I wish to move time machine to a new HD, but keeping the old backups on the new HD. New HD format (mac os plus (with register)). please help?

I wish to move my time machine copies to a new HD, but keeping the old backups in the new time machine HD. The new HD format is Mac OS Plus (with register). When I dragg the backups.backuodb file to the new HD I got an error message "The uppercase and lowercas of the volume....".
Please help

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for details.

Similar Messages

HT201250 I've just used an external drive to back up my Mac with Time Machine. I have Lion, but didn't click and check the "Encrypt Backup Disc". What should I do? Can I delete the external drive and start again, or can I encrypt later?

I've just used an external drive to back up my Mac with Time Machine. I have Lion, but didn't click and check the "Encrypt Backup Disc". What should I do? Can I delete the external drive and start again, or can I encrypt later?

I guess if stolen or lost it would protect my "stuff", and if I'm travelling would protect my privacy.
You must understand the purpose and implications of encryption before deciding whether to use it.
Encryption locks your data with a password. If you forget that password, the data is lost beyond any chance of recovery. Neither Apple nor anyone else will be able to help you recover that data if you don't know the password.
By the same token, the password must be strong enough to provide the security you want. For example, if you're the potential target of industrial espionage by a government or large corporation, you need the strongest possible password. To create and manage such a password safely is a task in itself, not to be undertaken lightly.
If you're only concerned about casual snooping by someone with no special skill, a weak, easily-remembered password is appropriate.
But regardless of the strength of the password, if you lose it, the data is gone forever.
Another point to remember is that if you encrypt your data on one storage device, you must also encrypt it on all other storage devices that would be accessible to the same attacker. Otherwise the data isn't protected. For example, if you keep your computer and your backup drive in the same room, and the internal drive of the computer is not encrypted, then there's no point in encrypting the backup drive.

Time machine problems on clean-install, doesn't recognize old backups as such/permissions issues

My iMac had been pretty slow, and never received a clean install since I'd gotten it. With the security that I'd just restore whatever I wanted from Time Machine afterward, I used the recovery partition to format the hard drive and install Lion.
Everything's fast now! It's remarkably like it was when it was brand new with Tiger, which is pretty good for a nearly-six-year-old computer running today's OS. I'm having problems with the Time Machine part, though. Even after ensuring that my username is the same as it was before and making all the permissions my own in both Finder and with chmod, it throws me permissions errors when restoring some, but not all files, with no pattern about it. This isn't a big deal for restoration because I've just used sudo cp to put everything back where I wanted it, but now I have issues with backups. Even though TM sees my old backups and can restore the ones that don't give permissions errors, it still wants to take new backups of things I've manually restored, such as my iTunes folder of about 50GB. That's the big conflict now; I don't want to take up all that space for files that are already backed up. Can anyone offer a fix? Thanks!

coldcaption wrote:
Yes, the other drive was backed up before. If it was previously associated then perhaps something was messed up trying to re-associate.
As long as you pointed it to the backups of that disk, it should be fine. If not, or if in doubt, just run the command again.
It changes whether or not I have the previously-backed up external drive added to the things to back up (unless it's supposed to do delete the old ones in this case?),
I don't quite follow that. The Estimated size of full backup is just the total data on the drives that are included (unfortunately, there's no display of them), less any exclusions of files/folders on them.
Finally, though, the size of a backup if I were to take one right now would be 363 GB;
How do you know that? The only way to tell what Time Machine thinks is new or changed is to actually start a backup, and see what the display ("xxx GB of yyy GB") and/or log messages (". . . xxx MB/GB requested (including padding), yyy MB/GB available.") say. See #A1 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for a handy widget to display the log messages.

Removed disk in Time Machine, now can't reselect to get my old backups back

I accidently clicked Remove Disk in Time Capsule on my MBA. Now when I try to reselect it in Time Machine (using the Time Capsule disk listed) it doesn't find my old backups.
I don't want to start again as there is all my old backups sitting on the Time Capsule taking up space. Any advice to get my backups back?
One thing I have noticed is the icon for the Time Capsule used to be the Wi-Fi 'fan', but now it's got the people holding hands icon instead. Sorry if they have correct names for the icons but that's the best description I can use. I also have no idea if this is important or not.
Thanks.

