Backup 3.1.2 or Time Machine?

I've been using the Backup app to Back up to my external hard drive, However I notice it is taking up more and more space when I do my weekly back up.
My questions are:
A) What is the difference between Home Folder full Backup & Incremental Backup?
B) Why does Time Machine try to back up my whole computer?
C) Which one is better?
Thanks in advance,
Ian

A) What is the difference between Home Folder full Backup & Incremental Backup?
The Home Folder is not part of your question. I see your question as full backup vs. incremental backup. A full backup copies every file in your designated source to backup each time your backup. An incremental backup will only copy what has changed since your last backup, not everything.
B) Why does Time Machine try to back up my whole computer?
It is designed to do that. It does it in the event that your mac's hard disk fails. In that case you'll also want a system to run, not just your user files. You can tell it not to backup system files, but in my mind that's crazy, I want my entire computer backed up, not just my user data.
C) Which one is better?
Time Machine. It renders a more complete backup. Does entirely incremental backups. Can even backup external disks. Has a simple way to restore single files/ folders and has software on your Mac OS X 10.5.0 Install DVD to restore from the backups. The one downside is that it requires an external hard disk to do the backups.

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Time Machine only shows the current copy of the file I am trying to restore. There is none of the time machine backup histories shown. I am running OSX 10.7.5. I see the backup files on my external Time Machine hard drive. Help

Time Machine only shows the current copy of the file I am trying to restore. There is none of the time machine backup histories shown. I am running OSX 10.7.5. I see the backup files on my external Time Machine hard drive in the Backups.backupdb folder.
Time Machine does show the history of my Macintosh HD, but when I try to navigate to the folder I wish to restore the backup history disappears. I've been searching for answers and I have not found one that works for me.

Time Machine only shows the current copy of the file I am trying to restore. There is none of the time machine backup histories shown. I am running OSX 10.7.5. I see the backup files on my external Time Machine hard drive in the Backups.backupdb folder.
Time Machine does show the history of my Macintosh HD, but when I try to navigate to the folder I wish to restore the backup history disappears. I've been searching for answers and I have not found one that works for me.

Missing backups/lack of space with Time Machine

Hello,
I am having trouble with Time Machine since I updated to Mavericks. Time Machine tells me that I have insufficient space on my external hardrive (1TB) even though in Time Machine it only has one full backup. If I Get Info on the drive it says Capacity 999.72GB, Available 71.37GB and Used 928,35GB.
In Finder I used to be able to delete older backups if needed but generally Time Machine did what it was supposed to - it overwrote old backups. I can no longer find the files to delete and TM only says I have one full backup.
How can I uncover these, what appear to be, hidden files? Something must be there as I have no space left!
The external hard drive is 2TBp partioned, I also seem to have lost all of the data from the non-TM partition, which is not great either.
Please let me know if you need any other information.
Thanks in advance for any help.

Do you use virtualization software, such as VMware, Parallels, or VirtualBox?
The virtualization software creates a large virtual-disk container that is constantly changing, so it has to be backed up every time Time Machine runs. That will quickly fill up any backup destination.
You should exclude the virtual-disk file(s) from your Time Machine backups. To do that, click the Options button in the Time Machine preference pane. Back up the files on the virtual disk from within the guest system, using a native backup application.
A compromise solution is to create a "snapshot" of the virtual machine in the virtualization software (not a Time Machine snapshot.) That will give you a single large file that never changes and only has to be backed up once. All the subsequent changes will be stored in a new file that's initially much smaller, but will grow over time. You should still exclude that file from TM backup. If you ever need to restore the VM from Time Machine, you'll have a working setup, which will make it easy for you to restore the rest of the data from within the guest system.
Another common cause of large TM snapshots is native OS X disk images. If you store a lot of data on one or more writable disk images, they should be in "sparsebundle" format, which will be backed up much more efficiently than any other format. Also be aware that disk image files are not backed up at all while the image is mounted. Make sure you unmount the image often so it can be backed up. If you ever restore, you will, of course, lose all changes made since the last backup. Consider eliminating large read/write disk images from your workflow, if possible.

Getting this error: Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.

