How to back up a time machine back up

I have an external HD that I back up my imac and a separate external drive that contains all my pics/videos. I have those two drives daisy chained together with FireWire. I want to get another portable external drive that I can use to do periodic back ups of both of these and can be stored at another location. Do I have to unmount the first TM external drive and connect the 3rd portable drive as the TM drive to back up each time? Is there an easier way to do this. Im assuming the best thing would be to have a TM back up for restoring.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
If you have not set up your new computer yet, turn it on and Setup Assistant will appear, so follow its steps. It will ask you to transfer data from another PC, Mac or external drive, so connect the external drive with your Time Machine backup, select the option to transfer files from an external drive and follow the steps. You can choose what you want to transfer. See > http://pondini.org/OSX/SetupLion.html
If you have already set up the new computer, use Migration Assistant (in /Applications/Utilities). Connect the external drive with the Time Machine backup, open Migration Assistant and follow its steps. It will create a new user account with the restored files, so you may want to merge both user accounts > https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5472

Similar Messages

  • I'm running Pages version 5.2 on a Desktop Mac version 10.9.2. with the Pages app open how do I use the Time Machine to go back five hours to see the work?

    I'm running Pages version 5.2 on a Desktop Mac version 10.9.2. With the Pages app open how do I use the Time Machine to go back five hours to see my page? Can I access Time Machine within an app like Pages? How do I enter Time Machine within the application? It always takes me to the Finder. I apolgise for the mumbo jumbo. I simply do not know how to use Time Machine. It makes sense when I follow the Tutorial but then I lose it.

    OK. You've kind of skipped over the reason why you want to go back five hours, but my assumption would be that you've made changes to a Pages file that you want to revert.
    There are two ways to tackle this. From Pages itself, open the current version of your document, and from the File menu, click Revert To, and Browse All Versions. You'll then be in the Time Machine interface for that file, and can browse back to the version you want.
    Or, outside of Pages, you can select the file (or the folder it was originally in, if you've since deleted it) and enter Time Machine from the TM menu (it sounds like you've already tried this?)
    best
    Matt

  • I have just installed a 2TB time capsule on my iMac i7, it see my second 1TB hard drive but the 256 SSD doesn't come up in the list of hard drives I can back up. How can I enable the time machine to see my first SSD 256gb hard drive?

    I have just installed a 2TB time capsule on my iMac i7, it see my second 1TB hard drive but the 256 SSD doesn't come up in the list of hard drives I can back up. How can I enable the time machine to see my first SSD 256gb hard drive?

    iLife is preinstalled on all the Macs. If you purchased iLife in the App Store or your computer came without DVDs, open App Store > Purchases and download the applications. If your Mac came with discs, insert the Applications DVD and install iLife applications

  • HT201250 How do I partition my Time Machine back up drive (G-Drive) to back up both my IMac and my MacBook Air?

    How do I partition my Time Machine back up drive (G-Drive) to back up both my IMac and my MacBook Air?

    That's not needed, but if you want to do it, use the Disk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder to create a new partition.
    (70423)

  • How can I get my time machine to allow me to recover files again? After upgrading to OS X, the time machine still backs up the files; but, I'm not able to navigate within the time machine or select any folders or files for restore.

    How can I get my time machine to allow me to recover files again?
    After upgrading MBA to OS X, the time machine still backs up the files; but, I'm not able to navigate within the time machine or select any folders or files for restore.
    I've searched and can not find a solution to the problem that's being encountered.

    Yeap that all makes sense now.
    Do you only have the current backup showing in the TM display?? Won't it fill in the rest?
    Over wireless are you waiting for the indexing to finish.. ??
    Previous backup may not show for a couple of hours.
    Long short of it.. Mavericks version of TM is a pain.
    Sometimes it is easier to completely ignore the TM backup and do the restore manually.
    I have posted the details here. See if this helps.
    Can't access old files on time capsule

  • How do I transfer from time machine lightroom programme to my girlfriends computer (backed up on time machine) with out setting up my full desktop - i need it until i can afford a new computer to restore my old set up completely.

