Connecting Time Machine USb drive to Time Capsule and continuing backups?

I've been backing up my iMac to an external HDD while I waited to get my TC replaced (blew the PSU about a month ago and I've been lazy about getting it fixed). Now that my replacement 500Gb TC has arrived, I'd like to continue with the current TM backup I have. Can I simply unplug the USb drive from the iMac and plug it into the USB port on the back of the TC? I know I can backup to the drive from scratch, but I want to be able to continue using the backup I already have. I know Time Machine over wired/wireless uses a sparsebundle instead and that a USb doesn't, so will there be an issue?
(And the reason I want to move the external in the first place is to free up some space on my desk)

You can probably do that, if there's enough room on the disk for two copies of your backups, or if you have a second disk you can use, but it's a bit tricky and will take a long time.
See #18 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
If your current backups are case-ignorant, however, the procedure there won't work "as is". You'll have to either change the sparse bundle that Time Machine makes, or use a special Terminal command to copy your backups into the default sparse bundle.
So your best bet is probably to simply erase the drive and let TM start fresh. And if your USB drive doesn't have it's own power supply, you'll probably want to use a powered hub.

Similar Messages

Time Capsule and Vista - Backup Software?

I am using TC on my home networks which is accessed from a XP Desktop and a Vista Laptop.
Once setup I can map to the TC Drive on my Vista machine.....however I do not see the drive under the "Network" link in Windows Explorer. With this setup I can drag files to the TC Drive very easily.
What I want to do is use a backup product that can perform the backups automatically (like Time Machine does with TC). I tried to use the Vista backup tool but I am unable to select the TC Drive - it does not appear as a drive or as available on the network.
The Vista laptop accesses the TC Disk wirelessly. I think the backup process in XP worked ok, I don't remember now.
Anyone found a way to use Vista and TC with a windows based backup tool? Thanks in advance.

I actually made some headway last night, but I can't say what exactly solved the problem (perhaps it is just fixed temporarily).
Last night I was prompted to update the firmware to 7.3.1, which I did. I still could see the mapping of the drive in Windows but not under the "Network" link so it was not visible from Windows.
I walked away for a few hours and when I came back....for some reason I could now see the Time Capsule, and the TC drive, under the network link. I then tried to access it from Vista Backup. I can now select the drive and I used the credentials admin/"the password I used when I setup access to the TC disk". I then get an RPC error and after looking in Windows forums I see 80 odd posts on this. So I gave up.
I then pulled down a trial of Acronis (I think version 11) and.....believe it or not...it all worked beautifully. I had to be able to see the drive under the network link first....that was key. I used the same credentials above in Acronis to map to the TC drive and overnight it backed up my files to the TC drive. This is what I needed.
But to summarize.....I don't know what caused the drive to become visible under the "Network" link in Windows Explorer. Once this worked then I could use a backup tool (just not the Vista tool as it is crap!!). There is also a free backup tool out there called Corbian (http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm). Have not tried this yet but I might as the drive is now visible.

Can a time machine usb drive backup the data from an external usb drive connected to and airport extreme*

can a time machine usb drive conected to my mac book backup the data from an external usb drive connected to and airport extreme ?

Hi Adam, if you think yoiur HD may be failing you could do a TM restore onto the new disk. I would rather see you do a clone either SuperDuper or CarbonCopy Cloner.Of your internal drive. That way you have a bootable backup in case it does fail.
btw - what are the symptoms of your failing drive?
-mj
Message was edited by: macjack

Time Capsule and Apple TV

Question 1. I know apple tv can not directly stream from time capsule, but if I have my iTunes library stored on my time capsule can it be streamed via my MacBook pro to apple tv?
Question 2. If I connect time capsule and apple tv to my Wifi modem via Ethernet will it be the fastest option for streaming?

but if I have my iTunes library stored on my time capsule can it be streamed via my MacBook pro to apple tv?
Yes. But, if you move your iTunes library to the Time Capsule drive, have you thought about a possibly troubling fact?..... Your "original" library is now on the Time Capsule drive......and you have no backup when...not if...the Time Capsule drive has a problem.
In other words, if you move the iTunes library to the Time Capsule, how will you backup that important data?
A better plan might be to add an external FireWire or USB drive and connect that directly to your MacBook Pro. Move the iTunes library to the external drive. Then Time Machine will backup your MacBook and the external drive.
Then you have "originals" on one drive....and backups on another, so your data is safe when a drive acts up.
Question 2. If I connect time capsule and apple tv to my Wifi modem via Ethernet will it be the fastest option for streaming?
Yes, probably at least 3-5 times faster than wireless.

