How to backup only the system with time machine?

Hi,
I have an external disk, seagate, that I used to backup working files from an older Mac.... I got a new Mac mini and would like to backup the system.
I don't want to erase these old files. Is it possible to only backup the system OS and installed software, with Time Machine I don't know if you would call this a bootable disk or the hard drive needs to be blank?

You should have a separate partition (or disk) for Time machine or it may at some point overwrite your other files because it makes hourly updated backups so it needs more and more room.

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How to backup contents of sparseimage with time machine?

Hello community,
since I'm using iPhoto from multiple user accounts on the same picture library I followed the usual hints to use a sparse image for the library to have the ability to disable the ownership on this volume. This works for iPhoto.
What is not working well is the backup of the noted sparse image. Time machine always backups the full (200 Gb) file an this slowes down my backups very much.
Is there any way to backup the contents of the sparse image itself instead of the image file? So I would exclude the image file from time machine and would like to add the contents, which are mounted somewhere to the time machine backup. Time machine currently does not backup the volume or I haven't found out where to find this backup.
Any ideas?
Best regards, exxi.

There is no way to have OS X do this. Time Machine will not back up mounted disk images or networked volumes, and only the data on locally attached drives. By default it will exclude external drives, but you can remove these from the exclude list to have them be backed up as well.
Instead of using a sparse image, try creating a sparse bundle image, which stores data in 8MB "bands" that can each be backed up independently. This was originally used for FileVault-protected home folders when Time Machine debuted in OS X 10.5, and should allow a disk image to be incrementally backed up. Only the bands that have been altered should be copied.
You can create this type of disk image in Disk Utility, just like the standard "sparse" image, and include details like encryption if desired.

How to restore all system with Time Machine ?

How to restore all system from Time Machine ?
The backup disk for Time Machine is a Usb disk, and the Os is Mountain Lion 10.8.2.
Thanks in advance !

Restore the system with Time Machine and from the external backup Usb HD, by pressing CMD + R at the power on.
It worked without problem.
Thankyou once more !

Restoring my System with Time Machine to a new HD without the Snow Leopard DVD

Hi there,
I changed my HD in my MacBook Pro to a bigger one and then wanted to Restore the System via Time Machine onto that new HD. Sadly I dont have the Snow Leopard DVD that was coming with the MacBook. Though I have another Snow Leopard DVD, that I purchased earlier for my older Mac. Now the Problem:
When I try to Boot the Macbook Pro from the older Snow Leopard DVD it always freezes and says: "You have to restart your Macbook. Press the power button until it switches off and then press the button again". But iwill not boot from the DVD.
Is there another possibility to Restore my System from my Time Machine Backup to the new HD?
Kind Regards
Lounginbob

lounginBob wrote:
Though I have another Snow Leopard DVD, that I purchased earlier for my older Mac.
You can't use a machine specific OS X install disk with another model of Mac.
It has to do with hardware drivers being on one disk and not applicable to another machine, why you get the kernel panic.
Is there another possibility to Restore my System from my Time Machine Backup to the new HD?
No. You need the OS X install disk.
Choices depending on what your machine is:
1: If your machine with the missing OS X install disk originally came with 10.6.3 or later, call Apple for machine specific replacement disks, there will be a fee of course. That's the only ones that will work.
2: If your machine originally came with 10.6.2 or earlier, you can choose to buy the 10.6.3 retail disk from Apple online, however it contains no free iLife. It comes faster.
3: If your machine originally came with 10.0 - 10.6.2, and you want the free iLife, then order the machine specific versions from Apple, however it might take longer.
4: If your machine originally came with 10.5, and your now on 10.6.x via the 10.6.3 retail disk, you can extract the free iLife from the 10.5 disks using Pacifist from CharlesSoft if you don't want to buy iLife.
You will need this disk regardless in case you need to #18 Reinstall Just OS X or #20 Erase and Install OS X or perform #4-#6 repair proceedures:
Step by Step to fix your Mac
Is there another possibility...
Yes, once you have gotten a new OS X install disk, consider making bootable clones.
It's software that can clone your entire OS X drive/partition (no Bootcamp or Filevaulted) to another external drive and you can easily hold the option key to boot from it.
Most commonly used backup methods explained

I've recently bought a Time Capsule (3TB); then I've added an external HD of 2TB to my TC via its USB port to store my iTunes Libraries. I would like to backup my external HD with Time Machine in the HD of TC. Is it possible?

I've recently bought a Time Capsule (3TB); then I've added an external HD of 2TB to my TC via its USB port in order to store my iTunes Libraries.
I would like to backup my external HD with Time Machine in the HD of TC. Is it possible?

I would like to backup my external HD with Time Machine in the HD of TC. Is it possible?
Sorry, but not possible.
Time Machine can only back up the internal drive(s) in a Mac....or a drive that is connected directly to a Mac via USB or FireWire.....provided that the drive is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
I am not recommending this, but you might be able to move the drive from the USB port to the Mac, and have Time Machine back it up that way.....then move it back to the USB port on the Time Capsule......but this will involve doing some risky things.....and manually changing settings around everytime you make the swap. Something will surely go wrong....but up to you if you want to try it.
Carbon Copy Cloner will back up the drive connected to the USB port on the Time Capsule to the Time Capsule disk, but these will not be Time Machine backups. SuperDuper claims to also be able to do this.....but I have not tested it.

