Getting to data stored in time machine hard drive

I was running time machine on my macbook pro, and tonight the logic board of the MBP died on me. There are several files I need ASAP on the (external usb) time machine drive. If I plug the drive to another mac (mac pro I have at work), is it possible for me to access the files? Basically I need to burn several of the files to a disk, and I am not sure if by plugging the drive to another computer, if it will simply let me browse the files on that disk, or if it will only let me "restore" the machine. Any help is appreciated, thanks

If the other Mac has Time Machine, you wold ctrl-click (or right click) the TM icon on the Dock an select +Browse Other Time Machine disks+ and select the backup desired. Seems unfortunate that there is no real security feature to prevent anyone else from accessing your backups in the same way. Maybe in a future release.

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Can I clone my Time Machine hard drive, to another HD, and store Off Site?

Good day All, I love my new Macbook, but am trying to come up with a foolproof method of backing up all my data, documents, and business.
I have become very nervous about BACKUPS, and want to have an OFF-SITE week old backup done on a external Hard Drive?
I presently have a 200 gig Time Machine backup/archive, and have a daily clone with Super Duper & Carbon Copy Clone. However these hard drives are at home, so should the building burn down, or should we get broken into, there goes my business and digital life.
My thought is to buy an external hard drive and clone my current Time Machine hard drive to the external on a weekly basis, and store it off-site or at a friends house.
Would I be able to do a clone of my TM HD archive, and have it still useable / bootable / recoverable should a tragedy happen?
I would like to upload it all up to Mozy, or BackBlaze, or similar offering, but 200 gig is way too big.
Is anybody cloning a Time Machine hard drive and able to restore from it?
Thanks for reading my post, and am lookin forward to all of your comments, IAN...

Hi Ian,
Sorry I missed the discussion last night. I'll tell you how I'm accomplishing the backup task and you can let me know if this is what you're trying to do.
I now have 2 external HDs. A 1TB Seagate and a 250 GB LaCie. The LaCie used to be my TM backup drive, but it was the same size as my internal iMac drive. I knew I'd eventually need a bigger drive so I bought the 1TB Seagate yesterday and cloned the LaCie drive onto it using SuperDuper. The only thing on the LaCie drive was TM backups. Now the TM backup are on the Seagate. I unmounted the old TM drive and changed the name of the new drive to "Time Machine". I activated TM and it picked right up where it left off. I did test it by restoring an old file. I also changed a current file and made sure TM was still operating as advertised. Everything worked as expected.
Now I simply used the 250 GB drive to clone my system HD using CCC. It is a bootable backup and can be used to run the system should my internal drive become unusable. I will update this drive once a month with any changes to the system drive using CCC and keep it off-site in a safe deposit box in the meantime. Using this methodology, I don't see why you'd want to swap the drives weekly/monthly. Just let TM run on the large drive and keep the other drive as current as you like. I've decided monthly is good for me. I'm mostly worried about photos, but I keep them on the camera longer than a month, so there's my cover for the month.
Nano

Time Machine only shows the current copy of the file I am trying to restore. There is none of the time machine backup histories shown. I am running OSX 10.7.5. I see the backup files on my external Time Machine hard drive. Help

Time Machine only shows the current copy of the file I am trying to restore. There is none of the time machine backup histories shown. I am running OSX 10.7.5. I see the backup files on my external Time Machine hard drive in the Backups.backupdb folder.
Time Machine does show the history of my Macintosh HD, but when I try to navigate to the folder I wish to restore the backup history disappears. I've been searching for answers and I have not found one that works for me.

Time Machine only shows the current copy of the file I am trying to restore. There is none of the time machine backup histories shown. I am running OSX 10.7.5. I see the backup files on my external Time Machine hard drive in the Backups.backupdb folder.
Time Machine does show the history of my Macintosh HD, but when I try to navigate to the folder I wish to restore the backup history disappears. I've been searching for answers and I have not found one that works for me.

If I add another profile, will that person's content automatically be saved to my Time Machine hard drive or do I need to take further action to ensure that this is saved?

If I add another profile, will that person's content automatically be saved to my Time Machine hard drive or do I need to take further action to ensure that this content is saved? Thanks for any and all help with this.
Dave N.
Holliston, MA

Time Machine creates a back up of the entire Hard Drive, with the exception of Boot Camp or exceptions you have created. So in other words after you create the profile run Time Machine, and a backup of the other user profile will be added to your Time Machine backups.

