How do I back up a Time Machine Backup

I recently had to reformat the external drive that I use for Time Machine's backup. In the course of doing so, I wiped out several months of TM backup.
What did I need to do to save TM's backup to, say. a CD, so that I might have restored it to its pre-reformat condition? Would it be sufficient to turn off TM, save out the external drive's Backups.backupdb folder, restore that folder to the reformatted drive, and then turn TM on again? Are there other files that need to be saved for this to work or anything else that needs to be done?

Peter Sims wrote:
I recently had to reformat the external drive that I use for Time Machine's backup. In the course of doing so, I wiped out several months of TM backup.
What did I need to do to save TM's backup to, say. a CD, so that I might have restored it to its pre-reformat condition? Would it be sufficient to turn off TM, save out the external drive's Backups.backupdb folder, restore that folder to the reformatted drive, and then turn TM on again? Are there other files that need to be saved for this to work or anything else that needs to be done?
SuperDuper allows a TM backup to be backed up.
v2.5 now available!
The latest version of SuperDuper! can store a bootable backup alongside Time Machine backups, copy Time Machine backups to other drives, run scheduled copies on demand, and polishes and improves many other aspects as well...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Similar Messages

I have bought a new computer and backed up off time machine backup now I cannot open photoshop get error code 150 30 help appreciated.

I have bought a new computer and backed up off time machine backup now I cannot open photoshop get error code 150 30 help appreciated.?

Have you updated your iTunes on your computer? WIth a device running iOS7, you need iTunes 11.
When you removed iTUnes, did you see something named 'apple mobile device support' or something like it? (The exact name varies from operating system to operating system). If you see that, uninstall it too. That's the drivers for your iPhone and they should self-install when you plug your device in.
If all that is fine, have you checked your cable and USB port? a malfunctioning cable can keep you from syncing.

How do I restore files from time machine backups made before reformatting macbook air?

How do I restore files from time machine backups made before reformatting macbook air?

The section titled "Restoring data from Time Machine backups" in the following may help: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427

HT201250 How can I exclude mail from Time Machine backups?

How can I exclude mail from Time Machine backups?

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
Mails are stored on ~/Library/Mail, being ~ your user folder. As you are running Snow Leopard, it's easy to exclude your mails from your Time Machine backup.
Open System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, and add ~/Library/Mail to excluded items, so the next backup won't include mails. Note that you have to go to your user folder, in order to access to this directory

TS1211 I lost one calendar from my Mac Osx 10.5.8 system on G4 how can I find it from time machine backup?

I lost one calendar from my Mac Osx 10.5.8 system on G4 how can I find it from time machine backup?
Can someone help me with that pls !!!!!!

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5176639

How to go back with the time machine..

i think there is a bug and i will like to go back one month in the time machine.. how to.. i go there but when it is time to go back, the buttom is not clear or dark to click on it..

Depends on which OS X version your iMac is running.
Go to > Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac and expand "Restoring data from Time Machine backups" then scroll down to "Restoring your entire system from a backup"

How to get back missing files - time machine problems

3 weeks ago, I bought a new iMac (let me call it A) and put everything from my old iMac onto it using Migrate Assistant via WLAN. It worked fine, but when I found out 2 days later that my 'new' iMac (A) had just been replaced by the 2013 iMac, I was really annoyed and contacted the store. They agreed to change it and so today, after the hourly time machine backup, I disconnected the external hard disk and deleted what I could off the machine that was going back to Apple. Plugged in the brand new iMac (B) today and when prompted, got it to transfer data from my time machine backup. However, although the programmes are there etc. the 'last backup' it used was the one from 20 September, the day before I first connected it to the (A) iMac. And so a lot of documents are missing. When I go onto time machine, it just has a lot of blanks inbetween 20 September and today, although it had been backing up on that 'new' iMac (A) every hour it had been on, but it seems that none of these have been saved. Now it has done a couple of backups today, so there are some new backups under today, but before that, just blanks until 20 September. Firstly, can I get the missing files back? And secondly, what has gone wrong and what should I do to time machine to make sure it doesn't do this again? Thanks!!!

Hi Guys,
I would really like to know, if anyone has an answer to this because I would like to be able to re-download some of my podcasts that I deleted to clear up some disk space.
Thanks very much,
John

How can I tell if my Time Machine backups are encrypted?

