Backup time machine sparsebundle

My time machine sparsebundle is corrupted and after trying many different ways to repair it, it is time to reformat the hard drive.
I read that there is a way to copy the TM sparsebundle to an external drive connected to Time Capsule. Unfortunately, I can no longer find the article.
Can anyone tell me how to move my corrupted sparsebundle to an external usb drive?
Thanks

How to load 5.6 into ML.
1. Download 5.6 for Lion.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
Click to open the dmg but do not attempt to install the pkg.. it won't work anyway.
2. Download and install unpkg.
http://www.timdoug.com/unpkg/
Run unpkg on the desktop.. it is very simple.. drag the AirPortUtility56.pkg file over to unpkg.. and it will create a new directory of the same name on the desktop.. drill down.. applications utilities .. there lo and behold is Airport utility 5.6 .. drag it to your main utilities directory or just run it from current location.
You cannot uninstall 6.1 (now 6.2 if you updated) so don't try.. and you cannot or should not run them both at the same time.. so just ignore the toyland version.. the plastic hammer.. and start using 5.6.. a real tool.
For screen shots see this post.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4668746?tstart=0
This is only one method.. if you google you will see any number of methods but they generally require you to pay for software.. this is free.

Similar Messages

HT3275 For the past several days, I have been getting this message during backups: Time Machine could not complete the back up. The backup disk image "Volumes/Data/iMac.sparsebundle" could not be accessed (error-1).

For the past several days, I have been getting this message during backups:
Time Machine could not complete the back up. The backup disk image "Volumes/Data/bhoppy2's iMac.sparsebundle" could not be accessed (error-1). When I click on the 'help' icon on the message, it reverts to a blank page, and I cannot find anything online regarding the term 'sparsebundle.' In addition, I cannot access previous backups any longer.
Help?

See C17 in Time Machine Troubleshooting by Time Machine guru Pondini:
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Strange error trying to restore from time machine sparsebundle

I had my iMac hard drive go bad, so I replaced it, powered the unit back up and booted into the Snow Leopard install disk.
I got to the step where I'm trying to restore from my Time Machine .sparsebundle and I selected the date and time of the backup I wanted to restore. When I click Next to go the next screen (Select a Destination) the utility gets stuck "Searching for Disks," and below that a warning icon says
"This disk does not have enough space to restore your system."
This sounds scary, and as the Time Machine drive now has the sole copy of my data I'm reluctant to do anything to it.
Does anyone know what's going on?
Thanks in advance,
Dan.

Are you sure the new drive is formatted properly?
Check it via Disk Utility (you can get there from the same Utilities menu where you selected +Restore from backups).+
Select the top line of the drive (with size and make). Be sure the *Partition Map Scheme* at the bottom says +GUID Partition Table.+
Then select the next line, with the name you gave it, and be sure the Format shown towards the lower left is +Mac OS Extended (Journaled),+ unless you made it +Mac OS Extended (Case-Sensitive, journaled),+
Also see how much space it shows for Available to the right.

Trying to repair a Time Machine sparsebundle

I am trying to repair a Time Machine sparsebundle file. However I am getting errors at the first step of trying to attach the image.
hdiutil attach -nomount -noverify -noautofsck -verbose /Volumes/ReadyNAS/RobertsiMac.sparsebundle
Initializing…
CBSDBackingStore::newProbe directory, not a valid image file.
DIBackingStoreInstantiatorProbe: interface 0, score    -1000, CBSDBackingStore
DIBackingStoreInstantiatorProbe: interface 1, score    -1000, CBundleBackingStore
DIBackingStoreInstantiatorProbe: interface 2, score    -1000, CRAMBackingStore
DIBackingStoreInstantiatorProbe: interface 3, score    -1000, CCarbonBackingStore
DIBackingStoreInstantiatorProbe: interface 4, score    -1000, CDevBackingStore
DIBackingStoreInstantiatorProbe: interface 5, score    -1000, CCURLBackingStore
DIBackingStoreInstantiatorProbe: interface 6, score    -1000, CVectoredBackingStore
CBSDBackingStore::newProbe directory, not a valid image file.
DIBackingStoreInstantiatorProbe: interface 0, score    -1000, CBSDBackingStore
DIBackingStoreInstantiatorProbe: interface 1, score    -1000, CBundleBackingStore
DIBackingStoreInstantiatorProbe: interface 2, score    -1000, CRAMBackingStore
DIBackingStoreInstantiatorProbe: interface 3, score    -1000, CCarbonBackingStore
DIBackingStoreInstantiatorProbe: interface 4, score    -1000, CDevBackingStore
DIBackingStoreInstantiatorProbe: interface 5, score    -1000, CCURLBackingStore
DIBackingStoreInstantiatorProbe: interface 6, score    -1000, CVectoredBackingStore
Attaching…
Error 110 (image not recognized).
Finishing…
DIHLDiskImageAttach() returned 110
hdiutil: attach failed - image not recognized
Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated.
Regards
Bob

