External Drive with Time Machine, booting from external drive with utilitie

I'm using Time Machine now with
a LaCie 1TB external hard drive.
Everything works fine.
But, I've been wondering:
Can I place a program like TechTool
on the external drive (that Time Machine uses)
and boot from that external drive.
I would like to be able to do that,
because diagnostics and repair programs
only works properly and fully when they run from
external drives. Anything on the internal drive can be repaired
and examine. Impossible to do if Techtool is on the same
drive that's been examined.
Any thoughts as to what I should do?
Thanks
iMac, Leopard, Time Machine, Lacie Quadra 1TB drive.
P.S. Stupid question: If my computer crashes, and I reboot from Time Machine
(from the external drive) how does the computer know which backup to take ?!?
Isn't there many versions of the OS on the Time Machine backup taken at different times?

pitou wrote:
P.S. Stupid question: If my computer crashes, and I reboot from Time Machine
(from the external drive) how does the computer know which backup to take ?!?
Isn't there many versions of the OS on the Time Machine backup taken at different times?
As V.K. says, you can't boot from TM backups.
But you can restore your entire system from any one of them, per the procedure in #14 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
You can also selectively restore from them, while running normally. See #15 in the FAQ Tip.
You might want to review these:
Time Machine Tutorial
Time Machine 101
How to back up and restore your files
Time Machine Features
Apple - Support - Mac OSX v10.5 Leopard Time Machine
and perhaps browse the rest of the FAQ Tip.

Similar Messages

Time machine restore from network drive kernel panic

I had a late 2013 macbook pro 15" retina, I was backing up with time machine to a network drive (western digital my cloud). All of my backups are there and the data looks valid. In April I ended up selling the macbook pro, then recently I bought another one and attempted to restore from the network drive.
I chose the option to restore on boot from network device, it properly detects and lets me browse my previous backups. I choose restore, the restore will run for a few hours and then reboot with a kernel panic.
panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff00184c0ac1): "Unable to find driver for this platform: \"ACPI\".\n"0/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-2422.90.20/iokit/Kernel/IOPlatformExpert.cpp: 1541"
I've tried a few different backups, one from April, one from march...both result in the same error. Any ideas why this would happen?

Time Machine full system restores only work if the backup disk doesn't need drivers separate from Mac OS X to mount. To make a long story short, you CAN'T do a full system restore with the disk your backups are on.

According to the Genius Bar, my HD is dying. I need help with such things as making a boot disk, making sure back up is complete, etc. I have a White early 2008 MacBook running 10.7.3. It is backed up regularly with Time Machine to an external drive.

I am not a real tech type person. MAcBook white early 2008 running 10.7.3. I know I will need a boot disk to restart the computer after I have installed the new drive. I have purchased a Hitachi 500 G, 7200 RPM to install. The computer is backed up regularly using Time Machine to an external hard drive. I nned to know all the steps I need to do before physically changing the hardware.

Do you have your original drive backed up? Is it still working? If so I'd buy an external enclosure and boot from that. Then format your new drive and use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your old drive to the new one.
If you don't have a backup, I'd buy an external drive, use carbon copy cloner to do a backup, then install the new drive and clone back to it.

Cannot delete Time Machine file from external hard drive

Hello,
I'd like to delete my original Time machine file from an external hard drive ( Lacie mini ). I move the file into the trash bin and it constantly "deletes". At one time I left it deleting overnight and the file still wasn't trashed.
I am going to hook up Time Machine to a different, dedicated external hard drive, but I'd like to gain space on the drive that Time Machine is currently on.
I currently have Time Machine turned off ( I do have everything backed up with my home folder on another external HD ). Should Time Machine be turned on for me to trash the file? Is there a better way to delete the file?
Much thanks in advance.

V.K. wrote:
... the best and the quickest way to delete it is to erase the TM hard drive....
But what if a person doesn't want to erase the TM drive? My MacPro came with tiger installed, but since tiger-intel-retail discs don't exist, my copy of tiger is what i have. I was all manner of foolish directing TM to that drive, but damage is done. What can someone in my position do?

HT1553 DO I HAVE TO HAVE THE ORIGINAL INSTALLATION DISCS IF MY HARD DRIVE IS REPLACED BUT I MADE A BACK UP WITH TIME MACHINE TO AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ?

I have an imac from late 2009 and received an email saying the seagate hard drive may fail and apple is going to replace it free of charge. I will back up using time machine to an external hard drive but do I absolutely have to have the original installation CD's or is there a way around this to restore the computer once they replace the hard drive??

