How do I copy old Time Machine back-up data onto my new (second) back up drive?

I recently bought a second back-up drive for use with my MacBook Pro (running 10.9.4).
I'm successfully backing up my computer to both drives on a regular basis using Time Machine. (a Seagate drive and a Western Digital drive respectively)
I was wondering if there's an easy way to add the old back-up files from the old drive to the new drive as well. That is to say, I wish I had all the data that precedes my new back-up drive on BOTH drives. There's plenty of space on the new drive.
Again, I'm already running Time Machine successfully to both drives, is it perhaps as easy as connecting both drives to my computer and copying the older dated back-up files over to the newer drive within the Backups.backupdb folder for my profile?
Thanks for any help!

Although the documentation says you can copy Time Machine backups in the Finder, it's very slow and sometimes doesn't work at all.
This technique will only work if the volume you're copying to is the same size, or larger than, the one you're copying from.
First, open the Time Machine preference pane and click the Options button. You may have to unlock the settings first by clicking the padlock icon in the lower left corner of the window. Authenticate as an administrator.
Delete the volume you're going to copy from the list of backup destinations. Then turn Time Machine OFF.
Launch Disk Utility, open the built-in help, and search for the term "Duplicate." Follow the instructions. All existing data on the destination volume will be erased.
If the volume you're copying was encrypted by Time Machine, you may have to unlock it first. Click the Unlock button in the toolbar of the Disk Utility window.
Turn Time Machine back ON and select the new volume as a backup destination. You can also continue to use the old volume, if you wish. The two will be alternated when both are available.
CAUTION: If the volume you're copying is corrupt, as shown by Repair Disk or Verify Disk in Disk Utility, then that corruption will be copied to the new drive. Don't copy data from a corrupt volume on a malfunctioning drive. Put the drive aside and don't use it until you're sure you'll no longer need the data. Then securely erase it and take it to a recycling center. Do the same if the Restore operation fails with "disk errors."

Similar Messages

  • How can I copy a time machine backup from one Time Capsule to another ?

    How can I copy a time machine backup from one Time Capsule to another ? I bought a 1 Tb Time Capsule to replace my 512Mb Time Capsule. Now, I like to copy my time machine backup from the old Time Capsule to the new one so I can keep using my backup.

    from this support article: 
    (click on image to enlarge)

  • How do I copy a time machine backup onto my old computer after I've replaced the hard drive?

    Hi everyone,
    I own a MacBook that I purchased in 2009, and it's served me very well since then; the only exception is that the hard drive suffered after I dropped the computer, and I had to replace it last month.
    The old hard drive is now useless, and the new one is nearly blank, and I'd like to upload my old Time Machine contents onto my computer without losing some new files I've gained. What's the best way to do it?
    Thanks!

    Use Migration Assistant to move over the files from the Time Machine backup to the Mac.
    Finder > Applications > Utilities > Migration Assistant

  • How do I copy my time machine back up from a smaller Hard disk to a larger hard disk; so that I can then continue to back up, through Time machine, on the larger hard disk?

    I am using time machine for backing up on an external hard disk. This has now become full and every back up results in the deletion of the first back up on the hard drive.
    I have bought a larger hard drive now and am trying to copy the back up from the smaller hard drive to the new larger hard drive, using Finder. This is not happening and the message I am getting is
    "The volume has the wrong case sensitivity for a back up"

    Hello UmeshNB,
    Thanks for the question. Based on what you stated, it seems like you are not able to move a backup to another drive. I would recommend that you read this article, it may be able to help you isolate or resolve the issue.
    Time Machine: How to transfer backups from the current backup drive to a new backup drive - Apple Support
    If it is not formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), reformat the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID partition. If you do not know how, see the steps in this article. 
    If the drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended but without journaling, OS X may state that "the volume has the wrong case sensitivity" to be used as a back up disk.
    Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
    Cheers,
    Mario

  • How do you delete old time machine back ups?