Backing up to a third-party NAS with Time Machine is risky, and unacceptably risky if it's your only backup. I know this isn't the answer you want, and I also know that the manufacturer says the device will work with Time Machine, and that it usually seems to work. Except when you try to restore, and find that you can't.
If you want network backup with Time Machine, use as the destination either an Apple Time Capsule or an external hard drive 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.
If you're determined to keep using the NAS for backup, your only recourse for any problems that result is to the manufacturer (which will blame Apple.)

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

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

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

I baught Seagate Backup plus 2T hard drive to use as my Backup time machine. But its not working when i connect to time machine its not coping files, it keep saying preparing files. Can someone help me please...

i baught Seagate Backup plus 2T hard drive to use as my Backup time machine. But its not working. when i connect to time machine its not coping files, it keep saying preparing files. Can someone help me please...

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. You must hold down the shift key twice: once when you turn on the computer, and again when you log in.
Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a Fusion Drive or a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually login automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem?
After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

Change which old backups Time Machine keeps

Any body know how to change what older backups Time Machine keeps? I know how to change how frequently Time Machine backs up (sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int XXXX),
but what I want is for it to not save so many recent backups and keep more of the old ones. Right now it saves hourly backups for the last 24 hours, daily for the last month, and weekly for each month until you run out of space. I don't need all the daily stuff, and would really like to keep more of the monthly. The older the info, the harder it is to recover by other means. What I'd like to do is keep older backups and lose more of the intermediate ones.
Any ideas?

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Post the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear.
Post the log text, please, not a screenshot. If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into a message.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — edit that out, too, but don’t remove the context.

During backup, time machine quits unexpectedly...

During backup, time machine quits unexpectedly and says the external disk was removed (but it wasn't even bumped). This has happened repeatedly every time I attempt a backup. Any ideas?

There are a few things that might be causing this.
First, open the Energy Saver preference pane in System Preferences and uncheck the box labeled "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible," if it's checked. Some hard drives don't respond well to that setting.
The external drive should be plugged directly into a built-in port, not into a hub. Check that the data cable is securely inserted at both ends. If you're using a 3.5" external drive, it should have its own power supply.
To be on the safe side, launch the Disk Utility application, select the backup volume (not the startup volume), and run "Repair Disk" (not "Repair Permissions.") If any problems are found, you should repeat until the volume is clean. You should also give serious consideration to replacing the drive if that happens, because a volume should never develop directory damage unless there's a hardware fault.

Can I use my older airport express with an ext drive to backup time machine wireless, Can I use my older airport express with an ext drive to backup time machine wireless

Can I use an older (flat) Airport Express to attach an ext hard drive and backup time machine wirelessly? and how?

can I then connect a HD with itunes music and photos?
Now we are drifting from the original question.
Im alreadty using the HD attached to my Mac Pro...can I just connect it to the Extreme and access it wirelessly with any device on the wifi net?
You may get another opinion on this from another user, but I do not recommend this either, based on a number of experimens over the years with this.
Access to your data on the drive will be much slower. iTunes will tend to "lose" the library this way and you will have to re-point the iTunes application at the library on a regular basis.
Things are even worse with the iPhoto library. The experts over in the iPhoto support area strongly advise that you do not do this, since any break in communication between the iPhoto application and iPhoto library can easily corrupt the entire library. A wireless connection makes things even more dicey.
My advice......Use a drive connected to the Extreme for storage or other backup copies of data.....not for "working" files or libraries.
But, you may get some other opinions from users here.