Sfem wrote:
I accidently clicked Remove Disk in Time Capsule on my MBA. Now when I try to reselect it in Time Machine (using the Time Capsule disk listed) it doesn't find my old backups.
If you mean the TM Preferences window shows "None," it just hasn't updated the window yet. See #B3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting
One thing I have noticed is the icon for the Time Capsule used to be the Wi-Fi 'fan', but now it's got the people holding hands icon instead. Sorry if they have correct names for the icons but that's the best description I can use.
I'm not sure what you mean. Can you post a screenshot?

My Time Machine (TM) is taking way longer "Cleaning up old backups" if i haven't even backed my computer up for that long.

I havent backed up my computer in almost 2 years due to a complication with the Time Machine (TM)
But now it is fixed and it spends hours on "Cleaning old backups"
And when it comes to backing up computers I am always scared to fix it blindly because our Time Machine backs up 3 other computers.
Is there something I'm doing wrong or do I just need more patiences?
HELP!!!

Cancel the backup.....unless you want to wait a few more days to see if it might work.
Erase the Time Capsule drive using AirPort Utility
Start over again with a new backup
Ethernet will be 4-5 times faster than wireless for the first backup

Time machine shows larger hard drive, so never deletes old backups and maxed out my drive

So I back up my Mac Pro to a Drobo Gen 2. There is a 3tb and 3 2tb drives in it. When Time Machine backs up, it says there is a 11.88 out of 17.59 available, which isn't true. It actually ran out of room during a back up b/c it's putting so much stuff on there. There is only 238.70 left. (the 3 TB drive is not used in the Drobo system, but is there in case a drive goes bad.) My Mac Pro has 4 TB in it, and there's about 1TB left on it, so the Drobo is showing 5.19 is used, and only the 238.70 left, so all the rest is TM. TM is suppose to delete older backups when disc is getting full. But it's not b/c it thinks there is plenty of room. How do I get TM to see the proper drive space, or is there a way to have TM only do a certain number of back ups then start erasing. I'm not really tech saavy, so whoever can help and speak my language, that would be great!

To clarify, this all happened under Snow Leopard as I had said. My profile lists Tiger, since I haven't cared to update my personal profile since using that OS, and in fact I still use Tiger among other versions. I manage a lot of users. And I never got to upgrade to Mountain Lion on this system, as explained in the post above. So I don't see the confusion.
I don't think the model of Mac makes a difference for this type of problem, but in case it does, the incident was on a 2010 Intel iMac with a 4TB hard drive and 8GB of RAM. I would have mentioned that if this was a problem with hardware specific to the model of Mac. But this is more of a universal issue.
But to stay on topic, I'm guessing my old backups are toast. But if anybody has any experience with recovering from Time Machine deleting their old backups, I would be happy to hear from them. In the meantime, I am going to try to do some old fashioned file recovery, and see what I can salvage.

Move Time Machine backup to Lion

I migrated from Leopard on an old Mac to Lion on a new Mac using Migration Assistant. I than moved the TM HD to the new Mac. The TM backup folder on the TM HD uses the old Mac name. I can't link the new Mac TM with new Mac name to the old backup name. It insists on creating a new backup name. I can't change the name of the old backup folder. Any ideas?

mpskier wrote:
Removing the "new-mac" directory results in another error indicating a directory is missing.
Hmm. First I've heard of that (but there don't seem to be a lot of folks messing with this).
Hopefully I have not caused any significant corruption to the TM configuration files that would interfer with the fresh backup.
No, the old ones are completely separate; there shouldn't be any problem at all.
You should be able to view and restore from the old backups via the Browse ... option, per Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #17.
It appears that the "new-mac" backup interfered with inherit procedures given on your web site.
I've never tried that, but I'd be surprised if it allowed a duplicate.
sometimes one has to punt.
Yup.
I thought Migration Assistant was going to do a better job with the TM migration.
Usually it does, and has been improved a great deal from Snow Leopard. But it still sometimes doesn't figure it out. It seems to have a problem getting the info from the SystemMigration.log, but I've never been able to figure out exactly what.

