Backups Recovery from Failed Time Machine Disk

Hello;
I have been experiencing a serious problem since this April, tried everything I can do with no sign of success. So I though to ask you guys, hopefully you will be able to help or at least guide me to whom can help.
Well, it is a long story, but not to bother you with it and since I know you are not willing to go to bed now, I will just give you a timeline and if you feel like want to know more about a scene, tell me and I will narrate...
- I have MBA 256GB and 1.5TB Seagate GoFlex for Mac, which was used mainly for Time Machine, according to "backups.backupdb" it contains 75 backups.
- Due to accidental unplugging, it failed. First I was seeing error that I have to backup this drive, then it was totally unreadable on Mac but works on Win and Linux, then after a while it stooped working even on Win, but still working on Linux.
- I tried many solutions to fix the drive/disk without formatting, since I had no alternative media to backup the drive to before formatting. None worked.
- A month ago, I bought the new 2TB Time Capsule. Then using Linux terminal I managed to copy the whole "backups.backupdb" folder to another disk; however, after copying I found its size 65.5GB And obviously when Time Machine was used to browse these bacups, it did not find any!
- Used Data Rescue 3 to clone an image for the whole Seagate disk, it is 1.5TB.
- While the Seagate is not yet formatted, I used Data Rescue 3 to scan it for the lost files inside, and it found everything already there; but the "backups.backupdb" was 14.1TB! I do know why or how!!
- I tried to format the Seagate, they reused Data Rescue 3 to scan it, and the result was the same.
- I tried to mount the cloned image, of course the drive was not mounted since it is corrupted but the disk was attached, and reused Data Rescue 3 to scan it, and the result was the same for the third time. No wonders for me, I know the three cases maybe identical.
Finally, here is what I have now:
- Formatted and readable 1.5TB Seagate disk.
- Cloned 1.5TB image from the Seagate disk, before formatting.
- 2TB Time Capsule, 1.5TB of it is occupied by the cloned image file.
- Additional 500GB and 1TB extrenal disks.
- I also have an iPhone, new wallet, and other irrelevant stuff!
And all what I think about is way to browse the cloned DMG so that I can extract my REAL "backups.backupdb" folder.
Does any of you have a clue how to do that?
Or any other method to recover my backups?
Once more, there is details for every part, just tell me if you want to know more.
Many thanks in advance.
Kind Ragards.
-MHD

Then using Linux terminal I managed to copy the whole "backups.backupdb" folder to another disk
You can't copy Time Machine backups that way, unless you used asr(8), which I don't think you did.
The "GoFlex" device accounts for a disproportionate number of reports on this site of problems with Time Machine. I suggest you stop using it for backing up.
Delete whatever you copied to the Time Capsule and start a new backup. I strongly recommend that you also back up to a locally-attached hard drive (not the GoFlex) at least some of the time, as network backups are less reliable. You should have more than one backup anyway.

Similar Messages

Backing up from failed Time Machine Disk

Recently my time machine drive decided to fail at the same time that I had just wiped my computer and reinstalled OSX. Bummer, huh? I had a lot of important stuff on there. Well, I was able to recover what was on there to another hard drive using a disk recovery tool in Windows (R-Studio). I recovered every file (even the few hidden directories that were on there) to the other hard drive, repartitioned my time machine to HFS Journaled and dumped all of the data back on to it. I even labeled it the same as it was before, so technically it should be the same hard drive right?
Wrong, OSX still doesn't recognize it as a time machine backup when I try to restore from it. I really don't want to have to go through all those 30,000 hidden directories by hand and copy my MP3 collection, photo album, and who knows what else back to the hard drive. Does anyone know how to trick OSx into recognizing this backup as a valid Time Machine Backup? Perhaps it's just one or 2 files in the root directory I am missing.
Thanks so much,
--Ben

I seriously doubt that you can do that. I've never heard of anyone doing something like this. I also strongly suspect that that windows software didn't preserve all the resource fork, ownership and hard links correctly.
You are left with manual migration of your data back to your computer. this isn't as hard as you make it sound. You just need to copy you own stuff back. also use the following [post|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6185507] to migrate important parts of you user library, Mail, iphoto etc. You will have to reinstall your applications by hand.

