Backup Home folder to XHD

Hi,
I'm trying to backup my Home folder to a Lacie external harddrive.
Everytime I do this it comes across files that it's unable to copy,
but it doesn't tell me exactly what file and what folder it's in.
So I end up having to copy over each folder in my Home folder individually,
to work out which one it's having trouble copying.
Is there a way of expanding the error information during copying to find out the path of a file that it's had trouble with?
Also, when it comes across a file it has trouble with it stops the copying process and doesn't copy the rest of the files in that folder or any other folders.
This time I've worked out that it doesn't want to copy a folder of the Skype programme that's directly in Home>Library
This folder is listed as type Alias, but when opened it contains other files to do with the Skype programme.
I'm not using Skype at the moment. Would it be best to uninstall Skype?
What's the best way to do this?
Can I trash the folder Home>Library>Skype ?
I wanted to check that it's ok to trash stuff from my library folder myself.
Also, if I want to back stuff up what else should I be copying apart from my Home folder?
Thanks

If the Skype folder is truly an alias, that means that its linking to another folder, perhaps a folder that you don't have permissions to copy (although that seems odd as all you need are read permissions to copy). You are trying to copy, rather than move, right? You could also try to copy from the terminal at which point it would give you an error for every file that doesn't get copied. HTH.
-NifflerX

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How to Backup Home Folder Only?

How do I backup only my home folder. I only want to backup my data not all the system stuff and applications. Time Machine only lets me exclude things. So what it the best way of telling it to exclude everything except my HOME folder? Thanks....

If you just want to do... then don't use Time Machine...
You should be looking at Backup... it was just updated.
You can use it to easily schedule a backup of your home folder.

Time Machine does not backup home folder

I upgraded to Lion recently and time machine was working properly, my hard disk failed and apple replaced it, but put in a HD with 10.6.8 on it. I then restored from time capsule (1 TB- first gen) and eventually it worked and everything seemed to be working. However it also changed the name of my home folder (reversing the name) and now my home folder is not backed up on to time capsule, local snapshots include it but not on the tc. I have reset (using pondini guide) the preferences and also eventually deleted the previous time machine and completely set up a new one but still no luck. Can anyone help as i am uncomfortable without a backup of my home folder. Nothing is encrypted and file vault turned off. Please help.

No one with a clue?

Home folder mounted after logging out then logging back in

After I logged out of my account, I logged back in to see nothing on my desktop except for "Macintosh HD." I click on it and noticed that my home folder is mounted as a disk image under "Places." By "home folder" I meant the folder found at MacintoshHD\users\name-of-folder. I did not shutdown and login again, I logged out back to the main login screen, then logged in again under the same account. Shutting down the computer before logging in to the same account prevents this from happening, but logging out then logging back in causes it to happen. How do I fix this problem?

Sorry for the delay - perhaps bump sooner next time.
I use 10.5.8 and don't recall seeing this. A picture may help.
My advice is:
Backup Home folder and perhaps whole disk to an external disk or DVD with eg Carbon Copy Cloner
Install the free AppleJack
Reboot holding cmd s until you see text
Wait until text stops
Type: applejack AUTO shutdown
Hit return key
Don't touch but prepare for a long wait - may take hours the first time
You can probably ignore the many error messages
Reboot after it has shutdown
First boot will take longer than usual as it rebuilds caches
I find AppleJack far better than Apple's Disk Utility.

Error message when burning Home Folder backup disk

I got this error message when trying to burn a backup disk (cd-rw) of my Home Folder. Could somebody please help me figure out what this means? -
The operation cannot be completed because one or more required items cannot be found.
(Error code -43)
Could not open the data fork of "<unable to get file path>" (-43).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
iMac Intel Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.4)
iMac Intel Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.4)

There are a bunch of folders within your home folder, you may want to decide what exactly you want to back up or not.
Besides your personal folders (Desktop, Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures), you may want to decide whether you need to back up the library folder. The library folder generally contains preferences for most of your applications, and also caches and applications support files. These can become really big in some cases (Mine is more than 8GB, will not fit on a dual layer DVD). And the Library>Caches folder contains temporary files that will change from time to time, this might be the cause of your previous error since the shortcut is no longer valid.
Once you chose your files and make sure they will fit on your blank CD/DVD, you can just do what you did before, drag the folders to a Burn folder, make sure you are not running any other apps, so they won't be modifying the files.
There are programs you can use to backup to CD/DVD, Disc burner like Toast will span across several discs if the data does not fit on one. For a more automated solution, Carbon Copy Cloner (http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html) can backup to disc images which you can then burn to discs. I personally don't know a lot backup programs that provide good support for CD/DVDs, so I'll leave this to other folks.
If you are going to backup regularly, I would recommend spending some money on an external drive. You can find quite a few free software for automated backup and saves money and time on burning CD/DVDs. Plus you have the advantage of being able to boot from the external drive should anything bad happened to your internal one.

