with huge amounts of "indexing" time.  Time to reload TM?

    I used migration assn't to load a Time Machine backup onto a new mac.  The first TM backup after that took some time, perhaps not surprising.  But the backups thereafter have all taken hours, with huge amounts of "indexing" time.  Time to reload TM?

    Does every backup require lots of indexing?  If so, the index may be damaged.
    Try Repairing the backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
    If that doesn't help, see the pink box in #D2 of the same link.

  • When I get to the select disk page it says that the HD is uesd as time machine drive. How can I remove time machine backup from my Mac.

    I am tring to installe OS X Mavericks. When I get to the select disk page it says that the HD is uesd as time machine drive. How can I remove time machine backup from my Mac.

    Open up your Finder and click on Go on the top menu bar. Select Computer and then double click Macintosh HD. In here delete the backup folder. Might be called backups.backupdb.

  • Macbook air time machine files locked

    Hi all, I have just changed form an iMac to a Macbook Air and used a My Passport Air to back up all of my data from the iMac. When I put the drive onto the laptop initially it worked and I could view all of the files no problem. However, my husband has since clicked the buttons for Time Machine to go ahead and do whatever it does and it has now locked any files that are in the 'other user' files from the iMac. So on the iMac there was a user account for him, me, guest and shared. Mine and the guest files have a no entry symbol and say I do not have permission to access these files.......HELP!
    Thanks in advance!

    johnt2626 wrote:
    When I open the actual drive I can see a "Back-ups" folder for the iMac but only an image for the MacBook.
    Are you backing up the MBA to the drive via a wireless (afp:) connection to the iMac?
    If so, then it's correct that you see an image for the MBA Time Machine. If you open the image you will see a "Back-ups" folder.
    Does the Back-up appear to be completing to quickly? (I've had this problem a few times).
    You can 'force' a deep traversal by starting the MBA in Safe Mode (hold the shift key while booting), then shutting down and re-starting the MBA and then starting Time Machine.

  • Cannot use Migration Assistant to migrate from a Time Machine backup to a new Mac.

    I have a supposedly valid Time Machine backup for both of the MacBook Pro's we have (had).  My wifes is Pro is working but mine died.  I am replacing it with a MacBook Air.  Following the steps, I tried to Migrate all my Pro files and apps from a TM backup using the Migration Assistant but it stops at 'Looking for source' and never gets past this.
    I have confirmed the wife's back up is valid using 'Enter Time Machine'. However, on that same Mac Pro, if I use the Migration Assistant, it does not find the hard drive, once again , getting stuck at 'Looking for source just like on the Mac Air.
    I went back to BestBuy where I bought the Air and worked with the Apple  Rep.  He tried it himself on a Mac Pro they had in the store and got the same results.
    We called this into MyApple and after elevating this to the next level, they still cannot explain it.
    I have used this feature in the past prior to upgrading to Mavericks so I am wondering if the fault is there?
    Any suggestions?
    Thanks,
    Dave

    I may have solved this (partly). A search reveal A LOT of peoplel having the same issue.  One solution put forward was that the Time Machine backups were not complete.  I noticed in mine, non of the backups for a quite a while have no Applications or System files backup.  The solution was to do a TM reset.  I did that and ran a new backup of the one MacBook Pro that is still working.  After it was complete, the backup had the Applications and System data in it.  I was able to open the Migration ssistant and it found the drive.
    Now I just have to hope that the repair shop can salvage my malfuncitoning MB Pro so I can solve the main issue either by Migrating fromht MB Pro or make a new back up of the MB Pro after TM reset and use that for the migration.  Won't till tomorrow (hopefully).
    Dave

  • Entering password for an encrypted time machine backup

    During a recent hard disk failure. I have had to restore my system from a time machine backup.
    I keep this backup on an encrytped external drive.
    I booted into recovery mode,  erased the drive to fix the hard disk errors (it wasn't repairable).
    Then I tried to mount the encrypted drive for recovery.
    Everytime I entered the password, a 50 character string with all character types it failed to unlock.
    I tried the disk on another mac and it unlocked fine.
    Then I noticed that the recovery mode defaults to US Input Source and I have a UK macbook (2007).
    So I changed the input source to British.
    Still the password doesn't work.
    Then I noticed that once you click unlock the password entry box defaults to US again and doesn't let you change it.
    Fortunately UK keyboard isn't very different to US and I figured out that the only difference was to use Shift 3 for # rather than option 3 that we normally use on the UK keyboard.
    Is there a work around this?  Is it a known issue. 
    Glad I don't have an arabic or russian keyboard :-)

    File a bug report with Apple.

  • Best Setup for Lion Server Time Machine Backup with Drobo?