Hi - I would really appreciate it if someone could help me find out if my Time Machine backps are actually encrypted.
I know that there is an 'encryption' option when choosing a disc for Time Machine to backup to, but the problem is I cannot remember whether or not I actually ticked it (as it was a couple of years ago).
Other info that might be helpful:
- The disk I use Time Machine to backup to is actually a Apple Time Capsule
- I do have FileVault2 enabled on my mac
- I have never encrypted the Time Capsule disc itself (via Disk Utility or anything similar)
- One possible clue might be: When I go into Time Machine preferences, and click on 'Select Disk...' (as if to choose another disk to back up to), and select the disc that Time Machine currently backs up to (i.e. the Time Capsule disc), it does show an 'Encrypt backups' checkbox at the bottom of the window... however this checkbox is unchecked and also greyed out.
Thanks in advance
a_quinn

a_quinn wrote:
- Because I originally created this Time Machine Backup (to the Time Capsule) back in my 'OS X Lion' days,
I wondered; you posted in the Mountain Lion forum, but your profile still says Lion.
that means that my backups now (and moving forward) will continue to be un-encrypted
Correct (as of now, anyway). You cannot encrypt existing network backups. I doubt that will be available in the future, and would take forever.
- The only way to encyrpt my backups now, moving forward, is to remove this Time Capsule disc (from Time Machine Preferences), and start all over again ensuring that I check the checkbox next to 'Encrypt Backup' when selecting the Time Capsule's disc to backup to.
Well, in theory it's possible, but would take forever, squared.
You could archive the TC's contents to a USB drive connected to it, per #Q6 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule).
Then delete the original, start a backup with encryption, and as soon as the encrypted sparse bundle is created, cancel the backup.
Mount the sparse bundle, open the disk image, and delete the Backups.backupdb folder inside it.
Connect the USB drive to your Mac, mount that sparse bundle, open its disk image, and copy the Backups.backupdb folder to the one on the TC.
Depending on how large the sparse bundle is, that could easily take a couple of days, at least, even connected via Ethernet.
Just for testing one day, I encrypted a very small set of existing test backups on a F/W 800 drive - 6 dated backups using a whole 12 GB. Took an hour.
An alternative would be, just do the "archive" and keep the USB drive "on the shelf" for a while. You can always connect it to your Mac and access those backups via the Browse Other Backup Disks option.
Trying to keep a couple of years worth of backups usually isn't a good idea. It's a very complex structure, so the odds of damage increase, it takes much longer to populate the TM browser, and it works slower and slower, and if you didn't need something for 6 months, are you really going to need it in 2 years?

How do I repair a damaged time machine backup drive/remove pictures from library on locked/failing external drive

I have a WD 1TB external hard drive that I use as my time machine backup drive as well as to store a number of things including my iphoto library (due to its size of about 85 GB) as well as documents. I began using the WD 1TB external drive with my 2007 13" MacBook and when I purchased a brand new 13" MacBook Pro in 2013 I used the WD to transfer what I wanted to the new laptop. My new MacBook Pro is running OSX 10.8.4 (2.9 GHz Interl Core i7 with 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3) (not the retina display). The WD 1TB product # is WDBACX001... and it's only about one year old so I'm super bummed that it's failing and trying to take my life with it It has only ever been used with my two MacBooks, never with a PC.
The external WD was working fine until this week when I noticed that it wasn't appearing on my desktop. I rebooted, unplugged and replugged the WD drive in each USB portal, and still nothing. I ran Disk Utility to verify and repair the disk, which did force it to show up on the desktop again, though it made everything painfully slow. After running the repair function Disk Utility told me that the drive couldn't be repaired, and that I should backup whatever is on it and restore the WD drive. I managed to pull off most of the documents before it decided to freeze up my laptop (I had a couple of folders with a few documents each left), but I wasn't able to move the iphoto library over before the drive disappeared again. I got it back by running the repair option in disk utility, with the same message that the WD drive is failing and to back it up, and tried to move the iphoto library. It told me it would take 180+ days, and kept going up. I left it up anyway for about a day to see if it would change, and instead it gave an error message, and moved nothing. I can't open the library in iPhoto- it tells me it's on a locked disk. I checked the permissions and it's set to Read & write by me (the admin user) but then under that it says read only for "everyone." I can't get into the library to pull out my pictures, which I cannot afford to lose.
I would appreciate any help or advice on how to crack into my iphoto library on this failing drive to remove the pictures. I read a lot about DiskWarrior but I also read that it won't work on newer macs (anything after June of 2012 supposedly), so I'm wondering if that's true or not, and if not is that a good program to use?
I can't afford to take it to a professional right now, so any help or advice would be so greatly appreciated! Also if anyone then could suggest the best way to back up in two places (digitally and perhaps a better brand of external drive) it would be amazing.
If you need more info let me know!

If you're very lucky, you might be able to salvage the drive mechanism, and the data, by removing it from the enclosure and installing it in another one, or in a drive dock.

Time Capsule: How can one limit size of Time Machine Backup?

So there appears to be no easy way of partitioning the hard drive in Time Capsule. If this is so how does one limit the size of the Time Machine backups folders?
I want to use the hard drive to act as a normal storage device for various files but I understand that Time Machine will keep on increasing the size of the backups folder until it eventually runs out of space on the hard drive partition. Since one cannot re-partition the hard drive how can Time Machine be allotted only a specific portion of the hard drive? I don't want the hard drive to be filled with Time Machine backup folders.

