How do I move old Time Machine backups to new USB disk

Hi,
I purchased a new 1TB USB disk and want to keep my historic backups. I remember trying this a while ago when I moved disks and ended up giving up. Anyone care to tell me the steps I need to step on ?
cheers
Adam

See #18 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.

Similar Messages

Can I move old Time Machine backups that were USB to Network backups?

I recently bought a new Airport Extreme and attached my 1TB WD HD to it for network file sharing and Time Machine backups. I had originally backed up my MacBook Pro with that external HD via USB directly connected to the laptop. I know (thanks to these foruns), that, since I'm now using Time Machine backups via wifi, the location of the backups is different and my wifi Time Machine can't access the backups on the HD that were made when it was directly connected.
My question is: is there a way to move the old TM backups so that they can be recognized via wifi? If not no big deal, but then I would need to delete those backups, since they are taking up a big chunk of the external HD space. I saw a few forum posts about deleting TM backups and it seems that I would have to do it via TM itself...does that mean I have to reconnect the HD via USB to run TM so I can access those backups to delete them?
Finally, once I do get to delete the old backups (or move them, if possible), is it safe to repartition the external HD so there is one partition for TM and one for storing files via my network? I've read about using Disk Utility to do this, but I haven't tried it yet.
Thanks for any input.

No, what you're doing is splitting the TM partition in half, so this will only work if you have more that 50% free space.
See: Disk Utility - Add, Delete, and Resize Existing Volumes With Disk Utility
My only concern about that would be that my other files would be on the same partition as the 'old' TM and thus I wouldn't want to delete it, which brings me back to my original issue of space being taken up on the drive.
You should consider putting those files on their own partition, so think about spliiting the disk into 3 or more partitons, and 1st move all of your other files to the 3rd (last) partition. You just need to decide how much space to allocate.
With some limitations, you can do a lot with Partitoning without losing data, see: Disk Utility - What You Need to Know About Modifying Existing Volumes

Can I move existing time machine backups to new, larger disk?

I have used Time Machine with success for a long time. Now I have a much larger disk drive and want to move the old backed up files to the new drive, then continue building files after that.
The current Time Machine backup file's Info says it is --get this-- 48.66 TB in size. But it sits on a 2 TB disk. I don't know if that's a mistake or a peculiar way to account for all the updates.
In the Time Machine preference screen it says I have 169 GB of 2 TB available.
Can I just copy this folder onto the new (4 TB) disk and tell Time Machine to select that as the current disk and have it continue to build and houseclean my accumulated history?
(I've started that process, but it tells me I will be copying zillions of files and will take a boatload of time to do it. It gives me a message that there isn't enough space to make the copy. But, of course, there really is.)

See Pondini's Time Machine FAQ: http://pondini.org/TM/18.html

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.

Adding old Time Machine backups to new hard drive

Hi,
I've filled up two external hard drives with Time Machine backups. I just bought a 2 TB drive and was wondering if I can add the backups from other two drives to the new drive, consolidating all my Time Machine backups. If so, what is the best way to do this?
Thanks,
Ron

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
No, you can't.
What you can do is duplicate (not copy) one to the new drive, then use the new one as your TM drive, and the backups will just continue normally.
But you can't combine two that already have backups on them into one.
Use the Restore tab in Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder).
Now, let me ask a question: how old are your oldest backups, and why do you think you may still need them?
I do hope you're not deleting things from your internal HD, and depending on TM to keep it's copies indefinitely. If you are doing that, then your backups aren't really backups any more, they're your only copies. When (not if) your TM drive fails, you may lose them.
In this case, you need to "archive" the items, probably on an external disk, and back them up; with Time Machine, to another external disk, or to DVDs.

Move existing Time Machine backups to new (larger) drive?

If I get a larger external HD for Time Machine backups, is it possible to move all the existing TM backups from my current drive to the new HD, or do I have to start from scratch?
Has anyone successfully done this?