I keep getting this error on my new Macbook Pro w/ Retina.
"Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you."
Connected to a wifi network and QNAP storage system. There are 5 computers on this network, and each backs up just fine. The issue is isolated to this one machine.
This error shows up every week or so.

A third-party NAS is unsuitable for use with Time Machine, especially if it's your only backup. I know this isn't the answer you want. I know Time Machine accepts the NAS as a backup destination. I know that the manufacturer says the device will work with Time Machine, and I also know that it usually seems to work. Except when you try to restore, and find that you can't.
Apple has published a specification for network devices that work with Time Machine. None of the third-party NAS vendors, as far as I know, meets that specification. They all use the incomplete, obsolete Netatalk implementation of Apple Filing Protocol.
If you want network backup, use as the destination either an Apple Time Capsule or an external storage device connected to another Mac or to an 802.11ac AirPort base station. Only the 802.11ac base stations support Time Machine, not any older model.
Otherwise, don't use Time Machine at all. There are other ways to back up, though none of them is anywhere near as efficient or as well integrated with OS X. I don't have a specific recommendation.
If you're determined to keep using the NAS with Time Machine, your only recourse for any problems that result is to the manufacturer (which will blame Apple, or you, or anyone but itself.)

How can backup the old deta from time machine to OS X LION??

Hi there,
I was using MacPro with older snow leopard just now i install OS X LION,before install i backup all deta to time machines about 70GB,now when i connect i dont know how can backup the old deta to OS X LION,but it just backup the recent deta to time machine,pls guide me how i can backup my old deta to my computer??
Will be much appreciated !!
Thanks.

Sorry, but your post is not clear.
If all you did was upgrade to Lion, there's no reason to do anything. All your data, etc., should still be on your Mac, just as it was before.
Please clarify exactly what you did, and what the problem is.

I've recently bought a Time Capsule (3TB); then I've added an external HD of 2TB to my TC via its USB port to store my iTunes Libraries. I would like to backup my external HD with Time Machine in the HD of TC. Is it possible?

I've recently bought a Time Capsule (3TB); then I've added an external HD of 2TB to my TC via its USB port in order to store my iTunes Libraries.
I would like to backup my external HD with Time Machine in the HD of TC. Is it possible?

I would like to backup my external HD with Time Machine in the HD of TC. Is it possible?
Sorry, but not possible.
Time Machine can only back up the internal drive(s) in a Mac....or a drive that is connected directly to a Mac via USB or FireWire.....provided that the drive is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
I am not recommending this, but you might be able to move the drive from the USB port to the Mac, and have Time Machine back it up that way.....then move it back to the USB port on the Time Capsule......but this will involve doing some risky things.....and manually changing settings around everytime you make the swap. Something will surely go wrong....but up to you if you want to try it.
Carbon Copy Cloner will back up the drive connected to the USB port on the Time Capsule to the Time Capsule disk, but these will not be Time Machine backups. SuperDuper claims to also be able to do this.....but I have not tested it.

IPad backup on external HD or Time machine?

Hi
My nearly full 64 GBs iPad is eating up my HD. I have like 200 MBs left! Is there a way to save the backup to an external HD to save it for whenever I need to restore??
If there isn't a way, I have a full Time machine backup, is it OK to delete the backup from iTunes, and if I needed the backup I restore it from Time machine, or I can't??
Please help!
Message was edited by: Hotsouma

Backups can't be moved to another location or hard drive. It needs to stay on the startup hard drive. Backups can be quite large, mine is over 30 gigs.
If you have only 200 MBs on your startup hard drive you need to transfer some of the data off that drive. There is rule of thumb of how much you should fill a startup disk too... 80 to 90% of capacity. You have to remember the OS needs hard drive space to write files too, same with programs. Leaving not enough space and the hard drive can freeze. And the worst, failure. This happen to me a longtime ago...

Can I backup a network share with Time Machine?

I keep all my multimedia files on an external hard drive connected to my Airport Extreme base station, and I would like to backup this network share using Time Machine.

Not possible. TM only backs up locally attached HFS volumes.

