Can I transfer Time Machine Backup from WD Hard Drive to Time Capsule?

I have a Western Digital 500 Gb. Hard drive and recently purchased a 500 Gb.Time Capsule which, at the moment, am using only for the AirPort feature. I would like to use Time Capsule for my Time Machine backups and use the Western Digital drive as my Aperture Vault. Is there a way to move the Time Machine file from the WD drive to the Time Capsule drive so that I don't lose the old files? My Time Capsule is connected to my iMac via an Ethernet cable.

Unfortunately, no. Time Machine will backup to a local drive (e.g. via USB or FW HDD) using a folder structure. When backing up to a NAS (e.g. Time Capsule or USB HDD connected to a TC or Extreme), TM utilizes a sparsebundle. You cannot easily convert a folder structure to a sparsebundle. The best plan is to start a NEW backup to TC. Connecting via ethernet is highly recommended for the initial backup.
P.S. You can still access the old TM backups until such time that you want to reclaim the use of the HDD.

Similar Messages

How Can I Delete all Time Machine Backup From Computer Hard Drive?

Can somebody help me on this. I don't want to use time machine anymore because i have low volume External hard Drive(500GB) only but want to do manual buckup.

Hi,
If you no longer want to use the Ext Drive with TM...
Turn TM Off and Erase the Ext Drive using Disc Utility...
Cheers,
If you need more detail... See this Older Discussion:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/7185763#7185763

Does Time Machine backup other external hard drives?

I am using a Seagate 500 GB to backup my data. Will Time Machine backup another external hard drive on which I store my iMovie projects? If so, how do I access them in the Time Machine mode? Thanks in advance.

nachdenki wrote:
strange, my external HDs were added to the exception list automatically. maybe because they wouldn't fit on the time machine volume.
It seems to depend on when the drives were connected. When you first turn Time Machine on, it only excludes the TM drive itself, and any drives not formatted HFS+.
If you connect a drive later on, that drive will be excluded automatically.

Time machine not seeing external hard drive in time line

can anyone help
time machine not seeing external hard drive in time line
before 2013
information say in 2009 is not accessable to view this
i must select external drive from finder
the time machine icon not recognising

thanks for reply
when i open time machine the time line on right side of page
has date ranging from 2014 back to 2010 but only highlight date from 2014 back to 2013
anything before 2013 is greyed out and cannot not be selected
when i touch the pages they only rush towards me a limited amount then stops
also why it shows date as 2014 is strange

Transfer Time Machine backup from one external drive to another

Surely this has been covered, but I can't find it.
If you have your time machine backup on an external drive and get a new (larger) external drive, what is the best way to transfer the backup from one drive to the other (and define the new drive as the backup drive)? Straight copy ? Then to define the new drive, rename old drive to something else and name new drive the backup name?

I haven't tried this yet but a few other methods are described at http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071128055047339

Cannot transfer Time Machine backups from one external drive to another

Since I bought my 13 inch MacBook Pro in September 2014 I've been keeping Time Machine backups on an external 1TB Lacie Rugged. This is partitioned into three and one of the partitions contains my iPhoto library.
Last weekend I left my MBP disconnected from the power source but with the external hard drive still plugged in. Long story short - the battery level fell below the minimum needed to operate so it turned itself off and 'disconnected' the external hard drive. This resulted in a corrupted iPhoto library which is no longer accessible.
In order to restore my iPhoto Library from another backup I needed to buy a second external hard drive. Yesterday I bought a 2TB Lacie Rugged which I've now partitioned into 5.
I want to move my Time Machine backups from the 1TB Lacie Rugged to a partition on the 2TB Lacie Rugged (to take advantage of the new Lacie's Thunderbolt connection).
I read the Apple article -
HT202380: Time Machine: How to transfer backups from the current backup drive to a new backup drive
and followed the instructions precisely. About 2 hours into the transfer I came back to my MacBook Pro and saw a message saying that it was not possible to complete the transfer because I did not have the correct permissions. The only option was to click the OK button which stopped the transfer.
Can anyone advise what I should do next?
Cheers
Tricia