    I have a 2009 iMac (currently on Snow Leopard) that has been using Time Machine (TM) to back up to a 2009 Time Capsule (TC) since new.  I have a 2011 Macbook Pro (currently on Snow Leopard soon to be Lion) that I would like to begin backing up using TM to the TC as well.  The problem is that I recently did one back up of the MBP to the TC and it used almost all of the remaining space on the TC.  Going forward the iMac has continued to back up to the TC creating space by deleting it's oldest back ups.  The MBP however says there is not enough space to back it up.  I am guessing that the TM for the MBP is unable to delete old back ups of the iMac to create space and since there is only 1 back up of the MBP it cannot delete that.
    So... long story short is it okay for me to go into the TC to delete old back ups of the iMac manually and if it is how do I do that?
    Thanks for your help in advance
    djbrown

    Is this more what you mean?
    Re: Can not delete sparsebundle backup 
    Nov 17, 2009 8:30 PM (in response to Ricardo Blach)
    +What I really need is to delete the old sparsebundle from the TC. How can I do that?+ 
    Open your Hard Drive and look for the Time Capsule icon under the SHARED heading. Click the TC icon and a folder will appear to the right. Double click this folder. 
    You should now see a xxxxx.sparsebundle file for each of the computers that have been backing up. The file contains the name of the computer and the MAC address so you should be able to easily identify the xxxxx.sparsebundle file that you want to delete. 
    Click the xxxxx.sparsebundle file to highlight it and then click the gear shaped icon just above and select Move to Trash. 
    Be very careful since you will not be able to retrieve the file if you make a mistake and delete the wrong file.
    That comes from https://discussions.apple.com/message/10595875#10595875
    ...and no, I don't think I'm related to that Dave Bean.
    david

  • How can I remove old Time Machine back-ups for a Mac I no longer have??

    So, i am trying to back-up a brand new MBPro to my Time Machine but it says there's not enough room. Only 13.5 GB avail and need 284 GB. Is there a way to go into Time Machine and delete all the old back-ups from my former MBPro? (I've already migrated all the files and data to the new MBP from my iMac, also on the same Time Machine.) If I could wipe out the old MBP back-ups that should create enough room.

    Delete the backups.
    Q12 here. http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

  • HT3275 how do i delete old time machine back ups?

    I just switched to a new MBP, and my external drive does not recognize it.  How do I delete old backups in order to make room on the external for the new computer's backups?
    Thank you.

    You could click on the time capsule in the SHARED panel in Finder, then enter your data folder and delete the sparsebundles, but that will take some hours for the delete to finish with the millions of nodes.
    You could also use the airport utility and click on the DISK tab, then do a quick erase.

  • How do I copy the Time Machine backup folder to another folder? (Mac 10.7.5)

    Short version:  I like to make an initial backup of my Mac OS before I start installing stuff...just in case I need to get back to square one down the road.  I travel as a freelancer for work, so every couple of months, I'm on a new rented system.  But I need to move that initial backup folder to a sub-folder so that I can continue to run TM without ever deleting anything from that initial backup.  When I go to move or copy it to another folder or drive, it tells me I don't have permission. How do I get permission to move it?
    I've tried changing the permissions on the folder itself... It won't let me select any other users, and admins are not on the "write" list.  No dice.
    Any ideas?
    I'm on a Mac Pro 8-core
    MacPro3,1
    OS 10.7.5
    Thanks!

    Yeah, sorry...but there doesn't seem to be a "Time Machine" forum anywhere, this was the closest I could find.  I could have posted in OS 10.7 forum...but I was worried the traffic would be much lighter there.  If I should move my question there, I will.
    Ok, so my Time Machine has backed up to my external drive which I have split into two separate partitions.  I do not have automatic backups on.  I just ran it once to get the "footprint" before I start to alter things to my needs.  I'd like to compress and put away the backup on that first partition as sort of a general "back to square one" backup.  I chose to use Time Machine because I can literally restore it back to all the original settings, etc.  This is just a fire plan, but I really want to lock it off.
    Then, I want to set my second partition on that same drive as my incremental Time Machine backup.  That way, once I run out of space and it begins deleting the old stuff (and I will run out of space...I export several hundred gigs of video files per day), I can always retain that initial backup.
    The problem is, when I go to move that backup....AFTER I've pointed Time Machine to the new partition...or any other drive for that matter... It tells me that either the folder doesn't have "ownership rights" or it simply "cannot do that."  (I'll snag you a screen grab next time I'm by it if you want.)
    So, how do I get it to move where I want it so that I can make a new one?