Yes, you can partition your 2TB drive that way. In fact, I have an external hard drive with 3 partitions: one for a SuperDuper! clone of my Snow Leopard partition, one to clone my Lion partition, and one larger partition for Time Machine (which only backs up the Lion partition).
I would expect the authorized reseller to have a complete set of OS X disks.

HT4500 how do I transfer files I backed up with Time Machine in an external disk to a PC?

I back up using Time Machine in an external hard drive in my Mac Air. I need to open those files in a PC, but I can't open the files. How do I open them from a PC?

TimeMachine first saves a complete state of your Mac's boot drive, then it saves incremental updates consisting of changes and uses placeholders (file names with no content) for those files that didn't change between states.
Now it will do this until there isn't enough room on the drive and then it starts deleting older states.
So it does it like this so there isn't any duplicated files wasting precious drive space.
Now what does that have to do with your problem? Well there is no TimeMachine software for PC's that can decode this mess and get to the files you want.
However if you understand a bit more details about it, then you can perhaps recover your files.
TimeMachine uses the same drive formatting as on a Mac, OS X Extended Journaled otherwise known as HFS+ or JHFS, and Windows PC's can't read that format natively.
However there is third party software called MacDrive which you install into Windows that can read that drive format.
The next trick, if it works, is to look a the TimeMachine folders and find your data, but have to recall when it was created as to go back into the correct folder or else you will find the empty placeholder with the same name and no data.
Next if you can recover files, is being able to open those files in a compatible PC program, which a lot of Apple software and OS X based software might not have PC versions.
Neutral formats like Mp3, jpg, .mov, .doc, .txt and so forth can be opened on other platforms using other programs, however the more platform or proprietary the files are in, then the harder it is to find a PC version that will work.
What you can do is to use the TimeMachine drive on a temporary Mac (OSX version has to be same or later than on the TM one) and restore the users accounts/software to that Mac and then go about retrieving data or simplifying the data or transporting it into more neutral/cross platform formats.
LibreOffice is excellent for this as it's the only Office suite that's cross platform with Linux, Windows and OS X, plus works with OfficeMac/Office Win files. So pasting into that will preserve a lot of formatting etc, that will be lost if you just pasted into txt format.
I've been aiming to create a transition to Windows User Tip, perhaps one day I will.

Time machine backup from external hdd to time capsule

Is it possible to transfer an time machine backup from an external hdd to a time capsule? I have changed the original 2tb time capsule hdd to a 3tb hdd because of loud sounds from the 2tb hdd. Now i want to transfer the backup from the (now external) 2tb hdd to the new 3tb hdd which is now in the time capsule. Could anybody help me?

Yes, it should be easy.. just copy the sparsebundle from the old 2TB plugged into your computer to the TC.
This will take a few hours maybe a lot more if the drive is near full.. use ethernet.. do not even dream of using wireless.. Do not plug the 2TB into the TC USB.. that is super slow.. plugged into your computer with a FW hard disk holder would be the ideal.. but USB is ok.
http://pondini.org/TM/18.html
Is it worth it??
Saving old backups.. or simply start again.. a clean fresh backup is much more efficient. Put the 2TB drive in a draw.. if you haven't needed any files on it in 6months from now.. wipe it.

New to Mac, Help with Time Machine! Partition External HDD or not?

Hey Guys I'm a new mac user
I need help with time machine
I wanted to know how time machine works and what all does it back up?
I have 2 hard drives one is of 1TB and one is of 320gb
In the 1TB hard drive i store all my music videos and work stuff it is windows formatted
The 320gb hard drive is mac formatted and I was thinking of making a partition on it one with 250gb for time machine and the remaining 70 gb for mac softwares and files. The ssd of my mac has a capacity of 256gb. I have read for time machine you need at least 2x the space of your ssd on your external hard drive but i don't understand if my ssd is only 256 and can store files worth 256gb why do i need double the space? Secondly if I choose to use the complete 320 gb for time machine will that be okay or even if i choose to partition it to 250gb for time machine will that be fine too? Or will I need to format my 1TB hard disk out of which currently only 300 gb is empty and partition that to 500 gb for time machine?
I'm really confused every tells me to use time machine but do I need it? And what does it exactly do?
Your input will be really appreciate thanks

The reason that you want a partition (or drive) of 2-3 times the size of your boot drive for Time Machine is so that you can keep backups further back than just the current boot drive state - for that you'd need to make a clone of the drive rather than using Time Machine (see -> http://pondini.org/TM/Clones.html).
For more information for backups in general, see -> Most commonly used backup methods.
Note that you can't use Time Machine to backup a Windows partition.
Good luck,
Clinton
MacBook Pro (15” Late 2011), OS X 10.??, 16GB Crucial RAM, 960GB M500 Crucial SSD, 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display

