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.

Similar Messages

  • Move Time Machine backup from hard drive to Time Capsule

    I have a new Time Capsule.  Can I move my existing Time Machine backup from a hard drive to the TC?  The tips given back in 2010 in this forum are no longer available.

    It is extremely difficult if the disk you are talking about is plugged into your computer.. TM does different kind of file for network drives.. so you need to trick it.
    See Q18 here.
    http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

  • Copy Time Machine backup from Hard drive to Time Capsule

    I have my Time Machine backup on my external hard drive. Is there a way to copy this to the Time Capsule so I don't lose the backup and to save time on the initial backup. Is there a way to make the Backups.backupdb folder into the Time Capsule Sparsebundle? Any ideas?

    AppleCare just told me this was not possible (5-23-8 3:56pm EDT).
    This is too bad as people do not want to lose their archive data and it is possible with pre-existing wifi TM backups (ex. my wifi's MB use to backup to my local iMac and since it is sparsebundle, it can be moved around(now backups up to AEBS/USB 10.5.2) same image file)
    Cheers
    -wsn

  • Cannot delete Time Machine file from external hard drive

    Hello,
    I'd like to delete my original Time machine file from an external hard drive ( Lacie mini ). I move the file into the trash bin and it constantly "deletes". At one time I left it deleting overnight and the file still wasn't trashed.
    I am going to hook up Time Machine to a different, dedicated external hard drive, but I'd like to gain space on the drive that Time Machine is currently on.
    I currently have Time Machine turned off ( I do have everything backed up with my home folder on another external HD ). Should Time Machine be turned on for me to trash the file? Is there a better way to delete the file?
    Much thanks in advance.

    V.K. wrote:
    ... the best and the quickest way to delete it is to erase the TM hard drive....
    But what if a person doesn't want to erase the TM drive? My MacPro came with tiger installed, but since tiger-intel-retail discs don't exist, my copy of tiger is what i have. I was all manner of foolish directing TM to that drive, but damage is done. What can someone in my position do?

  • 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 do I move time machine files from one external drive to another?

    My original external drive isn't big enough. So I've bought a second larger one. How do I move the earlier Time Machine backups from Ext Drive #1 to Ext Drive #2 so I can access my full history, and leave Drive #1 for other backup items?
    Ext Drive #1= SimpleTech 120 GB
    Ext Drive #2= WEstern 500 GB

    When you are ready to pass the 320GB drive on, I would format it. That will make the entire drive available to him to use as his TM. I would be sure that each drive has a unique name so that there will be no confusion for TM as to which computer goes with which drive. If you want to start fresh with the 500GB drive, I'd format it as mac-extended-journaled. When you connect it the first time to your computer, you will be asked if you want to use it as your TM. If you are not prompted to select it as your TM, you can configure TM by opening system preferences, click on TM, click on "change drive" and choose your new drive.
    Another choice is to follow the steps in my previous response for restoring your current TM to the new drive by booting from a Leopard start up disk and accessing Disk Utilities from there so you can restore the drive. It is essential that the new hard drive is the exact name as the old TM hard drive. In this last scenario you would continue adding to your current set of backups.

  • Toasted my installation. Restoring from Time machine to 2 hard drives?