  • How to keep using old Time Machine

    Recently, I've reinstalled Mountain Lion because the boot volume suddenly and mysteriously corrupted itself.
    I initialized and restored the boot volume from a SuperDuper! backup.
    I had to reinitialize the Time Machine volume because once restored, it was convinced that this was an additional volume which needed to backed up and it deleted all its archives and then said it diedn't have enough space to accomodate this new backup.
    I then realized that I forgot to include a recovery volume, so I had Carbon Copy Cloner put in a Recovery HD. This changed the size of the boot volume, and again Time Machine was convinced this was a different volume so I had to reinitialize the Time Machine and start that over. This is no big deal except that it blows away your history, and you lose all your old archival data.
    Is there a way to convince Time Machine that though the modification date or volume size has changed, it's still the same volume with the same data so I don't have to blow everything away and start over?

    Inherit a Backup
    Inherit a Backup (2)

  • How do I copy by time machine files to another external HD?

    I would like to copy the data I have in my time machine to another external HD so that I have two backups; one I can store offsight and one I can have connected to my computer.  Can this be done and if so, how does one do it?

    My time machine has files going back to May 2011 and contains over 500GB; my computer has only 320GB capacity. I would like to set up another external HD with the time Machine files on it so that I can use both backups alternately storing one off site and one connected to my computer.  After a couple weeks then alternate them so I always a backup offsite; thus having two HD containing my time machine files.

  • How do I remove old time machine backups?

    Yesterday I learned that I had no more room in my external hard drive to back up my computer, so I moved old backups to trash. Computer won't let me delete them and I don't know how to put them back.
    Has anyone faced this before? What should I do?

    Hi. I read this very helpful....but I wish I had seen it before I put old backups into the trash.....can't explain exactly how or why but my computer crashed and when it came back to life the trash was emptied....but now I can't get time machine to work at all. I imagine I need to reconfigure my external hard drive.....any other ideas?
    Thanks for all your help.

  • How might I move my Time Machine Backups.backupdb file to a partition on a different drive to enable reformatting the drive it is on, so that might put it back in place later?

    I have an external drive I use as my Time Machine backup location.
    Recently, I started getting an error on it.  It tells me there is a problem, and to repair it with Disk Utility.  Disk Utility cannot verify the disk, and needs me to repair it, but it cannot repair it. It advises me to copy all of the important files from this disk to another location, and then reformat the drive.
    So, I have copied all of the files that were not part of the Backups.backupdb folder structure to a partition on another disk, and removed them from the defecting drive, leaving ~250GB of files in the Time Machine backups files.
    I cannot seem to get this to copy to a ~350GB folder on another drive, formatted Journaled, Extended as recommended.
    What do I do?

    A Time Machine backup is owned by TM.. this is standard kind of issue.. the very fact that you cannot copy it suggests it is corrupt.. or you cannot change permissions on the whole file.. let me assure you the way TM works.. what you have so far copied is completely useless.
    Have you run a verify of the backup??
    The fact that disk utility is not working means something is wrong.. it should be able to fix a drive..
    And the fact the drive is only 12-18months old is also not relevant.. the present state of the drive is too poor to be considered reliable.
    What type of drive is it.. ie USB2 USB3 and what brand??
    It is not just the disk that can go bad but the controller/power supply as well.. and some brands seem to have bad batches.. eg seagate USB drives I was seeing recently.
    I prefer drives where I buy a shell and put the drive into it.. so I can move the drive to another shell without breaking warranty (or the case).
    The actual command for terminal I always just look up when I want to do them.. I am getting old and I have no space left for command line stuff.. although it was all there in the past.
    eg today I hit. http://www.cnet.com/au/news/using-the-os-x-terminal-instead-of-the-finder-to-cop y-files/
    This includes the rsync command.. lets try this one..
    I can copy my downloads directory to a time capsule disk. I start with login as super user just to make sure I don't have permissions issues.. you should definitely do this. running rsync is great as it will give you info when it fails and it will do incremental if you run it again later. You construct the command by simply dragging the folder from finder into terminal and slightly modifying it as per the article above.. So my actual command as I am copying deliberately to a new folder on the TC.. You don't want files to land on the root.. even if it creates another folder.
    $ sudo su
    Password:
    sh-3.2# rsync -av /Users/Ray/Downloads/* /Volumes/DataTCgen3/downloads/
    building file list ... done
    #A 12v25v Descrip.doc
    $T2eC16V,!)!E9s2fB+iqBQNKwsSzpQ~~60_3.JPG
    $_12.JPG
    0198f23d9wahwkzzsf20dk15czcy.pdf
    0340039AINETCNCTKGS.PDF
    I have 60GB or so in this folder and it is copying at about 20MB/s over ethernet.. so it is not super fast.. but there is probably some error checking going on at the same time.