    How do I transfer from time machine adobe lightroom programme to my girlfriends computer (backed up on my hard drive via time machine) with out setting up my full desktop - i need it until i can afford a new computer to restore my old set up completely.
    Any ideas, I can access files - i.e. jpegs of old work, but can't edit new photos...
    P

    If you have a license for Lightroom, you should be able to reinstall it from an installer disc or re-download it from Adobe after explaining the situation and clarifying the license issues. Either will be simpler than trying to extract and install it from a TM backup of a different Mac, I think. If it's anything like other Adobe products, it has bits and pieces all over the place that you'll have to find and put in their right places on your girlfirend's Mac.

  • How to restore files from Time Machine after Clean Install of Mavericks

    How to restore files from Time Machine after Clean Install of Mavericks. I know the data is there but seems unaccessable because I may have changed the Computer or Owner name. Is there any way to fix that now?

    Hi Linc,
    my back-up data is managed by Time Machine; the actual data is on a second internal Hard Drive with a capacity of 1TB - not partitioned. I am using Time Machine and have access to all data backed up since Mavericks Clean Install but not the data prior to this date.
    When I open the 1TB drive in Finder I can see a folder "Backups.backupdb/Sigi's Mac Pro/ followed by many folders of backup dates going back to 2010-09-20-103441 and up to 2014-02-07-142414 all followed with folder Macintosh HD.  February 7th  2014 was the date of the clean install.
    These Backups are followed by backup date folder 2014-02-08-075554 with a subfolder of MacPro-320GB (this is the name I assigned to my Boot Drive during formatting; I suspect I should have assigned the same name as before ie. Macintosh HD) and 2014-02-11 with a subfolder Macintosh HD, these are the ones I get access to by way of Time Machine > Restore.
    Weird thing is on Febr 11 when I relised my possible mistake and renamed the Bootdrive back to what it was initially ie. Macintosh HD despite this I have access to all backup data since the Clean Install in both folders MacPro-320GB as well as Macintosh HD but not to any data prior to the Clean Install.
    Is there something that Time Machine knows and prevents access or is it simply a matter of renaming the subfolder 2014-02-08-07554/MacPro-320GB to ........./Macintosh HD?
    I like to restore selectively and not everything - It was hard work reinstalling apps that were supposed to be the troublemakers (ref my discussion on Maverick problems) but I now need to get onto data specific to some of these apps as well as other data I may have missed. Long story? Yes and sorry.
    Sigi

  • TS3423 Mac book pro stops responding after Maverick OS restart. Currently have a circle with a line through it after 20+ hours. Tried to shut it down and use the Time Machine to restore but no response. How can I restore with Time Machine if it will not s

    Mac book pro stops responding after Maverick OS restart. Currently have a circle with a line through it after 20+ hours. Tried to shut it down and use the Time Machine to restore but no response. How can I restore with Time Machine if it will not start?

    sonjadg,
    you can purchase a replacement pair of grey installation DVDs for your MacBook Pro from either Apple or iFixit. If Startup Manager is only showing an OS X Installer volume, then it sounds like the Mavericks installer had a problem midway through its installation process. To fix this, you’re going to need to erase your internal disk and reïnstall your original version of OS X from the grey Mac OS X Install DVD, use Software Update  to get it back to 10.6.8 (presuming that your MacBook Pro originally came with Snow Leopard), and then restore from Time Machine.

  • How Can I Migrate My Time Machine Backups To A New External Hard Drive?

    I have a external hard drive that has 500 GBs left, but I want to buy a larger drive.

    ivan wrote:
    How Can I Migrate My Time Machine Backups To A New External Hard Drive?
    I have a external hard drive that has 500 GBs left, but I want to buy a larger drive.
    Hi iVain
    Fire up *Disk Utility*, click the Restore tab, then drag your old and new TM drives into the Source and Destination fields. Click Restore, and a complete copy of your old TM files will be made on the new drive. Go to TM preferences and select the new drive, and it will continue backing up just as it left off.
    Hope this answers your question. See:
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2595485&tstart=0

  • How do I reformat my time machine backup disc

    My time machine backup disc comes up with error:
    Files can’t be copied onto the backup disk because it appears to be read-only.
    Disc utility can't fix it and gives me the following message:
    Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
    How do I reformat that drive?