Time Capsules and System Updates

Why must I always erase my Time Capsule and re-backup after every system update?

TexasRose58 wrote:
System Preferences > Users & Groups doesn't have an Advanced Options button...at least I don't see one in Mountain Lion on my iMac.
Yes, it does. Follow the instructions in the pink box.
I repaired permissions, turned off Time Machine, and then upgraded from the Apps Store. After I upgraded the system, it showed Oldest Backup: None and Latest Backup: None, but it showed only about a third of the space as available, so the old backups were there.
Yes, that's confusing. It just means the preferences window hasn't been updated.
I tried to go ahead and just backup, but it would only go about halfway into the backup and quit.
Quit how? Did it fail with a message? If so, what? See #C2 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it. If that doesn't help, post back with details, including all the messages.
Or did it just hang? If so, what is/was shown on the Preferences window?
Inside Time Machine itself, on the sliding scale to the right of the "starry sky" the old backups were red (no badges or extra icons, just the usual bars and dates).
Ah, that means those backups are on the external drive; any white/gray ones indicate "Local Snapshots" that are on your internal HD. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #30 for details.
If you can't access them, see the pink box in FAQ #15A.
Should I have left Time Machine running during the backup? Is that where I messed up? I thought I did when I backed up from Snow Leopard to Lion, but maybe not. I don't recall for certain.
I assume you mean the browser (the "Star Wars" display). If so, it shouldn't matter, but you won't see the new backup until and unless it completes normally.

Can i use my time capsule to wirelessly backup my macbook and its external hard drive, which up until now was it's time machine and storage? How?

Can i use my time capsule to wirelessly backup my macbook and its external hard drive, which up until now was it's time machine and storage? How?

The external drive must be connected to the Mac using either USB or FireWire
You must remove the external hard drive from the list of items that are "excluded" from backups in Time Machine Preferences.
Here's how:
Open System Preferences (gear icon on the dock)
Open Time Machine
Click Options
Look for the name of the hard drive in the list of "excluded" items and click on it to highlight it
Click the -- (minus) button at the bottom of the list to remove the hard drive from the list of "excluded" items....so it will now be backed up
Strongly recommend that you do the first backup using Ethenret from your computer to the Time Capsule since the entire contents of the external drive will be copied on the first pass. Ethernet will be 3-5 faster than wireless.
Once you have the first backup done, you can use wireless for subsequent backups since they will nornally be much smaller....unless you add large files to the external drive.

USB HD attached to Time Capsule - how to backup it with Time Machine

Hi.
I have a time capsule, and a small USB HD connected to it.
This drive I use it as a NAS, a file server for all my home network.
It's so convenient.
But I would love its content to be backed-up by Time Machine,
how could I do that ?
I could mount it and back it up to my laptop, which in turn would be backed-up by Time Machine for example (I don't know how to do it).
Any ideas/solutions ?
TIA, alex

Welcome to Apple Discussions, alexfromfrance in Shanghai .
As long as the USB HDD is formatted in HFS+, Time Machine will recognize it and ask if you want to use it as a back up for TM if you plug the drive into a USB port on your Mac. If asked, you should click NO. Under TM Preferences, you should click Options and see if this drive is EXCLUDED. If so, uncheck it.
If you need to re-format it (and lose all your content), it would need to be plugged into your Mac directly via USB (not through Time Capsule) using Disk Utility.
If you are asking if a HFS+ USB drive can be plugged into TC directly and backed up by TM, I'll be attempting this in the next few days (when I have time to move the data off the HDD onto another drive).
Good luck!

HT1178 I have set up Time Capsule to use with Time Machine. When I open Time Machine it 'cannot find' the Time Capsule and I have the Select the Disk each time. In the Next Backup tab it always says "When disk is connected" even though the disk is alrea

I have set up Time Capsule to use with Time Machine but when I open Time Machine it 'cannot find' the Time Capsule and I have to 'Select the Disk' each time. In the Next Backup tab it always says "When disk is connected" even though the disk is already connected.

Your pro doesn't matter.. I presume it is happily working.
Your imac setup has got messed up because you changed from a local (my book being USB type I presume) to network drive. Did you do a clean install of Lion?
Did you use the backup from the Pro on the imac? Otherwise I don't see how the Pro shows up in use previous disk. Where is Pondini when you need him??
You cannot download Time Machine as an App and replace the current version. It is built into the OS.. the only way to do it is a clean install. Unfortunately that might be the only way around the issue.
There is a number of issues that Pondini has covered in the setup issues of troubleshooting.
This is the most relevant I think. http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html
But look at the whole section B setup problems.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
If it was me, I would store all the info you need.. not using TM but using a straight copy of files.
Then clean install Lion. I doubt any of these issues would exist if you had not installed Lion over existing setup or used a different backup.
See if you can get Pondini to respond.. !!

