Want to move time machine from a mac os external to larger drive?

I have been reformatting a 120gb (ex-ntfs) external drive to "mac os external (journal) . I simply want to move the backup(s) to a larger external drive. I have moved 9000 mp3's over to my Mac and the backup drive filled up fast. Being a ex-windows user since pre-Win 3.11 I am kinda intimidated , more just ignorant to Mac but trying to reformat my brain the MAC way.... Is it as easy as this? New Time machine drive will be a 250gb external "copy" the "backup.backupdb" folder to new drive? and then tell TM to use the 250gb drive? doubt it can be that simple... but... the only dumb question is the one u don't ask.

Here are the instructions to use Disk Utility for this:
You can duplicate the current backups to a different disk via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder). You cannot use the normal "drag & drop" with the Finder, as that won't copy their unusual structure properly.
You can duplicate to a disk/partition of the same or larger size. You may be able to copy to a smaller one, but you might not. If the old (source) disk has ever been near full, the files may be scattered over it in a way that you can't duplicate them to a smaller disk/partition.
Note that you must duplicate an entire disk/partition to another entire disk/partition -- you cannot copy only selected backups, or backups of selected items, or merge two or more sets of backups. And if you have other items on the disk, they will be copied also (this is a bad idea: see item 3 above).
In addition, if your backups were made wirelessly, you cannot copy them to a directly-attached internal disk, or an external FireWire or USB disk, and continue making backups to that disk, or vice-versa. This is because backups made wirelessly are stored differently from those done directly.
Here's how to copy the backups from one disk/partition to a different one:
a. Turn TM off, via TM Preferences, and de-select the drive (select "none"), quit System Preferences.
b. Be sure to format the new drive correctly. See item #5 Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of this forum. for detailed instructions.
c. Connect both drives to your Mac, then open a Finder window. Make sure both partitions are shown in the sidebar (if not, from the Menubar select Preferences > Sidebar, and check the box to show +External disks+ in the sidebar). Leave the Finder window open.
d. Start Disk Utility, select either partition (indented under the main drive line), and click the Restore tab.
e. Drag the old partition to the Source box, and the new partition to the Destination box.
f. Be sure to check the +Erase destination+ box, then the Restore button. This may, of course, take a long time.
g. When the duplication is complete, note that DU has *changed the name* of the destination partition to be the same as the source. You do not want to leave it that way, so immediately rename one of the partitions. In the sidebar of the Finder window opened above, control-click (right-click) the one you want to rename. When done, look back at the Disk Utility display to be sure you renamed the right one, then quit Disk Utility.
h. Go to Time Machine Preferences and select the new or renamed drive.

Similar Messages

Can I access my Time Machine from another mac?

My current mac (an iBook G4, early 2005) has I think died irreparably. I'm waiting to see if it can be repaired but in the meantime I'd like to know if I can plug my Time Machine into another Mac (either a friend's or a family member's, both have 2006 MacBooks) and be able to access my stuff? I read elsewhere in the forum that this was possible if you were setting up a new mac, but I won't be able to buy a new computer for a while and need quite badly to be able to get at my documents.

yes, it's possible. plug it into the other computer. control-click on TM inthe dock and choose" browse other Time Machine disks".

How Do I Stop Time Machine From Filling Up My External Hard Drive?

Hi all -
I have a 750GB OWC external hard drive on which I back up about 100GB of data from my MacBook using Time Machine, and also store a bunch of media files for work. Currently about 650GB of that is full, and that is mostly because of two Time Machine-related files: The "Backups.backupdb" folder, which is 135.15GB, and "MacBook_001b63336000.sparsebundle," which is 233.71 GB. That means that in the nine months since I bought the drive, about 370GB, or half its available space, has been eaten by Time Machine backups.
I only back up so I have a bootable copy of all my current (not past) MacBook data if my MacBook is ever lost, stolen, or damaged. I am now very concerned that, if left unchecked, Time Machine will eat into the remaining 100GB of empty space. And my old external hard drive died precisely because it ran out of empty space. Some of my critical files were lost forever, and others I got back in pieces after several weeks of anguish and quite a bit of cash.
Apple's support page addresses this concern (incredibly) by instructing me to buy another external hard drive. That solution is expensive for me, and what's the point, when Time Machine will eventually fill that one up too?
So, my questions are:
1. Is there any point at which Time Machine recognizes it's nearly out of hard drive space, and either stops backing up, or deletes old backups, or sends me a warning, or something?
2. If not, is there a way I could designate a maximum size for Time Machine backups to take, such as 150 GB, that it cannot exceed?
3. Partitioning has been suggested, but I don't know how. Any instructions?
4. The OWC hard drive came with its own backup software. Should I just use that and shut up?
It would be mighty ironic if the software I use to save all my data got so fat, it sacrificed all my data....
Thanks in advance -