    Re: How do I reformat my time machine backup disc Oct 13, 2012 5:32 PM (in response to Jim Tee)
    Hi again Niel:
    Regarding "use the Erase option in disc utility to reformat my backup disc:
    I tried the erase again and came up with the following fault messages.
    "Mac OS X can’t repair the disk “Time Machine.
    You can still open or copy files on the disk, but you can’t save changes to files on the disk. Back up the disk and reformat it as soon as you can."
    Also
    "Disc erase failed
    Disk Erase failed with the error:
    Couldn’t unmount disk."
    Thanks for your patience
    jt

  • I have a power pc (g5) computer that I will soon be replacing with a current i5 or i7 mini. How do I transfer the Time Machine files from the internal hard drive on the G5 to an external drive that I will later use with the Mini?

    I have a Power PC G5 computer that I will soon be replacing with a current i5 or i7 Mini. How do I transfer the Time Machine files from the internal hard drive on the G5 to an external drive that I will later use with the Mini?

    Hi, likely the easiest is to just poll the drive & get something like this...
    Get MacScan...
    http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/macscan.html
    http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/U3NVSPATA/
    But if you have a good external drive already, just clone it.
    Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
    http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
    Or SuperDuper...
    http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/

  • 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)

  • After a clean install, how can I continue using Time Machine?

    After a clean install, how can I continue using Time Machine?
    I booted from my recovery partition, erased my HD, installed the same OS, (Lion, 10.7.5) then restored from my TM.
    If it asks if i want to use TM, I say yes. When I chose the drive, it seems to want to start all over, instead of just picking up where I left off.
    Is there any way of picking up where I left off?

    Hi Frank,
    You are sure you looking in your Library in /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Library and not /Library at the top level of your harddrive?
    When you open iCal what do you see?  Are the calendars the two default Home and Work ones?
    I really appreciate the responses -- especially if you are in the UK as opposed to Ontario.
    Why, do you have something against London Ontario?
    John M

  • How do I use my Time Machine as an external hard drive to just dump files no longer needed on my computer?

    How Do I use my time machine as an external hard drive?

    Time Machine is software that allows a Mac to backup to a Time Capsule or other hard drive, so I think you are asking about the Time Capsule here, correct?
    http://www.apple.com/timecapsule/
    How do you plan to connect the Time Capsule to your network, or is it already connected and configured?
    When you have it configured on the network, you can use the Finder to copy/paste or drag/drop files from your Mac to the Time Capsule disk.

  • Hi, I used an external hard drive as a time machine,now I want to use it on a windows PC as a normal hard drive again. How do I "reformat" the time machine to an normal usb-device?

    Hi, I used an external hard drive as a time machine,now I want to use it on a windows PC as a normal hard drive again. How do I "reformat" the time machine to an normal usb-device?

    http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+format+hard+drive

  • How does one SUCCESSFULLY transfer Time-Machine backup to a new (larger) hard disk drive using OSX 10.5.8

    I have read a number of articles about how to transfer a complete Time-Machine backup to a new (larger) hard disk-drive.  Some of these articles are specifically for OSX10.6 users, which are not applicable to me since I am operating with OSX 10.5.8.
    However, I have tried several times to use the Disk Utility 'Restore' function, dragging my old time-machine volume into the 'Source:' box and my new volume into the 'Destination:' box.  This works, of sorts, BUT the newly created volume on the new larger hard disk-drive remains the same size as the original volume on the old Time-Machine HDD, with no apparent way of increasing the new volume's size.  So I am not really any better off:
    E.g. the total capacity of my new HDD is stated by 'Disk Utility' to be 465.8 GB, of which I'm told 228.2 GB is used for the Backups.backdb folder, but only 4.6 GB of free space is actually available.  Yet under the 'Partition' tab of 'Disk Utility' it tells me that there is still 236.4 GB of available space.
    Does anyone know how to resolve this issue without upgrading to OSX 10.6?

    First, how did you prepare your new drive?  See:
    Drive Preparation
    1.  Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.  If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. 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. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. 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 Options 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.
    If you plan to partition this new drive then be sure you create a larger partition for TM than your old volume.
    Next, clone your old TM volume:
    Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
    1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
    2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
    3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
    4.Check the box labeled Erase destination.
    5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
    6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
    7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
    Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

Maybe you are looking for