Time Capsule and multiple USB drives ... no show

Hi,
probably one of the Apple wizards can enlighten me here, as also the information in this forum seems inconclusive.
I have a Time Capsule, and everything is fine with that.
I can connect one drive via USB, and this drive shows.
However, I seem to be unable to connect two drives, regardless of HUB I use (I tried two powered and two passive ones fron three different vendors), and which sequence I turn these things on and off.
The first drive that is connected shows.
If I connect the hub with already spinning drives, it is nondeterministic which one will show up.
But only one will show.
Is this expected behaviour?
I find references on the Apple site and throughout this forum that multiple drives are possible.
Greetings,
- Thomas

This is not an answer, but it seemed like a good place to post my latest experience.
I got the Time Capsule and connected three drives to it via USB hub. It worked fine for awhile but then I realized that the backups were not running.
It was a struggle. I finally reinitialized the TC and then got another software program other than Time Machine to run the backups.
So that worked, but now when I plug the other drives in by USB the TC drops off. I can't connect to it.
The TC shows up on the network, but when I plug other drives in to it, it drops off the network.
I finally worked around the problem (with fingers crossed!). I plugged in a couple of the drives to one of my older macs and networked to that drive and the backups seem to be running.
The I plugged one of the drives in to my older Airport Extreme via USB and that backup is running via wireless.
Then if I leave the TC alone with nothing connected to it, I can run a backup to it.
But it is frustrating. First, I could run the backups with TM to the attached drives, no problem. Now, I cannot use the drives connected to the TC via USB. I have to connect them to something else completely.
And that is after the backups stopped working under TM.
It seems like the Holy Grail - a backup program that works.
For today, I think I have worked around my problem, but it is disappointing. I was hoping the TC would allow me to connect drives to it by USB and run the backup through TM. Now TC is basically a networked drive. (Forgot to mention that i am not using it for wireless connection.) I turned that function off and it just a networked drive.

I recently bought a new iMac as well as a wireless time capsule and have it connected how can I use this external drive as the location to store all my files for iTunes, or is this even possible?

New iMac user here, I recently bought a new iMac and Time capsule and have the whole network up and running now. I have connected another external HD to the time capsule as well and have a total of 3 TB of storage connected wireless to my new iMac. My question is can I use this location as the default location for iTunes? I doubt I am gonna run out of room considering the iMac has 1 TB of storage already, but I'd prefer to keep my movies and music off the Mac to keep it running smoothly. If this is possibly, I'd like to do this with iPhoto as well.

I would advise against placing your iTunes library on a Time Capsule.
The Time Capsule is designed as a backup device and not for wireless streaming of video.
Before you do anything more, can I suggest you put into place a reliable, redundant backup strategy.
Unless you are prepared to risk loss of your iTunes library due to a hard drive failure, I would not put iTunes on the Time Capsule.
Leave your iTunes library on your iMac until such time as your internal drive is full. Backup to Time Capsule using Time Machine and create a clone of your internal iMac HD to your external drive.
That's my 2 cents worth. Others may have a different opinion.

I recently purchased a time capsule and thought I would put my itunes on it as an external drive as my mac book air only has 120gb. However I can not be connected to the internet and the TC at the same time in order to download the files to the TC. Help?

I recently purchased a Time Capsule and put my iTunes library on there so that I wasn't using up my hard drive space. Only 120gb on my mac book air. However when I download songs from iTunes I can not be connected wirelessly to the internet at the same time. Can I hard wire my TC in to my mac so that I can treat the TC as just an external hard drive? Thanks

Initially, you asked if you can hardwire your MBA to the TC. The answer is yes, by using the optional USB Ethernet adapter that Apple provides. However, in order for your MBA to access the TC's internal or USB-attached HDD, it would need to establish a network connection to it. This would be true of any NAS device on an Ethernet network. Therein, lies the problem. Your MBA cannot connect to two networks simultaneously.
One option then, would be to have two separate iTunes Media folders; one on the MBA & the other on the TC. This way, you can download the music to your MBA when connected to the Internet at the AirPort lounge, and then use iTunes Consolidate Library feature to transfer the audio files to the TC's iTunes Media Folder location. A great program to help maintain multiple iTunes Librarys and/or Media Folders, that you may want to consider, is PowerTunes.