Time Machine Hard Drive Missing

Specs: 1-year-old iMac (2.8 GHz i7 etc) running OS X 10.6.7.
Until a last week (and possibly this issue is related to my recent 10.6.7 update), my Firewire-800-connected external Lacie backup drive (2 Tb RAID) showed on the desktop faithfully. This is my Time Machine backup however I use it manually to safekeep various other files. Now it no longer shows up on the desktop and yet Time Machine still works fine, a clear indication that everything is connected + powered properly and there is data integrity.
Yes, of course I have checked the Finder Preferences to ensure External Drives are supposed to show up. It does not show up, nor does it appear in the left column of Finder windows.
I have also looked at the drive using Disk Utility where it appears in the left column as always. I am able to Unmount, Mount, and Eject the drive but that is all. Time Machine now provides the only access to data on the drive, but this does not represent everything on it.
appreciate any suggestions of things to try or ideas what may be amiss.

just got back to taking a look at this...
appreciate the suggested terminal commands but no luck. I get this with both command line versions:
(hard drive name):~ (my user name)$ chflags nohidden /Volumes/HQ 2big Quadra RAID
chflags: /Volumes/HQ: No such file or directory
chflags: 2big: No such file or directory
chflags: Quadra: No such file or directory
chflags: RAID: No such file or directory
(hard drive name):~ (my user name)$
and yet I know the named path is accurate as commandshiftG does bring up a finder window for the drive. plus that's the path Disk Utility shows.
also, as I mentioned, it isn't showing on the desktop of the other User account (and I would prefer not to create another account and delete it later unless this is sure to prove something)
mystified. thanks for any add'l suggestions.

Erasing Time Machine hard drive after formatting for both PPC and Intel

Ok, I made a mistake. First I formatted a Western Digital 500 gig hard drive for both my wife's PPC G4 laptop and my own Intel MBP laptop, so we could both use Leopard's Time Machine for backing up to the same drive. That wasn't my mistake though, it's been working fine. I formatted my partition using the GUID option and hers using the Apple Partition Map option (I think that's what they are called, I'm going from memory).
Here's my mistake: I needed some extra space to store some files and read that I could Re-Partition the drive without erasing anything using Disk Utility. Sounded great. I first tried to partition my wife's partition, since she had more extra space, but then I realized that was a bad idea since I had formatted her partition with using the Apple Partition Map, so I stopped and then tried to Re-Partition my side. It worked for about an hour: my Time Machine backup drive appeared, my new partition appeared, but then... her partition disappeared! Usually whenever one of us plugs in the hard drive using the firewire cable, both partitions appear, Time Machine Goes to work, and that's that. When we need to disconnect from the drive we have to eject both drives, but no big deal. Now her drive isn't appearing.
So... I tried to repair it, no good. Tried to erase both her partition and mine (to just start over): no good. I can't do anything to either of these partitions now, from either computer. Tried everything I could think of in Disk Utility, from both computers. Won't erase, won't re-partition. Not a hardware issue: it all started when I did this stupid Re-Partition. Help!!!!
I want to erase the drive and start over. Can anyone advise??

Jasonmo,
First, let's talk about the various partition schemes. A partition scheme applies to the entire drive. Specifically, these are different maps written to the drive, within which volumes are created. As such, this is an either/or thing; your drive is partitioned using either the GUID Scheme, or the Apple Scheme, not both.
"Live" partitioning or re-sizing of existing volumes is supported only under the GUID Partition Scheme. If the drive wasn't using this scheme, you would not be able to re-size as you were attempting to do. Even re-sizing under the GUID scheme requires that the drive's maps and directory structures be in very good shape, if it is to work without hitch.
Are you absolutely certain that there isn't some physical problem with the drive, or with its interface (cables and such)? If it is operating normally, you should be able to re-partition it without problems. In DIsk Utility, select the drive (not a named volume that will appear indented underneath), then click the "Partition" tab. If you wish to be able to re-size volumes later, you must choose the GUID scheme from the "Options..." dialogue sheet. Set appropriate sizes for the volumes, then click "Apply." Doing so will destroy all current volumes and data on the drive.
Scott

Time Machine hard drive need to be reformatted?