    I just installed a second hard drive into my macbook pro. SSD is the system drive and HDD is the data drive.
    When it was still working, I had my home folder on the SSD and my iTunes and Photo libraries on the HDD. Things were good.
    Then I decided to move the entire home folder to the HDD.
    Sys Prefs -> Users -> right-click the user -> advanced -> "move the home folder"
    and again, everything was good.
    Then I read something about having the user Library folder on the SSD is a good thing.
    So I moved the home folder back to the SSD. Rebooted and all my prefs were now gone. Figured I messed up something and didn't want to troubleshoot.
    So time for a restore.
    Attempt 1
    - Open Time Machine, select both hard drives, selected a past date and hit restore.
    - Got a message that I didn't have enough space.
    * I figure this is because time machine restores the entire contents of each drive as entire new volumes as a first step.
    Attempt 2
    - Go into recovery mode COMMAND+R
    - Discovered I don't have a recovery partition
    * I guess this is because I cloned my original system drive to the SSD using CCC and it didn't move this part.
    Attempt 3
    - I created a LION USB Install Key
    - Booted from it, and selected 'Reinstall Lion' (because I read an article that I could recover my files after Lion had finished installing)
    * Discovered that it reinstalled 10.7.0 and I would have to apply all patches on top. It didn't restore my HDD either.
    * Later found out this method only restores the main system drive.
    Attempt 4
    - Now that I have a recovery partition, I booted from it.
    - I selected "Restore from Time Machine Backup"
    - Was able to select my Time Capsule, and it gave me choices on which date I would like to restore to.
    - I selected and hit restore.
    * It's about 25% done now. And I realize that i should've done this in the first place.
    Question: Will this method restore both of my hard drives?

    hsmp wrote:
    Question: Will this method restore both of my hard drives?
    No, only a single OSX drive.  If both were backed-up, and both contained OSX, there was a (not very obvious) option to select which one you wanted.
    See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14.  Section (g) shows this.
    If you want to restore the "other" drive, and it contains OSX, run the restore again and select it.
    If the other drive doesn't contain OSX, use the "Star Wars" display to restore it, per FAQ #15.

  • Time Machine with multiple hard drives

    I use a very large external hard drive for time machine. I back up to this time machine, the two hard drivs that are inside my macbook pro, 512GB ssd, and 250GB SSD that is in the optical drive. I then backup a 1TB portable hard drive which holds all my movies and then I backup another 1Tb portable hard drive which holds all my "reserve" files, which means they are files that are no longer important to be on my computer. Old pictures, music, etc.
    Now, I can't plug all of these drive's in at once. So, let's say I have to do a backup and I have nothing plugged in but the time machine external hard drive. Will it only backup the two hard drives that are in my computer and then later somehow let me go and restore the other drives? Or will it attempt to restore all 4 drives at one time? Because if the one in my computer mess's up, the other's may not be messed up and I do not want it to restore those.
    I have used Time Machine before to restore my system. But never since I have started adding extra drives for Time Machine to backup.
    I am also planning on adding, yet another drive for it to backup which is a 1TB portable hard drive that I keep raw files on for photography. I'm just curious how this works when and if the time comes.

    well superduper is FREE, CCC isnt.........CCC can do the daily updates etc,.  Superduper DOES NOT.    the CCC and Superduper CLONES are bootable.......so, if your HD crashes, you can throw in the CLONE, and youre back and running in mins, rather than hours etc .
    You should NEVER consider a backup a "backup", ........2 copies is 1, and 1 is none.....always have 2 copies of important files / pics etc etc,......... DECADES of work have been lost by people who thought their stuff was safe because they had a (meaning 1) backup.
    Simplicity? Yes, Simplicity is my religion.    CLONE your HD with programs and settings, ......and use a 2nd HD updated daily / weekly etc (preferable 2 such 'seecond' harddrives, copies of each other) with all personal stuff / work / pics / vids/ documents.....
    superficially time machine is simpler,  "smack a button and everything backs up".......in REALITY however when it "all goes up in flames"................the pro method (and my method) is QUICKER and more reliable by far to get down and running.
    Ive restored other peoples from total crash and burns via Time machine.......and "my" way............my way always ends up faster by a mile. Also personal / work etc  files are kept autonomous to the system data / programs OS,.....as it logically should be.
    Time machine is the fastest incremental backup........but its as slow as paint peeling if you need it in case of a TOTAL CRASH.......wherein a bootable clone can be thrown in , in less than 20 mins.

  • Is a WD My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive bootable with my Powerbook G4 12" PPC 10.5.8?