One more question to the Pros here, please
I perfectly understand how to clone a drive with SuperDuper. But I am unsure about how to clone the Time Machine backup file.
In Finder's sidebar under SHARED I see the Time Capsule. On Time Capsule I see 2 sparsebundle files, one representing my iMac backup and the other my Powerbook backup, as the names indicate. But in SuperDuper's "Copy" dropdown I am not able to open either of them.
So I tried a different approach: I activated Time Machine on the Powerbook. A virtual drive labelled "Backup of Powerbook" pops up in Finder. Now I am able to choose this virtual drive in SuperDuper's "Copy" dropdown. I assume that this the correct file to clone?
Then I would say "to" Disk Image and give it an identical name ("Backup of Powerbook"). Now I should choose the destination where to store the clone. This will be the new USB-HDD that I am going attach to Time Capsule.
Image type would be "Read/Write sparse image"
Right?

REstoring from old time machine backups on new install

Hi, I've been looking for good documentation on this and haven't seen an answer yet.
I want to blow away and reinstall my OS (10.5.1) I made a full backup to my time machine disk and I had planned on reinstalling the OS and all my apps for a clean start, then when the time came to move my photos and itunes back just connect my time machine disk to the new installation and copy the data back. Once I was satisfied that everything I needed was restored from the time machine dist to the new install I would go ahead and re-enable time machine on the new install and blow away my old backups starting from scratch. Has anyone done this yet? I do not want to plug in the old time machine disk and not be able to access the data that was created by the old installation. I would be bitter to say the least. Before anyone suggests another means of backing up I have thought of that, but, I'd like to see if this works.
I understand the scenario of beginning an install and choosing to restore that way, but, the reason I'm reinstalling is to start with a fresh OS form scratch an be able to restore selectively.
Thanks for reading my wordy post, I look forward to hearing back!
Thanks again

I think I'm facing the same issue as you. I ran Time Machine on my MBP. Now I've bought a new iMac. I started it with the Leopard CD and instead of installing Leopard on the new machine, I selected Restore from Time Machine Backup (or something like that). Everything from my old machine is now on my new machine. Sweet!
Only one problem. I've now enabled Time Machine on the new iMac and it tells me that there's not enough room on my external 320 GB drive for its first backup. It also tells me that its first backup will be 112 GB in size! This large size leads me to conclude that Time Machine will not add to the backups from the old MBP, but instead start a new series for the new iMac. To confirm this, I looked on the backup drive.
On the external backup drive, there are a series of 4 KB files, one for each machine that has previously been backed up. These names are nearly identical to the machine's MAC address (which you can find by open Network Preferences > Airport > Advanced). Time Machine will create a sparsebundle file for each machine backed up over the network; its name will have the format MachineNameMacAddresssparesebundle (Backups made when the backup drive was connected locally are saved in a folder called Backups.backupdb). So, to delete an old backup from a machine you're not using any more, you need to delete the 4 KB file containing the machine's MAC address, AND either the sparsebundle file OR the machine names' folder inside the Backups.backupdb folder.
Hope this helps.

Time machine doesn't recognize old time machine backups after new drive

After getting my original hard drive replaced on apple care. Time machine refuses to recognize time machine backups dating back to October when I first installed Leopard. The Records are there on an "off-board" Lacie drive. Any fixes for this? I have had so many problems with Time Machine I am afraid to turn it back on. Last time it took over 40 hours to do an initial back-up.

Yes I had been having multiple problems and once saved the entire system in archive and install and also time machine had been active since October when I first installed it. all of this was saved to an off-board Lacie drive I can find the old time machine files easily enough but time machine since the new drive, does not recognize them. Since I got the drive back with tiger installed, I first had to re-install Leopard so I don't know if that caused Time machine to start over . I did do an archive and install at that time but there was nothing really to archive since they had not recovered my old files. If this wasn't bad enough The Technician replaced my administrator password with his own and the was off for a few days and I couldn't do anything for awhile. You have been very helpful thank you for your time on my behalf.
Respectfully,
Thomas Carlisle

Old time machine backups on new computer?

I migrated to a new mac. I have a time capsule. Can I set up time machine on the new mac to use all the backups from my old mac? Or do I start over?

