Full backup volume on RHEL5
Hi Guru,
I want to do a full backup volume (OS + Application Server + DB + File system) on my RHEL5 server to the tape drive. I use SAP 6.0 EHP5 and Oracle 11g Database on one machine.
On IBM AIX we can tools "Smitty", what tools can be used for full backup volume on RHEL5?
If using a 3rd party, what recommendations?
Thanks and Regard,
Ali Marjan
Hi,
For taking of backup....
OS-----Tell u r OS team they will take necessary files on Tape.
Database------Take full offline tape backup.
Application------If it runs on different server take the "root,sapmnt" on tape.
That's enough.
Regards,
Anil
Similar Messages
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On 11/1/2011, Time Machine (TM) terminated with an error message I did not record. I noted that the drive was full and decided to do a separate complete bootable system backup using Carbon Copy Clone (CCC), before clearing the TM volume and trying to start it over clean. Part way through the full system backup CCC put up a message that there was a Physical Problem "Library/Application Support/Techtool Protection/McIntosh HD/Directory Backup 2011-11-01-16-28-16". That was about the time that TM malfunctioned, so I assumed they were related. After starting CCC over a couple of times, and getting the same error message, I let it go through to completion of the backup, which took three or four hours. I then ran tests using Disk Utility and verified that there was nothing physically wrong with both the internal hard drive and the TM volume. I also erased and reformatted the TM volume. However, every time I started Time Machine, it would record a few GB and terminate with "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume". I restarted the computer with no change in results. Note that prior to starting the CCC backup, I "Repaired Permissions", "zapped the PRAM" and "re-set the SMC", hoping to have a clean bootable system on the backup. I ran Techtool and no problems were found.
I'm running this on an Intel iMac under 10.5.8 and recording to a 500GB My Passport drive. My hard drive is only about half full at 246 GB. My assessment is that something happened at 16-28-16 on 11/1/2001 to screwup the Backup Directory in the file at "Library/Application Support/Techtool Protection/McIntosh HD/Directory Backup 2011-11-01-16-28-16". My question is, how do I fix it?
I had just completed writing everything above here, explaining the problems I had been encountering for the past 24 hours. I had the Time Machine window standing open on the desktop where I could see it, having recentlycleared it after the last termination. As I was proofing what I had written, I looked at the window and noted that the clock had started a new run for a full back up, since all prior efforts had failed and the TM volume was empty. As I watched and waited for it to fail again, as it had been doing at about 13 GB, it kept going and going until it just finished a complete backup, about 4.5 hours later, with my having done nothing. Now my question would have to be - what could possiibly have happened to make it perform this way? It will be interesting to see if it continue to operate normally, or if the problem will return, in a later backup run.jcm21 wrote:
CCC put up a message that there was a Physical Problem "Library/Application Support/Techtool Protection/McIntosh HD/Directory Backup 2011-11-01-16-28-16"
You should not keep those files for long, and probably shouldn't back them up (if you need them at all -- since you do regular backups, I'm doubtful just how worthwhile that feature is).
"Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume".
One of Apple's maddeningly incomplete messages. Most likely, there's a problem with a file (quite possibly the one CCC didn't like). See #C3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for details and instructions on finding and fixing it.
If you continue running the Directory Protection app, be sure to exclude your Time Machine drive from it (as it will just take up lots of room, and won't help repair your backups if there's a problem); and exclude the folders it creates from being backed-up by Time Machine (as they'll create large backups, and you probably can't use the backed-up folders anyway), per #10 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. -
TimeMachine backup volume about full
My backup volume for TimeMachine is getting full.
What can I do to get more free space back?Deleting from the saved backups is the only way to free space. Selecting items to not be backed up will slow down the space being used up again.
Time Machine should automatically delete backups (oldest first) as needed to keep going. You could choose to delete backups manually (use the contextual menu in the Time Machine browser to do this) or indeed all backups of particular files (ditto). -
Understanding replica volume and recovery point volume usage with SQL Express Full Backup
I am running some trials to test DPM 2012 R2's suitability for protection a set of SQL Server databases and I am trying to understand what happens when I create a recovery point with Express Full Backup.