Combo Drive reading Dual Layer / booting from external DVD USB

I am helping a friend with an iMac G5. He has the combo drive which is not able to read the dual layer Leopard DVD. I have looked to see if there is a firmware update for the drive however no luck. I am able to put an external usb DVD and it reads the disk however I was not able to boot from the disk using keyboard commands I tried AppleOption+ShiftDelete, C, and also tried Option but no luck.
I have been reading that booting from usb external drive is a no no on older G5 iMac's unless you are using fire wire. If any one can give me some help with getting the USB drive to boot, or figuring out why the combo drive spits out the DVD every time I would appreciate it. I am also willing to make a bootable usb leopard thumb drive, but I don't want to waste my time if it's not going to boot from USB.
Thanks,
jtadmin

Do you happen to have a more recent Mac that can read the Leopard installation DVD?
If so, you may be able to start up your Mac in FireWire Target Disk Mode,
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
and let the iMac G5 use your Mac's optical drive to boot from the Leopard DVD.
Also, it is true that PowerPC Macs can generally only boot from external drives that are FireWire.

Time Machine backup FROM multiple drives?

I'm in the process of choosing a new MacPro, someone on these forums recommended Digilloyd's Mac Performance Guide as a good place to get help setting up a new mac for speed. The simplified version of what he advocates is replacing the stock internal drive with an SSD drive, on which you put the OS, apps & home folder. He then recommends creating a 0-raid stripe from 3 other drives to separate & hold your data, then using the forth internal bay drive (or another 0-raid stripe of the leftover, slower portions of various partitions of the drives) for Time Machine.
My question is, can Time Machine backup both drives (boot & data raid-0) or would I have to choose one of them?
+The more I read, the more confused I get+.

OK, I've scanned through the various articles. My thoughts are still essentially the same, and that is just how effective the entire system is when using multiple partitions from several drives to combine into multiple RAIDs. In reality this is not speed effective if the RAIDs need to be accessed concurrently. A read/write head can only be in one place at a time meaning that when one partition on the drive is being accessed, the OS cannot concurrently access another partition on the same drive.
Essentially this is how I understand the configuration at a simplistic level. Let's suppose we have two hard drives that we'll call Drive A and Drive B. Each drive is partitioned into two equally sized volumes that we'll refer to as follows:
....................... *Drive A* ......................... *Drive B* ......
Volume................. 1 ..................................... 3 ............
Volume................. 2 ..................................... 4 ............
Now, we will make two RAID arrays. RAID A uses Volume 1 and Volume 3, and RAID B uses Volume 2 and Volume 4.
Suppose you want to copy data from RAID A to RAID B. In order to do this the OS must first copy data from RAID A before it can write the data to RAID B. However, if RAID A was created using two separate drives (say, Drive A and Drive B,) and RAID B was created using two separate drives (say, Drive C and Drive D,) then the OS can copy from RAID A while concurrently writing to RAID B. This is physically possible because two read/write heads are involved instead of one. Theoretically the second construct is going to be much faster than the first construct.
My second observation is with regard to the reliance on external storage. A 2nd or 3rd generation Mac Pro's SATA bus is capable of a data interface rate of 3.0 Gb/sec. Firewire 800 is capable of 800 Mb/sec. The MP's internal SATA bus can support data transfer rates nearly four times that of Firewire. A modern hard drive is capable of saturating the Firewire bus, but not the internal SATA bus. The higher interface rate of the SATA bus means it's much better suited for truly fast RAID arrays. This is not the case for the Firewire bus.
External Firewire arrays are better suited for storage that does not require frequent or fast access.
Now with all this said it makes more sense to fully understand what your overall storage needs are then consider suitable designs. One need not rely on complicated RAID arrays if they aren't required. The focus should be on data access, data storage, and backup needs.
Although it's nice being able to brag at the cocktail party about having a fast SSD for your boot drive, let's consider how often you even need to boot the computer. I put my computers to sleep when they aren't in use. I never boot the computer unless a software update requires it or the computer has crashed completely. I haven't had the latter occur very often - mainly when I'm experimenting. Literally days, weeks, or months may go by before I reboot the computer. So a fast SSD boot drive would be for me a hugh waste of money.
My 1st generation Mac Pro is set up for my needs. It has four 500 GB fast Hitachi enterprise level hard drives. I use enterprise level drives that cost more because the computer is always on, so I want drives that will be reliably working. I used to have four Maxtor 300 GB drives that lasted for four years before I replace them with the Hitachis. My setup has one drive partitioned into a startup volume and a Boot Camp volume. One drive is my 'scratch' drive used for different OS system versions and/or seed testing. Two drives are configured as a mirrored RAID and used as the primary backup for the boot volume. The boot volume is 450 GBs and the Windows volume is 50 GBs. There's no backup for the Windows volume at the present time. Backups are usually done in the late afternoon using a backup utility. Presently that utility is Synk Standard, but I've also used Synchronize! Pro X and Carbon Copy Cloner. Backups are done on a fixed schedule in the background so they are virtually transparent to me. I use a mirrored RAID for backup to provide redundancy. If one backup drive fails hopefully the other will still be usable to protect the backup. I also have one external Firewire drive that contains a clone of the startup volume. The clone is updated monthly by incremental backup. It's for security in the worst case scenario that both drives in the mirrored RAID were to fail simultaneously.
Now, my need for frequent and fast access to data such as might be needed for streaming music or video is non-existent, so my configuration is one that is well-suited to my needs. You'll note that it's both simple and practical while providing data backup that's doubly secure.