How can I see the old backups of my previous Macbook done by Time machine in a Time capsule with my new iMac?

How can I see the old backups of my previous Macbook done by Time machine in a Time capsule with my new iMac? I've changed from a Macbook to a iMac because that one stopped working and I cannot use it anymore. I've been able to import all the data of the last backup of the Macbook when setting the new iMac, but I cannot access now to the old backups of the Macbook and there are information that wasn't in the last backup and I would like to recover. Thank you very much.

Yes, you can ..
Read Q17 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
Strongly recommend his whole section.. 14-17 and read it carefully to understand the ways you can make TM work for you.

Concerns ALL Time Machine Users. HOW TO MOVE Time Machine backups. Help !

Concerns ALL Time Machine Users :
MOVE (or COPY) Time Machine backups from a "x"To Disk to an "y"To greater disk.
Hello and thank you all for reading me,
First, excuse me if I make language errors (I'm French).
Secundo, I don't know if you'll find something interesting for you
in what I write about Time Machine and my own problems,
but there's a possibility also that YOU could perhaps help me.
I'm talking about Time Machine and his **** Backups.backupdb folder,
containing "*Name of your Mac*" folder,
this folder containing Time Machine backups, format : YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS
Time Machine doesn't recognize the backups it made *IF YOU MOVE THEM*.
I have perhaps a solution in this message.
You'll see below what kind of problem I (and you could) have.
Since 12/01/10, an Apple Adviser Level Two (and me)
are trying to understand how to move backups from TM1To Disk to, let's say, a bigger one.
My case is TM1,5To.
*Purpose :* Move 19 backups from Time Machine X disk to Time Machine Y disk.
Delete TMX disk Time Machine backups after that.
Make TMY disk the current used Time Machine Disk.
I don't remember exactly what we did before
(we even created a "root" account with password (dangerous to do),
but it didn't solve the problem),
but we finally copied :
TM1To > Backups.backupdb > *MacBook Pro* folder (containing 19 backups) into :
TM1,5To > Backups.backupdb folder.
The Copy application announced *16 hours !* (without antivirus, to remove absolutely).
So I said goodbye and thank you to my Apple Adviser. After *8 hours*, Copy failed.
BUT it had succeeded to copy *4 backups ONLY* (why ?) in TM1,5To.
I immediately verified and checked each of these with Get Info.
They had EXACTLY the same size (Byte to Byte) as in TM1To.
➔ BUT HERE IS MY OBSERVATION :
After designing TM1,5To as Time Machine Disk, I ordered it to Backup (now).
And what did Time Machine do in TM1,5To > Backups.backupdb ?
It created a *NEW folder*, named *MacBook Pro 2* !
➔ *I HAVE NO ACCESS* to TM1,5To > Backups.backupdb > *MacBook Pro* (4 backups copied from TM1To, remember) ;
➔ while I still *HAVE ACCESS* to TM1To > Backups.backupdb > *MacBook Pro* (19 backups) ;
➔ *AND I HAVE ACCESS* to TM1,5To > Backups.backupdb > *MacBook Pro 2*,
where Time Machine makes actually his backups.
*NOTE :* If you *change the name* of your computer,
Time Machine *changes automatically the name* of the folder who is in Backups.backupdb folder.
➔ ① I have *never seen* such protections (Sharing and Permissions).
You are not allowed to do anything. I've tried to change permissions,
first : "R+W", after that : "Make (Me) the owner", I can tell you : DON'T DO IT !
➔ ② It's impossible to install an OS on a Time Machine disk
(I thought it would allow better permissions).
OS Installer detects the existence of a Backups.backupdb folder
