Erasing Part of Time Machine

I have a mbpro and my g4mdd backed up to the time machine. I recently added an internal drive for just doing a cloned back up for the g4. Or course tmachine backed that up too, which to me is 100gig of redundant back up. How can I go back and erase the added back added from the extra internal drive without affecting the other backup?
1. G4MDD I want to keep
2. MBPro I want to discard.
I've heard this can be tricky.
thanks
Steve

Welcome to the discussions, Steve!
Open your hard drive and look for your Time Capsule icon under the SHARED heading. Click the Time Capsule icon and a Time Capsule folder will appear in the window to the right. Double click this folder.
You should now see a "sparsebundle" file for each computer that has been backing up. The sparsebundle displays the name of the computer and it's MAC address so you should be able to identify the device whose backups you want to delete. The sparsebundle file contains all of the backups for a given computer.
Click the sparsebundle file to highlight it, then click the gear shaped icon above and select Move To Trash. Be careful here as the file is not retrievable once you click the delete button.

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How erase data on Time Machine?

How erase date on Time Machine?

To erase everything on the Time Capsule hard drive.......
Open Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility
Click Manual Setup
Click the Disk icon
Click the Disk tab just below the icon
Click Erase
The "Quick Erase" option will only take a moment or two

Erase Hard Drive;Time Machine Backup

I recently discovered that I have some bad directories in my main hard drive which is causing some performance deficits on my computer. I always use an external hard drive exclusively for Time Machine, and it backs up several times a day. If I wipe my hard drive, will I be able to select my Time Machine drive and restore everything I had prior to erasing the disk? In my Time Machine preferences, I have not excluded the backup of any kind of file. Will my computer (all settings, preferences, etc.) be exactly as it was before the disk erase if I back up from my Time Machine drive? I just want to make sure that I don't lose anything? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
-P.

Hey there,
Yes, if you backed up everything and restore everything, your computer should seem as exactly as it was. More on restoring from Time Machine can be found in the link below. Hope this helps.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15638.html
B-rock

How to erase a dead Time Machine: Necessary? If so, how?

Are Time Capsule Time Machine backups encrypted by default, and if not, how can I erase the Time Capsule if the power supply is dead?
Details:
I bought one of the early Time Capsules (1 GB) two years ago, and it finally died. It just wouldn't light up or start. Presumably, this is due to the well-known early power supply issues, and presumably the hard disk is still in good shape.
I brought it to my local Apple store, and they were great. Although I do not have Apple Care, due to the design flaw with these very early units, they said they will replace it with a refurbished unit for free. (Nice!) It will take a few days. Meanwhile, I have the old dead drive. It occurs to me that I have my whole life on that hard drive, and if someone were to be able to resurrect it and restore the backup to an empty Mac, they would have much information that they shouldn't have.
Yes, I could drill through the case and into the drive, but I don't think Apple would then accept it as a swap. Yes, I could take a big magnet to it, but how do I know it's big enough? (I've been to some sites that claim hard drives are very hard to erase because they case protects them magnetically.)
Someone I spoke with today reminded me that you need an overall disk password to be able to get to the data, and that is true when the HD is working right and you are logging on to the Time Capsule. But does that mean the data is (even lightly) encrypted, or is that just time Time Capsule firmware arbitrating access such that any barrier would go away if you could mount the disk physically?
Any suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks.

Thanks. That's what I'm in the process of doing. I already opened the case, and I'm going to take the drive to work tomorrow where my IT department has an eSATA cable that I can use.
I hesitated in doing this because I felt Apple would consider the case breached and say they couldn't take the unit in swap. However, I spoke with the Genius Administrator at my local Apple store today, and she told me that it is OK if I do that. She was very understanding that I would want to erase the drive before returning it. She just told me to make sure I return the unit as close to original as possible. I used a hair dryer to warm the bottom before peeling it off, and everything will go back together pretty perfectly.
So, this is fully acceptable to me.
Thanks.

I can't erase my old Time Machine Backup hard drive.

Hi,
I have a hard drive that I was using for my Time Machine backup. It now doesn't show up in Finder, but when I go to disk utilities it shows up but I can't erase it so I can use it again.
It is a WD hard drive and isn't too old.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Try repairing disk & repairing permissions on the drive in disk utility.
Have you tried partitioning it again?
Otherwise it sounds like it's dead.

Accessing parts of Time Machine backup...

I have a new MacBook Pro and instead of restoring it from a previous Time Machine backup, I was hoping I could access part of the backup and copy some contents on to the new MacBook Pro. Can it be done?
For example, my Time Machine backup has 80gb of music in it, can I access that from my new MacBook Pro and copy the music?