  • Moved User to new account.  How to connect to old Time Machine backup.

    Hello.  I've just upgraded my wife's macbook pro to Mavericks.  There was an issue with the install and we couldn't launch programs.  I noticed that while logged in as Guest everything worked, so after many other futile attempts I created a new user and moved all her docs, etc. to the new user.  I've renamed her old account and changed her new one to her previous name.  All appears to work and everyone is happy.  Except Time Machine.  She now has a bcakup for an account she no longer uses and no backup for the account she does.  Is there a way to connect the new account to the old backup so as to retain all the historical data?
    Thanks in advance,
    Mike

    Time Machine backs up the whole computer, not just one account, so unless some hardware was changed or you erased the internal hard drive, I think Time Machine should continue to work. What are you seeing that indicates it's not backing up?
    If it's indeed not working, see Pondini's excellent website for everything having to do with Time Machine: http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
    One page that might be particularly applicable to your situation is: http://pondini.org/TM/19.html

  • How do I copy a Time Machine file to WD MyCloud

    I want to change my Time Machine backup drive to a WD MyCloud 4T.   If I try to copy the backup to the new drive as per Apple instructions (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5096) it tells me the volume is the wrong format.  Is it possible to transfer the files or not?  WD state Mac/Time Machine compatibility so I assumed it would be possible.  Can anyone help?

    your new WD 4TB needs to first be formatted for Mac use,  Mac OSX extended journaled.
    I assume you know formatting erases anything on the target drive your formatting........

  • How do I reaktivate old Time Machine file?

    I have a disk with an older version of Time Machine (Mymacsname).sparsebundle. How can I use this file instead of creating a new one as Time Machine doing?

    Did the backups in that "sparsebundle" file come from the same Mac, with the same disk drive?  If not, Time Machine will create a new file.
    Is the disk containing that "sparsebundle" file connected directly to your Mac or is it connected by way of a network?  That "sparsebundle" file would have been created when the disk was connected by way of a network.  Time Machine manages local disk backups differently from network backups.

Maybe you are looking for

  • "Capture 3D plug-in damaged" error upon start of Acrobat 9 Pro Extended - Possible Fix

    After installing Acrobat Pro Extended 9.0.332, I received a "capture 3d plug-in damaged" error every time the program started. Looking for remnants of SolidWorks in the registry found nothing. Here's what fixed the problem for me: I am running Kasper

  • How to get the dynamic Crosstab header Title

    Hi, my sql show as below select country,province, month, income from salestable As above content ,I build a crosstab ,use the month as left column,use "country" as level 1 header column ,use province as level2 header column,use income as summary valu

  • IPhoto Not Recognised in Other Applications

    Hi there, I really need help here and step-by-step guidance would really be appreciated. First, I saw the article relating to this on the website and it didn't solve the problem (new xml file). Originally I had iLife 2006 installed and I upgraded to

  • New iphone 4S doesn't let me send/receive text messages to non-iPhone users...how can I change this?

    wondering if it is due to a brief stop in service but I am not receiving messages from non-iPhone contacts and not allowing me to send--even though it appears as I sent a text--recipients are not getting the texts I send IF they do not have an iPhone

  • 1099 Question for sales tax

    When we add additional distribution lines to an invoice for sales tax the income tax type field is automatically populated based on the supplier setup. Should sales tax lines be included in the total income reported on a 1099?