Bootstrapper Crash Need to Backup FileVault Home Folder Before Rebuilding

Bottom Line (yes repeated at the bottom ;-))
How do I mount the sparse bundle (FileVault created) from the limited resources available on the OS X install DVD so I can check the integrity of contents, or even just copy the contents unencrypted?
I may just take this into the Genius bar, assuming the correct Evil Genius is available, but if I can get help here it will save me the drive across town.
Background:
Power fault and a hard shutdown, now my iMac won't boot.
Backup of Home folder is about 3 months old using Backup utility (no lectures please, long story)
I would like to backup what I have before doing anything dramatic (like erasing the drive and starting over)
I am using FileVault, which I suspect will complicate things (albeit the backup I do have is unencrypted and in the safe) and was able to copy most (but not all) of the sparse bundle.
I.e., I believe both the system files and my home folder have issues.
I would be satisfied with even an unencrypted copy of the files in the home folder (FileVault sparse bundle), but I am having trouble backing anything up (I/O error, which may mean that a band inside the sparse bundle is corrupted as well).
Possibly Relevant Details:
Single User Mode (i.e., via Command-S) does not reach prompt
Instead I see several "disk0s2: I/O error." with the error details followed by "The system bootstrapper has crashed"
It does point to the specific file issues, but at this point I am less concerned with the system files than I am with the Users home folders (mine and the kids)
Using the OS X DVD and launching Disk Utility the repair disk does not work (even when repeated, which has worked on other disks before).
Invalid sibling link on Verify followed by Invalid node structure (fails trying to rebuilding the catalog b-tree... invalid node structure and invalid record count repeated several times followed by invalid key length, then repair gives up.
Disk Utility unmounts the volume and won't let it re-mount.
Managed to re-mount by forcing the drive to be the start-up disk (Power On with Option key) and then re-started again from the DVD.
Could not figure out how to force the mount from the Terminal.
Again, running from the DVD and then using Terminal I can see the volume (../../../Volumes/Macintosh\ HD) and what appears to be the contents.
On a whim I tried to copy the Users folder to an external drive and then saw the error message about the FileVaulted sparse bundle (file .mtkessel in Users)
Copying the kids home folders this way worked, so the only problem appears to be my home folder (which is a sparse bundle).
Specifically, the "I/O Error" reported by cp is in .mtkessel/mtkessel.sparsebundle/bands/1 and 10... all of the other bands and the related Info and token objects copy just fine. I suppose it is possible that those bands are ones slated for reclamation at the next logout, but I can't be sure.
So I suppose the question is how do I mount the sparse bundle (FileVault created) from the limited resources available on the OS X install DVD so I can check the integrity of contents, or even just copy the contents unencrypted?
Thanks in advance on this ugly problem...
mk

It took many hours to copy the FileVault sparsebundle (both size and device issues I suppose), but I managed to re-assemble it, including the "Rescued Items"; I just used the unix cp -R on the sparsebundle file to force the copy to report the I/O errors... about a dozen or so of the 9000+ bands are damaged.
Could not really tell if anything other than the "Rescued Items" were missing since bands can be deleted during normal use.
I then attached the sparsebundle (which is encrypted) with a shadow (i.e., this sparsebundle is not mountable)
This is the command I used from the directory containing the COPY of the sparsebundle.
hdiutil attach -encryption -noverify -ignorebadchecksums -nomount mtkessel.sparsebundle -shadow bundle.shadow
I am not entirely sure, but the shadow option allows read-only behaviors on the device to be circumvented by allowing write through the shadow...
Enter the password and then I had he "device" appeared in the dropdown menu in DW and then I was able to re-build it.
Then in Preview I was able to see a fully mounted device from which I have started copying. The damage was "easily corrected" according to DW. It may take several hours to copy as well (this time probably due to the decryption as it copies)
I am starting to experiment with the Mail import features to see if I can recover the e-mails... my first attempts of importing from both Apple mailboxes as well as mbox format did not work. And, simply copying the emlx files into the mbox destinations does not work... The items simply don't show up in Mail... I am sure I will figure it out eventually, but any advice on importing the emlx files would be much appreciated!
mk

Backup 3: Define Home Folder ? wwwroot Included?