and refuses to install on this disk or partition.
I have now the bad intent to install minimal OS X
1) after deleting (how ?) this folder (but not its contents, how to move it ?)
and 2) declare *after that* the disk as Time Machine disk.
➔ ③ Time Machine doesn't backup OTHER Time Machine backups
(who are in an ancient-not-choosed-for-backups Time Machine disk) NOR backups this disk
(detects, once again, the existence of a Backups.backupdb folder).
AND you can't *absolutely not remove backups from the folder the're in*
(for me, *MacBook Pro* or *MacBook Pro 2*).
➔ ④ I didn't have time to do it, but I think there would perhaps be a solution
in restoring backups in partitions specially created to receive them (having the same name,
that sort of thing) and then re-backup these partitions (vicious and complicated).
There is a function on Mac OS X Install DVD : start with it, and then (do not install)
choose "*restore from Time Machine backup*" from the menu bar (it's called "Utilities", I believe).
➔ ⑤ I *absolutely don't understand* what follows :
— If I add (in my TM1To disk) the bytes of the 19 backups
in Backups.backupdb > *MacBook Pro* folder, I obtain about *1,8 To*.
— It's impossible (and not french).
— When I check the size used with Disk Utility (NOT with Get Info),
I find a correct (?) size : *about 750 Go*.
— What are Time Machine backups made of ?
It can't be aliases (because of their size, and because *aliases suppose originals,
and where could they be ?*), or am I wrong and becoming crazy ?
➔ ⑥ If you refer to the numbers shown at the end of this text (*4 backups*),
you'll see I could *delete duplicate elements* inside these 4 backups,
to win space (but *what kind* of space *if I delete aliases* ?).
Back-In-Time (see below) says he does it.
BUT is it really the OLDEST items I have to destroy (see ⑤),
when I don't know with what kind of ARTEFACT I'm acting ?
What does Time Machine delete to create more backup space ?
Is it REALLY the OLDEST backups it treats, or duplicates, OR ?
*What you can do :*
Find and go to Tri-Edre.fr or Tri-Edre.com/fr site (it's a french company
that creates small Mac applications since fifteen years at least,
I think I already bought them several programs in 1990) ;
Their program *Back-In-Time 1.4.4* is free (Trial) and complete to download (with PDF docs too).
It is *ENTIRELY DEDICATED* to Time Machine and *things you can't do* with.
Price is about 30 €, I think it's worth.
The TRIAL version you will obtain can only work on the LAST Time Machine backup,
but you will see what's featured *AND :*
You will ACCESS to ANY Time Machine backup you want
(It has to be the last of a serie of backups, but the serie you want.
I've bought the application and own an activation key, but you understand I can't give it to you
(it would not be ethic) and anyway you would be obliged to disconnect AirPort, Ethernet etc.
•➔ I have bought the application because I thought (it's said in PDF FAQs) I could IN THE END move Time Machine backup files, but it cannot, (I'm afraid).
*BUT ANY ACCESS PROBLEM IS SOLVED.*
•➔ Back-In-Time 1.4.4 can *delete :* duplicate backups, complete backups,
or duplicate items inside one or several Time Machine backups,
things that I believe impossible with Time Machine itself
(I've seen it offers to delete ALL occurences of an item) ;
•➔ The application can also restore anything you want, where you want
(but I think Time Machine does it too ?)
•➔ Believe it or not, but since I've bought it on 15/01,
I've only worked about 2 hours (no, much more) on it
and didn't make sufficient progresses (enhancements ?)
to talk of it with sufficient experience (I'm a bad guy, don't you think ?)
•➔ Tri-Edre offers on-line support, e-mail support (and so on),
