Getting new external drive, can I switch back up time machine drives?

I don't want to loose the info time machine has already captured on my external hard drive called B1, if I install a new hard drive B2, can I just copy B1 to B2 and then point time machine to B2?
Not sure what the process would be, but I want to get rid of B1 as a time machine drive and add b2 and not loose any info already captured.
Suggestions?

Related question:
I partitioned my 500GB external drive, 30GB in G-1 for a bootable system (currently 10.4.10) and the remaining space in G-2 for Time Machine.
I now want to resize the partitions on the fly in Terminal, to free up 20GB more for TM, but I plan to use Carbon Copy Cloner to first make a backup of both G-1 and G-2, just in case.
If I lose data resizing the partitions and then have to restore the TM backup files from the clone, will Time Machine recognize its earlier files and pick up where it left off, or will it start over?
Aside: Disk Utility in Leopard indicates it will resize partitions on the fly without losing data, but I have read in other threads that data has been lost anyway.
Ken

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Can i go back with time machine but without the applications(to keep it the same)?

can i go back with time machine but without the applications(to keep it the same)?
i want to make my mac "younger" but i've got applications that i want to keep and i have them not so long ago...

Clone your system them.
Keep your OS and apps on separate hard drives.
Install the OS if you must for now on another hard drive.
Use Setup Assistant when done.
= = =
Using Cloning as a Backup Strategy
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
http://www.bombich.com/software/updates/ccc-3.5.html
OS X Lion Install to Different Drive
How to create an OS X Lion installation disc MacFixIt
Migration Assistant Update for Mac OS X Snow Leopard
http://www.apple.com/support/lion/installrecovery/
Create an OS X Lion Install disc
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20080989-263/how-to-create-an-os-x-lion-ins tallation-disc
How to clone your system:
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone-backup.html
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone.html
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
http://www.macperformanceguide.com/blog/2012/20120711_2-MacPro-internal-clone-ba ckup.html

Time machine is not working. I get a message: You can't open the application "Time Machine" because it may be damaged or incomplete.

Time machine is not working under "Applications". I get this message: You can’t open the application “Time Machine” because it may be damaged or incomplete. What do I do?
Time machine under system preferences lets me setup time capsule. But backup fails because "Volume is in use" Help please!

It does sound like you have a corrupted install.
The volume in use error is something we see all the time.
Look at C12 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
But I suspect you have more serious issue.
I would run a disk verify on your local OS disk. A5 in the above reference has some info.

HT201250 I accidentally didn't save a document on my desktop--a report. Can I go back with time machine and recover my desktop and save the file?

I accidentally didn't save a document on my desktop--a report. Can I go back with time machine and recover my desktop and save the file?

If you saved it at least once, then time machine should have a copy of the document at the state you last saved it. I'm guessing tha's not the case however or the copy of the file would still be on your Desktop.
If you never saved it a single time, yet closed the window and dismissed the warnings about an unsaved document, then you are out of luck as far as I know.

Can I go back to Time Machine on my External Hard Drive?

I have been using an OWC 1TB External Hard Drive for my Time Machine backups. The OWC stopped working, so I sent it back to them to fix. Turns out it was the case and all my information is ok. They are shipping it back.
Meanwhile I backed it up on Time Machine on another external in case my laptop went down.
Now that I am getting back my original, can I pick up where I left off or do I have back it up all over again?
For the future, can you back up two Time Machines in case this happens again?
I am sure i am not the first to face this situation.

can I pick up {with Time Machine} where I left off or do I have back it up all over again?
You should be able to continue where you left off.
For the future, can you back up two Time Machines in case this happens again?
Yes, but you'll have to change Time Machine's settings to switch from one disk to the other and back.

How can I "Put Back" a time machine backup from the trash to my external hard drive?

Basically what happened was I accidentally put an older time machine backup from my external hard drive into the trash on my macbook. Since then, time machine has made new backups onto my external hard drive. How can I either "Put Back" or replace the deleted backup back into my hard drive?
Whenever I try to move it it says "A newer item named “Backups.backupdb” already exists in this location. Do you want to replace it with the older one you’re moving?" I click replace and after a few minutes of loading, it says "Cannot replace. An item named "" already exists."