Does anyone know what exactly is getting backed up?
I notice that Backup 3 lets me backup my home folder. Cool. Does that mean my entire home folder? Specifically I do web development and one of my main folders is the wwwroot folder of ColdFusion development server. This file is located in Applications/ColdFusionMX7/wwwroot.
I have used SilverKeeper for years and with that I can specifically select folder within Applications but I notice Backup 3 will not let me select folders within Applications. Shall I continute to back this up with SilverKeeper?
Also if I elect to Backup my homefolder then I assume I do not need to indvidually select Pictures, Address Book, or other iLife settings right?

I don't see anything different about yours from mine. I have no problem renaming another account home folder.
All the reasons I can guess at for it not being available you seem to have verified.
Copy and paste in this command in Terminal. Make sure there is a space after what you paste, then drag in the old home folder. It will list the ACLs and any Finder flags on the folder.
ls -dleO
You should only see this after the line listing the folder info:
0: group:everyone deny delete
In the first line of the output, you should see a - between "staff" and the file size number.
There isn't any difference between the move command and doing it with the Finder, except the safety of not typing anything wrong. I imagine the Finder calls mv when it renames, but I don't know for sure.

File system chaos; how to backup and restore one's home folder??

My young son managed to drag the desktop icon from the hard disk to the trash. I dragged the desktop out of the trash but the file system on the hard disk seems to be whacked: iphoto, itunes were unable to find their libraries (I solved this though), and other apps seem to suffer the same problem as well. I'm guessing my best option is to reformat the disc and reinstall OS 10.4.7 but I want to make sure that I get all documents, files, etc. from my home folder. Can I simply drag that folder to an external drive, perform the reformat/reinstall and then drag the home folder from the external drive back? What is the best way to proceed?

There are some article by Apple on Disk Utility, and you do not want to always use the Install Disk to repair your drive if the version is earlier. You'd be better off with fsck in single user mode.
You can repair permissions from any boot drive running Tiger, as it looks in the /Receipts regardless (unlike 10.2 which had a messed up method).
As for finding all the files to backup - I would use Disk Utility Restore, then backup the whole volume to a blank partition on your FW drive. And while at it, setup an emergency boot volume for OS X that you can use for repairs in the future.
And maybe create separate accounts, then backup those accounts, and limit what others can or cannot do.

How to back up Home folder to Time Capsule using Backup in OS 10.4.11

I'm new to Time Capsule, but just set up one that I was given, which does 802.11n wireless. No problem connecting to my Intel MacBook and Time Machine. HOWEVER, using Backup v 3.2 on a Dual G4 running OS 10.4.11 was not seamless. The Backup app (needs a MobileMe subscription to use over 100 Mb) gave me the option of a Time Capsule backup, but kept failing to back up my Home folder. The reason given was not enough disk space. Not the problem; plenty of space when I accessed Time Capsule using Airport on my MacBook (OS 10.5). Finally I accessed the Time Capsule from the G4 using the path: Finder => Go => Network => Time Capsule => Connect => TC Password. In other words, I had to access the Time Capsule as if I were networking to another computer.
So had Backup given me some instructions along this line, I wouldn't have had to dither around so long. When I quit Backup and reopened it, the backup plan for the home folder proceeded as normal.

I've found a solution, no need to post a response. Thanks!

Since I have two computers I've made Dropbox my home folder, backup?