and I EVEN didn't manage to join them, because I did many other things,
and also somewhat have been disgusted *not to be able to move* or copy
*(accessible by Time Machine after that)* backups,
and I also didn't succeed (*another Time Machine inconvenient*) to DESTROY an ".inProgress"
Time Machine (package) which doesn't work anymore (several interruptions while active),
date (and name) 2010-01-27-164345.inProgress, but is used (*with failure results*)
by Time Machine (it's turned off till I find how to destroy its **** ".inProgress" package.
•➔ I've asked my Apple Adviser Level 2 to wait for news from me
before working himself on the problem, and I think I will send him this message
to prove I haven't forgotten him.
•➔ I'll send it to Tri-Edre too, in the same move.
I hope those remarks to be useful for somebody, tell me if it has helped.
I will also publish this in any Time Machine topics I find here, and in MacRumors site too.
As you can see, I need help too … Does anybody have an idea ?
Perhaps if I used a specific Copy software, it could work ?
You'll see below an example of some time I've spent to study my problem
(you will think I'm crazy).
With my kind regards, and good luck if you have other Time Machine problems !
Olivier Herrbach
<Edited by Host>
Le but du jeu est de transférer toutes les sauvegardes Time Machine
d'un volume/partition que nous appelerons "1 To"
sur un volume/partition que nous appelerons "1,5 To".
*Je rappelle que les 4 sauvegardes effectuées par Time Machine sur le 1 To
n'ont pas été reconnues comme siennes par Time Machine sur le 1,5 To,
bien que strictement identiques en taille après leur copie.
J'ai remarqué dans Back-In-Time des fichiers invisibles (tels que "TimeMachine.log"
ou quelque chose de genre), et je soupçonne fort qu'ils n'ont pas été copiés et que Time Machine,
ne les trouvant pas dans le 1,5 To, a ignoré à cause de leur absence les 4 sauvegardes décrites ici.*
*Sauvegardes effectuées par Time Machine sur 1 To :*
Path : MacBook Pro > Volumes > 1 To > Backups.backupdb > MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro contient 19 items (dont un alias appelé "Latest") :
1°) 2010-01-02-045758 Size : 913.207 B for 41.888 items comprenant :
• Hitachi 1 To Size : 907.664 B for 41.887 items 7 folders
Différence avec 1°) = - 5.543 B - 1 item (1 folder)
2°) 2010-01-03-001957 Size : 982.211.325 B for 67.490 items comprenant :
• Hitachi 1 To Size : 901.516 B for 41.886 items 6 folders
Différence avec 1°) = - 6.148 B - 1 item - 1 folder
• Samsung 500 Go Size : 981.302.510 B for 25.602 items 4 folders
Total • + • = Size : 982.204.026 B for 67.488 items
Différence avec 2°) = -7.209 B - 2 items (2 folders)
— *Supprimer • Hitachi 1 To* dans 2010-01-03-001957. Comparer les dossiers.
3°) 2010-01-04-222709 Size : 5.241.032.819 B for 26.509 items comprenant :
• Samsung 500 Go Size : 5.187.330.874 B for 19.392 items 8 folders
Différence avec 2°) = + 4.206.028.364 B - 6.210 items + 4 folders
• StartUp Disk Size : 53.692.703 B for 7.115 items 4 folders
Total • + • = Size : 5.241.023.577 B for 26.507 items
Différence avec 3°) = - 9.242 B - 2 items (2 folders)
— *Supprimer Samsung 500 Go* dans 2010-01-03-001957. Comparer les dossiers.
4°) 2010-01-05-125449 Size : 9.428.705.396 B for 204.915 items comprenant :
• HD 250 Go Size : 9.374.308.265 B for 181.575 items 7 folders
• Samsung 500 Go Size : 692.898 B for 16.222 items 8 folders
Différence avec 3°) = - 5.186.637.976 B - 3.170 items
• StartUp Disk Size : 53.692.703 B for 7.115 items 4 folders
Total • + • + • = Size : 9.428.693.866 B 204.912 items
Différence avec 4°) = - 11.530 B - 3 items (3 folders)
— Supprimer • StartUp Disk dans 2010-01-04-222709. IDENTIQUE.

