Chanage TS Drive & Preserve Historic Back Ups?

I have a 300 GB TS drive (OWC Ministack v. 3) - working fine. Have another OWC external for SuperDuper to do clones before OS and security updates. I would like to go to one external - a 1 Tb and partition so that TS and SuperDuper are on one external drive and I don't have to swap them out (have done this on some other new Macs but not on any with an existing TS backup). In other words, I don't want to lose my TS backup from the current 300 GB TS drive.
So - Can the TS backup folder (Backups.backupb)just be copied over from the current external TS to a new external and continue on from there? If not, how can I preserve my historic TS onto a new external?

snailwatcher wrote:
I'm currently using TM to back up my data files to an external La Cie 1TB drive. I would like to dupe the TM backups once a week onto another drive and store that drive offsite. I am thinking of investing in the Time Capsule hardware for my regular backups and using the La Cie drive I have now for my weekly backup. Do you think this solution of using Disk Utility/Restore from Time Capsule to the La Cie is technically the way to go? I had been thinking of going into TM, pointing it to the La Cie once a week, doing a backup, and then pointing it back to Time Capsule. This seems like a perfect way to totally mess up the data base and I am looking for a safer solution. Many thanks for any advice.
It's much better to alternate drives, rather than back-up a backup. Yes, you do have to switch TM drive designations when you switch drives, but then you'll have two independent backups. If something gets corrupted on one drive, the corruption won't be passed to the other one.
Don't go too long between swaps, however. After several days without a backup TM will do a full backup of every file and folder on your system. Some posts here think it's about 10 days, others say they've gone longer, still others think it's a combination of time and the volume of changes. This is undocumented, unfortunately, but you should be fine if you swap weekly.

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Time capsule vs. External hard drive for periodic back-ups

Hope this is the right forum. At home I have the old "Back-Up" program that I use for quarterly back ups of certain files as scheduled. Love it. Was gonna set that up on our new(er) Macs here at work only to discover that program was replaced by Time Machine. Time Machine won't let me even in to see how it works without a Time Capsule or other External Hard Drive to connect to...
What I'm trying to do: Schedule monthly (or quarterly) back-ups for settings, certain important files and possibly certain programs from 4 office computers (3 iMacs and 1 Powerbook). Would love to back up to Mobile Me but can't seem to figure out how (Time Machine certainly won't let me). But then want to store the backups either online (like Mobile Me) or in a fire safe...
What I'm looking at: Possible options I've thought of include DVDs (which is really impractical), a 32 GB flash drive (but only would know how to get certain files on there), an external hard drive or a time capsule. But if I get either of those we'd only want to use it once a month and then keep it in the fire safe. Now I know Time Capsule is designed to do regular (daily, weekly, etc) backups... but can I use it to select what is backed up only at certain times and how hard/easy is it to plug in and out if I'm doing it that way. Or would it simply be better for what I'm looking for to get some other external hard drive?
I'm not very good at backing up info - but have to be responsible to at work (plus my brother just had a fire and he lost all his computers and info)... so simply not sure what is best suited for my needs?

Mongul Sec wrote:
At home I have the old "Back-Up" program that I use for quarterly back ups of certain files as scheduled.
Where has your "Back-Up" program been writing those backups?
What I'm trying to do: Schedule monthly (or quarterly) back-ups for settings, certain important files and possibly certain programs from 4 office computers (3 iMacs and 1 Powerbook).
Can you really afford to lose a month's worth of work on those computers?
What I'm looking at: Possible options I've thought of include DVDs (which is really impractical), a 32 GB flash drive (but only would know how to get certain files on there), an external hard drive or a time capsule. But if I get either of those we'd only want to use it once a month and then keep it in the fire safe.
In that case I'd use an external disk drive. Time Machine isn't really intended for what you want to do.

Best tool for cloning drive and regular back-ups

A 500gb 7200.4 seagate drive just arrived, and I'm intending on cloning the 500gb 5400rpm stock drive in my 15" 2.8ghz unibody MBP to the 7200.4 (attached in a 2.5 SATA USB enclosure), and then using the 7200.4 as the main drive, once I've found time time to install it internally. Once I've done that, the 5400rpm stock drive will be used for regular back-ups via completely cloning the upgraded internal disk.
I have CCC installed, but I've rarely used it, and I've noticed that the OS X disk services appears to have a 'create image' option. And then there's Time Machine, which I know very little about. The most important thing is that I need a bootable disk which, in theory, could simply be installed in a new machine and I'll be right where I left off. Which is the best back-up tool for this?