Hi Eric,
Thank you for your response. I came across another thread yesterday which suggested the Restore via Disk Utility method. It worked for me, too. This was after I had tried following the method suggested in the Apple article above three times but each time the message was the same ....
The operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access some of the items.
I dare say that Apple would like to have us believe that it's a simple matter of 'drag and drop' but it certainly wasn't for me. From what I've read the permission problem crops up fairly frequently. Before the second and third attempts I had already amended Permissions on the Time Machine backups so that everyone could read and write, so that mustn't have been the problem. I'm the only person who uses my computer so that's not a problem.
The next problem I have is that I decided I would use the Restore route to transfer my SuperDuper clone rather than start from scratch. Unfortunately, the partition size on my original backup disk where SuperDuper clone is is 350GB and the size of the SuperDuper clone partition on my new backup is 300GB.
Of course, Apple says you can resize partitions using Disk Utility. What they don't say is you can downsize partitions but (in my experience and that of many other frustrated users on various forums) you CANNOT upsize using Disk Utility. I have 100GB spare on my external hard drive (from downsizing two partitions by 50GB each) BUT there is no way Disk Utility will let me increase the size of SuperDuper partition to 350GB :-(((
Cheers
Tricia

Move backup from external hard drive to time capsule

I am currently using Time Machine to an external hard drive connected by firewire. I have just purchased a time capsule - is there a way to move my existing backup to the time capsule so I do not lose my history?
bc
Found the answer on another post after I posted.
It is No you can't.
bc
Message was edited by: Bill Cunningham

You can move the backup, but you will likely not be able to continue to backup to the file that you move to the Time Capsule.
Time Machine will be able to access the "old" backups on the Time Capsule if the file is enclosed in a special container called a sparsebundle. This can get complicated, but details are available if you want them.
All things considered, this might be the same answer as "no" for most folks.

Imac won't restore from time machine backup after HD (hard drive) recall replacement