The databases use simple recovery model and in the tests I have made so far I have loaded more data into the databases between recovery points since that will be a typical scenario - the databases will grow over time. The database files are set to autogrowth
by 10%
I have been looking at the change in USED space in the replica volume and in the recovery point volume after new recovery points and have a hard time understanding it.
After the first test where data was loaded into the database and an Express Full Backup recovery point was created, I saw an increase in used space in the replica volume of 85 Gb and 29 GB in the recovery point volume. That is somewhat more than I think
the database grew (I realize that should have monitored that, but did not), but anyway it is not completely far out.
In the next test I did the same thing except I loaded twice as much data into the database.
Here is where it gets odd: This causes zero increased usage in the replica volume and 33 GB increased use in the recovery point volume.
I do not understand why the replica volume use increases with some recovery points and not with others.
Note that I am only discussing increased usage in the volumes - not actual volume growth. The volumes are still their original size.
I have been using 3-4 days on the test and the retention period is set to 12 days, so nothing should be expired yet.Hi,
The replica volume usage represents the physical database file(s) size. The database file size on the replica should be equal to the database file size on the protected server. This is both .mdf and .ldf files. If when you load data
into the database and you overwrite current tables versus adding new ones, or if there is white space in the database files and the load simply uses that white space, then there will not be any increase in the file size, so there will not be any increase
in the replica used space.
The recovery point volume will only contain delta changes applied to the database files. As the changed blocks overwrite the files on the replica during express full backup, VSS (volsnap.sys) driver copies the old blocks about to be overwritten
to the recovery point volume before allowing the change to be applied to the file on the replica.
Hope this helps explain what you are seeing.
Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. Regards, Mike J. [MSFT]
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. -
After performing a complete restore of my Mac from a Time Machine volume, Time Machine wants to perform a full backup the next time it backs up.This is normal: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1338
But I don't have enough free space on my external hard drive to do this because my external hard drive already contains one complete backup. My hard disc on my MacBook is 320 and my external drive is 500 GB, so it doesn't add up. I don't want to delete the original backup in case something goes wrong during the new full backup. What can I do?You don't have too many options. The best approach would be to buy a larger external drive. The guideline for Time Machine is that you should have 2-3 times as much capacity on the external drive as data you're backing up. See item 1 of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. In any case, you can't prevent that first full backup unless you're willing to turn off Time Machine permanently.
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I bought a new external hard drive for backups, but time machine won't do a full back up.
I think it is remembering backing up onto previous external hard drives, which I don't own anymore. How do I do a new full backup?
When I bought the new (used) iMac, I also bought an external hard drive for backups. It worked fine, but my husband stole it.
Then I bought a new external hard drive (Seagate) and it worked fine for three weeks, then died.
So I just got a new external hard drive, which was put together from an internal hard drive and a hard drive enclosure.
Time machine did the first backup today, and it should have taken 9 hours like it did on the previous first time full back up. Instead, it took 30 minutes. That can't be right. I want to start over and do a full backup to make sure everything gets onto my new external hard drive, but I can't figure out how to do that. Please help.Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
tmutil compare -E
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
The command will take at least a few minutes to run. Eventually some lines of output will appear below what you entered.
Each line that begins with a plus sign (“+”) represents a file that has been added to the source volume since the last snapshot was taken. These files have not been backed up yet.
Each line that begins with an exclamation point (“!”) represents a file that has changed on the source volume. These files have been backed up, but not in their present state.
Each line that begins with a minus sign (“-“) represents a file that has been removed from the source volume.
At the end of the output, you’ll get some lines like the following:
Added:
Removed:
Changed:
These lines show the total amount of data added, removed, or changed on the source(s) since the last snapshot. -
How to create a new full backup alongside existing one?
I have recently reinstalled my MBP from scratch and installed some apps from scratch as well. I still have my old TM backup in a sparsebundle on my NAS (a ReadyNAS NV+).