Andrew Saks wrote:
Hi all -
I have a 750GB OWC external hard drive on which I back up about 100GB of data from my MacBook using Time Machine, and also store a bunch of media files for work. Currently about 650GB of that is full, and that is mostly because of two Time Machine-related files: The "Backups.backupdb" folder, which is 135.15GB, and "MacBook_001b63336000.sparsebundle," which is 233.71 GB. That means that in the nine months since I bought the drive, about 370GB, or half its available space, has been eaten by Time Machine backups.
this is pretty confusing. have you been using it for both wireless and wired backups? the sparse bundle would only be created if you've used it for network backups. directly attached TM drives don't use a sparse bundle so it looks like you've got two separate backup lines. you should get rid of one as using both is very space inefficient.
I only back up so I have a bootable copy of all my current (not past) MacBook data if my MacBook is ever lost, stolen, or damaged.
FYI, TM backups are not bootable themselves. You can use the "full system restore from TM" utility on the leopard install DVd to restore your system from backups. That restored system will, of course be bootable.
I am now very concerned that, if left unchecked, Time Machine will eat into the remaining 100GB of empty space. And my old external hard drive died precisely because it ran out of empty space. Some of my critical files were lost forever, and others I got back in pieces after several weeks of anguish and quite a bit of cash.
Apple's support page addresses this concern (incredibly) by instructing me to buy another external hard drive. That solution is expensive for me, and what's the point, when Time Machine will eventually fill that one up too?
So, my questions are:
1. Is there any point at which Time Machine recognizes it's nearly out of hard drive space, and either stops backing up, or deletes old backups, or sends me a warning, or something?
I'm not sure of the precise point (TM need some free space on the backup drive to operate) but yes, this will eventually happen. when it does, TM will inform you of this and will give you an option of either stopping TM backups and changing the TM drive or starting to delete old backups. If you choose the latter it will start deleting old backups to create space for new ones. this is done automatically.
2. If not, is there a way I could designate a maximum size for Time Machine backups to take, such as 150 GB, that it cannot exceed?
not unless you partition the drive.
3. Partitioning has been suggested, but I don't know how.
it's an option but not right now. you have too little free space left for a successful partitioning process. If you try, the process is sure to fail due to disk fragmentation.
You need to get rid of A LOT of data if you want to try partitioning. also, fort the future, it's a very good idea to keep one partition entirely for TM and another for data. You'll avoid some of the problems you are having now.
Any instructions?
type "creating new volumes" in disk utility help.
4. The OWC hard drive came with its own backup software. Should I just use that and shut up?
don't. besides TM there are much better options out there. CCCloner and Superduper! are better than anything that OWC software has to offer.
It would be mighty ironic if the software I use to save all my data got so fat, it sacrificed all my data....
Thanks in advance -

Access specific files in the time machine from another Mac

I bought one mac air with less space than the mac pro backup that I have in the Time Machine, so I can't migrate the old mac to the new mac air. How can I Access specific files in time machine then? Thank you.

You can still get your files out of the TM backup..
There are several methods..
you can do it manually.
See Can't access old files on time capsule
You can also buy a USB drive large enough for the whole backup and simply restore the whole thing to that drive plugged into your computer.. you can then pick and choose what files you want. And at any time you want. Having files in their standard format and location is hugely easier than TM backups.
If you run into permissions issues there is a fair bit of help although a bit outdated in pondini KB.
So read through the info here..
Q14-17 on restore in particular. http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
And check the troubleshooting for specific problems that can arise.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Section E in particular.
You can pull the hard disk out of your Mac Pro.. that is not hard.. put it in a USB to sata holder and access files that way..
Overall this is what I would do anyway.. because you will not want to junk the computer with files intact.. pull the files directly off the old hard disk.
Let me also commend to you a different strategy in the future..
TM is great when it works.. sadly on every upgrade Apple make changes to it.. and cause utter chaos.
Buy a 3rd party backup software.. I use CCC and like it.. you create bootable clones of your Mac.. that means all files are readily accessible because you can literally boot directly from the backup.. or access the files because they are not hidden, compressed, rewritten in strange formats.. etc.
Recovery of a computer with a dead hard disk is 3min exercise where you hold the options key during boot and choose the backup disk.
You can continue to use TM for the incremental backups which it does very well.. but have the bootable clone as a way of accessing everything. From which you can then easily access the TM backup for whatever might be missing.. I do not do Clones on regular basis.. so it is slightly different method of doing things..
You can never have enough backups.