Thanks BSP. Yes I am aware of the ability to limit the folders that TM backs up. I use this capability, But that certainly is not the solution I want.
I have not bought Time Capsule and probably will not buy it unless Apple fix this 'problem' and make the hard drive in TC behave like any other hard drive.
Why is it that Apple comes up with innovative designs which are let down by being 'crippled' in some way? Apple TV is another good example; can you steam from DVD Player? No. Can one steam a presentation directly from Keynote? No. With a little more thought Apple's products would be great. But, alas, this is not the case.

How to show invisible items in Time Machine Backups?

Dear All,
How can I show invisble items on //Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb ?
I've backed //Lion/Users/User/Library , but when i checked the backed folder, i could not find it.
Any help!!!
Regards,
Abdelaal,

Open Terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal.app) and paste this command
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE; killall Finder
To turn invisible files off again, use
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE; killall Finder

How can I have two different Time Machine backups in Lion?

I would like to have two separate external hard drive Time Machine backups of the same computer. One to keep at home and one to take to work as a safety net. Is this possible in Lion? And if so, how do I do it?
I currently have an older EHD with my back up data on it, and a newer one that I have been backing up to for the past couple of weeks. When I hook up the older EHD, Time Machine does not recognize the old backup data (ie. oldest backup and latest backup say "None").

Hey mrssqueegy,
Thanks for the question. The feature you are searching for was introduced with OS X Mountain Lion. If your computer is compatible, I would definitely recommend upgrading to take advantage of this great feature:
Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
OS X Mountain Lion and later let you:
- Encrypt AirPort Time Capsule backups and network backup.
- Select multiple backup destinations that Time Machine will rotate through for backup cycles.
- Complete backups when the Mac is in Power Nap (on compatible Macs).
Thanks,
Matt M.

How can I delete all the Time Machine backups to make room for more? And how do I force the trash to empty?

I moved a bunch of my husband's files from his Macbook (which is dieing) to my iMac. I created a user for him on my iMac so he'd be able to keep his stuff separate from mine. All is working great except my Time Machine is now unable to backup. The total of used space on my hard drive (including the recently added user's files) is about 420 GB. The amount of capacity of my external hard drive is 999GB. I think Time Machine failed because there was all of a sudden so much more data and a new full backup would be more than the unused capacity of the HD? Regardless I don't need any old backups. I have all my files and all his files. So I moved all the backups from the external HD to the trash. Apparently that's a no no. I can't fully empty the trash now and that is making my iMac crazy slow.
1) Can anyone tell me how to force the trash to empty?
2) Is there a way to delete the whole external HD and start over with a new full backup via Time Machine? In Disk Utility I try to erase the partition and get an error "Volume Erase failed with the error: Couldn't unmount disk." Then I try to Unmount it and get another "Unmount failed. The disk Backup iOmega could not be unmounted. Make sure that all applications and files are closed on this disk." I turned off Time Machine and tried again but with the same errors.
The external HD is called iOmega. It only connects to the iMac with USB. Any help is much appreciated!!!!

Try this instead:
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. Select the backup volume from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
4. Click on the Erase button.
You will need to reconfigure Time Machine preferences for the backup.
FYI: Never remove Time Machine backup data except through the Time Machine application. If you aren't sure about using Time Machine then visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things related to Time Machine.

How do a clean install from Time Machine Backup which is in other partition of internal hard drive

I have 2 partitions in my internal hard drive they are
1. Mac OS (Sysem Files)
2. HDD (Other Personal Documents).
I did Time Machine Backup in HDD partition. So now i want to do clean install from the Time Machine Backup without format the whole drive since my system not booting meant that system crashed and cant boot in anyway (Just consider ). Also I have MAC bootable USB stick.
Thanks in advance .

Having never seen a setup like that, I'm not sure how it will work.
In theory, just erase the Mac OS volume, then install, choosing to recover from a Time Machine backup.
When you boot into Recovery, open Disk Utility and select the Mac OS volume, not the whole disk. Erase it, then quit DU and restore from the Time Machine backup. However, this is the part I'm not certain of. I would imagine the partition with TM backup will be mounted, but I don't know.
If you can't see the Time Machine backup from the Recovery HD on the drive, try it from the USB Recovery stick (it is a Recovery USB and not the old Lion install USB, correct?)
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4718
If you don't have a "built-in" recovery HD because of your partitioning, then you would have to boot from that USB Recovery disk.
Your setup is severely flawed. A backup on the same drive as the data is not a backup. You will lose everything with a disk failure.
Also, partitioning off your OS on a Mac is not necessary and is probably counterproductive. OS X is not Windows.

How many ways to restore from time machine backup

I inadvertantly reformated an external hard drive with my iPhoto library. I have it backed up with time machine but am having trouble getting to the backup from time machine while iphoto is open. Never shows any backups.
There is device called Time Machine Backups in Finder.From there I follow a path backups.backupdb/<computer name>/2012-06-02-222911/Pictures/Pictures/iPhoto Library which from the size and date modified looks like my iPhoto Library. Can I simply copy this file to my newly formatted drive to restore? Is there someplace that explains in greater detail than help what the meaning of the device "Time Machine Backups" and the contents are?

Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I can't imagine anything TMwise not covered.

How do I back up a Time Machine Backup

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for