I have an imac bought in 2011, running Snow Leopard. It required an HD replacement due to the 1 TB Seagate recall - the replacement was done by a certified Apple repair station yesterday. Before the guy left he started a backup/restore from my latest time machine backup set. It failed. I attempted it two times and got error messages that it failed and the computer needed to be restarted to try it again. No luck. I called the guy back and he told me to call Apple Care. Not thrilled about that response since the guy had just left my house I did what he told me to do. (A quick sideline here: I recognize that a time machine backup should be no big deal and SHOULD work everytime, but it doesn't. It irks me that Apple is replacing my HD through no fault of mine and yet they don't allow the restore of data to be a "covered" expense in this process - this isn't just because this was an authorized repair guy - the Apple store would have done the same).
Back to the issue. When I called apple care they pretty much had me try the same thing again with an earlier back up set. To my knowledge, it didn't work. I say this because it looked like it was working and when I came back to the imac later, it had restarted and once again booted to the OSX install. (The boot disc is still in the imac). When I tried to boot from another location, one did not show up to boot from so I assumed that the data didn't transfer and it forced another restart. So, I tried something else. I tried to re-install the snow leopard OSX without using the restore function. That appeared to work and then when the machine restarted it asked if I had another mac and I chose the option to get the files/apps/etc. from my time machine backup. The computer chose what I can only assume is the most recent backup set (It chose what I know to be a subfolder that appears under the dated backup folder - Macintosh HD--which btw is confusing seeing as that's always the name of the HD on the imac). I again stepped away from the computer so it could do its thing for two hours. When I returned, I was back to the MAC OSX screen that asks you to choose a language. There were no more options to choose DISK UTILITY or RESTORE FROM BACKUP, etc. When I clicked on English it took me right back into the screen where you say whether you have another Apple that you want to transfer data from. I realized that the imac must have restarted and I assumed maybe it was because the boot disk was still in - except how do you get the disc to eject? I also initially assumed that the backup had somehow failed again and triggered a restart. I tried to choose the option to just set up the machine without transferring data and when I got to the choose a name for your HOME folder message I tried to enter the same name I had it as before and it wouldn't allow me to do so, saying that that name was already in use. I also tried a different name and that didn't work either - got the same message (I assume if it is not the same name that it won't sync up with the time machine data from the backup set). So, I almost tried the "select time machine backup" option again until I looked at my HD space. Clearly, there is space that has been used. HD space was 997 at the start and now it's 636. My initial thought is to somehow get back into the setup area where I can use disc utility and erase the whole thing and then start over but 1) I don't think it's going to work even if I could get back there 2) I have no idea how to get this thing to reboot into that mode 3) I can't get the boot CD out to even try to restart to see if this thing did what it was supposed to, SO NOW I AM TOTALLY STUCK! I have not called Apple Care back because quite frankly they were useless the first time. I have a call into the repair guy but who knows how much help he will be. In the mean time, I have a million things to do and a computer that isn't working - Whoever said Apples never have issues needs to be seriously censored!
A few other notes: I use Time Machine Editor to run my backups weekly. It was set up that way from the get go by an Apple rep who came to my house to get us up and running. Editor should not effect the way that time machine does its work, so I doubt there is relevance but thought it worth mentioning.
One other note is that the Apple Care agent tried to have me do something called a "Source" something or other from the disk utility screen but when she realized that my backup file (shown by date) contained many other sub files (11-27-12/MacintoshHD/MyNamesIMAC/etc.), it was not possible to run this operation - thus we aborted. Sorry I don't remember the name of the process and unfortunately now can't access that option to go find it.
If you can help me, I would be eternally grateful! I am open to having a phone conversation if you are willing to give me your email to mail you my number. I have so much work to do this week and this was the last thing I needed. Did I mention this was supposed to be EASY?
I used to be quite the geek with my PC - still on the learning curve with the mac but not enjoying it. I am fairly tech savvy and I can follow instructions for a step by step solution if you've got one.

I got a recall and had the drive replaced. I have retored 3 timesa dn even had apple do the job and it is still not right. I still can't get a simple ghost of the data from time machineback tot he new drive.
This is Apple's explaination as taken from their web page.:
Restoring your entire system from a backup
If you are restoring a backup made by a Mac to the same Mac
With your backup drive connected, start up your Mac from the Recovery system (Command-R at startup) or Mac OS X v10.6 installation disc. Then use the "Restore From Time Machine Backup" utility.
Note: If "You can't restore this backup because it was created by a different model of Mac" appears when restoring a backup that was made on a different Mac, follow the onscreen instructions.
I even posted this information on the community and apple removed it... because they don't like the:
Off-topic or non-technical posts
Non-constructive rants or complaints
But here is my experieince:
Take in 27iMac running 10.6.8, 5-7 days, what a joke, my boss will be happy to pay for a week without working. Finally get, "if you have TM back up, 3 days." Get machine back with 10.6.3, hit the R recovery, click TM back up, runs for 2 hours, reboots, looks great. Box up take back to office... update to install - OH NO, still running 10.6.3. Updates crash with no specific error on install, BUG PROBELM, nothing runs.
Call Apple... after hours, tells me to boot using 10.6.2 disk, wipe, reinstall OS, udate to 10.6.8, THEN do the restore. GREAT! Only thing 10.6.2 DVD won't read... now back on phone... take back to the store, Genius says, he'll ix it just like it was. PROMISES it'll be fixed.
Pick up next day, supposedly, booted to disk, wiped drive, reinstalled, updated to 10.6.8 and THEN did the RIGHT restore... Looks GREAT... apps run and 10.6.8 OS. Back to the office... NOT RUNNING right!!!... fonts messed up, drop box app needs new install, cocktail needs upgrade, Fetch not working, memorized paths gone... back ups locked out of permissions... ***!!
4 hours on phone with apple and still no rsolution - to missing "settings". Seems there are THREE WAYS TO RESTORE (according to apply tech)... Running MIGRATE ASSISTANT and being able to choose your files, including settings, "R" RESTORE after they load a new OS... or NOW WAITING for them to send me a bootable 10.6.3 disk and then boot from disk, w/o installing OS and doing a restore from TM. I think this is done via the disk Utilties application.
So now can't back up without doing a full 400 GB back up since permissons are screwed and possibly destroying any good back ups... can't work, like having hands tied behind back. WAITING for solution! Very upset!!!
I did my first restore just like they said and now an 10 days without proper machine. Just FYI. I thnk I am going to make the store do the tech work so I have somthing to fall back on.