Move Time Machine backups from old drive to new, larger drive?

Hi folks,
My external HDD that TM writes to is full. Its oldest backup is only a month ago. I'd like to keep older backups so I'm going to buy a new, larger HDD to use with TM.
I'd like to keep the existing backups that I have, the ones that go back one month.
Is there a way to transfer these from my existing external HDD to my new one, and have TM still recognise them on the new drive?
Many thanks,
Ken.

Hi Pondini,
I've another Time Machine question here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2732322&tstart=0
Got no replies.
Have searched your excellent Time Machine documentation, but no joy.
Just wondering if you've any ideas on how to use TrueCrypt with Time Machine. Would be most grateful.
Tx and best regards,
Ken.

Move Time Machine backup from hard drive to Time Capsule

I have a new Time Capsule. Can I move my existing Time Machine backup from a hard drive to the TC? The tips given back in 2010 in this forum are no longer available.

It is extremely difficult if the disk you are talking about is plugged into your computer.. TM does different kind of file for network drives.. so you need to trick it.
See Q18 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

Time Machine backup from external drive to MyBook World

I'd like to back up my external flex drive (w/ about 350gig of pictures) to my 1TB MyBook World which is connected directly to my router (and not my laptop).
My Macbook Pro recognized the drives, I seemed to have everything set up ok. When I went to do my backup I realized that the estimated total backup was only 60gig... clearly the external wasn't included. I went to see the files that were showing as excluded in options & that drive was there. I deleted it from external & in options, the new backup size looked perfect.
Then when I went to actually run the backup, it says Backing up 1.32 gig of 60.67 gig again. When I go back to Options it looks correct in there.
Am I missing something? Keep in mind that I've only been using a mac for a week & 1/2 so I'm still trying to catch up on knowledge.

Thanks for your suggestion. I don't use iPhoto (I use LR and Photoshop & both were closed).
I called apple care support & he said to let it run through the initial backup (which indicates that I only have 60 Gig to backup instead of 400ish Gig) and then to call them back. I will wait until the first backup is completed (hopefully today) and then I may try your suggestion.
The exclusions initially included my external drive and I noticed it right after the backup started. I stopped the initial backup, removed the external from the exclusion list & then restarted the backup... but it was still showing a very small backup. I guess it could have somehow got messed up.
Again, thanks for the suggestion.

How to delete time machine files from external back up drive?

When connected to my Macbook I deleted some old backups to the trash. When I try to empty trash, a message comes back saying there are locked files and files cannot be deleted. I have turned off time machine, and tried to delete files but get the same message. Time machine does not delete oldest file when space is needed. How do I clear these files? I'm trying to delete 2 years worth of backups.

You can drag the Backups.backupdb folder to the Trash, hold down the option key, and try to empty, but often it doesn't work. In that case, you'll have to erase the volume and restore the non-backup data from a backup.

How to remove a encrypted Time Machine partition from external hard drive?

I encrypted my Time Machine partition and i want to delete it and make a whole new Time Machine partition that isn't encrypted, please help.

Launch disk utility
Click on the name of the disk (not the partition) in the left hand pane
Click on the partition tab (top center)
Click on the partition to delete
Click the - sign under the partition layout pane

External Drive with Time Machine, booting from external drive with utilitie

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