Help migrating with Time Machine

Hi there!
I have a couple of questions regarding Time Machine,thanks in advance to anyone can help.
I have to sell my Imac and i have to wait for a couple of weeks until i get a new one.
What i need to know is if it is possible mirror my Imac,System,data,settings,files.. everything) into an external HD to later install OSX into a new machine from the external HD,so the new machne is exactly as this Imac am sellng?
Asking because a not sure if Time Machine does that os just saves files and settings.
Also i have a couple questions more regarding Time Machine
Can the external hd be a USB one? or has to be FW?
I never backed up my osx via Time Machine before,does it takes long in copying for he first time?its a 250GB internal drive...
Many thanks again
P

Welcome to Apple Discussions.
pacoclandestino1 wrote:
What i need to know is if it is possible mirror my Imac,System,data,settings,files.. everything) into an external HD to later install OSX into a new machine from the external HD, so the new machne is exactly as this Imac am sellng?
Yes, you can do this TM or what I would suggest would be using SuperDuper or CarbonCopy Cloner. Both will make exact copies/clones. The advantage of SD or CCC over TM is the disk will be workable & bootable.
pacoclandestino1 wrote:
I never backed up my osx via Time Machine before,does it takes long in copying for he first time?its a 250GB internal drive...
Depends how much data is written to it... figure on 1/2 hr to an hour, or a bit longer.
Also i have a couple questions more regarding Time Machine
I never backed up my osx via Time Machine before,does it takes long in copying for he first time?its a 250GB internal drive...
In Intel MAcs the drive can be either firewire or USB but of course the fastest transfer speeds would be firewire 800.
EDIT: Also, The proper way to "clean" a computer before selling it is to zero the hard drive. This will make all your data irretrievable.
Steps for zeroing the drive Disk Utility:
1. Insert your Mac OS X CD-ROM disc or Restore DVD disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key until you see the spinning gear.
2. Once started up from CD or DVD, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu.
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from disc to access Disk Utility.
3. Choose the entire disk (top icon).
4. Choose erase tab.
5. Click on Options
6. Choose "write zeros".
7. Erase
This will take a bit of time because the computer is physically writing zeros to each block.
You should then re-install the original OS from the system disks and deliver the Mac to the new owner with the system disks that shipped with it.
If you want it to boot as new startup and create an admin account:
Then, launch Terminal and type:
sudo rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
Press Return
Then
cd /
Press REturn
Then:
sudo rm -r /Users/yourname
Press return.
Then:
sudo nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb delete /users/yourname/
Press return
Then, shut down the machine immediately.
-mj
Message was edited by: macjack

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powpow wrote:
So, my 2003 iBook was dying a slow death and I had to reinstall Leopard. I did a Time Machine backup first.
After the clean install, I migrated apps/files and all of my applications seemed to transfer fine, but my bookmarks for Safari and Firefox did not import automatically?
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Thanks!
The Bookmark directory is located here:
/Users/YourAccount/Library/Caches/Metadata/Safari/Bookmarks
Where YourAccount is your username.
If you use Finder to browse to that folder and then start TM you should see all past backups of that folder, if they exist.

Help needed with Time Machine multiple drives set up

Hello, I need help in finding out if what I want to do is possible.
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Sharlo wrote:
So here's my question: After reinstalling system TM started normal back-up procedure and I get message not enough space on external disk. I use 200Gb for around 100Gb that I have on my computer (I know not so much but works well for me). What I do not get is why does TM need around 30% more space compared to the space I'm using (wants to back-up 130Gb) and why is it not backing-up the system I've just installed but tries to back-up everything from scratch? Is there a procedure to back-up only changed files since the last version?
Ordinarily, that's exactly what TM does. But this situation isn't ordinary. Everything you restored is considered "*new to that disk"* and will be backed-up again. See #14 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum, and http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1338
The 30% you ask about is actually 20%; the initial estimate of the space needed might be low, and TM needs workspace on the TM disk, so it adds 20% (see #7 in the FAQ Tip.)

Help needed with Time Machine

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So here's my question: After reinstalling system TM started normal back-up procedure and I get message not enough space on external disk. I use 200Gb for around 100Gb that I have on my computer (I know not so much but works well for me). What I do not get is why does TM need around 30% more space compared to the space I'm using (wants to back-up 130Gb) and why is it not backing-up the system I've just installed but tries to back-up everything from scratch? Is there a procedure to back-up only changed files since the last version?
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Sharlo

Sharlo wrote:
So here's my question: After reinstalling system TM started normal back-up procedure and I get message not enough space on external disk. I use 200Gb for around 100Gb that I have on my computer (I know not so much but works well for me). What I do not get is why does TM need around 30% more space compared to the space I'm using (wants to back-up 130Gb) and why is it not backing-up the system I've just installed but tries to back-up everything from scratch? Is there a procedure to back-up only changed files since the last version?
Ordinarily, that's exactly what TM does. But this situation isn't ordinary. Everything you restored is considered "*new to that disk"* and will be backed-up again. See #14 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum, and http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1338
The 30% you ask about is actually 20%; the initial estimate of the space needed might be low, and TM needs workspace on the TM disk, so it adds 20% (see #7 in the FAQ Tip.)

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Have you read for possible solutions over in the "More Like This" thread over here?----------------------->
Research TM Knowledge Base Articles?

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Chris Tomkins1 wrote:
Hi
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No mystery.. this is the most common fault reported here.. you are about number 6 today..
If you look down the front page of this discussion are there still should be one or two.
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PRAM
support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
SMC
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Message was edited by: alfredbeta

Help with Time Machine Backups not working..

Let me preface this by saying I have spent the last day scouring the internet for solutions to my problem. I have tried every option that I have run across and have had no luck in resolving my problem. As a last resort, I'm turning here in hopes that you can be of help.
I have a 2012 Macbook Pro running Moutain Lion. I use an external HD for my time machine backups. I am having an issue with Time Machine not functioning. The initial error message I receive when I attempt to use TM to backup is: "Time machine couldn't coplete the backup to Rick's backup disk". "Unable to complete backup. an error occurred while creating the backup folder".
I searched the forums and net and found several things to do to try and resolve this issue. My computer will freeze out and not let me erase, or re-partition the the hard drive, so I switched it over to an older macbook of my girlfriends and am successfully able to erase, and re-partition the drive (using disk utility) as suggested by several forum postings I have read. I am able to run disk verify and disk repair and both say the disk is "ok" with no issues. The moment the erase and partition is done, her computer prompts a message : "Would you like to use this disk for Time Machine Backups" which tells me it is working properly. When I move it back to my macbook pro and attempt to run TM backup, it will now work and copy about 10g of my 120g before shutting down with this error message:
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"Time machine couldn't coplete the backup to Rick's backup disk". "Unable to complete backup. an error occurred while creating the backup folder".
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rcury4 wrote:
"Time machine couldn't coplete the backup to Rick's backup disk". "Unable to complete backup. an error occurred while creating the backup folder".
See #C10 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting
"Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "Rick's Backup Disk". An error occurred while copying files. The problem may be temporary. If the problem persists, use disk utility to repair your backup disk."
Not one of Apple's more informative messages.
There's a problem with a file on your system. See #C3 in the above link. It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it. If that doesn't help, post back with details, including all the messages, what you've done, and the results.

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?
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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

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