Dear James Pond,
Thank you once again, and, don't be afraid, I will be as short as possible,
but I need to use your last reply (I've cut all what was already said).
JP ➔ You can copy an entire set of backups, but you cannot copy part of it successfully. See #18 etc.
JP ➔ Read this from the first paragraph: "you cannot copy only selected backups,
or merge two (or more) sets of backups." The structure of the backups simply will not allow it.
I've read it, and found it regrettable. And I've also read, after that, what were the solutions under Leopard and Snow Leopard, and my conclusion is that it's a *dead end* for me. In short,
— I can't move (by drag and drop) the 1To's Backups.backupdb folder (containing MacBook Pro, 19 backups, access) to 1,5To, because there exists already the Backups.backupdb folder created by copy on 12/01 with Apple Assistance (containing [MacBook Pro, 4 backups of 19, no access] and [MacBook Pro 2, 15 backups, access]). I don't even know if it could be deleted by the copy (and I don't wanna do that anyway) ;
— I can't rename (and what for, I already forgot it) any Backups.backupdb folder nor delete it ;
— I can't copy any Computer'sName folder (entire set containing backups), being in a Backups.backup.db folder, into another Backups.backupdb folder ;
— I can't copy any (or all of an entire set) YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS backup(s), being in a Computer'sName folder, into another Computer'sName folder (even if it would be empty).
— Saying NONE in Time Machine Preferences and putting it to OFF is simply no use.
All is said. What I can try to do is :
— Delete (not with Finder, but with Back-In-Time) all duplicate things I find in all backups and also entire duplicate backups (I have full access to all with the software) ;
— Restore each of the reduced-to-minimum backups obtained in specially right-sized partitions wearing the YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS name of each restored backup. Time Machine doesn't backup his backups, but will backup these partitions.
I'm afraid to be actually completely running out of the target, when I read what I write … It's time to go to bed !
Reminder (OH) : Where did you find these amazing informations ?
JP➔ Some of it is detailed here: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/10/12/roadto_maco[]sx_leopard_timemachine.html
➤ Thank you ;
JP➔ and here:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2007/10/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/14
➤ Thank you too ;
JP➔ You have to understand the structure. When TM does the first backup, yes, it copies everything.
On subsequent backups, it copies what's new or changed, but also makes "hard links" (sort of like aliases) to the copies of the things that didn't change. That's how it can only back up a few things each time, but show you a complete "snapshot" of the way your entire system looked at the time of every backup.
➤ I'll do my best to understand.
JP➔ Time Machine deletes backups under two conditions. See the first part of #12 in the Frequently Asked Questions User Tip, also at the top of this forum.
Under normal circumstances, you should not have to delete any backups. See the rest of #12.
➤ I understood why Time Machine didn't delete oldest backups : they were not weeklies ones.
Reminder (OH) : How can I destroy the (corrupted ?) not working "2010-01-27-164345.inProgress" in 1,5 To, which causes Time Machine to abort any backup of any size I ask ?
JP➔ Why do you think it's corrupted? TM is designed to "recover" a partial backup.
➤ I'll verify that with the little Tools/Apps I discovered in your FAQ User Tip document and downloaded immediately.
Why didn't Apple tell me anything ? It's my fault, I'm perhaps not clear and not demanding enough more from them.
JP➔ You cannot install OSX on a disk containing TM backups. That's because they need to be on separate disks.
Technically, you could put them on separate partitions of the same disk, but that would not be a good idea.
➤ I never told you that (there would be no interest at all). I talked about the same location, to see if it would allow me more permissions, but if all works without doing it, it's really no use.
JP➔ Sorry, I don't know what that means.
➤ I'm sorry, I didn't explain : "but if all works" meant : Copy Backups.backupdb, "without doing it" meant : Install OSX.
➤ If I install an OSX BEFORE, Time Machine will REFUSE completely to backup on it, it's understood.
JP➔ Correct. The partition you're running from will not be an option in TM Preferences > Select Disk. That prevents TM from backing-up it's own backups!
➤ Would it be so absurd ? Maybe it could resolve my actual problem ?
I think you are right, but I don't know why. I trust you.
Reminder (OH) : "I will not bore you again except if I don't find a specific answer to an unknown-never-seen-incredible malfuction."
JP➔ Don't worry about that -- thats what this forum is for, especially if you're still having problems.
➤ It's seems in fact that there is no possible solution, except what I said above and is certainly crazy/out of subject.
Just try to be as clear and concise as you can.
And please don't post the same things repeatedly -- it wastes your time and ours, and can confuse other folks.
➤ You're absolutely right and I tried to do so this time, and I'm sorry because I see it's still (far) not enough (short).
Thank you once more. I wish you a good evening and week-end. Here it's 01:40 AM.
With my kind regards
Olivier Herrbach
[email protected]

