How to reconnect Time machine to backup file on hard drive

How do I reconnect my Time Machine to the Backups.backupdb on a hard drive? Time Machine got set to a new drive but I want to return to the older backup.

James Macallister wrote:
How do I reconnect my Time Machine to the Backups.backupdb on a hard drive? Time Machine got set to a new drive but I want to return to the older backup.
If you want to back up to the old drive, just select that drive via +Time Machine Preferences > Select Disk.+
But if you just want to view or restore from the old backups, and not back up to them, use the +*Browse ...+* option, per #17 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Similar Messages

How to transfer time machine back up to new hard drive

How to transfer time machine back up to new hard drive?

You may like to take a look at this thread... https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4207670?start=0&tstart=0

Can I set Time Machine to backup both my hard drive and an external hard drive?

Hi. I've been working with a lot of family video lately and my internal hard drive has filled up significantly. iMovie doesn't seem to have a good archiving facility like Adobe InDesign which I use at work were all the relevant files are gathered together into one folder. Apple advised me to relocate my movie files to an external hard drive and herein lies my query.
Is there a way for me to set Time Machine to backup both my iMac's internal drive and the external hard drive that would contain my movie files? I've been using Time Machine for my backups for a few years now, but backing up the external as well has me stumped. If Time Machine could be used then all the necessary file accociations etc would be safely backed up as well - that's why I don't want to have to manually backup the external.
Anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

7string48 wrote:
Thanks so much Pondini!! You just quickly answered a question that none of the Mac people in 3 stores or Apple Care have been able to answer.If you can format it HFS+ (any variation of Mac OS Extended), it will work. If not, it won't.
I'm not too surprised about the Apple Stores, as they don't get much training on Time Machine. But AppleCare sure ought to know.
Oh...what about if the external drive is an array...like a Drobo with it's own proprietary formatting...I guess that would not work...??
I've never used a Drobo. A number of folks here have used them as their Time Machine drives, but I don't recall seeing anyone try to back one up with TM, so can't say for sure. But if you can format it as HFS+ (any variation of Mac OS Extended), it will work. If not, it won't.
At least part of the reason is, Time Machine uses the File System Event Store, a hidden log of changes that OSX keeps on each Mac-formatted disk/partition, to figure out what's changed and needs to be backed-up. See How Time Machine works its Magic for details.
See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #32 for details and considerations of backing-up multiple volumes with Time Machine.
However, even if it will work, that may not be your best strategy, depending on your circumstances:
Since Time Machine keeps copies of things you've changed or deleted, the destination needs to be considerably larger than the data being backed-up. How much larger varies widely depending on how you use your Mac, but a general "rule of thumb" is, it needs at least twice the space to be able to keep a reasonable "depth" of backups for you.
If you have a large internal HD, fairly full, plus a large external HD, and the files on the external don't change frequently, you might want to use Time Machine for the internal, and a different app to a different disk or partition, on a different schedule, for the external. Especially if space is a consideration, you might not need to keep previous versions of files on the externals. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #27 for some alternatives.

How do I get Time Machine to backup an external Hard Drive to Time Capsule?

Just purchased 3TB Time Capsule. I have a 250GB ext hard drive where iTunes library and iMovie files are stored. The external HD is connected to my iMac The iMac's 250GB is at 50% capacity with iPhotos so i cannot move iTunes/iMovie library back to the iMac. I would like Time Machine to back up both the iMac HD and the contents of the 250GB external HD. Thank you.

To reformat the drive, move the data on it to another location, including a second partition of the drive or the Time Capsule manually, open the Disk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder to erase it, and move the files back.
(64562)

How to disable Time Machine from backing up to hard drive

Mountain Lion (OSX 10.8) will not install onto iMac (under OSX 10.7.4) because: "hard drive is Time Machime backup disk" error message. However, TM Preferences does not show the iMac HD as a TM backup Location Option - it only shows the LaCie External Drive - which has been the storage drive receiving the Time Machine Backup. How do I remove/prevent Time Machine from looking for and/or backing up to the iMac Hard Drive if the TM Pref does not list the iMac Hard Drive as an option? Note: The iMac HD icon on the desktop is a "Time Machine image" (blue Drive icon w/white white counter clockwise arrow). Thanks.