As long as you don't delete the trash, the files should be recoverable.
I suspect using the Put Back command could take a long time, so be patient.
If your Time Machine backups are mixed with your daughter's backups you might want to buy a larger drive and move the Time Machine files to the new drive.
Regarding missing photos in iPhoto...There might be options to rebuild/recover that data from iPhoto rather than trying to revert to a Time Machine backup.
Check out this third party app, iPhoto Library Manager. It has a demo.
http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/
Options for a larger drive.
I like the Seagate USB 3.0 Backup plus drives. Works on USB 2.0 ports. They come formatted for PC but easy to format in Disk Utility.
I don't recommend Western Digital because of the boot problem with some of their drives.
LaCie makes good drives.
All Mac formatted drives will cost more and it’s easy to reformat with Disk Utility. Do not use the software that comes with the drives. It’s recommended that you use Apple’s Disk Utility.
Prices vary but this gives you an idea of what you’ll find. As you notice the second and third TB is usually only $15 more per TB. Normally, you’ll find these prices but right now the 1T is more than the 2T
Seagate Backup Plus 1 TB USB 3.0 $85
Seagate Backup Plus 2 TB USB 3.0 $99
Seagate Backup Plus 3 TB USB 3.0 $115
I have seen the 3T on sale for $99.
Locally, Best Buy seems to have the best prices.

TS1550 My new WD 3tb My Cloud external hard drive can't be seen by Time Machine....

.....though it can be seen and connected to through Finder, I just get this message when I try to backup -The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error 2.).
First back up went fine and a couple after but I had to reconnect the WD drive to reposition it and since then Time Machine has not worked. I'm fast loosing patience.
Help please.

There is a long history of WD disk enclosures not being as compatible with Macs as other makes.
The Carbon Copy Cloner site has some notes about this. As far as I can tell you are on the wrong forum.
Whilst it may not be your fault I am afraid it appears that your post is on a forum which is not the best for your OS. It will save the time of the unpaid volunteers here, and may resolve your issue faster, if you could examine the list below and see if there is a more appropriate forum to which you could direct your question.
OS X 10.9 Mavericks
OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
OS X 10.7 Lion
OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
OS X 10.5 Leopard
OS X 10.4 Tiger
OS X 10.3 and earlier
OS 9, OS 8 & System 7
OS X Technologies
OS X Server
iPad
iPhone
iPod
Other

If I install new hard drive can I still restore from time machine?

I'm planning on updating the hard drive in my macbook to a 320gb drive. I currently have a drive with around 120gb of space. I know there are programs available to back up the entire hard drive. But, I've been having issue with my computer lately and I would rather just start over and just back up microsoft office because I don't have the key anymore and my iTunes library. Can I do all this from just my Time Machine back-ups and reinstall everything else? Or is the best way to make a bootable back up to my new drive and then install the hardware in my mac book.
Message was edited by: dsheppard20

I did this just a few weeks ago. I replaced my 80g hd with a 320g hd. I used time machine to backup my computer. All I had to do was swap hard drives. Use the install dvd to start computer. i then used disk utility to properly format the new hard drive (mac journaled). Then I used the restore option. That was all I had to do. Everything from my old hard drive was put on my new one in about one hour. Time Machine backs up your entire hard drive unless you excluded anything. So you can have a clean install of everything just the way it was on your old hard drive just by using Time Machine.

After I restored an ipod touch, I pressed "set up as new"! Can i go back in time machine to restore the ipod to previous setup?

After I restored an ipod touch, I pressed "set up as new" instead of "restore from backup"! Can I go back and restore the ipod from a previous backed up copie in time machine?

If you need to know the location of the backup file that is included here:
iTunes: About iOS backups

Can I switch users during time machine backup?

I have a laptop with multiple users.
I am trying to do a Time Machine back-up using a fire-wire connected western digital drive.
Either because I had not backed up in a few weeks, or had updated to 10.7.2, I am not sure, but when I connected the drive to do a backup Time Machine started doing a deep scan.
The preparing phase took several (over 5) hours before the backup would start, but it finally did begin backing up.
It is trying to back up 8 GB of files and is taking a very long time. It backed up 1.5 of 8 GB over the course of the entire day.
Then my kids came home from school and switched to their users.
Looking at the logs, it looks like the backup got canceled when we switched users.
After switching back to the admin user, I am back to the preparing phase again.
I thought you could log out, swtich users etc with Time Machine.
Can someone explain this behavior to me?
Thank you

I just wanted to update all after my experieces:
Time Machine was not the problem. The problem was a defective WD external firewire drive (WD Green drive) which has since been replaced under warantee. Thank you WD for your comiitment.
Whenever I used this drive, I could hear it chugging and chugging away during mount and whenever I was accessing the drive.
I finally checked the drive (WD My Book) with DISK WARRIOR and the thing was toast. Tons of unrepairable hardware errors.
Thankfully the drive was under warantee and after receiving a replacement from WD (no issues with RMA replacement process, kudos to WD) have had ZERO issues with time machine and the replacement drive.
Initial 1st time- time machine backup was ~ 5 hours. (~120 GB of info). (I added the drive to spotlight 'do not index' prefs prior to setting up time machine.)
-This was a HUGE time difference. My prior initial backup with the defective drive was 3 DAYS, yes, DAYS.
If you are having these kind of problems, check you drive with Disk Warrior (Disk Utitlty does not cut it). If Disk Warrior reports problems, it is a hassle, but replace the drive.
Good luck. Karma +1