Hi Neil,
I have CCC installed, but I've rarely used it, and I've noticed that the OS X disk services appears to have a 'create image' option. And then there's Time Machine, which I know very little about. The most important thing is that I need a bootable disk which, in theory, could simply be installed in a new machine and I'll be right where I left off. Which is the best back-up tool for this?
CCC is a very good tool for what you gave in mind. SuperDuper http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html is another one in the same league.
Time Machine is a good backup tool, since it backups once the complete content of your OSX harddisk and further on only the changed files.
It can also be used the restore the OSX but for this you have to boot from the OSX DVD.
To me using CCC or SuperDuper would be exactly what you are looking for:
Making a bootable clone onto your external HD, from which you can either boot-up your Mac or simply reinstall the external HD in your Mac.
Regards
Stefan

My 'backup' is taking up a huge space on my hard drive but I have an external hard drive for my back ups - how do i get rid of this?

Please can you help - I have recently added an external hard drive to my Macbook so it can be used as a back up and storage to save space on my hard drive. I have deleted videos and photos from my hard drive but they are being replaced with 'backup'
how do i get rid of this ?
thanks

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Time Machine makes local snapshots in all portable Macs with Lion or Mountain Lion. They are made in the internal drive and they are removed when your hard disk gets full, so you don't have to worry about it.
If you want to delete them, turn off Time Machine and turn it on every time you want to make a backup. You can also turn them off manually without having to turn off Time Machine, or you can delete those local snapshots > http://pondini.org/TM/30.html

Lion installation problem- says hard drive is used for Time Machine back-ups!

I just purchased & downloaded Lion to install on my Apple laptop, but when I went to install it, I got the message:
"This disk is used for TimeMachine back-ups."
What the heck? As I use an external drive for TM back-ups, I'm really confused! How can I get Lion to install on my hard drive? I went so far as to turn off TimeMachine (see image, below), but it's still not working.
Any ideas? This is really frustrating!

Kathy,
Intel and Universal apps should be ok. You can check this massive list for specifics on any application incompatibilities.
http://roaringapps.com/apps:table/tags/_a/index_tags/_a
Just to confirm, was the problem Norton or was the backup directory present?
Glad your up and running now.
@Colin, Yeah it's the leftmost black and yellow. It's an image burned in my head from the old PC days.

Missing Back Ups

Right folks here’s the situation I’ve found myself in:
I dropped my iphone smashing the screen.
I sent it off for repair and before doing so backed it up.
I keep my itunes library on an external hard drive.
I sent my iphone off for repair.
It couldn’t be fixed and I was sent a new one.
Before receiving my new iphone I had to restore my computer to factory settings and reinstall all the software.
I received my new iphone today, plugged in the external hard drive but no back ups appeared for me to use
Help!!!!!!!!!

Pondini wrote:
...Darren wrote:
Thinking I could perhaps recall these from Time Machine
Sorry, but Time Machine cannot back up "other" files in the same volume as it's backups. It also can't back up anything on a network drive, such as a Time Capsule.
Yes sorry I was not very clear here. The files had originally been saved on my desktop but I had moved them to the Time Capsule and deleted from my desktop. My intention was to try and recall them from when they were saved on the desktop. But with the missing back ups I can not go back far enough in time to retrieve them.
Try selecting your computer name, or internal HD, in the Finder Sidebar. If neither is there, cancel out of Time Machine, then press ShiftCmdC in a Finder window before going back. Then you should be able to see all the backups.
I have tried this but still only see date entries going back one month. The tabs where earlier dates should be remain dark grey and not selectable.
I can not recall exactly when I did this but I did once try to change my user name from System Preferences - Accounts. Could this cause an issue, where back ups under a previous name can not be viewed?
I was not aware that files saved on the Time Capsule would also be erased.
They aren't. Time Machine will, eventually, use up all the available empty space, but won't delete other files. Something/someone else did that.
This is worrying as the files did once exist on the Time Capsule and their folder's still remain. I am the only person accessing the MacBook and have not knowingly deleted anything from the Time Capsule.
I admit to having limited knowledge about all of this, but the missing files along with the missing back ups makes me think that the Time Capsule is just not reading part of the disk. Could a power cut cause this kind of problem?
Thank you for taking the time to respond and trying to help me, its much appreciated.