    Sirs or madams,
    Is my Powerbook G4 12” PPC 10.5.8 'bootable' with a Western Digital My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive? Western Digital says officially no, but that it MIGHT be. I primarily live in China and bought a datastorage.com.cn Clearlight s400+ external hard drive enclosure with a 320GB disk drive a few years ago in China. My computer 'boots' fine from it, but since I got it in China all the paperwork, etc. is in Chinese; my Chinese isn't quite sufficient enough yet to read it. But there are references to something called "SATA", whatever that is.
    My level of computer 'under the hood' knowledge is extremely low. I've been told that SATA has some relationship as to whether or not an external hard drive will boot a computer via the Firewire connection, something relating to 'interface', which I assume is how separate electronic gadgets work, or don't work, with each other.
    I frankly don't care much for computers, the internet, or their related gadgets such as all these fancy phones. I longingly reminisce about the days when there were no such things. I use a computer & the internet because I have to, and unfortunately unlike a car where one doesn't have to have 'under the hood' knowledge to operate it, just knowledge of the steering wheel, brake, gas, etc., one seemingly must know a ridiculously great amount of 'under the hood' knowledge, including jargon, to operate computers.
    So, please try to respond accordingly; thank you.
    If this particular external hard drive won't, for certain, be bootable with my computer, can you advise as to what readily available brand/model would be in the 3TB range for a similar price, roughly $150ish??
    Thank you very much.

    Mr. BGreg,
    Thank you very much. "...under the covers...". I think you meant "under the hood", as in a car. I suppose "under the covers" would be man/woman interfacing, which I am familiar with!
    Actually, I'm back in the US now for a few months. I looked at the OWC web site, but only cusorily so far. I'll contact them; they appear knowledgeable about Apple computers.
    As to what you wrote about Western Digital's cases, I certainly wouldn't want a poor case. In China I had over time gotten 3 different external drive cases, 3 different Chinese brands, and separately bought Hitachi brand disk drives that 'simply' plugged into the cases. The drives are roughly 80GB 120GB and 320GB. The two larger ones are in cases that have Firewire plugs/jacks, which are bootable with my computer.
    So my understanding, as you wrote, has been that my Powerbook will boot from an external hard drive, provided it connects via Firewire, and the disk drive itself is 'normally' formatted with however my computer's own disk drive is formatted, (HFS OS extended (journaled) or some such??). So I was left wondering why Western Digital would indicate that even though their such-and-so external hard drive case/drive was Firewire capable, that they would then say it would not be bootable with my Apple PPC computer......
    Well, anyway, since you indicated Western Digital's case quality is suspect, then I'll try OWC and disregard Western Digital.
    Naturally, OWC should be able to address this, but your thoughts are also welcome. You mentioned the OWC cases are good with Apples. Would the disk drives OWC supplied with the cases also be of relatively dependable quality?? From my so far only cursory look at their web site they appear to have various options, including case only options where I could insert my own or their own drives. These sorts of options seem preferable, also along with quality components. 
    My Powerbook has been in use since 2004. In China I put in a 1.25 memory 'chip' in the bottom and installed the 10.5.8 operating system, which I understand are the maximum workable with my Powerbook. When I inquired with Chinese friends if my 1.33 GHz processor could be taken out and a more powerful one put in, they said it wasn't feasible because in my particular computer my processor was, as I recall them saying, soldered/'permanently' connected with the 'motherboard', that it would just be easier to get a new computer.
    I would be with them and they would nonchalantly open it completely up showing me all its tightly arranged 'innards' while at least giving it a good internal dust/dirt clean job for cheap lunch and a beer (& so much dirt/dust/lint there was!)...these are the same folks who build the things of course...fast moving hands with tiny screws flying everywhere, but everything 100% all back in place when finished.
    My Chinese friends also said that nowadays Apples are not as well built as when my Powerbook was built, that nowadays an Apple's life expectancy was considerably lower, so I fear that when I get a new computer that, though it will be more up-to-date and powerful, etc., it most probably won't last near as long as my Powerbook has. They also said that in an older computer the fan was often the first component to go bad, and if a new one couldn't be easily found, as they said was my case, then you're just left with having to get an entirely new computer.  Part of why I dislike electronic computer gadgets generally is that they are obsolete so quickly.
    So, anyway, thanks very much for your information.