I now would like to create a complete new full backup alongside my existing one. Or put differently, a new folder/backup inside the Backups.backupdb inside the mounted sparsebundle. Currently I see a folder called "XYZs MacBook Pro". I'd like that to be renamed to something like "XYZs Old MacBook Pro" and create a new full backup under "XYZs MacBook Pro".
I understand you end up having multiple folders inside Backups.backupdb if you have many Macs (with different MAC addresses). I only have one Mac, but want TM to treat my old previous backup (of the same MPB, hence with the same MAC address) as if it was from another Mac (with a different name).
With such a setup, I can still access backups from my previous installation of the same hardware by selecting another volume from TM (by holding Alt when clikcing at the TM icon) or with tools such as Back-In-Time.
Is there any way to achieve this? My sparsebundle is large enough to hold another full backup alongside the old one.
Thanks
- TomPondini wrote:
tofe1965 wrote:
But wait, you said if I erased the disk I get a new UUID. I did not erase it but I moved all files into a /Previous folder (after booting from the install DVD), then installed the system new, and then moved user data (and some Library and some application stuff) back from /Previous. So, I guess, I have no new UUID for my internal disk.
Ah, yes, that is different ("reinstalled from scratch" usually means erased). If the disk was never erased, it will still have the same UUID. But since you've moved or replaced virtually everything, it will all get backed up anyway.
I'm not sure why you did all that; the old +Erase and Install+ and +Archive and Install+ options no longer exist for Snow Leopard: there's just Install, which replaces OSX without touching anything else.
I wanted to have a *really clean* install as my old systems seemed to be messed up with some bad settings.
So, back to my original question: how can I make the new "XYZs MacBook Pro" appear alongside the old "XYZs MacBook Pro" and switch volumes when I start TM using the Option key?
Why would you want to do that? You can view and restore from any backup.
I figured that way I can keep all old backups from the old installation and not have TM retire old stuff. And start a new one from scratch for the new installation where things will get retired. Basically keep the two backups apart from each other and not see any of the old stuff unless explicitly mounted using the option key.
If I follow your approach, what happens to old files of the old disk/UUID? Will they get retired eventually? Would my original idea work as envisioned or would it retire old things nevertheless? If the latter is the case, it is of no use and your suggested approach is the better one.
Is there maybe a ay to force TM to start a new full backup?
Back up to a different place: a different HD or partition, or erase the current one.
Guess that's my only option then. I created a full bootable backup to en external USB disk using Carbon Copy Cloner. Erasing the internal disk and copying back using CCC will create a new UUID then I guess ...
I will try that in the next couple of days and report back here. Thanks a lot for all your help and explanations so far, much appreciated! -
How do I restore from a previously used backup volume ???
I have just added a 1 Terrabyte (1000 GB) firewire external backup drive for Time Machine's exclusive use - - because my chock-full 250 GB drive was so full that TM was forced to delete previous backups done only a few weeks ago in order to write new backups.
So I have now of course designated the new 1 TB drive for TM and it's working fine.
But....??????..... if I want to search my previous 250 GB drive for something older, how do I get TM to either search both drives (new and old) automatically, or enable me to browse from one volume to another while in the TM app ???
I can't find any explanations of how to seamlessly manage easily and in a user friendly way this ongoing issue of having multiple TM volumes - each covering different periods back in time.
If, in order only to search it, I have to go back to the 250 GB drive and re-designate it, again, as "The" TM drive, then won't an unwanted and unneeded full backup start and potentially erase what I am looking for ? The help files seem to be silent on this issue.
The user interface ought to have a list of current and previously used drives to you can designate which to search before initiating a search and restore operation. does it exist in hiding somewhere ?
Has anyone written a good manual for TM ?Michael Bryan wrote:
Thanks a lot. I take it that I must resist the temptation to just directly double-click on the old volume from outside the TM app, and then "drag and drop" a found document back to where I want it and that it is vital to always restore from within the TM app.
yes, you should definitely resist that temptation. all TM backups are tagged with "everyone deny everything" ACLs. copying them via drag and drop will keep those ACLs and will cause you all kinds of issues. you should only restore them from TM interface which will remove those ACLs. -
Scenario with very bad outlook:
Friday-16th, early AM. Win2008 SBS Server crashes due to RAID5 issues, bad disk. Found that server was NOT configured with hot spare and for some reason the controller had marked a 2nd disk bad..which turned out not to be the case.