How do you remove back up data from the memory storage? my storage data states that i have over 80gb of data used for back ups and i dont know why as i use a external hard drive as a time machine .now my 250gb flash storage is nearly full

how do you remove back up data from the memory storage? my storage data states that i have over 80gb of data used for back ups and i dont know why as i use a external hard drive as a time machine .now my 250gb flash storage is nearly full.. HELP!

When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Ask for instructions in that case.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.

I recently moved my iTunes folder to a portable drive to make space on my macbook pro with Mavericks, and now the space is still taken up by back ups? any help to clear this space up would be greatly appreciated! Oh btw, macbook pro backs up to time caps

Im trying to free up some of the space on my macbook pro, its been filled up with itunes hd movies, so i purchased a 1TB portable hard drive and moved all my itunes files to it to free up some space. When i went into about this mac and checked storage, it says i have over 400GB's of back ups. I back up everyday through time machine to my time capsule, not sure what to do, any help is much appreciated! thanks

When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself, nor should you disable them or Time Machine.

External Hard Drive Full, how do I delete back ups from years ago?

I have a LaCie 500GB external hard drive. I bought it to store my iTunes library on it, then when Time Machine came out a few years ago, I began backing up using Time Machine onto the same drive. Now the drive is about full, but it is mostly full from backups. How do I delete older back ups that are from almost 3 years ago? I can seem to go in there and do anything. I need more room for my iTunes library.
I also recently bough a portable G-Drive 500 GB hard drive for my photos. So I was thinking I'll just change my Time Machine backup to that. Or just transfer my iTunes to that one so I can carry it on the road. But that'll take awhile I know, and the connection is not as fast, as its only USB whereas my LaCie is an F-400 connection.
Thanks

saxman66 wrote:
I have a LaCie 500GB external hard drive. I bought it to store my iTunes library on it, then when Time Machine came out a few years ago, I began backing up using Time Machine onto the same drive. Now the drive is about full, but it is mostly full from backups. How do I delete older back ups that are from almost 3 years ago? I can seem to go in there and do anything. I need more room for my iTunes library.
I take it everything is in the same partition? If so, that's (obviously) a problem. Ordinarily, you'd just let Time Machine handle it -- it will delete the oldest backup(s) when it needs room for new ones.
You can do this manually, though. See #12 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).
I also recently bough a portable G-Drive 500 GB hard drive for my photos. So I was thinking I'll just change my Time Machine backup to that. Or just transfer my iTunes to that one so I can carry it on the road. But that'll take awhile I know, and the connection is not as fast, as its only USB whereas my LaCie is an F-400 connection.
That would be an excellent idea. In addition to not having to manually delete old backups, you can let Time Machine back up the other disk, as well as your internal HD. Be sure to format it +Mac OS Extended (Journalled).+

HT201250 I have thousands of pictures on my Mac. If something happens to my Mac I don't want them lost. I do time machine back ups to an external hard drive once a week. Is this good enough for making sure my pictures don't ever get lost?

I have thousands of photos on my Mac. If something happens to my Mac obviously, I don't want to lose the photos. I do Time Machine back ups to an external hard drive once a week. Is this good enough to make sure my pictures don't get lost?

tgs6164 wrote:
I have thousands of photos on my Mac. If something happens to my Mac obviously, I don't want to lose the photos. I do Time Machine back ups to an external hard drive once a week. Is this good enough to make sure my pictures don't get lost?
Purchase a couple of these when they go on sale.
Start burning all the photos onto DVDs.
At least you'll have all your photos if your computer, time machine or any other backup you use goes bonkers.

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.

