How do I make a hard drive "forget" that it was once a (no longer used) Time Machine drive?

I'm starting a new thread on this question in the hope that someone new will notice it.
I've started using a larger hard drive for my TM backups. I want to be able to use the previous drive for other things BUT I also want to keep the oldest TM backup, just in case. In order to do that I want to move all but one day's backup to the trash but of course get the "The operation can’t be completed because backup items can’t be modified." message. I also, of course, can't change the name of the backups.backupdb folder for the same reason. In older OSs it was possible to use a Terminal command to bypass all this but it would seem that it's no longer possible to do this in Mt. Lion.
Note that the old drive is NOT being used in Time Machine, so that's not the problem.
Does anyone know how to make Time Machine realize that the drive is now just a drive, not a Time Machine drive? Obviously I know I can just reformat it but then I'll lose ALL the files. I want to keep one day's worth, so reformatting is not the solution. I do know that I can copy everything over to another drive but I don't have another drive large enough to do that, so need to unflag the one set of files as TM backups and trash the others.
Any help gratefully accepted.

I think I understand your question, but I'm puzzled at what you are trying to accomplish.
Let's say you've been using TM for a year, now you start a new backup set on a different device.
What you seem to want to do is delete all the backups in the old backup set on the old except for the very first backup - ie. the oldest.
That would mean that you would retain the oldest backup from 1 year ago, and all the new backups from the start of the new set forward. Deleting all the past year's backups except for the very first plus the new backups going forward on the new device. Is that what you want?
The only way I know of doing this would be to manually delete in TM all the undesired backups -slow and tedious for sure,
On the other hand, you want to keep the last backup of on the old device then....
Assuming that you started the new back up set shortly after the last backup on the old device, then the first backup on the new and the last on the old are almost identical for all practical purposes.
If that's what you want I'm not sure it accomplishes anything useful.
Can you clarify what you want to achieve/do, so we can help you better.

Similar Messages

How can I replace just the corrupt page(s) in the domain file of iWeb using Time Machine?

I back up with Time Machine and have an extensive elaborate website I created in iWeb '09 over a couple months and publish to a local folder and then upload to my server, but in the last few days I notice certain pages (that I haven't even worked on or touched) somehow become corrupted or "cross-contaminated" with elements and images from other pages. Once I see they are corrupt I make sure not to publish them (if the current published versions are the correct, non-corrupt versions) or if they did get published I can use Time Machine to retrieve the .html file and page files folder for that specific page and replace it in my published folder/server so it shows correctly on the Web. However, that does not replace the corrupted page(s) you see and work with when you launch iWeb and try to edit or continue working on that page.
I am confused as to how I go to the package contents of the domain file and replace just that page with a previous version from time machine. I don't want to replace the entire domain file because I have new changes I made to other pages even in the past hours. How can I keep the good pages and just get earlier, non-corrupted versions of the corrupt page(s)? I know it's not as easy as with the published site folder where you can just replace the page's .html file and folder, but I don't want to have to re-create the corrupted page(s) from scratch or have to replace it with the last non-corrupted domain file and then have to redo all my recent changes to new pages I made before discovering the corrupt page(s). Thanks for your help as now I can't make changes to the page(s) within iWeb itself.

Thanks for the response, Wyodor. I don't know what that is, but I'll have a look. Is it an alternative to iWeb or a way to transfer pre-existing iWeb sites? When you say merge domain files, is that like so multiple copies of the same site show up then you can pick and choose the non-corrupted pages and group them then delete the corrupted ones? I am on Snow Leopard with no plans or need to upgrade anytime soon.
And yes, I will read your links but just wanted to ask those questions. Maybe they'll answer my questions, maybe not.
I was able to discern that within the domain file is a domain folder with all the site folders, each with their own page ".gz" files which expand into ".xml" files. I was trying to figure out if you could simply drag the corrupt pages out that way and replace them with backup copies that are still good. I am having trouble discerning which pages are which as they all have random names like site-page-30F175E3-AE33-4F10-A490-1A096D9B185B.xml and although I expanded and opened each in Text Wrangler, I still couldn't discern which were which for sure, and trial and error proved cumbersome. Also, I did notice some of the later corrupted domain files had one or two more pages than the site itself has, so not sure how they got added or duplicated or what.
Again, I'll look at your links, but do you know about swapping out individual page .xml files this way within the domain file?

How do you make a hard drive so that it is only read only for everyone except myself?