Technically, you can. But practically, in this case, you probably don't want to.
TM backs-up whole systems, not just drives and data. If you back up two or more Macs to the same drive or TC, TM will keep them separate. You can view and restore from backups from other machines by holding down the Option key while selecting the TM menubar icon, changing +Enter Time Machine+ to +Browse Other Time Machine Disks.+ Since your old and new Macs are different machines, this would work.
But there's a problem: since the backups are for a different Mac, TM on you new Mac won't automatically delete the old series in the normal fashion. Unless you delete them, they'll be there forever, taking up space you need for new backups.
Worse, it's very tedious to delete them manually. Do not use the Finder, but you can delete the old backups, one at a time, via the TM interface. It's a long, tedious process ... and much longer on a TC.

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.

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 can I access old Time Machine backups after restoring from Time Machine?

Just restored my iMac and I can only see "Now" when I enter Time Machine. How can I see all the backups and dates I had before I restored?

While in Time Machine, press the key combination shift-command-C. The front window will show all mounted volumes. All snapshots should now be accessible. Select the one you want and navigate to the files you want to restore.

Isolating old Time Machine backups & performing new clean backup post OS X reinstall

Hi,
I recently wiped my Mid-2009 MacBook Pro in order to complete a fresh Mavericks install. Previous backups were done through Time Machine on an external drive with nothing else on. How do I 'freeze', isolate, or archive these old backups on the same drive and get TM to complete a brand new clean separate backup of the refreshed internal HDD?
Every time I connect the external drive and select this disk in TM, it recognises the previous backups and doesn't seem to want to complete a clean full backup of my new Mavericks-based system.
Have tried renaming my computer in the Sharing section of System Preferences, but TM simply renames the <computer> folder within backups on the external drive and so all backups continue to be stored together.
I know moving and altering backup directories in Finder can be foolish (plus doesn't seem to allow me anyway) and, whilst formatting the external drive would work, I don't want to lose the previous backups, just in case I have forgotten to transfer something over when reinstalling.
Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks

Thread closed as may have posted in the wrong section of the forum and solution can be found here:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/24459142#24459142

How to move existent Time Machine backups to a NAS?

Hello everybody
I am not sure if I am posting this discussion in the correct community, so please move it to the right one in case you need.
Currently I am using a 1TB external hard drive to store all my time machine backups. This drive also contains other information (movies, photos etc). I bought a Western Digital MyBook World Edition II which is a NAS. I want it to move my Time Machine backups to my NAS. How can I do it? Just copy over the backups folder from the external hard drive to the NAS?
Thank you!
Gilson

That's just crazy slow.
It won't be fast, as the data can't go directly from the old disk to the new one. It must pass through your Mac, so is on the network twice, slowing the effective speed by roughly half. But that's awful.
There could be any number of causes, from bad ports or cables to problems with either drive or controller. I don't have any experience with modern RAID systems, but some of the older ones were extremely slow when there was a problem with one of the drives.
And it may get worse -- if the backups are damaged, the copy will fail and the result won't be useable.
About all I can recommend is the usual: it's always prudent to keep secondary backups. If you don't have any, I'd strongly recommend getting a (plain) external HD and making a "bootable clone" on it ASAP (that will probably slow the copy down somewhat). See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #27 for details and some suggestions.
It wouldn't have to be a 2 TB drive, just the same size as your internal HD (or at least 10% larger than the data on it). You might consider getting a portable drive, so you can take it to a secure off-site location once you get your TM backups working to the new WD box. Then update it periodically.

Want to move an old time machine backup

I'm trying to backup an old drive before it fails.
It has a folder on it with old time machine backups.
My system won't allow me to move that folder.
I get the message "The backup can't be copied because the backup volume doesn't have ownership enabled."
How do I enable ownership or force that file to be backed up?
Thanks.

nowsthetime wrote:
Now I'm stuck with these files taking up space on a drive and no way to get rid of them without wiping the drive. Which is what I'll have to do.
Launch the Terminal app, in the window that pops up, copy & paste in this snippet, follow by adding a space, and then dragging one of those files into the window. Hit the return key and at the Password: prompt, carefully enter your admin password, and hit the return key:
sudo rm
so it looks something like this:
sudo rm /Users/username/Desktop/"name of file"
If that works, then collect the others into a folder and repeat, but use this as the leading part:
sudo rm -R
so it looks something like this:
sudo rm -R /Users/username/Desktop/"name of folder"

How do I move old Time Machine backups to new USB disk

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