Reset my Timecapsule, my old backups are still there but Time Machine says last backup was never

Ive been using my Time capsule as a router for 5 months and recently moved were I had a router supplied. I plugged my wireless modem into the Timecap and still used my home network. I recently decided to not use the Timecap for a router but just as a backup. I was having connectivity issues so I pressed the reset butting for 5seconds and reset it. When I look inside the drive I can see my old backups, but in Time machine it says my last backup was never.. Id like to get it back to were I can just auto backup and I have the history of the last 5 months. Please help

Pondini,
Thanks for your response. I selected the tc via select disk in the preferences window. It did a countdown of two minuites. After that a window popped up and said thus.
Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.
Click Start New Backup to create a new backup. This will remove your existing backup history. This could take several hours.
And gives me two options Back up later - Start new backup
Is there anyway to keep my old backups. (naming the drive differently, anything?)
Help is always appreciated.
Thanks,

I got the message: Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you. I got the message: Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Ma

I got the message:
Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.
Here's what the text of the system.log says when I filter for backupd:
Jan 9 11:37:14 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2618]: Starting standard backup
Jan 9 11:37:14 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2618]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/TimeMachine
Jan 9 11:37:33 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2618]: Recovery backup declined by user.
Jan 9 11:37:33 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2618]: Backup canceled.
Jan 9 11:48:20 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2859]: Starting standard backup
Jan 9 11:48:20 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2859]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/TimeMachine
Jan 9 11:48:42 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2859]: Recovery backup declined by user.
Jan 9 11:48:43 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2859]: Backup canceled.
Jan 9 11:51:07 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2917]: Starting standard backup
Jan 9 11:51:07 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2917]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/TimeMachine
Jan 9 11:51:34 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2917]: Recovery backup declined by user.
Jan 9 11:51:34 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2917]: Backup canceled.
Jan 9 11:53:50 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2987]: Starting standard backup
Jan 9 11:53:50 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2987]: Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/TimeMachine
Jan 9 11:54:07 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2987]: Recovery backup declined by user.
Jan 9 11:54:07 justin-steeds-macbook-pro com.apple.backupd[2987]: Backup canceled

Since this is a MacBook Pro hardware community, you might get better results by asking your question at the Time Machine forum, located within the Lion discussion group.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.7_lion

I recently purchase macbook air with OS 10.10.2. I want to use my Seagate external backup plus hard drive for time machine back up. How to partition my 1TB Seagate back up plus hard drive for use with mac and windows pc?

Hi All,
I recently purchased 13" Macbook Air with OS 10.10.2. I want to use my 1TB Seagate backup plus external hard drive as time machine and my windows 7 pc. Please suggest a method. Thanks in advance for your reply.

I strongly recommend having an external drive dedicated solely for TimeMachine. You could partition the drive but if something goes wrong you risk losing the data on both partitions. Should you decide to go ahead with splitting the drive for two different uses you’ll need to partition the drive either using the Mac’s built in Disk Utility program or Windows utility. I believe the built in Windows disk utility program will destroy the current partition and erase the data that’s on it - I use a third party Windows disk utility program for partitioning and it allows for non-destructive partitioning but warns to back up data first just in case. Apple’s Disk Utility can do non-destructive partitions but I don’t recall every trying to do a non-destructive partition on a disk originally formatted for Windows using it. Again - back up that data just in case.
Finally, your TimeMachine drive should be at least 1.5 times (I prefer 2 times) the size of the data you expect to be backing up a year or two from now. In other words, if you currently are using 50GB of your computer’s drive but expect to begin purchasing Mac software to replace software on your Windows computer and if you expect to be putting photos, music, and other data on it you might expect that two years from now you’ll have 100GB of stuff on the drive. So a 200GB partition is the smallest size you’d want. TM’s backup scheme keeps multiple copies of data as it changes so the extra room is important for this scheme.