Deleting time machine backup files from old time machine disk

I have an external USB HD that USED to be my Time Machine backup disk. I have replaced it with a newer FW HD and use the old one for archiving files, disk images, etc. The old disk still had 100gigs of backup files on it from time machine. To free up space, I thought I'd drag a few months of backups off the old dick into the trash. This worked. But I can't empty the trash. When I go to put the backup folders BACk on the USB disk, I get an error. So they are stuck in the trash.
Any help? Thanks.

I have always understood that there is no need to delete backup files from Time Machine. Once it reaches 'full' it begins to delete them sequentially of its own accord.
Good policy to check out Pondini's comments.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.htm
Or type Pondini into Google for a broader selection of his offerings.

Any way to restore iTunes and iPhoto libraries from failed Time Machine backup?

Is there a way to restore iTunes and iPhoto libraries from an unmountable Time Machine backup?
Background: I received an update alert on my iMac (mid-2010, 1TB) from Time Machine (wirelessly connected to a Time Capsule, 2TB 2013) that it required an update and required rebooting, of course, it happened when I was in the middle of a project and I postponed the restart for later. That evening I turned off the computer and coincidentally the next morning, the iMac would not start; it loaded to the Apple logo and about an 1/8 of the progress bar would load before the iMac would turn off.
The iMac had been fine to that day (OS upgrades and all since 2010) so I was assuming something misfired when I declined the Time Machine update. I tried the PRAM and SMC resets mentioned in the forums but no dice. I then went into Disk Utility to try repairs and there were errors on the hard drive that could not be fixed. My next step was to erase the drive and restore from my Time Machine backup. Before doing that I checked Disk Utility and to my horror, it told me that my Time Machine backups were unmountable so of course my first thought was that all my files were gone.
The TC was under warranty so I called support and they referred me to the local Genius Bar. The Genius was great and showed me that my files weren't lost even though the Time Machine backup was unmountable. They recommended I erase the partitions, starting from scratch and I would have to transfer the Time Machine backup files manually by directly connecting an ethernet cable from the TC to the computer. If that didn't work, the hard drive was bad and needed replacement which they could take care of.
I followed their recommendation and the hard drive is fine. I was so relieved to hear that my files were safe that I forgot to ask about all of the metadata that was lost in iTunes (de-selected songs, playlists, rankings, play counts) and iPhoto (geotags, names, etc). Any ideas / help? I sank considerable time into my music and photos and would love to have that time back.
FWIW, I'm in the process of buying an external hard drive as a secondary backup to the TC as my confidence is a little shaken on the product line - the first time I ever actually need a backup and the backup is unmountable. My whole point of spending a little more and buying into the Apple ecosystem for a backup solution was to streamline the backup process and avoid these types of issues.

Thank you for the reply. I tried the Disk Utility to repair my TC's Time Machine backup disk with no luck, it stopped with the message:
Disk utility stopped repairing "iMac"
Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
It took a night but I was able to copy all the TC Time Machine files to the external hard drive as a backup to a backup just in case. I'm still pretty bummed the TC's backup didn't allow for Disk Utility's restore functionality. Fortunately, the iPhoto library backup I dragged to the iMac from the Time Capsule backup worked without a hitch. On the downside, the "iTunes Library.itl" backup I dragged over is locked so now I'm checking out the forums for any ways to fix that. I temporarily created a new iTunes library with all my apps and music but plan on reverting to the old iTunes library if possible so I can start syncing my iOS devices again.

How to backup files from old time machine to new time machine

I have been using an external drive as my Time Machine for about a year. I just got a Time Capsule. Can I set up Time Machine to move all the backups from my old drive to my new Time Capsule? I assume it's not as simple as dragging the files from my old drive to the Time Capsule drive.
I have clicked Change Disk... in the Time Machine preferences to change my backup drive to the Time Capsule. However, I don't think that's going to move my old backup files to the Time Capsule.

boboosta wrote:
Unfortunately, I do not have enough spare disk space on a temporary disk. I've got 600 GB on my time machine drive. I went ahead and changed my Time Machine disk to the Time Capsule. I'll keep the backup files on my old time machine disk for a few weeks--in hopes a solution is found. After that, I'll erase the old time machine files to free up the disk space.
You might have been able to transfer the old Time Capsule contents to the new one by connecting the old Time Capsule to your computer with an Ethernet cable. If this gave you visibility of the disks of both Time Capsules, then you could use your computer to transfer the "sparsebundle" file(s) from the old to the new.
Now that you've started using your new Time Capsule, if you try once again to transfer those files, you'll lose any interim Time Machine backups, although that may not be a problem.
Edit: I knew I'd seen such a discussion somewhere: http://www.tidbits.com/Talk/2791

Does Time Machine backup items on the time machine disk?