Check to see if you have a file called backups.backupdb on the hard drive you are attempting to update.
If the install procedure see such a file, it might think that it is a TM backup drive.
Allan

HT201250 Can I use Time Machine to backup a LaCie Hard Drive connected to an Airport Extreme onto a My Book that is connected directly to a Mac Mini?

I have a LaCie 2TB hard drive connected to a Airport Extreme Base Station. I also have a 1TB MyBook connected to a Mac Mini. My question is can you backup selected files (photos) from the LaCie drive to the MyBook drive using Time Machine, or any other software? If it will cost a fortune, I guess I can always just copy the newer files over.

Thank you for such a lightning-fast response Niel :-) Can I just double check with you the following ...?
The external drive where my iPhoto library is located has three partitions - Time Machine Backup, Pictures (where the iPhoto library is located) and SuperDuper Bootable Clone.
When you say 'Remove the external drive from the list of items set to be excluded from the backup, and then add everything else on it' - am I correct in thinking that I should remove Pictures partition from the items to be excluded but leave the Time Machine Backup and SuperDuper Bootable Clone as excluded items?
On my 2TB external drive (the one I'm backing up to) there are 5 partitions - Time Machine Backup, SuperDuper Clone, Pictures, Photo Archive and Document Archive. The Time Machine Backup is 700GB of which I still have 473GB available - when I include the Pictures folder that contains the iPhoto library that will use up another 148GB but I think there's still plenty of room to use it.
When you say if the partition contain the iPhoto library isn't dedicated to it it may be easier to create one which is, the only item I have on the Pictures volume is the iPhoto library so I think that it's dedicated to it. I was going to add images from the Pictures folder on my MacBook Pro but haven't done so at this stage so I won't do so. It wouldn't matter though, would it, if I copied the images from the Pictures folder on my MBP to the 'Photo Archive' partition of the EHD?
Thank you once more for your reply.
Tricia

Will Time Machine delete existing files on hard drive

A coworker is running OS X 10.6.8 on a MacBook Pro, and the computer is running very slow. I told her she should back up all her files with Time Machine, wipe her drive, upgrade to 10.10 and reimport all her files once that's done and see how things run then.
The problem is her existing hard drive has a lot of files on it already, that she doesn't want to risk losing.
So if I back up her hard drive with Time Machine to this hard drive, will it automatically erase all the existing files on the hard drive? Or can the Time Machine back up coexist with those existing files?

If the drive's already formatted as Mac OS Extended or Xsan, the files will remain as is. If not, they'll be erased.
In any case, all of the files you want to keep should be on at least two drives so that they won't be lost in the event that one of them fails.
(116250)

Using time machine as backup AND external hard drive?

So I got the Time Machine so I could use it as a wireless external hard drive. Thought my computer just crashed and realized i realllly need a backup.... is there any way that I could back up my computer on it WITHOUT erasing my 100,000's of photos on the time capsule? Please be POSITIVE they wont erase.
Thanks
Ben Yorke

BenYorke wrote:
Sorry - forgot about this question.
My hard drive is about full. Its full of photoshop and rosetta stone stuff and I just would rather not loose it all if my computer were to crash (think 140GB).
As posted earlier, your best bet for that is a larger internal HD.
I just want one backup, maybe one that automatically backs itself up ever month/week and REPLACES the old one. Not looking for the time machine to work as it normally does, saving every backup it can. Looking to use the time CAPSULE as a backup, to save one copy at a time. Although not necessary, it would be nice to have it automatically REPLACE that ONE copy.
If you're going to have a backup of your system, you might as well use Time Machine. It's most recent backup is, in effect, a full backup of everything. If you let it do it's hourly backups, you'll never lose more than an hour of data.
You might want to review these:
What is Time Machine?
Time Machine Tutorial
and perhaps browse the Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum.
Yes, there are other backup apps; many won't back up to a network drive (such as a Time Capsule).
See Kappy's post on Basic Backup, complete with links to the web sites of each product.

How do I configure Time Machine to backup my entire hard drive to my Thecus N4200 RAID NAS box please.

The question is the content.....