Time Machine from old Mac to new Mac

I recently changed my Macbook Pro (mid 2010) to one of the newer models.
I use an external HD via an Airport Extreme (I know its not recommended, but its been working perfectly for over 18 months)
I attempted to use a time machine backup to setup the new Macbook, but had to opt for using the Migration Assistant. I was able to restore from my last backup, but now Time Machine inisists on creating a new backup, instead of continuing to use the previous backup.
I've noticed that within the actual HD that it has a SparseBundle for the old Macbook, which can be mounted, but I cannot access any of the files due to restricted priveleges?
When TM begins creating the new backup, it creates the Backups.backupdb folder as expected, so I'm just wondering if theres anything I can do to try clean all this up so I can continue to use the same backup hierarchy as from the previus Macbook?
Apologies if I'm missing anything here or lack clarification, but I'm a first time user of the communities

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Just change the new Mac's +Computer Name+ in System Preferences > Sharing.

Accessing Backup Files On Time Machine From Another Mac

Hi everyone,
I use 1 Time Machine on both my iMac and MacBook Air.
How can I access the Backup Files of my iMac on my MacBook Air, using the Time Machine?
I hope this is not too confusing! Thanks, everyone!

Unfortunately, what you ask is complex and difficult at best for most users. Please take a look at this User Tip provided by forum expert Tesserax for a review of the methods that might be used to do what you ask.
AirPort Disk - Remote Access (3 Methods)
Among the methods listed, I use Method 3, so can provide a few tips on that. It does require that your Internet Service Provider (ISP) furnish you with a a fixed or static IP address for your Internet connection....and....that you have the correct type of modem and router that would allow Port Mapping to be able to reach the data on the Time Capsule.
Most users choose the Back to My Mac Method, abbreviated as BTMM, which is supported by Apple. Depending on the nature of the network at work, you may or may not be able to access your backups at home. Please contact Apple Support for more details on this.
http://www.apple.com/support/contact/

Time Machine from 2 Macs on 2 Drives

First post, hope I can make sense.
With Time Machine, it seems there are many different and unique situations for various users, and it seems there are options for everyone, but with all the searching I've done so far, and that's a lot, I can't seem to find the answer to my particular question/situation. I'll try keep it simple. Wife and I been sharing a Macbook Pro 13" for 2 years, 1 TM backup between 2 external disks, simple. But we can't share the same comp any more, so we got another of the same. What I want to do now is back up both computers to the same 2 drives, her computer now has all our photo's 57 000 of them, and my comp has our music, 16 000 tunes, and about 400gig home video, on another external drive for just that purpose(iMovie)
We travel a lot, so one of those drives is a 3T Seagate which stays at home, then we take a 2T WD with us, now add another computer to the mix and this is where I'm stumped. It's taken us the better part of 4 years to collect all this stuff, so I don't particularly want to mess it up.
I have just wiped the Seagate 3T, decided what it had was not needed anymore. I then proceeded to plug in my wifes new computer (to the Seagate) which now holds the photo's, and the 1st ever backup of her new computer was done successfully. I am now busy moving the WD backup to the Seagate, but when I did this, it asked if I wanted to replace the existing Backups.backupdb, or keep both.....I kept both. Now I have a Backups.backupdb, and a Backups.backupdb (Original) in the root of the Seagate.......is this a problem? should both laptops be inside one Backups.backupdb file, and then 2 separate computers can be seen?

Went through all backups and decided there was nothing to keep, so I just wiped the lot and have started fresh, made things a whole easier. Kinda like my basement....can't keep everything, otherwise I'll need another house, although hard drives are cheaper than houses!

Restarting Time Machine from scratch?

If I want to restart Time Machine from scratch after a massive rearrangement of my system and external hard disks which are being backed up, is it just a matter of removing the Backups.backupdb and private folders from the Time Machine disk and generating a new backup and going on from there?
Thanks,
doug

Doug Lerner2 wrote:
But it's only a problem if it's a problem, right?
Is there something technically a problem with what I want to do?
That's what I'd like to find out. If all the Time Machine information is in those two folders, then is wiping them the same as restarting Time Machine from scratch on a newly formatted disk?
you'll have GREAT difficulty emptying trash if you delete those folders from finder. I strongly recommend against it. first they contain millions of files. emptying trash with that many files will take a LONG time under the best of circumstances. worse, TM backups are protected by some nasty ACLs and some items are locked. they'll give you a lot of grief when you try to empty trash.
this has been tried by many people before you as this is a natural enough thing to try to do.
that's why it's best to just erase the whole TM volume using disk utility.
Does anyone happen to know?
Thanks,
doug

Multiple Time Machines on One Mac

I have an iMac with two volumes.
I would like to use two "Time Machines" consiting of the two external FW 800 drives (one is 1TB; the other is a 2TB).
Can I the 1TB external drive for one (1TB) volume on my iMac, and the 2TB external drive for my other (2TB) volume on my iMac?
I f so, how?
Thank you.