I upgraded from Leopard about 6 hours ago and so far I haven't had any issues with Snow Leopard and it is noticeably faster and more stable. However, when I just plugged in my Time Machine backup drive I got a message saying the "disk was unreadable by this computer". That never happened until I installed Snow Leopard. Does my time machine backup HDD need to be reformatted to work with Snow Leopard??? Is there a chance that version 10.6.1 will fix this little issue soon?

If you're sure you've got all your data on your Mac now, and it's solid, you could erase your external drive and do a backup right off.
I also would search as I thought I saw someone with a simple fix for a similar issue here.
Scott

How can I import my IE8 bookmarks/favorites into Safari if I only have access to the data stored on my old hard drive? I can't run Windows to export them to an html file.

My old PC died and I replaced it with a MacBook Pro. Although I was able to copy the data from the PC's hard drive, I am unable to export my previous bookmarks/favorites to an html file because that PC won't boot. Is there any other way to import them into Safari using the raw data stored on that drive or convert them somehow to a format I can import?

You can only use a JSON backup to restore all bookmarks in Firefox.<br />
If you need to import Firefox bookmarks in Safari then you need to (re)install Firefox and export the bookmarks to an HTML file.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Backing_up_and_restoring_bookmarks_-_Firefox

Can I get a time machine hard drive to restore onto Windows XP?

Yeah, I just bought an iMac and I figured why not sell my Mac Mini? So I have time machine on and I back up all my files to my external hard drive of course. Now, sense I am selling my Mac Mini, I need to use Windows XP on my old PC for a month cause I custom ordered an iMac and that takes 6 weeks. Will my external hard drive with time machine back ups work with Windows XP so I can restore all of my files from my hard drive to Windows XP? and than also, will I be able to put my files back onto the hard drive and than load them all up to my new iMac?

The external hard drive you have been using for Time Machine will most likely not be recognized by Windows XP. The external hard drive is formated as HPFS. You may be able to read files from it (not sure) but you won't be able to write anything new.
When you get your new iMac, however, you can plug in that external hard drive and tell Leopard to load your account, documents, bookmarks, contacts, applications, etc. It will make your new iMac look like and behave like your old mac mini. It's pretty cool.
I hope this helps,
Julian

Can I use my time machine hard drive to transfer files to a pc?

Hello everyone.
I recently broke my macbook, and had to replace it with a pc laptop. I have my data saved on a time machine enabled external hard drive.
How can I use that hard drive to put my files (music/word documents) to the pc?
Any information would be greatly appreciated.

YoHenYo wrote:
Hello everyone.
I recently broke my macbook, and had to replace it with a pc laptop. I have my data saved on a time machine enabled external hard drive.
How can I use that hard drive to put my files (music/word documents) to the pc?
Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Sadly, in your case, the TM backup is practically useless. TM provides a backup primarily for the machine to which it is connected, and then, only through the TM interface engine, never directly.
The files are not stored in a linear manner as would be in a regular backup - they are linked to each other and each "file" only represents a "delta" or incremental backup unit. The TM engine knows how to reconnect all the links to create the proper file.
What you need to do is get another Macbook similar to yours, and see if you can connect to the TM backup with TM. If you can, then you can restore the files and them copy them onto a FAT32 formatted external HD.
If you network the borrowed Mac with the PC, you can transfer the files over the network, but in any case, you have to use the TM engine to do so.
The only files on the TM backup that are most likely "normal" would be the original files created during the first backup.

Time Machine hard drive is not sleeping.

I have been using a 1TB Maxtor Basics (Seagate?) external USB hard drive for Time Machine on my iMac for over a year now without any problems, until recently. Between backups, the Time Machine HD does not go to sleep anymore. I am certain that until recently it would automatically go to sleep between backups and wake itself for each scheduled hourly backup. The USB HD is now running constantly when the iMac is awake. Has anyone else had this issue? Can anyone confirm that their "Time Machine" does in fact sleep between backups?