The memory on my MAC is full. It holds 4GB of RAM of which 79GB are photos. I would like to back up my photos to an external drive but just don not know how. I do not wish to use time machine. How do I back up my photo library, then delete the them t

The memory on my MAC is full. It holds 4GB of RAM of which 79GB are photos. I would like to back up my photos to an external drive but just do not know how. I do not wish to use time machine. How do I back up my photo library, then delete them from my MAC to free up that 79GB? Thank you.

Hi
Just to clarify a couple of points in your post.
RAM (memory) is different from hard drive space. You have 4GB of RAM, but that has no bearing on the amount of drive space you have, of which we know that 79GB are photos.
If those photos are in iPhoto, you should be able to move the entire iPhoto Library, from the Pictures folder, to your external hard drive. You can just drag and drop. Do not have iPhoto open while you're doing this. Once it's done, you can double-click on the moved iPhoto Library file to associate it with iPhoto, so that the app remembers where the library is for next time.
One more thing. When you move a file to a different location, and then delete the original, you don't have a backup. You still only have one copy. So if that external drive dies, you will lose all your photos. Time Machine is a very good way to prevent this from happening. You should dedicate a different drive for Time Machine backups.
Matt

Move Time Machine files from hard drive to Time Capsule

I got a new Time Capsule with 2TB drive. I currently have a 1TB external Firewire drive that I use for Time Machine. It's nearly full. I'd like to move all of my current backups to the Time Capsule, but doing that wirelessly will take forever. Can I have the Time Capsule be wireless for my internet connection AND mount the internal drive via ethernet to do the file transfer?

To start with moving the Time Machine backup as you have requested is not a case of simple copy and paste.. TM does not backup on network drives in the same way as it does on local drives. You can much more easily move the Network backup to the local drive than visa versa as you are wanting to do.. IMHO don't bother.. keep the 1TB drive for a few months until you build up a complete backup history on the TC.. from that point you are unlikely to need earlier backups and you can wipe them.
If you wish to try the details are here.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
See Q18.
Apparently this does not even work anymore with Mavericks and especially Yosemite.. so do not be surprised if after spending a day or two copying the TM backup to the TC it then refuses to connect.. and you have to scrub it and start a new clean backup anyway.
Can I have the Time Capsule be wireless for my internet connection AND mount the internal drive via ethernet to do the file transfer?
You can do this and we recommend it for first backup to the TC.. which is very large and should be the best as this first backup is then the basis for every increment thereafter.. TM never completely wipes this first backup.
It is easy.. plug the computer into the TC by ethernet.. and turn off the wireless.. then do the backup.. once completed.. disconnect the ethernet and turn the wireless back on.

Want to move time machine from a mac os external to larger drive?

I have been reformatting a 120gb (ex-ntfs) external drive to "mac os external (journal) . I simply want to move the backup(s) to a larger external drive. I have moved 9000 mp3's over to my Mac and the backup drive filled up fast. Being a ex-windows user since pre-Win 3.11 I am kinda intimidated , more just ignorant to Mac but trying to reformat my brain the MAC way.... Is it as easy as this? New Time machine drive will be a 250gb external "copy" the "backup.backupdb" folder to new drive? and then tell TM to use the 250gb drive? doubt it can be that simple... but... the only dumb question is the one u don't ask.