    I've been thinking about this a lot, yet I don't feel I have a good solution for this, so I'm going to throw it out to the community.
    I have a home server setup using a Mac Mini running Lion Server 10.7.2 with a Firewire 800 Drobo attached.  The Drobo is used for both Time Machine backups and files.  I also have a Powerbook G4 running Leopard and a MacBook 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with Lion 10.7.2 which connect to the Server and the Drobo wirelessly thorugh an Airport Extreme.
    I want to use Time Machine to have all of my computers back up to the server & Drobo, but realize there are several ways to go, each with their pluses and minuses:
    Server Time Machine Backup:
    + Centralizes backup process, rules, and other elements
    + Currently Mac Mini is backing up to the Drobo correctly using this process
    + Have setup size limit on Server backup so that it does not eat up file space
    - Would combine laptop backups with server backup into one sparse image: this would lead to the computer with the largest backup needs taking up too much space
    Client-Driven Time Machine Backup:
    + Allows for customization of backup processes by computer
    + Can setup specific space requirements for each computer
    + Backups are separate from each other
    - Wireless backup from laptops to Drobo is not functioning currently
    Any thoughts or experiences on how best to set this up?  I tend to do most of my work on the MacBook, hence I am concerned about it having it's backup space eaten up by the server, but that may be more of a theoretical issue than a real one.
    Thanks in advance for your help!

    Well I'm not sure if I am following you but I will explain how I set mine up. When I got the Drobo I inserted 2 drives and selected the highest available volume I could (16TB). My drives are 4 TB each and I knew I would soon add 2 more. Then Drobo did its thing and prepared these drives. The Drobo shows up on my mini desktop as an external drive. When I log into my server from my other computer I can see the mini server volume and the Drobo volume. I can access each no problem. They act as regular volumes. Soon after I added the second two drives and everything stayed the same meaning I could still see and access the Drobo on the desktop of my mini. So it sounds like you used the Drobo dashboard to partition yours for two volumes? Are they both showing on the desktop? 
    "Maybe the Drobo needs to be mounted on the desktop to be considered AFP feature enabled." I could be wrong and hopefully someone will correct me but I think the Drobo (or volumes) have to be mounted on the desktop to work with AFP.

  • Apply preferences for lightroom from time machine backup

    I have a new 27inch iMac. The previous (most recent) TM backup from my previous computer might have had some corrupt files (not related to adobe software). Apple instructed me to only migrate my applications (which I've done) and to then manually drag documents over. I've set CS6 and lightroom up but non of the 3rd party editing applications I used like topaz, alien skin, and NIK came over. Furthermore, all my preferences that were saved like watermarks, export settings, develop settings etc are missing. I'm searching for file(s) that I could drag over from the time machine backup over to my new machine that would as best possible save me from rebuilding Lightroom from scratch. NOTE: I am able to access all my various cat files stored on various external drives without issue. Just need to preferences back if possible.
    Thanks! 

    Awesome kglad I appreciate that very much!!

  • 89 hours for Restore from Time Machine backup!! Is this typical?

    Trying to restore my iMac after a hang up in the boot process....grey screen----->apple----->progrees bar to 1/10 full----->shutdown.
    Troubleshooting steps thus far,
    -Booted from Lion install USB.
    -Ran Disk Utility and all tests show that the startup drive is in good order.
    -Went to Restore from a Time Machine backup and chose Iomega USB 2.0 backup drive.......internal HD would not show up in destination list.
    -Went back to Disk Utility and erased internal HD and formatted for HFS+ (Journaled)
    -Tried to restore from Time Machine again, was able to select internal HD as destination this time.
    -Estimated time.......89 HOURS!!!
    24" iMac (Mid 2007)
    2.8 Ghz Core 2 Extreme
    4 GB Ram (667 Mhz)
    500 GB HDD (ATA)
    2 TB Iomega USB 2.0 backup drive.
    I understand this machine is no spring chicken, however, this amount of downtime seems excessive. Why so slow? Any ideas to speed it up?
    Thanks.

    Sounds like your internal HD may be failing.    
    If it's working slowly, having to do numerous retries, etc., everything will be very slow.
    Note that Disk Utility won't necessarily find that sort of problem with a HD; it only checks the file system on the drive for consistency -- all the various directories, catalogs, etc. 
    Less likely, but possible, are problems with RAM, the USB drive, the USB port on your Mac, or even the USB cable.
    Unless you're well into the restore, you might want to try running this: Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test. Run the Extended tests (that may take an hour or more, depending on how much RAM you have).  Write down any error code(s) it shows.

  • Using 500 gb WD Passport as both Time Machine Backup and Mac OS bootable HD

    I just bought a 500 gb WD Passport to use as a Time Machine Backup HD with my MacBook Pro and was wondering if I could make it into a Mac OS bootable HD as well. I like having a backup HD and a recovery HD with me on the road and thought it would be great to have them in the same HD. One thought I had was to make two partitions on this HD: one for Time Machine and one for Recovery. Would that work? Is there a better way? Let me know your thoughts. Thank you.