Had a single external USB backup drive being fed by Windows Server Backup. Obtained support from vendor and was able to regain the RAID and start the server.
Soon became apparent that Exchange was having serious issues - edb was corrupt and not mountable. Restore edb from backup, repaired and was eventually able to mount. Then found it had Hub Transport issues. Researching that when it was noticed
NTFS events being logged at a high rate. Restarted system to repair the filesystem, which was successful.
After the FS repair, found the Exchange edb, new edb I had created to migrate mailboxes to, and public edb all 0k in size.
Restored the edb again and commenced repair, which eventually read Clean Shutdown again...but could not get it to mount. Exchange was having various issues seemingly with AD.
Changed backup time to avoid a backup that day, as did not want to back up while RAID was rebuilding - had inserted a replacement for the failed drive.
Monday/19th, was advised that much of the data was corrupt. This is an accounting firm and relies heavily on their data, especially since the last time their ext USB was rotated was Nov6 2013. They now have no year end backup, nor a backup from
post tax season 2014.
Is it possible to recover any of the historical backups prior to the full backup/restart?
Oh, and all Shadow Copies for the impacted volume/drive are gone.
Thank you.Hi,
Please use the “Wbadmin get versions” command to check the backup versions on the server. If there is only latest shadow copy, you may not recover any of the historical backups prior to the full backup.
Backup Version and Space Management in Windows Server Backup
http://blogs.technet.com/b/filecab/archive/2009/06/22/backup-version-and-space-management-in-windows-server-backup.aspx
Regards,
Mandy
We
are trying to better understand customer views on social support experience, so your participation in this
interview project would be greatly appreciated if you have time.
Thanks for helping make community forums a great place. -
Backup Volume cannot be mounted
Time machine stopped working for me back in July. I've looked at every post and tried nearly everything, and I cannot get it working again. The error through the Time Machine pref pane is "The Backup volume cannot be mounted." The errors in the console are the following:
Sep 4 23:19:25 tesla /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[50182]: Backup requested by user
Sep 4 23:19:25 tesla /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[50182]: Starting standard backup
Sep 4 23:19:25 tesla /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[50182]: Network mountpoint /Volumes/Backup not owned by backupd... remounting
Sep 4 23:19:26 tesla /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[50182]: Failed to remount network volume.
Sep 4 23:19:31 tesla /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[50182]: Backup failed with error: 19
This is a network volume. It's a 750GB firewire drive, formatted HFS+ with a GUID partition table connected to an iMac. The iMac can back up just fine to it. My MBP cannot. It worked before.
It appears it is failing to remount the drive as root rather than myself, as backupd runs as root. Others are having the same problem, and I've seen no resolution for this particular issue. Is Apple even aware of it? Do they even read the discussion forums?Paul,
Give these ideas some condsideration:
First, it is important to distinguish this error message from another, similar Time Machine error that states “The backup volume could not be found”. This is important as the causes and cures for these two errors can be very different.
Give each topic separate consideration. If one does not resolve your issue, move on the next one.
*Time Machine Has Lost Its’ Backup Disk*
If Time Machine was NOT setup to recognize a hard disk for backup, and “Back up now” was selected from the Time Machine Dock icon, an error would report “No backup volume has been selected. To select a backup volume, open . . “ The Console log would report:
+Backup failed with error: 17+
But if Time Machine HAD BEEN setup to use a specific disk for backups, but if had lost its’ connection to the drive, it would report “The backup volume could not be mounted”. The Console log would say:
+FSMatchAliasBulk returned -35 while resolving alias to backup target+
+Backup failed with error: 19+
When you check the Time Machine preferences you may see the name of your backup disk greyed-out and a generic hard drive icon beside it. More than likely this means Time Machine has lost is physical connection to the drive. Either the drive is not plugged in, it’s not turned ON, the drives’ cable is bad, the drives internal controller has failed, or the drive has a sleep function that is preventing it from waking when a backup is called for.