Your best bet is not to try to restore things "piecemeal." It's much too easy to miss things, and depending on the situation, you can have permissions problems.
It's best, by far, to use Setup Assistant when your new Mac first starts up; if you didn't, you'll end up with an extra user account and/or the transferred account(s) may lose permission to the backups. Instead, use one of the workarounds in the green box of Problems after using Migration Assistant.
Note that you can omit some broad categories of things, but you can't "pick and choose" individual items. So use the assistant to bring in what you want, and if that includes some things you don't want, then just delete the unwanted stuff.

Can I restore ONLY a part of Time Machine ?

Can I restore ONLY a part of a Time Machine backup, like a folder on my desktop deleted and now I need it, I can see it in TM but I'm not sure how to restore it... Also I've installed a lots of app after and don't what to loose anything.
Thank you Guys
Denis

That's exactly the strength of Time Machine over other clone programs like the great SuperDuper.
Just go your desktop or the folder where the deleted folder used to be and then launch TM. Go back in time to when the folder existed and click on the folder. Then click on the "Restore" button in the lower right side of the interface.
The file or folder will be replaced to your active system. It will not remove any programs or other files you have installed.
Message was edited by: dechamp

How Can I Erase Files From Time Machine ?!

After or while installing 10.6 I had a problem with MAIL which caused my old mail to duplicate itself ... many times. So those files ended up being many Gigs. I didn't realize this so Time Machine backed up those super swelled folders! It filled up my 1T back up HD.
I know have a 2T HD that I want to use as my new Time Machine HD, but I would first like to get rid of those giant old Mail folders.
How can I accomplish that? Since they are back up files I can't seem to just delete them ...

See #12 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

Using part of Time Machine HD with Windows

Hi,
I have a Western Digital 500GB external hard drive that I have partioned so that half of it is for time machine and half of it is for external hard drive use. Yet, when I connected it to a Windows laptop it wasn't recognized, but I want to use it with both Windows and Mac. What should I do -I looked at Disk Utility but couldn't figure out.

sweatsuit wrote:
As I understand Time Capsule disks should be partitioned with GUID.
Do you have a Time Capsule? If so, you should know that the TC HDD cannot be partitioned or formatted anyways (unless it is physically removed). Secondly, the TC HDD is a treated as a NAS (network attached storage) device. The TC HDD is formatted HFS+, but all machines connected to the TC created network will recognize the HDD storage just fine.

Manually erasing some older Time Machine backups?

I need to move a bunch of stuff from my HD to my external (I am pushing the 10% limit on my HD) but my external is getting pretty full itself. Can I delete older backups, say from September from my backup?

TM will automatically delete the oldest backups if space is needed. See:
About TM "Backup Drive is Full" Alert
TM only deletes older files if they have been deleted from the source and when TM needs space on the backup drive for a new incremental backup. Data are deleted to make space for a new backup, but if TM is unable to delete enough files to free up space for the new backup, then you will get a disk full error. Normal thinning during a backup occurs during TM's periodic weekly and monthly consolidation backups. Note, that on a Time Capsule the sparsebundle grows in size as needed, but doesn't shrink. Thus, from the user's view of the TC it appears that no space has been freed, although there may be space in the sparsebundle.
Once TM has found it cannot free up enough space for a new backup it reports the disk is full. You can either erase the backup drive and start your backups anew or replace the drive with a larger drive.
In order to delete any files from a TM backup drive the only way it should be done is by using the TM application. Open the Finder to the file's location, then open the TM application. Navigate back in time. Then select the file. Use the Tool icon in the Finder's toolbar and select the Delete option.
Do not delete anything from the TM backup drive manually. Use the TM application per the above.

How to erase iPhoto picture backups in Time Machine

Hello.
I can't seem to find a way to erase pictures directly in iPhoto while beeing in Time Machine as I do with the finder's wheel button. Delete key or ctrl-clic won't work. How does one do that ?
Thanks for your reply.