Can't browse back with time machine

Time machine seems to work properly till I try to browse back in time. I am clicking on the arrow that should bring me back in time, but nothing happens. I only see the initial today window. I have time machine on since December the 1st and it has back-up copies since then, so I assume that I should be able to go back into time, at least a bit.
Cheers,
Robert

Go into System Preferences > Sharing and give your computer a name using only alphanumeric characters with no spaces or punctuation.
Mac OS X 10.5: Time Machine backups are not visible
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306928

HT201250 can't find item lost on hard drive, can i find it on time machine ?

i have lost a spreadsheet. how can i locate it on my time machine backup disk?

Enter your time machine backup (from the TM menu) and search for the item in there - then restore the most recent version of it.

Migration assistant can't find backups on Time Machine drive that contains backups from multiple computers

My Retina Macbook Pro died due to a hardware error. During the diagnosis I was asked by Apple support personnel to format and reinstall OSX, which I did but did not fix the issue. The mainboard has since been replaced and I am trying to restore the TimeMachine backup I have.
The USB disk containing the TimeMachine backup contains TimeMachine backups for two different computers, my last Mac and the one I owned before that, which died earlier this year.
When I plug the drive in, I am able to browse the backups from both machines, as shown in the screenshot below.
The problem comes in when I attempt to run the migration assistant. I select the first option (restore from USB drive, etc). The migration assistant finds the USB volume and in the list underneath shows backups from a single computer - which it calls Unknown. The date of the last back is shown as 10 December 2012, the same date as the last backup from my old Mac (doolittle). There is no trace of the backups from my new mac.
Any ideas of how to get around this?
Thanks
Andrew

http://pondini.org/OSX/MigrationProblems.html

Using iCloud Drive as a Time Machine drive?

Hi,
do you know if there is a way to use iCloud drive as a Time Machine drive. I mean, we can have more than one time machine drive, using iCloud Drive would be a nice option for off site backup no?
I Currently use Crashplan for that, but using iCloud drive would be better, as I'd have access to my stuff more easily than with crashplan's UI.
MAybe a third party services offers that?
What do you think guys?

Manusnake wrote:
Well I thought the same, but actually I did a new Time Machine backup a month ago via wifi (starting from scratch). About 700 GB of data. It was slower than Ethernet of course, but it worked without any issue.
You must have top-of-the-line WiFi hardware. How long did it take? I don't even remember how long it took for the initial Ethernet backup before my Time Capsule died. It was at least a day.
However I see your point for online backup. That'd require TM to be more gentle. To do one backup per day for example could be a solution (instead of one every hour).
Time Machine works best in small increments. I always advise against hacking the backup frequency. People who complain about Time Machine tend to have hacked it up. People who don't tend to have left it alone. Just sayin'.

How can I force Time Machine to make a complete backup of my Hard Drive. I just installed a new external drive for Backup since my previous one failed. Now when I back up, Time Machine only backs up my data folder and the Users folder.

How can I force Time Machine to make a complete backup of my Hard Drive. I just installed a new external drive for Backup since my previous one failed. Now when I back up, Time Machine only backs up my data folder and the Users folder.
When I start a backup. Time Machine says "Oldest Backup: None; Latest Backup: None", so it seems like it should do a complete backup, but it only does a partial.

Hi I'd like to jump in here. Your app showed me this:
Time Machine:
          Skip System Files: NO
          Mobile backups: OFF
          Auto backup: YES
          Volumes being backed up:
                    Macintosh HD: Disk size: 749.3 GB Disk used: 453.81 GB
          Destinations:
                    Plastic Wrapper [Local] (Last used)
                    Total size: 999.86 GB
                    Total number of backups: 64
                    Oldest backup: 2013-07-24 23:25:11 +0000
                    Last backup: 2013-11-17 01:40:47 +0000
                    Size of backup disk: Too small
                              Backup size 999.86 GB < (Disk used 453.81 GB X 3)
          Time Machine details may not be accurate.
          All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
          /sbin excluded from backup!
          /usr excluded from backup!
          /System excluded from backup!
          /bin excluded from backup!
          /private excluded from backup!
          /Library excluded from backup!
          /Applications excluded from backup!
Aside from the size of my backup drive, which I will increase at some point, I'd really like to have time machine backing up all system folders, especially Applications. How to I reset this hidden exclusions?
Thanks,
Darcy

Getting new external drive, can I switch back up time machine drives?

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