Time Machine backups up everything on the MacPro, so both user accounts are being backed up.
Each user can only access their own respective backups....unless they have the log on password for the other user and log on as the other user.
When the MBP comes back from repair, then it will resume backing up to the "other" backup drive that is normally used with the MBP.

I have a external Hard drive of 1TB. I want to transfer HD movies to it from my MAC but it can only take 4 gb at a time, now i have to format it which is the best format in this situation NTFS or exFAT, as i use windows part ion as well??

I have a external Hard drive of 1TB. I want to transfer HD movies to it from my MAC but it can only take 4 gb at a time, now i have to format it which is the best format in this situation NTFS or exFAT, as i use windows part ion as well?? plzz help
Merry Christmas

Repartition and format the drive for a Mac:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

How to import mailboxes from Time Machine to new Mac

I had Time Machine backing up our old G5. We got a Mac Pro back in November and I never was able to import the mail from the G5 to the Mac Pro so I left it alone and just kept using mail on the old G5. Well, the G5 took a dump last monday. I currently have the Time Machine backup for that computer connected to our Mac Pro (but not using it as backup yet). So, the mail from the G5 should be on the Time Machine backup right? If so, can I import it into Mail on the Mac Pro?
I also pulled one of the hard drives from the G5 and have it in the Mac Pro in the 2nd bay just to make sure that HD wasn't dead. It works fine and I tried importing the .mbox files from that drive but it appears that all the mail on that particular drive are from like 2006. So, again, I need to find out how to import mail from the Time Machine drive. Any thoughts?
10.7.4
Mail 5.2

Back up what data? Mail data? I don't have any yet. I haven't used Apple Mail on this Mac Pro yet.
Edit: Launching Mail and holding Option right afterwards does nothing. Holding down option and then launching Mail does nothing.
Oooooh.... launching time machine while holding down option......
Edit again.... I don't have a Time Machine menu because that disk is not currently set up as time machine for the Mac Pro yet. I don't want to use it as a backup for this computer yet. I just want to be able to pull some of the backed up contents from it until I'm set.

Restore specific items from time machine to reformated mac

I've just restored my mac air, or reformated. I've gone through the setup and i've updated what was needed.
I did a time machine backup just before I restored and I would just like to restore a few things;
itunes
contacts
notes
a folder I had on my desktop with some pictures in it
can someone give me a link or tell me what steps to follow please?
I haven't plugged in my external hard drive yet, that has my time machine backup.
thank you

i got some of this done but itunes is giving me trouble
what i want from itunes is my iphone backup
i've restored the itunes folder but it didn't do anything
i want to use time machine to make itunes like it was before i reformated
any help would be appreciated

How do I move data on time machine from one external hard drive to another

How do I move data on time machine from one external hard drive to another?

Although the documentation says you can copy Time Machine backups in the Finder, it's very slow and sometimes doesn't work at all.
Launch Disk Utility, open the built-in help, and search for the term "Duplicate." Follow the instructions. Turn Time Machine OFF in its preference pane while copying the volume.

HT204380 i have a mac book pro and a i-pad 2. both of the devices have the same apple id and same mailing adress. if i want to make a face-time call from my mac book to i-pad 2. how can i do that?

i have a mac book pro and a i-pad 2. both of the devices have the same apple id and same mailing adress. if i want to make a face-time call from my mac book to i-pad 2. how can i do that?

You have to add another email address on one of the two devices that you can use as the "You can be reached for FaceTime at" contact address and then remove/uncheck the Apple ID email address as the contact address on that device. The way you are currently setup is like to trying to call yourself on your on phone - from your own phone.
Using the iPad as the example go to Settings>FaceTime>You can be reached for FaceTime at>Add another email address. Then add a working email address in the next window. Apple will verify the email. Go to the inbox of that email account, read and respond to Apple's email in order to complete the verification process.
Go back to Settings>FaceTime>Uncheck the Apple ID email address and make sure that the new email address is checked/selected (you will see it being verified again) and that new email address will be your contact address for the iPad.

HT201250 I have thousands of pictures on my Mac. If something happens to my Mac I don't want them lost. I do time machine back ups to an external hard drive once a week. Is this good enough for making sure my pictures don't ever get lost?

I have thousands of photos on my Mac. If something happens to my Mac obviously, I don't want to lose the photos. I do Time Machine back ups to an external hard drive once a week. Is this good enough to make sure my pictures don't get lost?

tgs6164 wrote:
I have thousands of photos on my Mac. If something happens to my Mac obviously, I don't want to lose the photos. I do Time Machine back ups to an external hard drive once a week. Is this good enough to make sure my pictures don't get lost?
Purchase a couple of these when they go on sale.
Start burning all the photos onto DVDs.
At least you'll have all your photos if your computer, time machine or any other backup you use goes bonkers.

Want to move time machine from a mac os external to larger drive?

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