If I designate disk B as my Time Machine disk, are items on disk B, that aren't part of what Time Machine puts there, backed up? In other words, can I use a disk for both storage and Time Machine backups and have those stored items backed up too?

If you intend to use disk B as both a Time Machine Backup Disk and a Data disk to hold your files, the only way to do that would be to partion the Disk B volume.
How do I partition an external hard drive ?
When an external is connected to a mac, the computer sees that Hard Drive as a Volume. Paritioning the volume is the ability to "Split" the volume in more parts that are limited by size. Time Machine will use the entire partition of a volume if the whole volume is used as a single partition. If you use the right tools and "Split" the external hard drive in smaller logical volumes then you can comfortably use the external hard drive for both your Time Machine Backups and your Data that you want to carry on an external drive.
The easiest way to partition a volume in more the one partition or logical volumes is to use the Disk Utility application that comes with every mac. Use the Finder to go to your Utilities folder and open Disk Utility, or search for it in Spotlight. Whit Disk Utility you can select your external Hard Drive and either change the partition to add a second one or erase all data on the existing external hard drive and create 2 Partitions that you can adjust in size. Remember Make sure you understand that if you choose to erase the existing external drive to make room for a new partition , that all data present on the external drive will be deleted.
Now that you have your two new partitions you can assign one to Time Machine and use the second one for Data. And with Time Machine Options you will be able to exclude or include your new external data partition to backup to your new Time Machine Backup Partition !

Deleting an older Backups.backupdb/(hostname) dirs from a Time Machine disk

Last year I replaced my old Xserve-G5 with a new MacPro. The Xserve had an external hard disk it used for Time Machine backups. I didn't format the disk when changing servers on the theory that I'd want to keep a few months of backup history.
Fast forward to today, and the backup disk is starting to get a bit full, and now that I have enough of a backup history, I want to delete the snapshots from the Xserve. If I try to:
sudo rm -rf /Volumes/Backup/Backups.backupdb/Xserve/
I get a lot of "Operation Not Permitted" errors. Inspecting in "Server Admin" shows that there are ACLs setup on the per-host directories inside of Backups.backupdb set to Deny most activities. Any attempt to remove or change that ACL, or add your own 'Allow' ACLs show the changes get reset back to the single Deny rule immediately.
How do I claim back my space? Formatting would be an option, but would destroy my backup history. I would consider plugging it into an alternate (non-production) machine and booting it off the install DVD, but the drive is a DroboPro, which requires some drivers to work.

Enter Time Machine from the menu bar icon or Dock, select the appropriate backup then click on the gear button at the top of the Finder style window, you will see a delete back up option in the list.

Transferring Old Backups to a New Time Machine Disk

I just bought a nice new big external HD and was wondering if it was possible to keep all my old backups from the smaller disk before (granted the oldest ones are long gone as I ran out of room). When I try directly copying the dated files from one backup folder to the new one, the copy keeps preparing endlessly, never actually moving the files. Help anyone?

The answer is sort of Yes and No depending on what you really want to do.
If you want to simply make a physical copy of the old backups to the Time Capsule you should be able to simply Copy/Drag-n-Drop the files to the Time Capsule disk.
However, the form of Time Machines backups are different between the locally attached drives and the Time Capsule drive. On a locally attached drive Time machine places the backups in a folder named Backups.backupd. On the Time Capsule the backups (the Backups.backupd folder) is encapsulated "inside" something called a sparse bundle.
Because of this, I don't think Time machine will recognize the old backups as valid backups, if they are simply copied to the Time Capsule disk.
Perhaps if you could a little more precise of what you wish to accomplish we could give a better targeted answer.