I have a hard drive connected to my AirPort Extreme and I would like to make sure that other people on the network don't mess with my media.

You can with the chmod and chown Terminal commands. For the former, see http://www.dzinemaster.com/chmod.html. The rest is left as an exercise.

HELP: How do you make a hard drive password on my T61?

I want to encrypt my hard drive with a password. Can someone give me a source on how to do it or step by step instructions. I have a Lenovo T61.

You can with the chmod and chown Terminal commands. For the former, see http://www.dzinemaster.com/chmod.html. The rest is left as an exercise.

How Do I Make My Hard Drive Into An External Hard Drive

I've had a lot of problems with my iMac G5 power supply and since I have newer computers I've decided to get rid of this computer.
I want to save the hard drive and put it in a case, then use it as an external drive on my other Macs.
What sort of case do I need to shop for? Should I look for SATA or what exactly is the proper nomenclature.
Is USB 2 the preferred choice, or Firewire, or what? Is there a USB 3? I use a mid-2010 27 inch iMac with the intel processor, and I needed to buy an adapter to use my older Firewire external drive. Is Firewire a dodo?
Thanks!

You can get adapters that go from FW400 to FW 800 and you can get an enclosure from macsales.com, you can also use a bare doch, Google for them.

I upgraded to Snow Leopard, made a change to Address Book that I need to correct, tried to use Time Machine to find the prior version and it keeps pulling up the later ones info. How do I use Time Machine to restore Address Book from a few hours ago?

This morning, I upgraded to Snow Leopard from v10.5.8. Then, I exported 11 contacts from our old Now Contact database, intending to import that info into Address Book. It was an experiment, as we have 1199 contacts in 20+ categories and want to eventually get them into Bento from Address Book. The export automatically created a file called Export.vcf on the desktop, after I highlighted the 11 contacts. I tried to look at the info, but when clicked it opens Address Book, which then simply asked if I wanted to import the 11 contacts to it. I clicked yes. Then in checking Address Book 7, not 11 contacts appeared. I clicked on "All Contacts" and there were 1630. We only have 1199, so where did the extra 400+ come from? Since I had already clicked twice on the Address Book window, I couldn't undo the import. So I thought 'Ok, I'll trash Address Book and go to Time Machine, find Address Book, go to right after the upgrade to SL, hit Restore and bingo. Nope. I keep getting the post-import info, not pre. Con someone direct me to a solution? I want to get rid of the import contacts plus the extra 300 or so ( I already had a hundred or so in several categories)? Then, I need to figure out (1) why ALL the old records were exported from Now Contact, (2) where they were hiding in that .vcf file when Address Book recognized that I only wanted to export 11, (3) why Address Book showed only 7 imports in the "Last Import" group, but showed ALL my contacts in the "All Contact" group, even though they should nearly all have been safely untouched in the Now Contact DBase file. PS, I am not especially computer savvy. Thanks for any enlightenment.

Booting From Snow Leopard Installer Disc
1. Insert Snow Leopard Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.
Drive Preparation and Installation
1. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
7. After formatting is complete quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.

How do I back up an external HDD AND my macbook to another external HDD using Time Machine?

Hi,
My little old Macbook is pretty slow and clunky at the moment and I have decided to transfer my iphoto library to an external HDD named 'photos'.
I've check, it's all there - present and correct.
I've removed 'iphoto' from my 'pictures' folder on my macbook to trash.
I've tried to back both macbook and photos HDD to time machine but I'm unable to recover the photos HDD.
I have opened TM preferences, selected options and excluded the 'photos' HDD from backups as I was under the impression that the drive shown in the window is the drive used by TM.
Can somebody help me please. I've tried to recover a photo, just to test the backup but unable to find anything.
Kind regards
T

If I understand you correctly you want to back up two drives simultaneously. If that is correct, you will find a guide here: http://pondini.org/TM/32.html

How do I restore all my data, so that I have 2 alike computers from my time machine, to my new computer

When I on my new computer "open Time mashine preferences" and turn it on and "enter time mashine" in the Time mashine bar, enter the password, I am possible to open 2 drives. One is emty and the other one, has only the possibility to be removed. There is no sign to restore, what do I do wrong? Please help me