Slow copying a Time Machine sparsebundle

Hi everyone,
I stored old and no longer used Time Machine sparsebundle files on my networked Drobo drive. I bought a new DroboFS which is also networked. I have been moving files from the old unit to the new unit, and copying over the network is very fast.
That is, until I tried to copy the sparsebundle files. For example, I tried to move one of the sparsebundle files. Finder says "Preparing to copy". It has been saying that now for 3 days. The sparsebundle files are large, in the 1 TB range. Is Finder unable to copy or move these files? If so, is there another way to move them?
Cheers!
Phil

The Snow Leopard Finder (but not the Leopard version) can copy them, if they're undamaged. Try Repairing them, per #A5 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). Use the procedure for a Time Capsule.
But there are many thousands of "bands" in a sparse bundle, and they won't copy quickly under the best of circumstances.

How can I close my Time Machine Sparsebundle so Time Capsule can do a scheduled backup?

"Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "Your Time Capsule". The backup disk image “/Volumes/Steven Weinberg's Time Caps-1/Steven Weinberg’s MacBook Pro (4).sparsebundle” is already in use."
I have both a Time Capsule and a 2Tb external drive using Time Machine to back up my laptop.
Is it as simple as when the Time Capsule goes to do a backup and finds that the other drive is in the midst of using Time Machine to do its backup that I get this notice on my desktop?
It's 10:30 AM now. The last Time Capsule backup was almost 12 hours ago.
There have already been 6 Time Machine backups today on the 2nd drive.
Sounds like the Time Capsule really is being blocked from doing its job.
THe 1 Tb Time Capsule backs up to a .sparsebundle document which fills the Time Capsule at 985 Gb. You can't open and peek inside the .sparsebundle backup file.
The other drive backs up to a .backupdb folder within which are subfolders for each backup which appears to be a complete recreation of thebacked-up 500 Gb hard drive on my MacBook Pro laptop. And even though there are 37 separate folders with backups going back to Sept 2013 when I installed the second backup drive, it's only used about 500 Gb of its 2 Tb capacity.
1. How can I solve my primary problem of freeing up the .sparsebundle file for the Time Capsule?
2. Since both drives are using Time Machine to do the backup, why are they producing such diffrent backup file structures?
Steve

David Bean wrote:
So copying from a one-week-old TM volume was failing
Have you run Repair Disk on it?
I now realize that the folder in which the problem file(s) are stored on the backup,.DocumentRevisions-V100, is the folder in which OS X stores its versioning data for all users. I am now trying to work out whether I can safely delete these files from the backup
That does get damaged on occasion. I haven't seen it in quite a while, so it's pretty rare.
You can delete it from the backups, via the TM interface, but you must be able to show invisible items).
First, open the Terminal app (in your Applications/Utilities folder). Be very careful with this app. It's a direct link into UNIX, the underpinnings of OSX, but without the protections of OSX.
In Terminal, the prompt looks like this: <Computer Name>:~ <your name>$
(where <your name> is your short user name). It's followed by a non-blinking block cursor.
Copy, do not type, the following after the prompt:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 1
and press Return.
You should just see the prompt again.
Then see Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #12 to delete all the backups of it.
and from the live system filestore so they don't get copied out to a backup again.
Yes. You will, of course, lose all previous versions, but since the file is corrupted, you may have lost some, most, or all of them already.
When done, run the same command to hide the invisible items, but replace the "1" with a zero.

Moving Time Machine sparsebundle to new backup drive

Hi all,
This may be a bit of a unique situation, but hopefully I can get some guidance...
I've been backing up two different computers using Time Machine, with the backups stored on a hard drive attached to a third computer (an old MacBook) that's set up as a server. So the backup drive has had two different sparsebundle files, one for each computer.
That drive filled up, so I've recently purchased a larger one. To keep things a little cleaner and to keep the larger computer's backup from crowding out the other one, I've decided to put the TM backups in two separate partitions on the new drive. I set up the partitions in what is hopefully the correct way based on some other discussions I've read (Mac OS-Extended, case sensitive, journaled; partition map scheme: GUID Partition Table).
However, I couldn't find any tips on how best to transfer over the old TM sparsebundles to keep using them on the new drive. SuperDuper probably wouldn't work since I only want to copy one of the sparsebundles into each of the partitions, not duplicate the existing drive.
So I'm hoping I can just copy them over manually using the Finder (that's what I'm doing now — and will be for the next 5 hours or so). Once it's done I'm planning to point the TM Preferences at the new partition and hope that it recognizes the existing backup. (If that fails, I'll mount the sparsebundle first.)
In the meantime, I just wanted to confirm that this is the correct way to go, and see if there are any other factors I need to take into consideration.
Thanks!

maxfreund wrote:
Thanks! Your timing is perfect -- I was just looking at Pondini's FAQ on exactly my situation:
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/18.html
This would seem to confirm that I'm on the right track. I guess I'll know for sure in around 5 hours!
Always a Good Read...
Let us know how it goes...