My experiences copying Time Machine backups from one external drive to another

I am reposting this. The first one was rejected because it contained 'product feedback' and I was directed to the 'Terms of Use'. The 'Terms of Use' say feedback is welcome...***?!?
My 3TB external drive started to die a few weeks ago. It was still under warranty and I just got the new one yesterday. I wanted to preserve all my backups (I had every backup for my late 2012 iMac) on it.
The short of it is that there were like 20-25 million files there or something crazy like that. Finder was going to take forever to count the files. cp and rsync would take like a week. I decided it wasn't worth the hassle, so I just securely erased the old disk and did a new initial backup on the new disk.
The old disk would only mount in read-only mode, so I couldn't prune the backups down to a manageable size. Unless you only have a handful of backups, or you can internally mount the drives to make it go faster, it's going to take forever to do this.
Regards, Patrick

Hi Eric,
Thank you for your response. I came across another thread yesterday which suggested the Restore via Disk Utility method. It worked for me, too. This was after I had tried following the method suggested in the Apple article above three times but each time the message was the same ....
The operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access some of the items.
I dare say that Apple would like to have us believe that it's a simple matter of 'drag and drop' but it certainly wasn't for me. From what I've read the permission problem crops up fairly frequently. Before the second and third attempts I had already amended Permissions on the Time Machine backups so that everyone could read and write, so that mustn't have been the problem. I'm the only person who uses my computer so that's not a problem.
The next problem I have is that I decided I would use the Restore route to transfer my SuperDuper clone rather than start from scratch. Unfortunately, the partition size on my original backup disk where SuperDuper clone is is 350GB and the size of the SuperDuper clone partition on my new backup is 300GB.
Of course, Apple says you can resize partitions using Disk Utility. What they don't say is you can downsize partitions but (in my experience and that of many other frustrated users on various forums) you CANNOT upsize using Disk Utility. I have 100GB spare on my external hard drive (from downsizing two partitions by 50GB each) BUT there is no way Disk Utility will let me increase the size of SuperDuper partition to 350GB :-(((
Cheers
Tricia

Help with Restoring from Time Machine Backup with new Hard Drive

Hello. Recently, my hard drive died in my 24" Early 2008 Aluminum iMac. Luckily, I had a time machine backup, and I took it upon myself to replace the 320 GB Hard Drive with a 2 TB Seagate Barracuda disk. The hardware replacement (although difficult) went fine. Now, I'm having a bit of trouble restoring the new drive from my time machine backup. The new disk shows up in Disk Utility with the correct capacity. I formatted the new drive with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using my installation disk. My only problem is that the drive isn't showing up when I am choosing which drive I want to restore my time machine backup onto. I can pick out the backup I want perfectly fine, but I can't find the new drive. Any help?