Firewire issue--Backup drive not found w/Time Machine after imac sleeps

I've had a lot of problems with Time Machine on my G4 imac since starting to use it a month ago. I think I have isolated the problem:
Time Machine functions properly while the computer is in use, and it has no problem after a restart or shut down, but if the computer goes to sleep and then TM runs its hourly backup, I get an error that it cannot find the Backup Drive. Once this happens, TM will no longer work until I've deselected the drive in TM, unplugged it, plugged it in again, and reselected the drive as the backup Drive. Sometimes this requires a shut down or restart too.
Here's what I've tried:
1. connected the drive via USB--it operated without a problem
2. unplugged all devices from the computer, shut down, waited, 20 mins, restrted, plugged the external drive back in via Firewire--the problem persists as described above.
3. deleted the TimeMachine.plist file, restarted--problem persists.
I've read that the Firewire port can be reset with other procedures such as zapping the PRAM or updating the firmware. I've also read that new problems can arise after reseting the PRAM so I'm hesitant to do this. Can anyone shed some light on the PRAM option?
I cannot find where the firmware updates are located on the mac site. Could someone point me in the right direction? I've looked under downloads and after searching, came up with a long list, but nothing was labeled clearly. Each listing mentioned firmware in the header, but it seemed to always pertain to a certain issue (eg. superdrive, or installing appleworks). I could not tell what was the most recent firmware released for my machine, and I fear installing something retrograde that will create new problems.
If anyone has any thoughts on how to deal with the firewire problem, or if you think my issue with using a FW connected drive with Time Machine might be rooted with something else, please comment.
Thanks!
HM
Message was edited by: imaginary_forest

fzgy wrote:
"Mac OS X can't repair the disk. You can still open or copy files on the disk, but you can't save changes to files on the disk. Back up the disk and reformat it as soon as you can."
It's possible a heavy-duty 3rd-party disk repair app can fix it, but they're expensive (DiskWarrior is about $100), and there's no guarantee it can do it.
Am prompted to reformat but I don't have a good understanding of what this means and how to do it.
That will erase it. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #5.
It sounds very much like the disk is beginning to fail, although it's possible there's a bad port, cable, connection or power supply (if it has its own).
I'd suggest getting a new one, and using it for your Time Machine backups; once you have a good backup there, reformat the old one (and select Security Options to write zeros to the whole drive -- if that fails, you know the drive is toast). Use it for secondary backups, per FAQ #27. If it has failed, get a second new one for secondary backups.

Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.

I just wanted to collect all my messages since oct 16th. under one roof. I have spent too much time with this problem already, will NOT edit this the way I should. It REALLY bugs me that Apple doesn't acknowlege it - would make life easier knowing that they are working on it.
I have the same problem. It all started around Oct. 13th when my old 13'' MacBook was doing it's last backup just before I got my current 15'' Pro. It was running up-to-date SnowLeopard, and have 1TB TimeCapsule (1st generation).
Now I have had this same problem every two weeks running Lion in my new MBP.
This does not seems to be just Lion-related, or because of lack of space - my HD was 320MB, now 750MB (350MB used).
TM will erase the disk in this particular case, and you will loose all the data history!!!
You should make a backup with CCC or similar on a separate disk to be on safe side.
I think that there will be a fix for this problem, we are not the only ones complaning.
After more research I ended up with two options: either the TC HD is at the end of it's 4 year life OR Lion TM settings > options > lock documents 2 weeks after last edit is somehow behind this problem. I unchecked this setting and will see after two weeks...
Meanwhile, fingers crossed.
SAME BIG PROBLEMS HERE TOO. JUST GOT A NEW 2TB TC bacause thought that my 4y. old 1st gen is kaput - but the problem returned just after 5 days of usage. And the newest airport firmware update did not help the situation at all...
Disk Utility verified TC disk OK, new MBP running Lion disk ok as well.
Tried about everything with my old MB with SnowLeopard.
I mean I have tried really everything since the problem occurred mid-september - new MBP, new OSX (Lion this time), new TC THIS WEEK, started fresh from the very beginning but the problem still exists.
I have no other software in my mac but from Mac App Store + Nikon + Adobe.
A virus? Others have it too?
Studied all day today and tried many options including ethernet / wireless settings (FYI: found out also that in Airport Utility alt-key brings the missin options in setting up wireless- and radio modes - confusing since no mention of this in the manuals).
There is a firmware/OSX - problem and it bugs me that Apple doesn't acknowlege it - would make life easier knowing that they are working on it.
Too many people are having these problems, and also I lost a couple of days of work while solving this on my own.
Here we are solving this mess as well. My 1st gen TimeCapsule began to work odd two months ago, needed to do fresh backups every week or two. Finally got a new one this week. Seemed to work fine first, but today a complete stop with my network. Problems occured not immediately after the firmware 7.6 update though. Seems that my iWork backups are a bit of a mess too since Pages keeps showing an unwanted photo in a written article after deleteting it from there...
I have my new TC 2TB as a base station downstairs + express extending to upstairs study + express joining for AirTunes (+ the old TC to play with). Lion and Airport Utility up-to-date.
Got also new MBP two months ago.
First thought that Lion is the problem, then that old TC is the problem - seems like APPLE is the problem...
BTW - DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU NEED TO HIT ALT-KEY TO SEE ALL OPTIONS FOR WIRELESS MODE AND RADIO MODE??? AND THAT SOMETIMES IPHONE AIRPORT UTILITY SHOWS THOSE OPTIONS, SOMETIMES NOT... sort of hard to figure that out without a mention in the instructions...