Restoring your entire system from a backup
If you are restoring a backup made by a Mac to the same Mac
With your backup drive connected, start up your Mac from the Recovery system (Command-R at startup) or Mac OS X v10.6 installation disc. Then use the "Restore From Time Machine Backup" utility.
Note: If "You can't restore this backup because it was created by a different model of Mac" appears when restoring a backup that was made on a different Mac, follow the onscreen instructions.
If you are restoring a backup made by one Mac to a completely different Mac
Important: If the backup you are about to restore is from a completely different Mac, use the Migration Assistantto transfer data from the backup, as described in the next section.
Migrating a Time Machine backup to a new Mac
When you buy a new Mac, you can transfer all of your applications, files, settings, and other information from a Time Machine backup you've already made.
You will be asked if you want to transfer files when you start up your new Mac for the first time. Or, you can use the Migration Assistant (located in Applications/Utilities).
After Migration Assistant completes the transfer and you select your existing Time Machine backup drive, you will be prompted with "Inherit Backup History". Once selected you will be able to continue to use your existing Time Machine backup on your new Mac.
(Excerpt from: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427)

How do I make my hard drive case insensitive?

I have recently tried to purchase Adobe Acrobat XI, an upgrade from Acrobat Pro 9, which ran just fine on my MacBook Pro. When I try to install XI, I get the following message: "The installation cannot proceed, because the operating system is running on a case sensitive volume."
How can I resolve this issue so I can run Acrobat XI on my MacBook Pro?

You can't without backing up your drive, and making your HD NON mac osx case sensitive file system and moving all data back onto your drive
http://superuser.com/questions/380330/mac-convert-from-case-sensitive-to-case-in sensitive-file-system
You could also make a small partition that is not case sensitive and install it from there

Has any one come up with a solution to the "the disk was not ejected properly" when using time machine with an iMac and seagate back up drive?

I recently bought an iMac and love it.
Only proplem I have is I keep getting an error message "the disk was not ejected properly"
Everything is backing up fine on my Seagate 2TB external USB drive.
Each time there is access on the seagate and it stops in between needing to back up again I get this message.
Can anyone help?

The drive is malfunctioning.
If the drive has more than one interface (USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt, eSATA), try one of the other interfaces.
Check that the data cable is securely inserted at both ends.
Try a different cable.
If you're connecting the drive through a hub, connect it directly to a built-in port on the Mac.
If you're connecting it directly, try a different port.
Disconnect all other devices on the bus, or as many as possible.
If the drive is bus-powered, but has an AC adapter, connect the adapter.
If the drive doesn't work under any of the above conditions, it has to be replaced. You may be able to salvage the mechanism by removing it from the enclosure and installing it in another one, or in a drive dock.

I tried to install a new hard drive using Snow Leopard to back up with Time Machine. When I installed the new HD I installed Leopard (10.5) on it and tried to use time machine to restore the backup I had made using 10.6. Kernel panic screen occurred.

I backed up my system using 10.6 Snow Leopard's Time Machine to an external hard drive. I did this because I purchased a new internal hard drive to upgrade my 2007 White Macbook from 80GB to 320GB. When I installed the new hard drive, I installed 10.4 (Tiger) and then 10.5 (Leopard) and once Leopard was in I tried to use Time Machine to restore my backup from 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and received a kernal panic screen directly after the bootup.
The screen had code asking for 10.6, so does this mean that the computer is searching for Snow Leopard? If so, how can I do this? Will a bootable drive with Snow Leopard on it be able to solve the issue or will I somehow need to find a way to wipe out this new hard drive?
-Steve

Booting From Snow Leopard Installer Disc
1. Insert Snow Leopard Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.
Drive Preparation and Installation
1. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
7. After formatting is complete quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.

How much noise should the hard drive make on a MBP early 2011?

Had since May/June last year i5 13" and only since I applied all updates few weeks ago it seems to be louder than it was before?
It sounds like a fan but isn't... obviously. Right hand side of track pad, and covering it, in fact just touching it dampens it to barely audible. Is that normal or has something gone a bit weird? A constant fan noise, which isn't the fan is now there permanently.