Here are the instructions to use Disk Utility for this:
You can duplicate the current backups to a different disk via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder). You cannot use the normal "drag & drop" with the Finder, as that won't copy their unusual structure properly.
You can duplicate to a disk/partition of the same or larger size. You may be able to copy to a smaller one, but you might not. If the old (source) disk has ever been near full, the files may be scattered over it in a way that you can't duplicate them to a smaller disk/partition.
Note that you must duplicate an entire disk/partition to another entire disk/partition -- you cannot copy only selected backups, or backups of selected items, or merge two or more sets of backups. And if you have other items on the disk, they will be copied also (this is a bad idea: see item 3 above).
In addition, if your backups were made wirelessly, you cannot copy them to a directly-attached internal disk, or an external FireWire or USB disk, and continue making backups to that disk, or vice-versa. This is because backups made wirelessly are stored differently from those done directly.
Here's how to copy the backups from one disk/partition to a different one:
a. Turn TM off, via TM Preferences, and de-select the drive (select "none"), quit System Preferences.
b. Be sure to format the new drive correctly. See item #5 Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of this forum. for detailed instructions.
c. Connect both drives to your Mac, then open a Finder window. Make sure both partitions are shown in the sidebar (if not, from the Menubar select Preferences > Sidebar, and check the box to show +External disks+ in the sidebar). Leave the Finder window open.
d. Start Disk Utility, select either partition (indented under the main drive line), and click the Restore tab.
e. Drag the old partition to the Source box, and the new partition to the Destination box.
f. Be sure to check the +Erase destination+ box, then the Restore button. This may, of course, take a long time.
g. When the duplication is complete, note that DU has *changed the name* of the destination partition to be the same as the source. You do not want to leave it that way, so immediately rename one of the partitions. In the sidebar of the Finder window opened above, control-click (right-click) the one you want to rename. When done, look back at the Disk Utility display to be sure you renamed the right one, then quit Disk Utility.
h. Go to Time Machine Preferences and select the new or renamed drive.

How to move Time Machine backup

Up until recently, I have been using an external hard drive connected directly to my computer as a Time Machine drive. When I bought the drive, I was the only person using a Mac in my house, but as time went by, and technology failed, other members of my family decided to buy Macs. Now they all need a backup option.
I have decided to use an old Powermac as a sharing server, and we want to all use the same hard drive as I've been using, just via the wireless internet.
However, when I went to back up my computer, I found that the new Mac does not recognize my old backups as belonging to me. It wants to start afresh, and create a new directory for my computer. Is there any way I can make it append backups to my existing files, not create a new one?

JFASI wrote:
So is there no way to convert from a direct TM backup to a sparsebundle?
Not quickly, easily or reliably. A few folks claim to have done it, by starting TM wirelessly, so it makes a sparse bundle; cancelling the backup and deleting the contents of the sparse bundle; then copying the old Backups.backupdb folder into the sparse bundle. This cannot be done with the Leopard Finder. The Snow Leopard Finder may copy the backups properly, or it may not. Some say the SuperDuper app will do it.
Whatever you do, remember that TM usually needs 2-3 times the space of the data it's backing-up, and if you're backing-up the Powermac directly to that drive, those backups should be in a separate partition.
See #1, 4, and either 5 or 6 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

How do i move time machine backup to a new, bigger external drive in lion?

i did some research and cma across severla different ways to transfer my time mashine backup from an old hd to a bigger one. i dont want to lose my backup and i just want to make sure im doing the right thing. also there were different ways of doing it in leopard and snow leopard so now im wonderign if there is another way of doing it in lion, which im usung.
any help is appreciated.
thank you

I would suggest you partition your new external drive and create a 2nd partition that's large enough to hold files you want to off load so you can free up space.
Or if you're using Time Machine, each backup is suppose to allow you to go back in time and restore files that have been deleted or modified since the last backup. So, if you were to start using your new external drive and performed an initial full backup in Time Machine; then delete your iPhoto file and do another backup, you should be able to go into Time Machine and restore your iPhoto file from your first backup. I would still off load the files to a 2nd partition just to be on the safe side and if Time Machine backups were to somehow become corrupted. Any important files, in my opinion, should be backed up in more than one place... just in case.

Move Time Machine files from old TimeCapsule drive to new TimeCapsule

My old 1TB Time Capsule died from bad power supply. I replaced it with a new 3TB Time Capsule and started backing up.
I removed the hard drive from the broken 1TB Time Capsule and put it in a new hard drive enclosure. Now, I'd like to add the old Time Machine backups to the new Time Capsule, and use the old drive as an external hard drive.
How do I make that transfer and merge the new and old backups into the new Time Capsule?

You cannot merge backups.. you should have copied the backups and then continued using them.. and of course you can still do that. But you have to do it from scratch.
IMHO you are better retaining the old backups as an archive.. say for 6months.. beyond that you are unlikely to need them.
There are details here of how to copy the TM backups.
http://pondini.org/TM/18.html

I wish to move time machine to a new HD, but keeping the old backups on the new HD. New HD format (mac os plus (with register)). please help?

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