Unfortunately, the message pretty much says it all.
What it does not tell you is that your Time Machine backups are corrupted and Time Machine cannot repair them, so it wants to delete your entire backup file and start with a new one.
I'm afraid that AppleCare will tell you the same thing, but it's worth checking with them to see if there are any new developments in this regard for this puzzling issue which affects a small percentage of users.
Please post back on your findings if you pickup some additional useful information when you speak to Apple.

Why am getting a "error occurred while restoring from backup" message when restoring using Time Machine?

Hello
I recently made a Bootcamp partition with Windows 7 (which incidentally went absolutely fine). In that partition I wanted to split it for some certain files, but on doing so I appear to have completely tanked my hard drive - I've pretty much wiped the entire thing. I read afterwards that creating new partitions within Windows is a big no no Bootcamp wise, and this wasn't something I knew about before. Lesson learnt!
Either way, I had a backup and though it would be simple enough to restore from that backup, but about 2% in it it pops up "an error has occurred while restoring from backup, please restart and try again". After a few tries, this didn't work, so now I'm worried that my backup is corrupt.
I'm not sure why the backup would be corrupt as this was made with no problems as normal.
I've already tried the standard restore with no success (obviously), and I've also tried re-installing the OS up to the first boot, then trying to restore (thinking that the error was a result of a missing Recovery HD, which the re-install would create) and this was with no success also.
My final idea was to just erase the drive and re-install the OSX, and then when it prompts me, restore the files from the Time Capsule.
Am I onto the right idea, or is there another way around this? I'm just very worried that my backup has become corrupted for some reason and I've lost everything on there.
Specs are:
MacBook Pro Mid 2012 OS X 10.8.5;
Bootcamp 5 (Windows 7);

I'd agree. As long as you've gone this far, I'd probably start from scratch with your MBP, back up any critical files on it, wipe the whole thing, and do a nice clean reinstall.
I'd try to repair the backup drive with disk utilty and then see if you can restore the minimum of essential documents from it to the MBP. If Disk Utility can't fix it there is a small chance that a third party utility like diskwarrior or techtool could repair it. DiskWarrior 4 - The Disk Utility for Mac Disk Repair, Mac Directory Repair, Mac Disk Recovery, Mac Data Recovery or Techtool Pro 7
If you can get your essential documents off the backup drive, then I'd wipe it and put a new time machine backup on it. If that doesn't work, then I'd replace the drive.

HT201250 Can I recover the backups from Time Machine, but the backups is deleted by the Time Machine!

Unfortunately, the Time Macchine deleted my oldest backups in my hard drive.
I have the important files in the backups.
So hope someone could help me to recover the backups.

Time Machine will remove old backups automatically. It tells you when it does, but of course by then it's too late.
There is no recovering deleted backups, since it was necessary to overwrite them with newer backups.
For further explanation read the following entries from Apple Support Communities contributor Pondini's Time Machine FAQ:
12. Should I delete old backups? If so, How?
20. Once my Mac is backed-up, can I delete some stuff to save space?
Time Machine is for backups. It is not an archiving utility. To archive files requires something like one of these:
Carbon Copy Cloner ($39.95) http://sites.fastspring.com/bombich/product/ccc
or
SuperDuper! ($27.95) http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Backup 3.1.2 or Time Machine?

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