Issues with time capsule back ups when external hard drive is connected/not connected

I have a 2TB Airport Time Capsule (ATC) (tall tower type) purchased a few weeks ago and initially wanted it to back up a Seagate FreeAgent 500Gb external drive (formatted extended journalled) as well as three Macbook Pros. The Seagate has a single partition called Lib and is not used for Timemachine backup; it just contains my iTunes library and lots of scanned and archived documents. I want the Lib folder to be accessible to all three Mac users in the house and I've set up all of the Macs to connect and back up to the ATT. They can all see the 'Lib' folder when it is connected to the ATC.
After a bit of searching on the discussion boards I realise that the ATC will not back up 'Lib' when the Seagate is connected by USB directly and that ATT will back it up if it is connect to my Mac and set not to exclude Lib BUT I am encountering some problems with this scenario when I activate time machine.
When I disconnect the Seagate by using 'disconnect' in the ATC viewer in Finder I shut down the drive before disconnecting the usb and reconnecting to the Macbook Pro just as a precaution. When i connect and then activate back up using Time Machine selecting the ATC data folder, it is showing no previous back ups and never backed up. When I had the Seagate connected to the ATT I was seeing back ups as far as 6th May when I bought the ATC. I know that the Time Machine backups are not on the Seagate as I had to reformat it a few days ago and use Data Rescue 3 when I lost the ability to see any files on it after disconnecting it from the ATC. I saw the 6th May backups in Time Machine before I disconnected the Seagate a few minutes ago so they must be on the ATC - just not showing after the Seagate was disconnected.
Can anyone talk me through what may be happening here and advise on the best way of managing this. I'm already planning to buy another external drive as the Seagate is getting a bit old now and I realise I should have secondary back up. I should just say that the reason for bothering with the shared external drive is so that we can all access the photos and household files over the wireless network using ATT. I would just like it to be backed up with minimal fuss if possible.
Many thanks in anticipation of some help with this
I

I would fix the problem by simply installing a more flexible backup software. Carbon Copy Cloner costs US40. And it is licensed so you can load it on all the computers in your house.
It can backup the external drive while connected to the TC, although if you are using wireless it will be sure slow.
Including the external drive in your backup with TM, is just messy. It will work.. and although you are not seeing the previous backups, they are there.. but TM cannot see them until it reconnects with the external drive in place. Once it reconnects it will need to deep scan the previous backup.. you are going to find a simple backup takes far longer than you want. It is also difficult to recover from.
See Q5 here http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
And several other comments in Pondini's KB will be helpful to understand. Sadly the guy who wrote it died before Mavericks came on the scene.. but it has more bugs than ever. TM has become less reliable for a lot of people.. and that is not doing any swapping of disks.
TM is honestly great for simple backups of your OS and particularly for incrementals but getting a clone of the disk like your external is far better for your setup.
See http://pondini.org/TM/Clones.html

Unable to back up external hard drive via Time Machine. Says no room but has back ups from two previous Mac notebooks on it. Tried deleting them and now can't do anything. Any ideas?

Unable to back up external hard drive via Time Machine. Says no room but has back ups from two previous Mac notebooks on it. Tried deleting them and now can't do anything. Any ideas?

As john noted, eventually that external is probably not going to be big enough, but it certainly is for now. The HD just needs enough capacity to cover the amount of data on your internal HD, not the internal HD's total capacity.
Format/partition the external as follows and you should be set to go:
1. Connect the external HD to the MBP.
2. Open Disk Utility on the MBP.
3. Select the external HD in the left pane.
4. Click on the Erase tab.
5. Choose the Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
NOTE: if you want to zero the HD (which I always think is a good idea, but does take time), click on Security Options, click the button for Zero Out Data, click OK. The larger the HD, the longer this will take, in some cases several hours.
6. Click on Erase and wait for the entire process to finish.
7. Click the Partition tab.
8. Click on Volume Scheme: and choose the number of partitions (just one in this situation).
9. Click on the Options button (located underneath the Volume Scheme pane) and select GUID.
10. Click Apply.
11. Quit Disk Utility.
Backup your internal to the external. What application are you using to backup with? I highly recommend both SuperDuper! and CarbonCopyCloner.

Time Machine appears to be doing back-ups, but they do not appear on the external hard drive. The last one I can find is June 30. I did a utility scan of the hard drive disk and it is fine.

Time Machine appears to be doing back-ups, but they do not appear on the external hard drive. The last one I can find is June 30. I did a utility scan of the hard drive disk and it is fine. What do I do?

Click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar. The time of the last backup is shown in the drop down.

Our iMac (intel, 11.2) freezes up when using Time Machine for Back Ups. We have 16GB of RAM and the BU drive is 1 TB on firewire.

Our iMac (intel, 11.2) freezes up when using Time Machine for Back Ups. We have 16GB of RAM and the BU drive is 1 TB on firewire.

See Pondini's TM FAQs for starters.

Chanage TS Drive & Preserve Historic Back Ups?

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