UPDATE: I restarted it (Classic IT Crowd "Have you tried turning it off and on" moment) and the drive shows up on screen. Right now, I'm waiting for it to "Calculate disk size needed for restore" and I'll keep you posted.
UPDATE 2: Currently restoring. Let's see if it's successful.
Message was edited by: funman895

Can't copy Time Machine backups to new hard drive

The external HD with the Time Machine files is unusable (it can't be written to). Disk Utilities reports missing/damaged nodes and recommends copying all files to a new volume and erasing the HD. I got a brand new HD and began copying the contents. I was able to transfer all the regular files but when I tried to copy the Time Machine files, I got this message: "The backup can't be copied because the backiup volume doesn't have ownership enabled."
I want to use the new HD as the TM volume and continue with the same sequence of backups. How can I enable the ownership soI can copy the files?
Thanks

Michael Brady wrote:
I want to use the new HD as the TM volume and continue with the same sequence of backups.
You can't.
Time Machine backups use a complex structure; everything is intricately linked together. If that structure is damaged, as yours is, they can't be copied successfully.
If you have a copy of +Disk Warrior+ or another heavy-duty 3rd-party disk repair app, it's possible it can repair the backups. DW is about $100, and probably a good investment for the future, but there's no guarantee it can fix the backups.
And it's not a good idea to mix other data with your backups. See #3 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Unable to recover Mavericks via Time Machine on iMac (2011). I have one Time Machine backup from this week On new Time Capsule. I already attempted safe boot and NPRAM reset. Hard drive and permissions verified as ok.

Some more history - I'm not too techie so added everything in I thought might be significant!
- Installed Mavericks on iMac in October 2013
- experienced regular low memory issues - used Memory Clean app as a workaround
- last week decided to upgrade installed memory from 4gb to 16gb. Faster loading but still running out of memory - just takes longer to do so.
- also last week purchased 2gb Time Capsule (to back up 660gb on 1TB drive)
- one successful Time Machine backup completed last weekend.
- I decided to try and clear some space, tidy my folders, old music files, delete duplicates etc (Not system files)
- then tried out 'time machine restore' just to test it out. Deleted files and folders recovered ok using Time Machine menu (the one that looks like outta space)
- yesterday, Avast Anti-Virus flagged virus detected (sorry, I didn't manage to capture details) and quarantined file, but I couldn't get any windows to respond so forced Mac to shutdown.
- attempted regular reboot , system hanging on white/ apple symbol screen.
- attempted Safe reboot - reboot stalls at mess 'BootCacheControl: unable to open /var/db/BootCache.playlist no such file or directory.
(I don't know if this is significant)
- attempt NPRAM reset, reboot hanging at Apple symbol still
- attempted reboot into Disk Utility. HD drive verified ok. Permissions checked and Safari permissions fixed (only)
- finally attempting restore from Time Machine Backup via Disk Utility. Stalls at 'select a backup source'. Menu is 'searching for Time Machine Backup....'
Nothing is listed, after a few mins machine just goes to sleep.
My Time Capsule and networks are all switched on. No idea what to try next!

Most of the problems like this that people report on this forum are due to bad "utilities" like Memory Clean and Avast.
Your Mac probably didn't have a virus. There has never been an OSX virus "in the wild". Third party antivirus software is of very dubious utility on Macs. Macs are not PCs. OSX has anti-malware protection built into it already.
Do you have any other third party "utilities" on your Mac, such as CleanMyMac or MacKeeper?
Is the RAM you installed the recommended type of RAM for your Mac?
Take a look at this page: Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
But your OS may be damaged beyond repair, or beyond what disk utility is able to repair.
In that case you have a few options:
There is a small chance that a (reputable) third part utility like Techtool Pro 7 may be able to fix your OS.
Try to boot into single user mode (restart, hold down ⌘S until you see a black screen with white text) and repair your hard drive. Here's a reference with directions: Repair Your Hard Disk in Single User Mode | Everything Macintosh
bite the bullet, boot into the recovery partition or internet recovery, and erase your HD, reinstall Mavericks from scratch, and start over. Your documents are probably still on your Time Machine Backup. I wouldn't reinstall the documents via a migration- you don't want to reinstall bad system files along with your documents- but you could copy them one by one back to your internal HD. And most importantly- don't reinstall any third party "utilites" like Memory Clean or Avast (or any other third-party antivirus software, for that matter).