*Airport Has Been Turned Off* (For Time Capsule / AirDisk Users) #
Look and the Airport menu at the top of the screen. Does it no longer display the radiating bands of wireless signal strength? The Airport has been turned off on this computer.
Go to System Preferences.
Select Network.
Click “Turn Airport On”
Now try backing up.
*File Sharing Has Been Disabled* (For Time Capsule / AirDisk Users) #
Launch Airport Utility.
Click "Manual Setup".
Select "Disks" in the tool bar at top of window.
Click "File Sharing".
Verify that "Enable file sharing" is checked.
If not, check it, click “Update”.
Once the Time Capsule has finished restarting, close Airport Utility and try backing up again.
*Password Has Changed/Become Corrupted* (For Time Capsule / AirDisk Users) #
[Mac OS X 10.5.3 or later: Time Machine - "Backup volume could not be mounted" after changing network volume's password]
*Proper Computer Name* #
Make sure your computer has a proper name. Go to System Preferences --> Sharing. Time Machine needs to differentiate your computer from others on your network (i.e. "Bills MacBook" or "Office iMac"). If the "Computer Name" field is blank, create a name. Realize that if this step is necessary, you will likely have to start the Time Machine backup process over again and do another full initial backup.
According to THIS article [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1760], Time Machine may experience problems if your computer name includes certain characters. Make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from the following set.
(0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ)
Once a change in the computer name occurs, you should stop and restart Sharing on the affected computer. Uncheck and then recheck Sharing in the Services list on the left.
Also, if the name of your backup devise contains any special characters (like an apostrophe) consider removing them and trying a backup again.
Let is know if any of the ideas above helped.
Cheers! -
Error: "This backup is too large for the backup volume."
Well TM is acting up. I get an error that reads:
"This backup is too large for the backup volume."
Both the internal boot disk and the external baclup drive are 1TB. The internal one has a two partitions, the OSX one that is 900GBs and a 32GB NTFS one for Boot Camp.
The external drive is a single OSX Extended part. that is 932GBs.
Both the Time Machine disk, and the Boot Camp disk are excluded from the backup along with a "Crap" folder for temporary large files as well as the EyeTV temp folder.
Time Machine says it needs 938GBs to backup only the OSX disk, which has 806GBs in use with the rest free. WTFFF? The TM pane says that "only" 782GBs are going to be backed up. Where did the 938GBs figure come from?
This happened after moving a large folder (128GB in total) from the root of the OSX disk over to my Home Folder.
I have reformated the Time Machine drive and have no backups at all of my data and it refuses to backup!!
Why would it need 938GBs of space to backup if the disk has "only" 806 GBs in use??? Is there anyway to reset Time Machine completely???
Some screenshots:
http://www.xcapepr.com/images/tm2.png
http://www.xcapepr.com/images/tm1.png
http://www.xcapepr.com/images/tm4.pngxcapepr wrote:
Time Machine says it needs 938GBs to backup only the OSX disk, which has 806GBs in use with the rest free. WTFFF? The TM pane says that "only" 782GBs are going to be backed up. Where did the 938GBs figure come from?
Why would it need 938GBs of space to backup if the disk has "only" 806 GBs in use??? Is there anyway to reset Time Machine completely???
TM makes an initial "estimate" of how much space it needs, "including padding", that is often quite high. Why that is, and Just exactly what it means by "padding" are rather mysterious. But it does also need work space on any drive, including your TM drive.
But beyond that, your TM disk really is too small for what you're backing-up. The general "rule of thumb" is it should be 2-3 times the size of what it's backing-up, but it really depends on how you use your Mac. If you frequently update lots of large files, even 3 times may not be enough. If you're a light user, you might get by with 1.5 times. But that's about the lower limit.
Note that although it does skip a few system caches, work files, etc., by default it backs up everything else, and does not do any compression.