First thing to do is go to the Pondini tips page, then follow the link to his full TM site for all the details.

Re Time Machine I have an external hard drive with files I backed up manually over the past 2 years 1TB of memory. I am finally taking the leap to use Time machine to back everything. will I have to reformat that drive, thus wiping my previous bac

Re Time Machine
I have an external hard drive with files I backed up manually over the past 2 years 1TB of memory.
I am finally taking the leap to use Time machine to back everything.
will I have to reformat that drive, thus wiping my previous back ups?
can I split it the drive in two partitions?
Also
as I have two separate Macbook Pro's- one older than the other.
OSX 10.68
the other is
OSX 10.75
can I back them up separately?
or even synch and merge files and folders etc? between the two?

You CAN use a drive with files already on it to store Time Machine backups. But long term, that is not recommended. You do not need to reformat or re-partition the drive to do this. Once Time Machine Backups are established, you could remove the old files.
But do not delete Time Machines files with the Finder -- that can cause it to lose its place and lose everything.
With the cost of backup drives under US$100, it might be a better idea in the long run to get another drive. Best results from Time Machine is a drive about 3 times larger than the drive(s) you are backing up.

TS1338 I have 4 Trojan Horse viruses on my external drive I use for Time Machine. My MacBook Pro hard drive is clean. I have eased the external drive 3 times using Disk Utility and it still has the 4 Trojan Horse viruses. How do I get rid of them. Wayne

I have 4 Trojan Horse viruses on my external drive I use for Time Machine. My MacBook Pro hard drive is clean. I have eased the external drive 3 times using Disk Utility and it still has the 4 Trojan Horse viruses. How do I get rid of them. I am using 10.8.3 Wayne

ksu62 wrote:
The infection names are: classload.jar-719ef6a5.zip
                                          classload.jar-5db452le31.zip
                                          ar3.jar-6ce3b2f-45l483f.zip
                                          classload.jar-lef99412-63bsd3fl.zip
Those look alot like file names and not infection names. I don't find any reference to anything like that on Norton or VirusTotal. Since you said these were Trojans, I would expect to see "Trojan" as part of the infection name.
".jar" files are executable Java applets. The random alpha-numerics would seem to indicate a cache file, likely from a browser with Java enabled. And we all know what ".zip" means.
Worst case is that you had Java enabled in a browser and were infected by one of the late variants of the Flashback Trojan over a year ago or one of a couple of other attacks using the same vulnerability but targetted against a small number of political sympathizers. Much more probable is that thes were Windows only Trojans. Hopefully you have a fully up-to-date OS X, including Java, and have disabled Java in all your browsers by now.

I am running my first backup on Time Machine using a Seagate external hard drive with a thunderbolt adapter and cable. I have a MacBook Pro 2011. It is backing up 11GB, and is telling me it will take approx two days. Is this normal?

I am running my first backup on Time Machine using a Seagate external hard drive with a thunderbolt adapter and cable. I have a MacBook Pro 2011. It is backing up 11GB, and is telling me it will take approx two days. Is this normal?

Download the supplemental fix to 10.7.5
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1599

Time machine doesn't see external hard drive on network

I have a pair of external hard drives connected to my iMac, which is connected to my 2WIRE modem/router via Ethernet. I'm using one of them as a Time Machine drive. For the past couple years, I've been backing up the laptops in the house to that Time Machine drive without fail.
Now none of the laptops (a MacBook and an iBook) won't see either external drive connected to the iMac, even though the iMac has file sharing turned on (as it always has) and both laptops are connected to the iMac via the Finder. Both laptops can see the iMac and the external drives connected to it via the Finder, but in Time Machine, when I try to select my Time Machine drive, nothing appears in the window.
I was having a problem with the Time Machine drive and had to wipe and reformat it, but I don't understand why Time Machine won't see the other external drive either, even if there is a problem with the TM drive. I recall Time Machine picking up all available hard drives as possible backup destinations, as long as they're also seen in the Finder.
The iMac has been having some OS X issues. The Finder will crash sometimes, and I have no choice but to hold down the power button to shut it down and then start it up. When it starts, it takes longer than it normally does, I assume because it's checking and/or fixing some things. However, those issues have been going on for a long time (I think I need to reinstall OS X in it, since Disk Utility finds nothing wrong; also, the hard drive in the iMac crashed about 2 months ago and I put a new one in; I then restored the TM backup to it, and the OS X issues have persisted, which tells me it's software-related, not the drive).
Also, the iMac backs up to the Time Machine drive just fine. Of course, the TM drive is connected to it locally, whereas the laptops have to get to that drive via wireless file sharing.
I did try plugging one of the external hard drives on the iMac into my MacBook, and Time Machine saw it immediately, so my guess is the issue must lie with my router and/or the iMac, but I don't know what to check next. I've restarted the iMac, I've restarted the laptops, I've turned TM on and off on the laptops, and I've turned file sharing on and off on the iMac; none of those things reestablished the connection.
I suppose I could just go with external hard drives for the laptops, but my wife moves her iBook all over the house, so I know hers won't get backed up regularly. That was the nice thing about the system I had in place, which I realize wasn't as elegant as a Time Capsule.
Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