Hi Barry ! Thanks, I'm happy to be finally subscribed.
Sorry if I wasn't clear enough before, let me restate it.
(excuse my english)
erasing pictures is no problem in iPhoto, but I can't seem to find a way to erase backups while browsing iPhoto Library in the past in Time Machine. Say I have pictures I've deleted, some pictures I don't want anymore (in the present), but Time Machine made a backup of them during many days, weeks, months maybe, how to erase these pictures in Time Machine ?
I found how to erase backup in the Finder by pressing this button that has a wheel on it and then click on "erase all copies of this file" (I don't know how it's called in english, my system runs in french), but the iPhoto window (while being in Time Machine) doesn't seem to have any kind of buttons. Pressing delete (or backspace) while selecting a picture or an event doesn't erase it. In fact, there's nothing I found that can be done in iPhoto's Time Machine browsing except swiping events and restore pictures.
My question is: how do you erase backup pictures in Time Machine ? Is it possible to erase directly in Time Machine iPhoto pictures, events ?
I've look many different forums, including this one, everybody talks about restoring, but I could find very little subjects about deleting backups, and nothing while being in iPhoto directly.
in fact, the same applies for adressbook application. How to permanently erase contacts ? If I erase them in the program, there's still a backup in Time Machine, and there seems to be no way of erasing them directly in Time Machine, just like in iPhoto. No button or normal functions work for that matter (backspace, ctrl-clic > delete eventually, etc.)
Sorry for the long post.
Message was edited by: Nordlaser

Repeated error: 11 problems while trying to backup to time machine

A few months ago I purchased a 750GB NESO external hard drive and have never been able to back up using time machine on it. I can manually back up files no problem, but I have yet to get time machine to finish a complete backup, despite trying every fix I could find on the internet.
This includes reformatting the external, making sure there is a separate partition for the Time machine backup, making sure that partition is formatted as Mac OS extended (journaled) and GUID.
Every time I try to back up I get the same error message: "An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume". This happens at various time during the backup process. Sometimes after a few MBs, sometimes after 1.5 Gigs have been backed up.
This is what I get from the system log every time-
*Feb 3 18:34:59 Computername com.apple.backupd[1228]: Copied 137 files (1.2 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.*
*Feb 3 18:34:59 Computername com.apple.backupd[1228]: Copy stage failed with error:11*
*Feb 3 18:35:04 Computername com.apple.backupd[1228]: Backup failed with error: 11*
*Feb 3 18:35:05 Computername UserNotificationCenter[1282]: Error loading /Library/QuickTime/DivX Decoder.component/Contents/MacOS/DivX Decoder: dlopen(/Library/QuickTime/DivX Decoder.component/Contents/MacOS/DivX Decoder, 262): no suitable image found. Did find:\n /Library/QuickTime/DivX Decoder.component/Contents/MacOS/DivX Decoder: no matching architecture in universal wrapper*
*Feb 3 18:35:54: --- last message repeated 37 times ---*
I have tried excluding the divx decoder.component file I located in the Quicktime folder, I have excluded the whole Divx application, I have even excluded the entire Quicktime folder. I also reseted the time machine setup including erasing the existing "/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/nameOfComputer/date.inProgress" file as advised in the troubleshooting guide in this forum after excluding each. Still the same error every time.
After having tried all suggested solutions including those listed in the troubeshooting guide here I am truly baffled as to what the problem is. Please advise.

brocktoon4 wrote:
Any idea how this is possible? Did the smaller partition isolate the defect? Thank you again for all your suggestions and help. I am relieved to finally get time machine working. If you can shed some light on this little mystery as well I would be grateful.
I don't have a lot of expertise there, but yes, if there's a bad spot on the disk, in the area where TM was trying to put new backups, that could do it.
Partitions aren't like folders, where their data may be scattered; each one is on a +*physically separate+* part of the disk.
Usually, if there's a bad spot, it will be discovered when writing to it; any time you do a write, it's automatically read back and compared. If there's a problem, it's retried a certain number of times, and if it still fails, the sector is marked "damaged" so it won't be re-used, and a different sector used.
I would strongly* recommend that you not trust your backups to a drive that's had such trouble, especially if they're your only backups.
I learned many years ago (the hard way, of course ), not to trust my backups to a single app or piece of hardware. No app is perfect; neither is any hardware.
You might want to keep a secondary backup, such as a "bootable clone" of your system, on a separate external disk. This is commonly done with CarbonCopyCloner (which I use in addition to full Time Machine backups) or SuperDuper. There are variations, but typically a clone is an exact copy of your system, with none of the previous copies of things you've deleted or changed, like Time Machine keeps. Unlike Time Machine, you can boot and run your Mac normally (but a bit slower) from them.
This gives you the advantages of both types of backup, and protects you from a problem with one of them (external drives fail, too). Some folks do the "clone" to a portable external HD, and take it to their safe deposit box, workplace, relative's house, or other secure location periodically. Others have a pair that they swap weekly or so. Thus they're also protected against fire, flood, theft, direct lightning strike on their power lines, etc.
CCC is donationware, so you can use it free for a while. If you decide to keep it, send them some $$ so they can keep it up to date. SD has a free version, but to do updates (rather than a full replacement) or automatic scheduling, you need the paid version (about $30).
Either is available via Google, VersionTracker.com, or MacUpdate.com.