I've had a new hard drive installed and reloaded all my stuff via time capsule and now can't connect to the internet although it say Airport is connected. How can I fix this problem ?

Just had a new hard drive for my iMac and reloaded all my stuff via time capsule, all works fine apart from Safari which won't connect to internet. Airport is connected but each time Safari comes back saying there is no connection....any help gratefully recieved.

So you have the apple rotuer called a time capsule and you have complete the frist time machine back up? but there is not internet access ?
If so.
Opem airport utiltiy on your Comptuer :
What is the IP ? > if its 169.254.xx.xx > its a self assigned
Try power cycling the Internet source for up to 1 mintue and make sure all the lights turn off.
In Airport Utility Version 5.5.3 / 5.6.1
Gi > Intenret > conncetiong sharing > Is it off bridge mode change it to share a public Ip address
In airport Utility version 6.0/6.1
Edit > network > rotuer mode : Should be DHCP and NAT unless you use PPPoE to conecnt to the internet then this is automatically invoked.

Time machine, time capsule and multiple back up drives

ok--I'm a little dumb, so please bear with me:
Been using Time Machine for months using a WD 320 gig drive. Bought Time Capsule, when they came out and have been wirelessly backing up my Macbook Air ever since.
Had the bright idea today to plug the WD usb drive in and use time machine for the first time since March, as a redundant backup--it worked fine.
When I got home tonight, I switched the hard drive from the WD 320 gig to the Time Capsule drive, and later noticed was doing it's usual thing, backing up automatically with time capsule and time machine. But then I realized that it was doing a complete backup--not just an update.
When I entered time machine, all my backups were gone.
Have I lost all the backups I made since March?
Can you only back up to one hard drive?
Did I delete all my backups without even getting a warning that that would happen?
Really?
My Time Capsule shows that I am using 120 gigs, but I can't account for 80 of those gigs...
I hope this makes sense...
thanks so much either way,
andre
Did I lose months of backups by changing my

...even so, its odd that without your authentication information that the files in the FileVault image would be accessible and actively copied to another location...it appears to defeat the purpose of FileVault
The TM backup of the FileVault protected Home folder does require the password to be restored so it is protected.

Trying to restore after getting a new hard drive. I can see the backup on the Time Capsule and on the correct date but it is Greyed out. That is it wont let me open it and restore the machine. Have tried also Migration Assistant, no luck.

Trying to restore after getting a new hard drive. I can see the backup on the Time Capsule and on the correct date but it is Greyed out. That is it wont let me open it and restore the machine. Have tried also Migration Assistant, no luck.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5210788?tstart=0
At startup hold down the Command+Option/Alt+r keys until you see a globe on the screen. Then use disk utility to partition and format the drive HSF+ and then select Reinstall Mac OS X. whatever version of OS X that originally came on your system will be installed and then you can upgrade back to Mavericks.

I have changed the name and password for my Time Capsule and now the Time Machine will not connect

Mac Book Pro
1TB Time Capsule.
Yesterday I changed the name and password on my time capsule and also the name and password of the wifi network as I was having problems with the speed of the internet when using Safari on any of my devices (1 Macbook pro, 1 macbook air, 27" iMac, iPhone and iPad) all other internet services were working fine (email etc.) This seems to have solved the problem.
However, since then, my time machine back ups will not reconnect and there is no option for me to reconnect to the existing back up for my macbook pro.
When I enter the time machine preferences it shows as below that there are no back ups.
Then, when I go to select a drive to use which should be the MacBook under the Backup disks the only option is for me to Remove Disk...
So, my question is, how do I reconnect to an existing Time Machine back up for my MacBook pro as I really do not want to erase and start all over again.
Warning - In my naiveté, I did click on the MacBook in 'Available Disks' but I got the impression that it was about to start a whole new back up and not work with the existing one.
(And does anybody have an inkling as to why there was a problem with Safari on all my devices? I downloaded Google Chrome and that worked fine).

Simply reset the Time Machine.
See A4 here http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
You can then mount the TC disk in finder after you reboot the computer.
You should be able to reselect the TC disk and then it will say it is going to start a new backup.
Ignore this.. when the TM actually loads the TC disk it will discover the existing backup and continue the backup.. but it will give no hint until it actually starts that it won't start a new backup. you just have to believe it won't.. and mostly it works..
Please also install the widget A1 so you have some idea what TM is doing.

Connecting Time Machine USb drive to Time Capsule and continuing backups?

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