Copying the 'Backups.backupdb' from my Time Machine drive to another drive

I wish to keep a copy of the 'Backups.backupdb' (approx 110G in size) also on another drive than the drive I use for Time Machine. I drag 'Backups.backupdb' from the TM drive to the other (have tried both a USB2 and a FW400 drive), I key in the password for my Mac. It starts to prepare for copying, and then nothing seems to happen.
Is this a function that is somehow 'not allowed' by the system? I left it like that last night and nothing happened til morning, so I cancelled the function.
The 'Backups.backupdb' is on a 120G disc and contains backup for three Macs.
I'll be grateful for any help.

Assuming both drives are local, then the Restore tab of Disk Utility will copy the whole drive (probably more than what you want). Easy to use but be careful.
I don't know how to do an afp (Time Capsule) drive. /usr/bin/ditto has trouble.

How do I revert a drive from a Time Machine disk to a completely empty, unused disk?

Hello,
I was performing my first Time Machine backup and my SATA controller failed on my Macbook Pro's motherboard, rendering internal drives inaccessible. The backup that was in-progress at the time had only completed a small percentage of the image and is useless. I am trying to install OSX onto the external drive so my computer will function for the time being, but OSX will not allow the installation because the disk has been reserved as a Time Machine only drive.
I tried erasing the external drive through Disk Utilities, but even after a full erase (went over all data with 0's), it is still showing up as a Time Machine partition. I was able to partition the drive into to two, installing OSX on the second partition and that is how I am running now, but I would like to recover that space that Time Machine has stolen.
Any idea's on how to release Time Machine's grasp on my disk?
Thanks!

There was the one incomplete Time Machine backup. The OS installer says that it cannot install onto a drive used for Time Machine. I have attempted to fully erase everything on that disk through Disk Utilities, even zeroing out the disk, but the installer still recognizes it as the Time Machine drive.

How to Copy Files from Corrupt Time Machine Disk

Following a series of power outages, my TM disk became corrupted. When I tried to repair with disk utility, I got the message: Unable to repair, copy as many files as you can and then reformat the disk.
My question: Is there any way to capture all/part of my TM backups (they contain a history going back many months that I'd prefer not to lose)? Though I can dig in and get individual files, when trying for anything larger (like the series of backups), they are unable to copy with the files/folders being locked/read only.
Any help would be appreciated. I'll move to a 2 drive backup system after this!
Thanks

TM performs a backup in a rather unusual manner. An initial backup stores all the files in a disc image file. It then creates a special type of alias for each file. When you look through a TM backup you are looking at the aliases, not the files themselves.
If the drive's directory is the only thing corrupted and Disk Utility cannot repair it, then I suggest trying Disk Warrior that can repair many directory problems that Disk Utility cannot.
Otherwise, you will need to go through the backup with the TM application and attempt to restore the good files to another hard drive. Also,
See User Tips for Time Machine for help with TM problems. Also you can select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine" to locate articles on how to use TM. See also Mac 101- Time Machine.

Cannot boot from time machine disk

I have a 2012 MacPro with 1 SSD and 3 Mechanical Disks installed. The disk in Bay 4 I use as a time machine disk, but upon booting the computer and holding down option I was only able to select my primary OSX Boot device ("Macintosh SSD") with no other bootable devices listed. If I have Time Machine on an external disk, I am able to select it as a boot device.
I just had a recent scare with a completely currupted disk that needed reformatting, so I'm checking everything I have to make sure it works as expected. Not being able to actually boot from the Time Machine disk to restore my computer if anything should go wrong with the Primary SSD and Hard Disk is quite worrysome.
How would I boot from an Internal Time Machine disk?
UPDATE:
I have found that I do not have internet recovery and I also do not have a Recovery HD.
I am downloading Mountain Lion from the App store again and will try and create some recovery media from that.
Message was edited by: Ginger-Ben