All this is because TM is designed to manage it's backups and space for you. Once it's initial, full backup is done, it will by default then back-up any changes hourly. It only keeps those hourly backups for 24 hours, but converts the first of the day to a "daily" backup, which it keeps for a month. After a month, it converts one per week into a "weekly" backup that it will keep for as long as it has room
What you're up against is, room for those 30 dailies and up to 24 hourlies.
You might be able to get it to work, sort of, temporarily, by excluding something large, like your home folder, until that first full backup completes, then remove the exclusion for the next run. But pretty soon, it will begin to fail again, and you'll have to delete backups manually (from the TM interface, not via the Finder).
Longer term, you need a bigger disk; or exclude some large items (back-them up to a portable external or even DVD/RWs first); or a different strategy.
You might want to investigate CarbonCopyCloner, SuperDuper!, and other apps that can be used to make bootable "clones". Their advantage, beyond needing less room, is when your HD fails, you can immediately boot and run from the clone, rather than waiting to restore from TM to your repaired or replaced HD.
Their disadvantages are, you don't have the previous versions of changed or deleted files, and because of the way they work, their "incremental" backups of changed items take much longer and far more CPU.
Many of us use both a "clone" (I use CCC) and TM. On my small (roughly 30 gb) system, the difference is dramatic: I rarely notice TM's hourly backups -- they usually run under 30 seconds; CCC takes at least 15 minutes and most of my CPU. -
This backup is too large for the backup volume - ridiculous Size!!!
Hi .. i own a macbook 13" aluminium, I have Snow Leopard 10.6.2 , and i change my internal hard drive to a 500Gb.
I bought 1Tb Western Digital My Book USB External Drive to use it for back ups using Time machine.. at the beginning worked great, when i changed my hard drive i restore everything in lest than 2 hours.
Then one time, it said that the hard drive where going out of space, and i said to delete the oldest backups, it erase everything and kept the last back up. Since then, it came a message
*_+This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 2.73EB but only 995 Gb are available.*+_
its ridiculous, when i go to the time machine preference, it said that the full size back up it would take 83Gb only.
I tried everything, formatting the unit, taking out the partition , and making it out again, it makes the first full back up, but then the same message...
Please anyone... i am desperate
Thanks Again
DanielDanielFaour wrote:
*_+This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 2.73EB but only 995 Gb are available.*+_
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
That message seems to indicate that something is corrupted on your internal HD. Do a +*Verify Disk+* on it, per #A5 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
If that finds errors, you'll have to use the procedure in the yellow box there to Repair them.
If that does not find errors, Restart your Mac and do a "full reset" of Time Machine, per #A4 there.
I tried everything, formatting the unit, taking out the partition , and making it out again, it makes the first full back up, but then the same message...
What partition? Are there multiple partitions on your TM drive? How large is the one for Time Machine? Check the setup per #C1 of the Troubleshooting Tip. -
"Backup is too large for the backup volume" error
I've been backing up with TM for a while now, and finally it seems as though the hard drive is full, since I'm down to 4.2GB available of 114.4GB.
Whenever TM tries to do a backup, it gives me the error "This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 10.8 GB but only 4.2GB are available. To select a larger volume, or make the backup smaller by excluding files, open System Preferences and choose Time Machine."
I understand that I have those two options, but why can't TM just erase the oldest backup and use that free space to make the new backup? I know a 120GB drive is pretty small, but if I have to just keep accumulating backups infinitely, I'm afraid I'll end up with 10 years of backups and a 890-zettabyte drive taking up my garage. I'm hoping there's a more practical solution.John,
Please review the following article as it might explain what you are encountering.
*_“This Backup is Too Large for the Backup Volume”_*
First, much depends on the size of your Mac’s internal hard disk, the quantity of data it contains, and the size of the hard disk designated for Time Machine backups. It is recommended that any hard disk designated for Time Machine backups be +at least+ twice as large as the hard disk it is backing up from. You see, the more space it has to grow, the greater the history it can preserve.