That should say "Now none of the laptops (a MacBook and an iBook) will see either external drive..." I hate typos.
Anyway, after rereading my post, I'm starting to think I just need to reinstall OS X on the iMac, given the other issues it's experiencing. Any advice for doing that would be appreciated, if that's indeed the solution. Thanks.

Time Machine can't copy my hard drive

Time Machine can't copy my hard drive, it says that it can't complete the safety copy because an error occured when files were copied to the safety copy. Does anyone recognise this problem? All I could find in System notifications about Time Machine is this: "localhost kernel[0]: Security policy loaded: Safety net for Time Machine (TMSafetyNet)"

John Galt wrote:
... Are you unable to select the external HD as a backup device?
pres92 wrote:
that's the problem -- my hard drive ("startup disk) is not listed, so I can't select it.
The reason is that the startup volume is not a valid selection for its own Time Machine backup.
The only drive listed is the Time Machine external drive. Obviously, I don't want to back up the time machine drive.
By default, a Time Machine backup volume is excluded from being backed up.
The appearance you describe is correct, otherwise I'm completely misunderstanding your problem.

Time Machine "Backing up to multiple hard drives"

I had problems when switching between two external hard drives using Time Machine.
Upon speaking to Apple Tech Support I learned that when getting an error code that prevents me from using one of my hard drives, that there is a work around. Seems that when using two hard drives at different times an issue may be encountered. The solution involves using Terminal in Utilities and typing in code from Apple plus the error number on your computer. I'm no expert so won't try to go step by step but the solution worked in Terminal and the code started with sudo chown `id -un` "/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/.0016cbd00dc9"
Disregard the numbers after Time Machine Backups since that is my own error code.
After entering the 'sudo, etc...' it will ask for your computer password.
Then, in Terminal type in sudo chmod 400 "/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/.0016cbd00dc9" and the return key again, and again your computer password.
That all helped solve a problem that even Disk Utility with the Installation Disk didn't help. The problem arises when trying to back up Time Machine between 2 different external hard drives.
Hope this helps some of you...

filterfactor wrote:
That all helped solve a problem that even Disk Utility with the Installation Disk didn't help. The problem arises when trying to back up Time Machine between 2 different external hard drives.
This will keep TM from objecting to the new drive, but you need to be sure the right things are getting backed-up to both drives. This has been discussed here before, and never confirmed, as far as I know. You can be a big help to us by confirming whether this actually works.
Do this please, both for us and so you're confident that both drives contain complete backups:
Download the TimeTracker app, from www.charlessoft.com.
It shows most of the files saved by TM for each backup (excluding some hidden/system files, etc.).
1. Turn TM off temporarily (so it doesn't interfere by doing a backup).
2. Perform backups to both drives.
3. Add a small test file to your home folder.
4. Do a +Back Up Now+ to the first drive.
5. Using +Time Tracker,+ confirm that the test file was backed-up to the first drive.
6. Do a +Back Up Now+ to the second drive.
7. Using +Time Tracker,+ see if the test file was backed-up to the second drive.
Post the results here. If it actually works (the file gets backed-up to both drives), we'll put this into step-by-step instructions for others who want to do this.

How to reconnect Time machine to backup file on hard drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for