Kernel Panic while backing up with Time Machine - now everything is GONE!

I got a kernel panic while i tried to back up with Time Machine....when i shut down the computer, and restarted it (with the external still plugged in, and on), it came up with an error message that said
"The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer."
And my three options were to "Initialize...", "Ignore", or "Eject"...
I didn't hit either of those buttons, i was trying to contact apple for support only to find out that i am just a week past my minimum 90 day telephone support, so i am trying to scrape up enough to order the APP immediately.
However, in the meantime, everything on my external harddrive is gone...Disk Utility doesn't even see that there was once a Partition on that drive, and thus, it is not showing up on my desktop, and there is no information to be recovered...everything is gone.
This is kind of ironic because i was just reading an article about how people are losing their info on their User account after having the Guest Accounts enabled....logged into guest, and back out of guest...
I am a part of one of those statistics because i do NOT have the Guest account enabled at all...
Can anybody else help me with this?

where can i find the panic.log?
I did a spotlight search with no results.
I checked /Library/Logs, and didn't see a panic.log
I also checked ~/Library/Logs and didn't find a panic.log either....i was unable to find anything related to a kernel panic log, or anything.
Could you point me in the right direction for this please? Could it be that i had a kernal panic, and it did not record the log?
So what can i do to correct this?
Disk Warrior didn't detect the drive, and zapping the PRAM didn't correct it either.
I keep getting the error message i posted previously.
I even tried to plug the drive into my old 15" PowerBook G4 running 10.4 tiger to see if i could see the drive appear on the desktop, and i also got the same error there as well.
If i go into Disk Utility, into Partition, i have to create a Partition. There is absolutely nothing on the drive at all. Everything is gone because of a kernal panic - which happened when i was trying to use Time Machine to back up the drive.
I'm 1/2 afraid to do anything at the moment because i want to figure out what happened to the data i lost on my Time Machine backup drive, and how to get it back...at the same time, i'm afraid of losing all my information on my computer as well since people are having issues with the so called Guest Account issue that wipes everybody's user account's information.
Is there another scenario for this, could it be not just Guest Accounts deleting a users home folder, but also kernal panics related to Time Machine, which end up erasing your entire Time Machine backup drive too?
Apple really needs a fix for this and should somehow reward us with something for the unprofessionalism in their own technology.
Message was edited by: tool

I have been storing my Aperture and IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive that recently died. Fortunately I've been using Time Machine to back up to a 2nd external drive. How do I restore my libraries to a new external hard drive?

I have been storing my Aperture and IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive that recently died. Fortunately I've been using Time Machine to back up to a 2nd external drive. How do I restore my libraries to a new external hard drive?

This is a tricky one.
Open up Time Machine and go back to a date using the timeline on the right side of the window when you know the drive was working and was backing up as part of Time Machine backups.
Click on the name of your Mac under the Devices heading on the left side of the window in Time Machine, and if things are working correctly you will see Macintosh HD (or whatever you have named it) and the name of the external hard drive that was backing up in the past.
Right-Click on the name of the external hard drive and then click on "Restore (name of drive) to....." You may be asked for your adminstrator password at this point.
It might be easier to restore the drive contents to your desktop if you have room on your Mac, and then copy things over to the new external drive where you want to store the Aperture and iMovie Libraries.
Once the libraries have been moved over the new external hard drive, you will likely need to "point" Aperture and iMovie to the location of the libraries on the new external hard drive.

Backing up an external hard drive with time Machine

I backed up my internal disk with Time Machine, but I can not back up an external drive that I use for my media. I see the drive in the options part of Time Machine system preferences, but the minus sign to take it off of the "do not back up these drives" is blanked out. Any suggestions?

I successfully backed up the contents of an external hard drive, but the next time Time Machine did a backup, I didn't happen to have that drive connected, so Time Machine said it couldn't find it and deleted the existing backup. Is there any way to get it to keep the backup? The drive I want to back up is only used occasionally (naturally, anything I use more frequently is on my Mac) and I don't want to have to plug in both hard drives every time I want to run a backup, only to risk losing all of that history if I ever accidentally plug in only the backup drive. But I do want to keep Time Machine backups of that drive because it contains my iPhoto Library.

Erasing Part of Time Machine

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