  • Restore using Time Machine to new hard drive, but last "full" backup was 2012.  how do I restore the rest of the Time Machine backups, particularily IPHOTO libraries for each user?

    Restore using Time Machine to new hard drive, but last "full" backup was in 2012.  How do I restore the rest of the Time Machine backups, particularily IPHOTO libraries for each user? 
    I entered Iphoto for my user and only photo up until 2012 were in the library.  I thought the restore would do the incremental Time Machine backups too.....
    Running 10.8.2

    It usually means you are running Mavericks but have an earlier version of iPhoto. Open the App Store and upgrade your version of iPhoto to the Mavericks version.
    The iWork apps are free with a new iOS device since 1 SEP 2013. They are free with a new Mac since 1 OCT 2013. They are also free with the upgrade to OS X Mavericks 10.9 if you had the previous version installed when you upgraded.The iWork apps are free with a new iOS device since 1 SEP 2013. They are free with a new Mac since 1 OCT 2013. They are also free with the upgrade to OS X Mavericks 10.9 if you had the previous version installed when you upgraded.
    iWork and iLife for Mac come free with every new Mac purchase. Existing users running Mavericks can update their apps for free from the Mac App Store℠. iWork and iLife for iOS are available for free from the App Store℠ for any new device running iOS 7, and are also available as free updates for existing users. GarageBand for Mac and iOS are free for all OS X Mavericks and iOS 7 users. Additional GarageBand instruments and sounds are available for a one-time in-app purchase of $4.99 for each platform.

  • Time Machine Damaged External Hard Drive?

    hi,
    okay, So I've had Leopard for about a week with no problems at all. I used my G-Tech G-drive (external 500gig) and it showed up on my desktop and worked perfectly fine with time machine. Yesterday, I went into time machine and the hard drive went from its resting state to into its high volume spinning, but time machine woudn't function at all, the stars moved but nothing could be clicked on, or exited from. after 15 minutes of trying to force quite (you can't get to it), i had to use the power button to shut off my mac. I turned it back on and there wasn't any problems, except now when my hard drive is plugged in it still spins normally, but the mac isn't recognizing it. Does anyone know what happened to my hard drive?

    So it randomly started working again.
    I restarted my computer for the 15th time, and turned it on once everything was up and running and it was recognized after about 5 minutes, so we shall see if it lasts.

  • I just restored my 13" MBP i5 at the apple store to the newest version of Lion after issues with a previous Time Machine backup from Snow Leopard- this time I created a new account and just ported files and folders, and now MS Office doesn't work. Help?

    I just restored my 13" MBP i5 at the apple store to the newest version of Lion after issues with a previous Time Machine backup from Snow Leopard- this time I created a new account and just ported files and folders, and now MS Office doesn't work.
    ^^ that's the main problem. Here's the full history.
    I bought a new 13" i5 MBP, early 2011 edition. I had an old white Macbook 2.14 ghz core2duo on Snow Leopard. I attempted to port over my time machine backup, but encountered problems in that my User was inaccessible from the new computer after the import finished, and I had to go in and change the root password, etc, and for some reason or another, I couldn't install any programs at all from that administrator's account. By "couldn't" I mean I could install them, but upon installation they would never boot. So, I took it to the apple store and did a clean install from the most up to date Lion OSX. Then, I created a brand new admin account, instead of trying to import the old one, and things seemed great. Then, I just imported my old files from the TM backup, but not any system settings, permissions, or user data. Just my Docs, pics, vids, apps, and itunes stuff.
    Here's where things get weird again. I imported this stuff under the name "old", but all of these folders have a red negative sign on them, marking them as restricted. So, from my main admin account, I cannot even peruse these folders. Since I didn't import user data, I can't sign in to the "old" account to change permissions. I already tried to change the permissions from system preferences, but that didn't change anything. And now, for whatever reason, of all the apps that were imported then, MS Office is the only set of apps that does not work. When I click on it, it just says there was a problem and asks if I'd like to send a report to apple. I tried reinstalling it to no avail. I'm an English student, so i really need access to Word. Can anyone help? The Apple store is a major detour for me and would like to fix this issue myself.