*Disk Management*
Time Machine is designed to use the space it is given as economically as possible. When backups reach the limit of expansion, Time Machine will begin to delete old backups to make way for newer data. The less space you provide for backups the sooner older data will be discarded. [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15137.html]
However, Time Machine will only delete what it considers “expired”. Within the Console Logs this process is referred to as “thinning”. It appears that many of these “expired” backups are deleted when hourly backups are consolidated into daily backups and daily backups are consolidated into weekly backups. This consolidation takes place once hourly backups reach 24 hours old and daily backups reach about 30 days old. Weekly backups will only be deleted, or ‘thinned’, once the backup drive nears full capacity.
One thing seems for sure, though; If a new incremental backup happens to be larger than what Time Machine currently considers “expired” then you will get the message “This backup is too large for the backup volume.” In other words, Time Machine believes it would have to sacrifice to much to accommodate the latest incremental backup. This is probably why Time Machine always overestimates incremental backups by 2 to 10 times the actual size of the data currently being backed up. Within the Console logs this is referred to as “padding”. This is so that backup files never actually reach the physically limits of the backup disk itself.
*Recovering Backup Space*
If you have discovered that large unwanted files have been backed up, you can use the Time Machine “time travel” interface to recovered some of that space. Do NOT, however, delete files from a Time Machine backup disk by manually mounting the disk and dragging files to the trash. You can damage or destroy your original backups by this means.
Additionally, deleting files you no longer wish to keep on your Mac does not immediately remove such files from Time Machine backups. Once data has been removed from your Macs' hard disk it will remain in backups for some time until Time Machine determines that it has "expired". That's one of its’ benefits - it retains data you may have unintentionally deleted. But eventually that data is expunged. If, however, you need to remove backed up files immediately, do this:
Launch Time Machine from the Dock icon.
Initially, you are presented with a window labeled “Today (Now)”. This window represents the state of your Mac as it exists now. +DO NOT+ delete or make changes to files while you see “Today (Now)” at the bottom of the screen. Otherwise, you will be deleting files that exist "today" - not yesterday or last week.
Click on the window just behind “Today (Now)”. This represents the last successful backup and should display the date and time of this backup at the bottom of the screen.
Now, navigate to where the unwanted file resides. If it has been some time since you deleted the file from your Mac, you may need to go farther back in time to see the unwanted file. In that case, use the time scale on the right to choose a date prior to when you actually deleted the file from your Mac.
Highlight the file and click the Actions menu (Gear icon) from the toolbar.
Select “Delete all backups of <this file>”.
*Full Backup After Restore*
If you are running out of disk space sooner than expected it may be that Time Machine is ignoring previous backups and is trying to perform another full backup of your system? This will happen if you have reinstalled the System Software (Mac OS), or replaced your computer with a new one, or hard significant repair work done on your exisitng Mac. Time Machine will perform a new full backup. This is normal. [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1338]
You have several options if Time Machine is unable to perform the new full backup:
A. Delete the old backups, and let Time Machine begin a fresh.
B. Attach another external hard disk and begin backups there, while keeping this current hard disk. After you are satisfied with the new backup set, you can later reformat the old hard disk and use it for other storage.
C. Ctrl-Click the Time Machine Dock icon and select "Browse Other Time Machine disks...". Then select the old backup set. Navigate to files/folders you don't really need backups of and go up to the Action menu ("Gear" icon) and select "Delete all backups of this file." If you delete enough useless stuff, you may be able to free up enough space for the new backup to take place. However, this method is not assured as it may not free up enough "contiguous space" for the new backup to take place.
*Outgrown Your Backup Disk?*
On the other hand, your computers drive contents may very well have outgrown the capacity of the Time Machine backup disk. It may be time to purchase a larger capacity hard drive for Time Machine backups. Alternatively, you can begin using the Time Machine Preferences exclusion list to prevent Time Machine from backing up unneeded files/folders.
Consider as well: Do you really need ALL that data on your primary hard disk? It sounds like you might need to Archive to a different hard disk anything that's is not of immediate importance. You see, Time Machine is not designed for archiving purposes, just as a backup of your local drive(s). In the event of disaster, it can get your system back to its' current state without having to reinstall everything. But if you need LONG TERM storage, then you need another drive that is removed from your normal everyday working environment.