How to restore deleted web clip with Time Machine

I had a couple of nice web clips in my dashboard that I had to close to install new software. Now I want to restore them with time machine. How can I do that? Where are the files that contain the web clips? Which files to restore? I know it can be done because I once restored the entire system with time machine and got the web clips back as expected.

restore the files homedirectory/library/preferences/widget-com.apple.widget.web-clip.plist AND
homedirectory/library/preferences/com.apple.dock.plist and restart Dock by entering the following in terminal
killall Dock

How to restore a single Photo with time machine in Aperture 3 / iphoto?

How to restore a single Photo with time machine in Aperture 3 / iphoto?

Its been awhile since I used iPhoto, but I have done it.
If I recall correctly this is how.
In iPhoto open event that you need to restore the photo to ( the event that originally contained it )
Then open TM it should show that same event and then go back in time until you find the missing shot
Highlight the one you need to restore and tell TM to restore it.
Good luck

How can i get the system language of machine in script

Hi,
During postinstall, i want to install file based on the system language.
How can i get the system language of machine in script ?
Thanks,

Michael Conniff wrote:
I don't get it: what you posted gives a list of all the languages (and I don't see what awk brings to the party).
Hmm. On my laptop the first bit gets me the list of languages as they appear in the listing in the International preferences pane:
(en, de, es, ja, fr, it, nl, sv, nb, da, fi, pt, "zh-Hans", "zh-Hant", ko)
So I piped that to awk to pull out just the first one (they're ordered just like they are in the prefs pane, with the current language first). But that gives me some extra text:
(en,
So I piped that to sed to remove the comma and parenthesis. That gives me the current code, which in my case was "en" (or "de" if I switched the language).
defaults read -g AppleLocale
gives me en_GB. So maybe this last is better for you?
Well, sure, if you want to do it the easy way. But where's the fun in that? Seriously though, I get en_US, which is a more accurate and complete view of my settings...
charlie

Leopard doesn't mount the disk with time machine backup!

Hi friends. It's my first time in this forum, and I'm sorry by now for my poor english.
My problem: One week ago I had some problem with hard disk, but after a visit to an Apple center and after a replacement of my disk the problem was solved.
Now I want to restore all my file and my system preference from an external hard disk (USB LaCie 500GB) when have made a complete backup with time machine.
But Leopard doesn't mount the disk in finder or in Utility Disco. I see it only in System Profiler. I try with my old iBook with Tiger and it mount correctly the disk! It's amazing! Please Help me, I need my file on my iMac for work!
Thanks and merry Christmas!!!

Similar thing for me as well. I however haven't made a backup using Time Machine.
In preparation for Leopard, I reformatted my laptop's hard drive and installed Mac OS X 10.5.1 fresh. As soon as I plugged in my trusty 500GB external WD MyBook Pro (trying both Firewire 400 and 800 on my MacBook Pro 17"), I get the following alert:
"Disk Repair
The disk "500GB" was not repairable by this computer. It is being made available to you with limited functionality. you must back up your data and reformat the disk as soon as possible. OK"
Keep in mind, I run Disk Utility and "Repair Disk" and "Repair Permissions" religiously every week and have had no issues while running under Mac OS X 10.4.11. My other laptop running the 10.4.11 doesn't report any issues with the drive at all - only when I plug it into this one running 10.5.1.
Is there a firmware update for this drive? Is this Apple's issue? I have another LaCie Firewire drive and it works flawlessly even under 10.5.1.
Right now, I can't even use the drive as it's Read Only (due to the error).
In system logs:
Feb 9 19:02:59 Cam diskarbitrationd69: unable to repair /dev/disk4s3 (status code 0x00000008).
/dev/rdisk4s3: fsck_hfs run at Sat Feb 9 19:00:41 2008
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** /dev/rdisk4s3 (NO WRITE)
/dev/rdisk4s3: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM DIRTY
/dev/rdisk4s3: fsck_hfs run at Sat Feb 9 19:00:41 2008
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** /dev/rdisk4s3
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Checking Extents Overflow file.
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Checking Catalog file.
/dev/rdisk4s3: Incorrect number of file hard links
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Checking multi-linked files.
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Checking Catalog hierarchy.
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Checking Extended Attributes file.
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Checking volume bitmap.
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Checking volume information.
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** Repairing volume.
/dev/rdisk4s3: ** The volume 500GB could not be repaired.
The drive is reported to be "Ok" when running Disk Repair on other machines not running Leopard. As a test, I just "upgraded" my wife's laptop to Leopard and now I have the same issue on that machine.
Help.