    Most likely you have Office 2004 which are PPC-only applications and will not work in Lion. Upgrade to Office 2011. Other alternatives are:
    Apple's iWork suite (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.)
    Open Office (Office 2007-like suite compatible with OS X.)
    NeoOffice (similar to Open Office.)
    LibreOffice (a new direction for the Open Office suite.)

  • I have three computers backing up onto the same Time Machine.  The Hard drive of one has now failed, and I'd like to restore certain items (principally photographs) to one of the other two computers.  How can I do this?

    I have three computers backing up onto the same Time Machine.  The Hard drive of one has now failed, and I'd like to restore certain items (principally photographs) to one of the other two computers.  How can I do this?

    "You can also browse the original backup disk for past backups by using "Browse other Time Machine Disks"--to see this choice, hold the Option key then click the Time Machine menu in the Finder (to see the menu, "Show Time Machine status in the menu bar" must be selected in Time Machine preferences."
    Mac 101: Time Machine

  • Can I use my time capsule as a time machine and a hard drive

    Hi all,
    Can I use my time capsule as a time machine and a hard drive?
    I don't want to store much on my imac, I would like to store it on the time capsule.
    If this is possible, how do I do it?
    Thanks, Crankyhead.

    This is often asked.. and we always have the same answer. have you thought this through?
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4830944?tstart=0

  • Using Mac Mini, Time Machine and External Hard Drives as a Backup Server

    Hello...
    I own a graphic design studio and have been looking for a long time to create/buy a no-thinker backup system for my macs. I have 4 workstations that I would like to backup to one central "server".
    So what I was thinking was buying a Mac Mini, 3-4 external USB 2.0 Hard drives, external Blu-Ray burner and upgrade all our systems to OS 10.5. What I need to know is, will each work station with Time Machine on it back up across the network to a specific drive on the Mac Mini? If I have each workstation automatically mount one external across the network onto the desktop, will Time Machine recognize that hard drive as a legitimate drive to backup to?
    Having the external Blu-Ray disc burner will give me the ability to burn data to a disc so I will have a way to take some of my information off-site. Since we are a graphic design studio, we use large amounts of disc space and regular DVD-R (4.6 gigs) is just not enough to back up some projects.
    Can someone enlighten me, and tell me if this would work or not. It's the only way I can see me creating something that has enough space, will back up automatically across the network and allow me to make off-site copies of my data without spending $5,000.00.
    Thanks for any comments you might have on this topic.
    -SoupGFX

    I'm a member of a freelance graphic artist team and have been scraping by with my MacMini and CS3. I recently obtained a used iMac (approx. 2 years old) and, instead of painstakingly transferring everything left on the Mini to the iMac, I wanted to know if it's possible to turn the MacMini into a pseudo external hard drive using the FW800 port.
    I already had an external attached to the Mini and plan on using that as well, but I tend to hoarde information and run out of space really quickly. So keeping the mini around, preferably in a way that I can access it as an external through my iMac, would be perfect. I have very little experience with networking and don't have a wireless connection (yay modem cables!) so I don't quite know how to figure this out.
    Has anyone done this? Would a FireWire 800 work? Would I need to set up a network between the two and use them as independently connected computers?

Maybe you are looking for