tuttle1150 wrote:
Hey Pondini. It appears my Internal HD is not sleeping either.
Since you've already replaced the preferences file (the first suspect), there may be something using both disks. If you're running any anti-virus software, turn it off (or uninstall it). Exclude both from Spotlight Indexing, if you haven't already, via +System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy.+
If that doesn't help, use the +Activity Monitor+ app (in your Applications/Utilities folder), to see what's running. When it starts, select either +All Processes+ or +Active Processes+ in the toolbar, and sort the list by the +% CPU+ column, so the highest numbers are on top, and select the CPU tab towards the bottom. Some system processes run more or less continually, so it's not easy to see what's using the disk(s), but you may find something. If the process(es) involved aren't familiar to you, post their names here (and/or check this out: http://triviaware.com/macprocess/all)
I would like to do an "Erase and Instal"
That's extreeeeeeeemly unlikely to change anything, unless you have some software that you loaded for the Maxtor (if so, just delete it and Restart).
As another poster (Kiraly, I think) says, that's like fixing a dripping faucet by tearing out the kitchen!
but although I know my Documents are backed-up, where are the other things like all my emails and stickies, favourites, notes etc. filed?
What are you contemplating? Erasing your HD, installing OSX, applying the "combo," and selectively restoring things? If so, that's a large project, with very little chance of success.
First, make a second full backup on a separate external HD, via the Restore tab of Disk Utility, CarbonCopyCloner, SuperDuper, or the like. It's rare, but on occasion a backup drive fails during a restore, and everything is lost.
Then, here's what you'd be looking at:
|
• Erase your internal HD, per the yellow box in #1 of [Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DU.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Using Snow Leopard+ forum).
• Quit Disk Utility, and install OSX from your Snow Leopard Install disc.
• Set up a temporary User Account (different from any on your backups).
• Go through the set-up procedure for your Internet connection(s), power settings, and other system-wide settings and preferences.
• Download and install the "combo" update, to get back to your current version of OSX.
• If you've upgraded either OSX or iLife since purchasing your Mac, find the disks with iLife and restore those apps.
• Find all the discs for 3rd-party apps and install them. Re-enter any purchase keys.
• Find the websites for all downloaded 3rd-party apps, download and install them. Re-enter any purchase keys.
• Restore whatever data you saved. See #28 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum) for some common data.
• Re-enter all your Users' preferences and settings, including email accounts: account info, passwords, server names, etc. (if you didn’t save them).
• Wonder what you missed, and find out the hard way . . . for months . . . or longer.
|
Is it really worth all that?

Time machine & hard drive errors

I'm using Time Machine to back up my OpSys hard drive to an external USB connected hard drive.
It will run without a problem for a week, or two weeks, maybe even a month before I get a message telling me the backup failed because (a) could not read from the external drive (b) could not write to the external drive. I'm told to run disk repair and when I do I am told it cannot be repaired. It is always an invalid node value. Something like the node should be 4067 but is 125429461.
Erasing the USB connected disk and starting over seems to work better if I first erase the disk using data protection (write 0s across the entire drive). I've never seen an error when performing the protected erase.
*Is the partition / format / erase utility capable of producing an error message if the hard drive has problems?*
After the erase of the drive Time Machine will usually be able to run back ups normally for a week, two weeks, maybe a month, before I get another error (bad NODE).
I also used another hard drive in the external USB enclosure and encountered similar problems before switching to another hard drive which is three years old but until recently was rarely powered up.
After searching for tools which would allow me to perform a diagnostic on the hard drive I have come up empty. This hard drive has not been used extensively. It spent most of the first three years of it's life powered down in a external USB enclosure, thus I am reluctant to assume the hard drive is failing, but anything is possible.
I did recently have this hard drive installed internally for a short time and never saw an error message when it was in use.
I'm beginning to form the opinion Time Machine might be the source of the problem, perhaps a bug in it's process. I have noted some other people posting opinions that Time Machine isn't very reliable in other internet forums.
While I could buy a new hard drive and see if that solves the problem, I thought I would see if anyone here has any useful feedback.
Another possibility is the USB enclosure is the source of the problem. An intermittent failure of some kind within the enclosure could easily make solving this very challenging.
I'm very interested to read any and all feedback,
Thank you,
~ Allen

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
It's unlikely a Time Machine problem; Time Machine uses the normal OSX facilities to read & write, they're the ones that actually manage the +file structure.+ Time Machine does use a complex and somewhat unusual file structure, though, including a huge number of hard links (sort of like aliases).
You're probably right that it's somewhere in the chain of port, cable, enclosure, and drive. So try different ports, cables, and combinations of the two (a plug that works fine in one port may not make good contact in another). If that doesn't help, it's probably the enclosure or drive.