Missing backups/lack of space with Time Machine

Hello,
I am having trouble with Time Machine since I updated to Mavericks. Time Machine tells me that I have insufficient space on my external hardrive (1TB) even though in Time Machine it only has one full backup. If I Get Info on the drive it says Capacity 999.72GB, Available 71.37GB and Used 928,35GB.
In Finder I used to be able to delete older backups if needed but generally Time Machine did what it was supposed to - it overwrote old backups. I can no longer find the files to delete and TM only says I have one full backup.
How can I uncover these, what appear to be, hidden files? Something must be there as I have no space left!
The external hard drive is 2TBp partioned, I also seem to have lost all of the data from the non-TM partition, which is not great either.
Please let me know if you need any other information.
Thanks in advance for any help.

Do you use virtualization software, such as VMware, Parallels, or VirtualBox?
The virtualization software creates a large virtual-disk container that is constantly changing, so it has to be backed up every time Time Machine runs. That will quickly fill up any backup destination.
You should exclude the virtual-disk file(s) from your Time Machine backups. To do that, click the Options button in the Time Machine preference pane. Back up the files on the virtual disk from within the guest system, using a native backup application.
A compromise solution is to create a "snapshot" of the virtual machine in the virtualization software (not a Time Machine snapshot.) That will give you a single large file that never changes and only has to be backed up once. All the subsequent changes will be stored in a new file that's initially much smaller, but will grow over time. You should still exclude that file from TM backup. If you ever need to restore the VM from Time Machine, you'll have a working setup, which will make it easy for you to restore the rest of the data from within the guest system.
Another common cause of large TM snapshots is native OS X disk images. If you store a lot of data on one or more writable disk images, they should be in "sparsebundle" format, which will be backed up much more efficiently than any other format. Also be aware that disk image files are not backed up at all while the image is mounted. Make sure you unmount the image often so it can be backed up. If you ever restore, you will, of course, lose all changes made since the last backup. Consider eliminating large read/write disk images from your workflow, if possible.

How to Roleback iWeb09 to iWeb08 with Time Machine?

I want to roleback to iWeb09. Before i made the upgrade i did a Time Machine Backup of my system. What's next to restore only iWeb08? I'd like to keep the other iLife09 applications and emails and stuff i had done after the Time Machine Backup. Is this technically possible with Time Machine?
Thanks

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9013466#9013466

How do I restore MacBook Air with time machine

I've done backups to time machine but have no clue how to restore. I have a problem with Open Office hanging up and it doesn't help to delete it and download again.

From Apple support article: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
To restore individual files see Restoring specific files or folders.
Restoring your entire system from a backup
Hold down the Command and R keys at startup to start the computer from the Recovery system. The Recovery menu that appears includes the option to restore from a Time Machine backup. If you are using Mac OS X Snow Leopard, start your computer from the installation disc. Then use the "Restore From Time Machine Backup" utility.
The Recovery system explained: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

How do I restore lost emails with Time Machine?

I would like to know how I restore lost drafts that I had on my mail program 6.6 with Time Machine.
I forgot that when you restore the mail program (was buggy) it saves all your emails except for your drafts. So now I need to find all the drafts that were deleted with my Time Machine.
Where are the drafts store prior to when I have to delete my mail program because of bugs in it?
How do I find them once I launch Time Machine. Can't recall where they are stored in my systems folder?
Thanks for any help regarding this.

From Apple support article: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
To restore individual files see Restoring specific files or folders.
Restoring your entire system from a backup
Hold down the Command and R keys at startup to start the computer from the Recovery system. The Recovery menu that appears includes the option to restore from a Time Machine backup. If you are using Mac OS X Snow Leopard, start your computer from the installation disc. Then use the "Restore From Time Machine Backup" utility.
The Recovery system explained: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

Restore System with Time Machine?

It seems to be this SHOULD be easy - but in three hours I just haven't been able to figure it out.
How do I do a system restore with time machine?
I did a back up a week ago. Yesterday I had some kind of major glitch that messed up an unknown number of my files. I figured "that's okay, I'll just restore everything to last week and that will be fine." Except I can't seem to find out how to do that!
I have no idea how many files are affected, but last week it was all fine. I did a diagnostic and it says my hardware is fine. I did the safe boot start up and everything is supposed to be okay on my drive. But my files and software is still messing up - and I think if I can just put it back to last week, I'm fine.
I do not have a CD that works (I found one, put it in, and the system won't boot from it). I do have my backup drive. What do I do?

See if the instructions here work for you:
http://pondini.org/TM/14.html
You really should get replacement installation disks from Apple Customer Service. They will need the serial number of your MBP and there is a charge.
Ciao.

How do I do a restore with Time Machine?

I changed ISP and deleted my old account. Poof went all my old POP emails. I do have time machine running. If I try to restore my lost emails with time machine it seems to do a restore but the old emails are not there maybe because the account is gone. How can I back up to before I (stupidly/naively) deleted the account?
I am running the latest email and os.

Try restoring just one message. If that works, try a few hundred. If it doesn't work, launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the page that opens.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Try the action again. Post any messages that appear in the Console window – the text, please, not a screenshot.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Edit it out by search-and-replace in a text editor before posting.

How to backup only the system with time machine?

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