I have made DropBox my home folder, instead of two folders and copying things in it. It makes it easier to access it from multiple computers and I don't have to remember what I've put in dropbox and not.
I know that DropBox has accidentally deleted files before, therefore I am not only using Time Machine, I am using Chronosync and it backs up the DropBox folder to a hard drive. Yet, it does not backup deletions because I turned that off. Meaning, if dropbox deletes something, it will not delete it on the synced drive, even if I have synced 100's times and and didn't notice the deleted file.
Is this the best idea? Or how are you guys doing it? I know some people don't make dropbox their home folder because they are scared something could get deleted but this seems to solve that.
I'm wondering if anyone has had any troubles doing this. Also, I backup on exfat, so I was able to plug it into a PC and see my entire DropBox home folder, with no permissions to open it.

hello again,
i didn't really dare to delete the blue home folders before, just in case everything went wrong, but now i think i have so little space that i can't afford to lose 2.25gb!
one thing that slightly worries me is the fact that the 'proper' library folder (in the home icon) is 2.09gb, whereas the 'wrong' one (from the blue folder forenamesurname) is 2.24gb - this is the one i would be deleting. just seems odd to delete a larger file than the one i presume i'm using.
"Move everything you want to keep out of the blue folders, and then place both of the folders on your desktop. If everything works properly after a few days, delete both folders. If you are asked for your administrator password at any point or if either folder is copied instead of moved when dragged, don't delete that folder."
by 'everything you want to keep', does this include the library folder? 'cause there doesn't seem to be much else, and i'm not sure if deleting the library folder would ruin all my preferences.
i've put both of the folders on the desktop, it didn't ask for the admin password or try to copy them, so i guess that's good news. what kind of things should i be looking out for to act differently?
are the folders not in use now that they are on the desktop?
also if i put them in the trash will they have no effect? i.e. the same as permanently deleting them, so i could put them in the trash as a test.
cheers, stephen.

What methods are available to fix a corrupted home folder (TM doing full backups)

I have been having issues with Time Machine doing full back ups repeatedly to my Time Capsule (ME177LL/A) with no major file changes.
I have followed everything in Pondini's guide including full resets. I have narrowed it down to the problem being a corrupted home folder, because after creating a new account and doing a initial backup, then pasting four copies of a 7mb PDFs in a few folders in the new account (documents, downloads, music, video), I tried backing up with TM with my original account's home folder excluded, TM backed up only 28mb - which are the 4 PDFs.
If my logic is right, I believe this is what Pondini is referring to in the "pink box" on this page, posted below for convenience: http://pondini.org/TM/D7.html
Fixing a corrupted home folder doesn’t seem possible, unfortunately. The only workaround is to create a new user account, copy the contents from the old home folder to the new one, then delete the old account and home folder.
See Transferring files from one User Account to another for instructions.
You can copy sub-folders you created that way, but you can't copy the automatically-created and required "default" sub-folders, such as Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc., that way. You'll have to copy the sub-folders within those folders, so it will get rather tedious. Be very careful -- it's easy to miss things in that process.
Now, I am wondering if I should go ahead and follow this guide by Pondini on how to transfer all my files manually: http://pondini.org/OSX/Transfer.html I am hesitant as it seems fairly easy to mess up and miss files and folders.
Are there any other methods as to how I could fix the corrupted user? I am not having any other issues with my Macbook Air (mid 2012) that I know of.
Could I use this method (http://www.cnet.com/uk/how-to/how-to-rebuild-a-user-account-in-os-x/) as instructed by CNET instead? It seems much easier and I would not be missing files/folders.
I've researched online for quite a while and have not been able to find a fool-proof way of fixing a corrupted user home folder. I have a 512GB SSD drive on my MBA and only 40GB remaining. I'm not even sure how I could copy/paste and not delete the original files before I get the new user account running and working for sure. Hence the CNET's method seems rather appealing but I would really appreciate if anyone who has experience can confirm that it works (or some other method) before I proceed.
Thanks in advance.

I would make a clone backup first. This way you have a copy of your data that is bootable.
Once you create your clone and create your new User, you can delete your current corrupt User. Make sure the problem PDFs copied over. If not, move those files into Shared folder.
You could use the to copy your data over to a new User rather than going through Shared. I would not advice the CNET option. Copying from a clone is very similar to going to shared but you actually copy the data directly into the folders so it's is less likely to mess things up.
TIP: Enable the User's Library folder before making the clone. If you need to copy data from the User's Library it needs to be visible.
How to enable the User’s Library folder
Both of these applications can be used to create a clone.
SuperDuper! http://www.shirt-pocket.com/
CCC http://www.bombich.com/download.html

Renamed home folder but now can't see time machine backups

Per instructions from Apple forum , i renamed my home folder from Home to <myname>. In so doing, the home folder did not get renamed on my time machine backups backed up over time capsule. How do I either rename my home folders on my backups or "connect" my new account name to my old account name backups?