    One thing to consider is that certain WD external drive models do not work reliably as startup drives for Mac OS X, or at least for the latest versions of that OS. Before you get too far into this project, I suggest that you partition the drive (making sure that you use the GUID Partition Table partition scheme & HFS+ journaled volume scheme), install or clone Snow Leopard to one of the partitions to create your 'recovery' volume, & verify that your Mac will boot from it. If this works, you are good to go.
    Obviously, you should not use this 'recovery' volume as your everyday startup drive or for data storage because as mentioned, if the WD drive fails, you would have no backup, but otherwise this is a good plan.
    One little trick you might be interested in that I like for an external drive I use somewhat similarly: Normally, all the volumes on a drive will mount automatically when the drive is attached to a Mac, but it is sometimes handy if only the Time Machine one does this & the 'recovery' volume (or in my case a reference clone of my old Leopard installation) does not, which insures that this volume isn't accidentally disturbed by user error, is safe from any OS errors that might corrupt its files, doesn't tempt you to use it for normal data storage, & so on.
    As it turns out, the OS provides an elegant method to do exactly that. As described in the Mac OS X Hints post "Prevent a given partition from mounting at boot" (which discusses doing this for essentially the same use as yours), you can create an "fstab" file in /private/etc/ that (among other things) can instruct the OS not to mount selected volumes automatically. This works perfectly with Leopard or Snow Leopard.
    The really cool thing about this is that since the file is a part of the OS on the normal, everyday startup volume, it only has an effect if you start up from that volume. Thus, if say that volume is damaged & you can't start up from it, you don't have to do anything special to start up from the protected volume -- it appears in the Startup Manager's icons if you use the option key at startup time & even if you don't, if it is the only viable startup volume the Mac can find at boot time, it will start up from it automatically, after a brief delay.
    If nothing else, check out the Hints post. It should reassure you that others do the same thing that you are considering.

  • Wipe new Macbook Pro - Time Machine Backup Issue

    Hi,
    I recently purchased a 15" Macbook Pro, i'd previously been using a Mac Pro - through which everything was backed up through Time Machine onto a external HD.
    When i started using the Macbook Pro i by-passed the initial Migration request as i had'nt yet got the 6 pin to 4 pin firewire cable for my external HD (have one now).
    When i tried routing timeline on the MBP to the Time Machine backup on my external HD it ended up creating a separate user account on my MBP. This isn't what i wanted - i thought i could pick up where the Mac Pro left off but have'nt been able to figure out how. It's also slowed the MBP down alot, so i want to wipe it and start afresh - hopefully figuring out the Time Machine issue in the process.
    Thanks,
    brokenboy

    You can by doing this:
    Install or Reinstall Lion from Scratch
    If possible backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive.
    Boot to the Recovery HD:
    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
    Erase the hard drive:
    Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
    After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area.  If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing.  SMART info will not be reported  on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
    Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
    Quit DU and return to the main menu.
    Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Install button.
    Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.
    When the system restarts you will be in the Setup Assistant from which you can initiate a migration from a Time Machine backup. In this way you will not end up with multiple user accounts.

  • Not enough space on my new SSD drive to import my data from time machine backup, how can I import my latest backup minus some big files?

    I just got a new 256GB SSD drive for my mac, I want to import my data from time machine backup, but its larger than 256GB since it used to be on my old optical drive. How can I import my latest backup keeping out some big files on the external drive?

    Hello Salemr,
    When you restore from a Time Machine back up, you can tell it to not transfer folders like Desktop, Documents. Downloads, Movies, Music, Pictures and Public. Take a look at the article below for the steps to restore from your back up.  
    Move your data to a new Mac
    http://support.apple.com/en-us/ht5872
    Regards,
    -Norm G. 

  • HT1199 I needed to restore my Imac (lion) from a Time Machine backup on a peripheral HD.  Everything woirked fine except none of my Pictures showed up and my TM backups were all erased.  Any way to recover??

    I need to perform a complete restore of my IMac from a stand-alone HD Time Machine backup.  The restore was to the internal HD in the IMac.  The IMac is a new Intel i5 unit running Lion.  The restore went fine except none of my picture files appeared.  My external HD is partioned into a Time Machine Back Up and a Stoarge partion.  All the TM back ups prior to the restore are gone and the external storage was wiped clean.  3000 photos from our African Safaris are gone.  Any ideas on if they can be recovered from either the external storage drive or the internal HD?
    Where did the older TM BUs go?
    Thanks for any advise

    Hello:
    I don't know what you did, but there must have been some option to clear the external HD.  To my knowledge, restoring from a Time Machine backup will NOT clear the external HD.
    Since I was not there, I really cannot speculate on what happened:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4927
    In any event, there are third party tools that will attempt to recover data from erased drives (the erase normally deletes pointers, not the actual data).
    Barry

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