This KB article discusses this scenario with some suggestions including Archiving the old backups and starting fresh [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15137.html]
Let us know if this clarifies things.
Cheers! -
Hard Drive failed now time capsule connecting to backup volume for hours
My main hard drive went bad. I had a spare in my machine. I installed osx on the spare and then migrated all of my data from my time capsule (which had worked like a champ). I am now running fine again and I have all my files, music, apps, everything I had before my hard drive went bad. Now the only problem I have is when I try to connect to time capsule now, there is a little window which reads "connecting to backup volume". It has been this way for hours and I suspect there is something amiss. If it were simply preparing and looking to see what has changed, it would have connected. Can anyone help me out on this problem? I would truly appreciate it.
John,
*Reboot Time Capsule*
Unplug the TC from the wall outlet.
Wait 10-15 seconds.
Re-plug it in again.
After it has restarted (30-60 seconds), does it show up in Airport Utilities?
If not try "Rescan" again from the File Menu.
Next, if you want to continue using the TC for Time Machine backups do the following:
*Reselect Your Time Machine Disk*
Go to System Preferences --> Time Machine.
Use the slider on the left to turn “OFF” Time Machine.
Click the "Change Disk..." button.
Select "None" and click "Stop Backing Up".
Now click "Choose Backup Disk" and reselect your backup hard disk again.
Now use the slider on the left to turn “ON” Time Machine.
Close System Preferences and try backing up again.
*Full Backup After Full Restore*
Bear in mind that in all cases Time Machine will perform a full backup after a full restore. This is normal. Time Machine will resume incremental backups after the full backup has completed. To view previous backups, Control-click or right-click the Time Machine icon in your Dock or Option-click the Time Machine menu extra and Choose "Browse Other Time Machine Disks," then select your previous backup volume. You will enter Time Machine and be able to browse your previous back ups and restore files. (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1338)
So even on unchanged hardware, if you reinstall your system software and restore your user data, Time Machine starts anew, and you will not be able to resume backing up with the same history as the previous backups.
While there may be ways to fool/hack Time Machine into recognizing previous backups without performing another full backup, they are likely rather elaborate.
Ultimately, though, in a couple of months, all the effort to preserve old backups may seem pointless. After all, Time Machine will eventually purge away that data anyways as it replaces it with new files.
It may simply be easier to begin a fresh series of backups while saving the previous backups until your satisfied that you have enough history built up. Then delete the old backups.
Let us know if the above helped.
Cheers! -
Time Machine is making a full backup into another directory
Hi, ive been using Time Machine for a month then im stopped using it cause a travel outside the country. When im come back (4 days ago) I try to backup again and i see that is backing up the entire machine again... Looked in the Finder under backupdb folder and it has now 2 directorys one with the full backup since june and another with no backups because ive canceled the backup.
Anyone knows how to fix it?
Thanks.Patrick Lafferty wrote:
Today though in proceeding with a new backup, it, (like with your experience), created a new directory with a whole backup of the entire machine....I see two directories now on the TM volume. Is there a way to combine the two directories?
No. TM keeps the backups for each Mac completely separate, using each Mac's unique Ethernet Address, contained in the hardware. The main purpose of this to allow you to back up 2 or more Macs to the same drive without conflicts.
There is no way to combine them.
My 1TB backup HDD just had a huge chunk taken out of it with this backup of what would seem to be redundant data.
Yes, most of it is. But the old Mac's version of OSX is somewhat different from your new one: not only is much of the hardware different, so are the processors.
Worse, the old backups are now "stranded:" since they're for a different Mac, TM on the new Mac won't delete the old ones when it needs to make room for new backups. Instead, it will delete the oldest backups from the new Mac.
So your best bet would be to simply erase the TM drive with Disk Utility, and let TM start fresh with your new Mac.
As an alternative, you can selectively delete the old backups via Time Machine (do not use the Finder). This is one-by-one, so rather tedious and time-consuming.
Since they're from a different Mac, you can view them via the instructions in item 17 of the Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of this forum, and use the procedure in item 12 to delete individual backups.
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