How to Restore Data Deleted from Time Capsule Hard Drive

This question is more about the time capsule in general as opposed to a specific time machine issue.
I'm using my time capsule as an external hard drive that I can access wirelessly and I have accidentally deleted a folder. It didn't go into the trash can on the computer I used to delete the file from my TC, it just disappeared. I have data recovery software (Data Rescue III) but it is unable to locate the TC since it is not a plugged in device. I've tried connecting my computer to the TC via wireless, ethernet, and usb but Data Rescue still won't detect the TC.
How can I get the files back? Is there a way to restore files deleted from the TC when it's being used as a hard drive (not as a time machine for backups)?
THANKS!!!
Message was edited by: jenniex
Message was edited by: jenniex

There is only one USB port on the back of the Time Capsule, and AFAICT from reading Apple's documentation, the only uses for that port are to connect an external hard drive or printer. You could try connecting that port to your Mac directly via USB cable, but nothing I can find indicates it would work, and you would be solely responsible if it somehow damaged either device (which may or may not even be a possible side effect).
Unfortunately, if connecting the Mac to the Time Capsule via USB does not work, you're probably out of luck. Unless you are willing to crack open the Time Capsule, remove the hard drive and put it in an external enclosure so you can access it with Data Rescue, your data will remain lost. Note for the future that you absolutely *should not ever* keep original, un-backed-up data on a backup drive. It's poor organization and dangerous to boot.

Time Machine - hard drive failed, isn't recognized by Finder

Hi,
Yesterday I went to plug in my Time Machine external hard drive to my Macbook Pro (Mid 2010, running Mountain Lion 10.8.2). The hard drive is a 320 GB Toshiba hard drive that I salvaged from an old laptop. The EHD is in a Kingston enclosure and connects to my Mac through USB (1 cord for everything). I have been using this setup for probably about a year at least.
Anyways, when I plugged it in yesterday, it did not show up in Finder. The blue light on the outside of the enclosure was still lit, and I could hear the hard drive spinning normally. I tried a couple other USB cables, but to no avail. The USB ports work with other things (e.g. my flash drive). I turned off Time Machine, and restarted my computer several times. Nothing worked.
I went into Disk Utility, and noticed that the hard drive itself appears, but the Time Machine partition is greyed out right underneath it. DU says on the bottom that the Time Machine is Not Mounted, and gives the format (Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)) and the capacity (320 gb).
When I try to eject through DU, it gives me this message:
The disk “Time Machine” could not be unmounted.
Make sure that all applications and files are closed on this disk.
BUT, it isn't even mounted!
I figured that I would just try to erase the hard drive, since it's only a time machine backup. Nope! It hanged right at the very beginning trying to unmount the disk that isn't even mounted.
I've looked on Google and on these boards and haven't found anything that could help me...so...
Help?
Thanks!

No luck.
I clicked on the hard drive itself (Kingston 320 GB) and clicked "Erase". I waited about an hour with the only activity being a striped bar at the bottom of DU saying "Unmounting".
So I tried just erasing the Time Machine partition. I immediately got this message (or something along the lines of it): "Disk Utility cannot erase the disk. Cannot open disk."
I tried mounting and unmounting the time machine partition, but would get messages saying that the disk cannot be unmounted, and that the disk cannot be mounted. Rather contradictory!
I tried ejecting the hard drive through DU by clicking the "Eject" button, but it said it could not eject the disk because it was in use, or something along the lines of that.
Any other advice?

Time Machine, Hard Drive, AirPort Extreme, and possible damage?

I plugged in an external HD to my AirPort Extreme (gigabit) base station today and started a Time Machine backup to it. After about 8 hours, I had transferred only 12 gigs of my 46 and ended up stopping it. I realize only the initial backup should take forever, but I am afraid that running the MacBook Pro hard drive constantly for hours could damage it. Are the portable hard drives capable of running for hours on end? What's the risk of damaging it?
I didn't notice any major heat issues with the Penryn MacBook Pro while doing this, but I didn't want the hard drive to break either. Plus, the wireless backup just takes way too long. I can't run an N only network because I have older AirPort expresses (WDS), older G clients in the house, and some iPhones that need to get online. I understand that 802.11g is slower than N, but it's way too slow for wireless backups.

Connecting a USB HDD to an Extreme can be used for Time Machine backups, but it is not officially supported by Apple. You will have to start a new TM backup if you are using the Extreme as TM backups to a NAS (vs. local disks) will backup as a sparsebundle (vs. your current folder format). The same goes for backup to a Time Capsule.

Getting to data stored in time machine hard drive

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