Data Recovery of Time Machine Backup From a Corrupted Drive

I had to install 10.2 and 9.2.2 on an internal drive in my 2003 MDD G4 but first I had to reformat it (and wipe out its data) since it did not have OS 9 drivers installed. No problem thinks I since its contents are backed up to my 500 GB Western Digital HD. Installation of 10.2/9.2.2 was successful but when I go back into 10.5.8 to restore the contents of the newly formatted drive the external drive with the Time Machine backup will not mount. It churns and grinds forever and nothing I've tried (after consulting the WD support web site) helps. It is recognized by Disk Utility but that is all.
Any thoughts on whether/how to recover the lost backup? Many thanks in advance.

mvaldeslora wrote:
Well, I am happy to report a happy ending. Turns out DW had crashed but I initiated the procedure again and it was able to rebuild the drive's directory in a couple of hours. Time Machine then recognized the drive and I was able to restore the contents of the drive on which I installed 10.2/9.2.2 earlier in this saga. I will reformat the external WD drive now and see how it performs before I decide whether it's a keeper or not. Thanks for all comments and observations.
Yay!
If those are your only backups, please do yourself a favor: do not trust them to that drive! Get a new one, and put TM backups on one, and use the other to regularly update a "clone" or at least home folder backups via CarbonCopyCloner, SuperDuper, or the like.
Murphy was an optimist!

Time machine backup for external hard drive

Recently purchased an external hard drive to clear up space on my iMac, to store photos and videos. Have been using Time Machine on Time Capsule to back up iMac. Have found that Time Machine backups hang up when it appears to be backing up the external hard drive. What do I need to do to get Time Machine to back up external drive as well as iMac? FWIW, I am also backing up a second iMac to the same Time Capsule.

Can you verify that....
1) External drive has been formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
2) The external drive has not been "excluded" from backups in Time Machine Options

Time machine backup done but hard drive activity continues

I backup infrequently my macbook pro to an external firewire hard drive. Prior to today's backup, I changed a setting in the control panel to exclude the system, applications and library. I happened to notice that the prior backup failed. So today, I initiate the backup and when it finishes (as seen in the control panel window and with a still icon at the top of the screen, the hard drive continues to have activity. It is still going at the same level of activity now for over 90 min. A second time machine backup has taken place as well.
Why is this happening. I am not using the drive for anything else. If I unmount the drive, will the backup fail? Is the backup still progressing, even though all other indications say it is finished? Could this activity be the computer indexing the drive? I am not using the drive for any other reason today. I am not looking at folders or moving any files. 214 of 465 GB are available as seen from the time machine preference window.
I am using Leopard with the latest software updates.

andrew70301 wrote:
I backup infrequently my macbook pro to an external firewire hard drive. Prior to today's backup, I changed a setting in the control panel to exclude the system, applications and library. I happened to notice that the prior backup failed. So today, I initiate the backup and when it finishes (as seen in the control panel window and with a still icon at the top of the screen, the hard drive continues to have activity. It is still going at the same level of activity now for over 90 min. A second time machine backup has taken place as well.
Time Machine will do a "second pass" backup if more changes have occurred while it was doing the first one. Ordinarily, that's very quick and most folks rarely notice it. But if there's trouble on either your internal or TM disk, it can take a while.
Could this activity be the computer indexing the drive?
Possibly. Spotlight and Time Machine both use the mds process, and on occasion the two conflict, especially on large backups, slowing or even hanging the backup. Exclude your TM drive from Spotlight indexing, at least temporarily, via System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy.
It could also be that your drive is beginning to fail.
Part of your problem may lie in the word "infrequently" -- TM usually works best if you let it do it's hourly backups. After several days, especially if there have been lots of changes, it may do a new, full backup.
Click here to download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window. Copy and post the messages here, along with details: how frequent is "infrequent;" how much data is on your internal HD; how big is your TM disk.
And please update your profile, so we know what kind of Mac you have, and which version of Leopard you're on (it now shows 10.4.11!)

Can I transfer Time Machine Backup from WD Hard Drive to Time Capsule?

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