You should be using Carbon Copy Cloner to put a bootable copy of your SSD on another disk drive (it will offer to create ML Recovery volume also).
Cloning
Using Cloning as a Backup Strategy
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
You can have one drive that has clone of all the other drives in multiple partitions.
You could have more than one TimeMachine drive and a copy (cloned partition) of the system on each.
I do NOT understand why you can boot from TimeMachine on an external drive.
I have never even tried to boot from TimeMachine. You mean Recovery mode, not a standard system?
Mac Basics: Time Machine
Hold down the Option key at startup to boot into the startup manager. Select the Recovery system of the Time Machine backup to start from. Once started, you will have all of the functionality of Recovery.
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
Mac OS X Recovery: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
What I do and what I think you should include and add to your backup strategy:
An SSD *NEEDS* to have a disk image for restore if and as needed (and you need TRIM Enabler, and you need TE on your secondary drive.
You / we always have needed an "emergency / maintenance boot drive"
You can shrink and create 120GB partition on your backup drive but never have just one backup set or drive, "all your eggs in one basket" does not work forever.
Your OPTION boot should, if you installed ML or it came with it and you installed or cloned to the SSD, had one, or using "Command + R" on startup to boot from Recovery Mode. Trouble with that is if the drive needs to be formatted, and an SSD should be at times, you can only erase another partition, not the entire device.
Mac OS X & Mountain Lion Community
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/os_x_mountain_lion?view=discussio ns
Recovery Mode
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
Cloning
Using Cloning as a Backup Strategy
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
http://www.bombich.com/software/updates/ccc-3.5.html
OS X Lion Install to Different Drive
How to create an OS X Lion installation disc MacFixIt
Migration Assistant Update for Mac OS X Snow Leopard
http://www.apple.com/support/lion/installrecovery/
Create an OS X Lion Install disc
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20080989-263/how-to-create-an-os-x-lion-ins tallation-disc
http://www.coolestguyplanettech.com/how-to-make-a-bootable-osx-10-8-mountain-lio n-disc-or-drive-from-the-downloaded-mountain-lion-app/
How to clone your system:
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone-backup.html
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone.html
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
http://www.macperformanceguide.com/blog/2012/20120711_2-MacPro-internal-clone-ba ckup.html
Before you clone, install TRIM Enabler!
And after you clone, run Disk Utility's REPAIR DISK on the SSD -- just to be on the safest side. http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/37852/trim-enabler
TimeMachine 101https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
How to relocate system and user data to another drive:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4337
http://chris.pirillo.com/how-to-move-the-home-folder-in-os-x-and-why/

Copy error -36 when copying from Time Machine disk to Mac

Since using OS X 10.6.(.6), I can't copy certain files from my Time Machine disk to the Mactintosh hard disk without getting a copy error -36. The error doesn't occur with all files: for example pdf files will copy without problems, but Filemaker Pro files and iCal files don't. May be it's important to mention that when I retrieve files from the Time Machine disk, I have to mount the "sparse bundle" with my user files first and then drag the files to the desktop or an other place. This is because I'm running File Vault. If I try to retrieve files that were backed up under OS X 10.5, I get no copying errors at all. So it looks as if Snow Leopard has something to do with it. Is there anybody who has seen this problem before and knows how to solve it?

Ok, I finally was able to complete the Disk Utility Repair, and it says everything is ok. Still the problem in restoring presists.
One thing I noticed is that most files that Time Machine restore chokes on have an added set of permissions added to the file or folder with the same user name as mine, and the permissions level says "Custom". Thus it has 2 sets of permissions defined with the same user name, one with Read/Write and another with the same name that says "Custom." Am I explaining this well? Maybe this is a clue?

How do I replace my software with a backup from my Time Machine?

I keep losing my cursor when I come back from sleep mode, so I am unable to shut down the computer, am forced to crash by holding down the Power Button.The apple store said my hardware is fine, so I might have to reinstall all my software and thus replace my system with a backup version from my TIme Machine. I'm not sure how to proceed with this at home.

Suggest that you take a look at the excellent resource provided by Time Capule / Time Machine guru Pondini.
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html
See # 14
If you are not comfortable with this,I would also suggest that you consider havng a qualified Apple repair shop perform this for you.

After installing mountain lion, can i back up all my files from external time machine hard drive if i did the back up under Lion?

Hi. Want to find out before installing new Mountain Lion if I will be able to restore all my files (music, documents....) from my external hird drive if the back up was done under Lion. Or it is better to simply copy everything, altough it would be good to keep iTunes, contacts etc as well as they are at the moment. Could someone please tell me how to do it so I can go on with it and will not have to struggle after the installation? Many thanks.

You can do this. If you did an OS X Mountain Lion clean install, it will ask you to restore a backup, so connect a Time Machine disk and restore that

Backups Recovery from Failed Time Machine Disk

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