Can't backup with Time Machine: "sparsebundle is already in use"

Can't backup with Time Machine suddenly. Message says "back up disk image ...'/Volume/... /myMacname.sparsebundle' is already in use".
I have no idea what this means. Can someone please help? Please note that I recently upgraded to Mountain Lion.
Thanks.

Been having the same problem on mountain lion
Most forums say you must disconnect the users in AirPort Utility, but v6.1 no longer has this feature
So simply open “Finder” on the left under “Devices” you should see your “Time Capsule”. If not then it should be under “Shared”. Click on it and then select “Disconnect”. Then simply reconnect and that should be it
You can also restart the Time Capsule just by using Airport Utility.
Open Airport Utility and select the Time Capsule. Then up on the top bar select Base Station and click on Restart
Mine is now all working again

How do I keep a time machine sparsebundle image from filling up my hard drive to the point where it chokes and breaks the backups?

I have several machines in the office using Time Machine over a network to back up to a partitioned hard drive on our network. The size of the partition for each machines backup is ~3x the size of the data being backed up. Everthing hums along fine until the backup disk is almost full. Some of the Tme Machine backups sieze up because they almost completely run out of room on the target disk. There is so little room that even if I can mount the backup disk, there doesn't seem to be enough room to delete the older backups. Isn't Time Machine supposed to be smart enough to ditch the old backup first to avoid this problem? Any advice would be greatly appreciated regarding 1. How to make the siezed up backups work again; and 2. How to keep this from happening in the future.
Many thanks in advance!

Here's my old bookmark for User Tips.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/user_tips_library_documents?view=overvie w
I haven't played, to any extent, with the new search function; that's about number one hundred on my list of things to learn to use in this new abomination of a forum. Might be easier to just do a Google search using pondini + whatever terms come to mind + site:discussions.apple.com

RE: Where are Time Machine sparsebundle files on Time Capsule?

I recently bought a Time Capsule. After some odd issues trying to get it to work in place of my Airport Extreme, it looked like it was finally working correctly.
When I first turned it on (before the problems getting it to work wirelessly), I did a full backup with Time Machine on the Capsule via Ethernet. When I clicked on the Time Capsule, I could see the sparsebundle files with a number and a date.
Somewhere down the line, I knocked all of our computers offline while trying to get Time Capsule to replace the Airport Extreme station after I ran the first backup on it.
I finally had to call Apple Support to have them walk me through setting up Time Capsule correctly and get us back online. After several attempts, we finally got it all working, but in the process the original backup files disappeared from Time Capsule, so I ran Time Machine again. It said it completed the full backup (again), and it was doing incremental backups.
My problem is, I cannot see any files on the Time Capsule when I click on it. Is that the way Time Machine/Time Capsule are supposed to work? No folder called Backup, no files. When I enter Time Machine, I see that it's backing up, but it kind of worries me that I can't SEE the sparsebundle files anywhere.
Any idea of where those files are hiding? I guess I'm used to using Backup, where I could actually see a list of files.

Any idea of where those files are hiding? I guess I'm used to using Backup, where I could actually see a list of files.
Time Machine stores backups over the network in the form of a sparse bundle "file". This file should show up in Finder as "ComputerName_MACaddress.sparsebundle". However, the sparse bundle is not actually a file, but a container/folder with a number of files, called bands within it.
You can access the backup files within the sparse bundle, by using Finder, as follows:
o From within Finder, click on the Time Capsule (TC) that appears under the Shared category
o Double-click on the TC's disk name
o Double-click on the sparse bundle
It may take a while but eventually the disk image will open and you will see a folder named "Backups.backupd." This folder contains the Time machine backups.

Backup time machine sparsebundle

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