How much noise should the hard drive make on a MBP early 2011?
None.
The machine should only make noise if the Superdrive is being used or the CPU's heavily used, going by my Early 2011 17".
It sounds like a fan but isn't... obviously. Right hand side of track pad, and covering it, in fact just touching it dampens it to barely audible. Is that normal or has something gone a bit weird? A constant fan noise, which isn't the fan is now there permanently.
It's possible it wasn't installed correctly and/or the case is slightly off so it's resonating the hard drive vibrations.
Make sure you have a internet connection (don't move) and reboot the machine holding the d key down like forever and Hardware Test will run.
Backup your data off the machine, if the hard drive dies under 1 year or three years with Applecare, then go get a new one. else you can replace it yourself with a better one and not void your warranty if you don't break anything doing so. Add more RAM while your at it.
http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/
As you know Mac's are made by hand by young Chinese women working 12 hour shifts performing the same function every 7 seconds for only $1.20 a hour. They live 7 to a box room and have to pay 70¢ a meal.
All in all I would say they are very tired, and it's possilbe a few defects made it to your machine.

HT201250 I use Time Machine to back up my entire computer with my external hard drive. I am getting a brand new iMac this month and was wondering what is the process of using this back up to restore my new computer exactly how my old computer was?

I use Time Machine to back up my entire computer with my external hard drive. I am getting a brand new iMac this month and was wondering what is the process of using this back up to restore my new computer exactly how my old computer was? I want to make sure I will still have various important files on my new computer, like my songs in iTunes, my photos in iPhoto, etc, etc. Thanks so much in advance!

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
When you turn on the new iMac for the first time, Setup Assistant will ask you to restore a backup, so connect the external disk and follow steps to restore all your files to your new iMac. Your new Mac will have the same settings and programs as your old computer.
In other cases, I would recommend to restore the whole backup without using Migration Assistant or Setup Assistant, but a Late 2012 iMac uses a special OS X build, so the OS X version that you're using on your old Mac won't work on the new one. For more information, see > http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

How do I access photos that were backed up onto an external hard drive using Time Machine?

I used to own a PC. When my computer got too full, I would back up some of my photo albums onto an external hard drive (simply by copying and pasting what I wanted to save on the hard drive) and then delete them on my computer to free up space. Occassionally, I would still plug in my hard drive to access and use those photos when needed. I now own a Macbook Pro and after having issues with my old hard drive, I bought a hard drive compatiable with Macs. I plugged in the hard drive and backed up my entire computer using Time Machine. Now I would like to delete some of my photo albums to free up space on my computer. Before I do that, I would like to double check that they are indeed on the hard drive, but every time I try to open my iPhoto Library from the hard drive I get this error message: "The iPhoto library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library. Reopen iPhoto with the Option key held down to choose another library." So I tried doing that, but the only option that comes up is my main iPhoto library on my computer. I can't seem to access what is on my hard drive.
I don't plan on deleting ALL of my photo albums, just a few. So I also want to make sure that the next time I plug in my hard drive to back stuff up, it won't copy just what is on my computer and override the last backup, because that would mean losing missing albums I had already deleted. I just want to be able to access photos on my hard drive when I want and occassionally manually add a few more albums to it. I don't intend to keep backing up my entire computer. My main concern are my photos.
Can anyone help?

Try Pondini's articles;
http://pondini.org/TM/15.html - scroll down to the pink box for iPhoto restoation.
Also http://pondini.org/TM/15A.html to clarify how to use the timeline.

I have a late 2008 Macbook Pro last updated to Mavericks OS. The screen died and it's not worth replacing. How do I remove the hard drive and use a drive sled to access info I need?

I have a late 2008 Macbook Pro last updated to the Mavericks OS. The screen died and I took it into an Apple store and was told replacing the screen and the hardware to repair everything would cost almost as much as buying a new laptop or a cheaper model. I was told that I can use a drive sled to access data I need on my hard drive. How do I remove my hard drive and use a drive sled to get to the information I need? What makes matters more complicated is I need to update my iPhone and my iTunes/App store purchases. How can I accomplish this?
My wife has a late 2008 Macbook Pro as well, which I am assuming I need to run my hard drive. Is there a way to just access just my hard drive without interfering with hers?
I know this is lengthy. Thanks to whoever looks at this and offers advice/instruction.

the device you need is an External enclosure for a 2.5" (laptop form factor) SATA drive.
A USB-interface enclosure will be slow, but is adequate for this task and for re-purposing as a backup drive later. A firewire-interface drive would be faster, but is harder to find, more expensive, and faster than needed for this purpose.
The drive will mount as an "extra" drive on your wife's Macbook, and you can drag and drop whatever you wish. You could create a separate Account for yourself on her computer, and use Migration Assistant or just copy your stuff over to the new account. Then it would not interfere with her files.

How do I make a hard drive "forget" that it was once a (no longer used) Time Machine drive?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for