Pondini has some instructions for inheriting old backups.
See B5 and B6 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
In the end.. you might find nothing works.. and directly altering the TM backup is really not going to work.. so you may end up needing to do a wipe and restart with a fresh clean backup.
You need to realise you have made a major change to the system.. and the backup is not going to work, if the home folder name is changed. What it probably will do is backup the new home folder in the next incremental backup.. so you will still have both your old and new names.. this is correct btw.. you cannot make that sort of change and have the TM forget the old name.

Time machine will not backup my home folder

I am having problems with time machine backing up my home folder. There is nothing in the TM exclusion option except (time machine backup) which is understandable. Even if I wanted to exclude it from backups it does not give me the option like its not recognized. Could this be a problem because my home folder is encrypted? I have talked to someone at the apple store about the issue and they where unable to help.

Yes, it's because it's encrypted. Time Machine does not backup a File Vault protected Home folder as it would an unencrypted one. The File Vault disk image is only backed up after you log out. If you never log out then it will not be backed up.
If you want a "normal" backup of your Home folder you will have to turn off File Vault.

Backup system with home folder on separate drive

I have a 13" macbook pro late 2011 and I have recently moved my 500gb hard drive to the superdrive bay and put an SSD in its place. I have the operating system on the SSD and my user folder on the hard drive with the necessary changes made to my user account pointing the OS to the new location. If I create a normal backup in say time machine or carbon copy cloner including my user folder in the backup, will the link to the second hard drive automatically work thus giving the backup the impression all is on the SSD or do I need to backup each separtely or something else...? I have an empty 500gb external drive for the backup.

If you only backup the SSD, then the home folder on the HDD will not be automatically backed up, so you will want to assure that your backup method include the SSD and the home folder on the HDD.

Restoring a home folder backed up using the Backup application (with the umbrella) to a new hard drive running Snow Leopard

I was running OS X 10.4 Tiger on a 2006 iMac. My home folder is backed up on a My Passport 500GB USB external drive using Backup (the original application that came pre-installed with the orange umbrella symbol).
I was intending to upgrade tp Snow Leopard so that I could sync a new iPad with iTunes and iPhoto so had ordered the disc from Apple and was waiting for it to arrive.
2 weeks ago my hard drive stopped - and I took the iMac to a support store (I am currently in Belgium and there is no Apple store here). They confirmed the hard drive was dead and as I had my receipt for Snow Leopard installed this for me.
Now I am trying to restore my home folder but the new OS does not recognise the data. I can see there is nearly 200GB of data on the external drive - but the folders contain small files call backup.log, backup.log.gz, InfoPlist.stringscat, stat0..... all under 5MB.
Applecare told me they did not know about the Backup application and it was not theirs..... then suggested I tried migration assistant.
With migration assistant, I just get a spinning wheel at the initial 'select your disk' page - spinning now for more than 8 hours. I checked on line and the only advice I saw was to use firewire - but my external drive works with the new high speed USB...
Can anyone help?

Thank you for your help - I now have a solution ...in case it helps someone else.....
...I also think I may have been a bit silly...
The solution - thanks to a great guy in Apple Support USA - thank you Matt!!
first I partitioned my hard drive using disk utility - and set 235GB for a separate install - I called it Tiger install disk
this allows your hard drive to act as 2 totally separate systems (by holding down the option key when you start the computer you can choose which you want)
then I reinstalled Tiger from my original discs onto the new part of my hard drive
then I read my backed up home folder and copied it to the Tiger system on the new hard drive section
then I rebooted and started up Snow leopard on the original part of the hard drive
then I used migration assistant to transfer from the 'Tiger install disc' drive - it was recognised by migration assistant
Where I think I may have been a bit silly
I am now not sure if the orginal backup was always visible in Snow Leopard
in Tiger I found backup.sparseimage - which when double clicked opened up my home folder
now that I have istalled Tiger as well - I can also find this in now Leopard... ...so maybe I just hadn't opened all the original folders on my backup disk...
...but for sure migration assistant could not read the backup copy

Backup Home folder to XHD

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