Moving Time Machine to a new macbook

I've just bought the newest macbook to replace my first gen macbook. I copied stuff across as usual and Time Machine seems already to go. (My TM disk is at work so I can't tell). But surely I don't want it to just set off adding to the backup of my first gen macbook? Does anyone know what I am supposed to do -- I was planning to start a new back up for this machine and keep the old one for the other machine.
Michael

Thanks everybody. My concern was that in the Time Machine pref's there is no way I could see of telling it to do an initial run and it was still showing `Oldest Backup: some date', Latest Backup: some date' where these dates really applied to the old machine. However when I got into work and plugged in the drive and selected it in Change Disk it changed to `Oldest Backup: -- ', Latest Backup: -- ' ie the dates went away and it is now performing a full backup of the whole 90 GB. Of course this is what you would hope and expect to happen --- well done Apple
Michael

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Using Time Machine on the new MacBook after migration

Hello,
I have an external hard disk that I use for time machine. I changed my laptop from Macbook Pro 15" to Macbook Pro 13" and I used this external hard disk to migrate from my older Macbook to the new one. Now I want to use my external hard disk to back up my new computer but the problem is that I think when I try to backup it makes the backup on top of everything from my older computer. The back up on the new Macbook takes 250GBs on top of 600-700GBs. I don't think that my backup should take 900GB of space. I think 600-700GBs is from the older computer and I don't want to have an unnecessary backup on top of what I actually need...
So what should I do to get rid of that 600-700GB properly , and then set the external hard disk as the new time machine for my new Macbook ?
My OS is 10.8.4.
Thank you

Michek wrote:
I used this external hard disk to migrate from my older Macbook to the new one.
Exactly how did you do that?
If you used Setup Assistant when the new Mac started up (preferred), or the Migration Assistant app later on, and let it transfer Computer Settings, when the next backup started, you should have been asked if you wanted the new Mac to "inherit" the old Mac's backups. See #B5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for more explanation and details.
If you did something else, or answered the prompt with Create New Backup, you may be able to do that manually. It's a bit geeky, though. See #B6 in the same link.

How do I restore from time machine on a new macbook pro ?

Hello,
My Macbook pro was stollen about 2 months ago and i'm currently debating on which Macbook retina I should get, the higher 13" or the higher 15" model. In either case, how do I go about restoring the system to which my old macbook pro was at ? i.e getting the same itunes songs files, iPhoto pictures etc.
I have read that if the version of the os x in the time machine was an earlier than that on the new machine it would cause problems. so how do can I work around that if i face this problem ?
One last question, how can I know the space needed on the new system for the restoration from the time machine?

The new machine will boot into Setup Assistant, and you'll be prompted to import the data from a Time Machine backup, among other options. A system-version mismatch is OK.

TIme Machine Error on new MacBook

When I try to run time machine, I am receiving an error message:
Time Machine Error
Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while
copying files to the backup volume
The background is this. My wife and I had been using time machine with a MacBook on an external USB drive with no problems. Then I bought a new MacBook and used time machine to transfer my own files and folders. Time machine continues to work fine for her MacBook. When I tried to use the same external drive for my new MacBook I received the error message above. Then tried to run it manually but got the same error. Then I (I now know) made a mistake and attempted to erase fix the problem by erasing all of the old time machine backups using the finder.
At first, I thought that killed the external drive, but then I connected the old Macbook and ran time machine on the old MacBook - no problem! I then ran Disk Repair verify and it found the external drive to be fine. Oddly enough, when I then connected the new Macbook, time machine did a successful full backup of the new Macbook and later one successful incremental backup on the new Macbook. Just when I thought all was fine, time machine then began generating the error again on the new MacBook (though, so far, it still works fine on the old MacBook).
Before giving up and buying another external drive to use for time machine on the new Mac, I came to this forum, saw a post about the time machine buddy widget, and so here is the message from that:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
No pre-backup thinning needed: 265.9 MB requested (including padding), 343.49 GB available
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Permission denied
Copied 0 files (0 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Permission denied
Copy stage failed with error:11
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Permission denied
Backup failed with error: 11
Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!
Any thoughts for something I could try?
Thanks.

I wouldn't mind re-formatting the external drive, but before I do -- is it reasonable to think that I should be able to use the same external hard drive for time machine backups for two different Macs? It sure seems as if I should be able to, but I just thought I would ask. Thanks.

Moving Time Machine Backup to new HD

I have been using a 250 gig hard drive as my backup drive for Time machine. But now I am going to be buying a Terrabyte HD and want to use that as my backup drive for Time Machine.
Is it possible to move all the backups from the original HD to the new one and have Time Machine recognise it on the new drive and continue to backup to it? Obviously there is stuff in the old backups that I don't want to lose just yet.
I really don't want to begin the backing up process all over again.
Thanks.

Okay, I have finally completed the task that I set about trying to complete a week ago.
I reformatted the drive s instructed above as one partition of GUID Mac OS Journalled format.
I then wanted to clone my Time Machine back up hard drive to the new hard drive in Disk Utility. When I tried using the restore function, it would copy all the back-up's that had been created using "Backup", but would error out on the first app when copying the time machine backups.
Confused, I then tried Carbon Copy Cloner and it too errored out, but on the third app in the apps folder of the first time machine back up file.
Before giving up I tried to clone the hard drive using Super Duper!
11 hours later I now have a perfectly working cloned hard drive. I redirected my time machines to the new hard drive and it backed up to the correct folder as if nothing had changed. So all is good now and I just wanted to thank everyone for their advice.
Thanks.
PS. I have no idea why DU and CCC errored when copying... but at this point, I don't really care. It worked with Super Duper!

Cannot access Time Machine backups on new MacBook Pro

Hey, I'm new to the forums, just wanting to throw it out there.
But to the point- Yesterday, I purchased a new MacBook Pro. I upgraded from a regular MacBook. I want to keep my Music, Pictures, and other Documents, so I used Time Machine to make an image of the old machine. I want to copy those specific folders over individually, so I didn't use the option to restore from the Time Machine backup. When I copied my Music folder into the location I wanted it, I tried to open the folder, and received an error message saying:
"The folder "Music" could not be opened because you do not have sufficient access privileges."
I went through Get Info and changed Permissions to Read and Write for Everyone. I don't really know what to do from here... It also does this when I try to access the backups on my external hard drive. Please help me!

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
You need to Restore the files from the backups, not copy them via the Finder. Time Machine, as you now know, uses special "deny everybody everything" permissions on it's backups to keep us mere mortals from moving, changing, or deleting them, which can hopelessly corrupt them. Restoring one Mac's backups to another one takes a few extra steps.
TM keeps the backups for each Mac separate, and normally only shows the ones for the Mac it's running on, even if there are other Macs' backups on the same disk/partition.
Since you're on a different Mac, you need the (badly named) +Browse Other Time Machine Disks+ option to see the old backups. Start with a normal Finder window, then hold down the Option key while selecting the TM icon in your Menubar, or by control-clicking (right-clicking) the TM icon in your Dock.
You'll see a selection screen showing all the disks/partitions that have TM backups on them. Select the one you want, and you'll be taken to the normal TM "Star Wars" interface, where you should see all the backups on that disk/partition.
You can then navigate to a backup (presumably the most recent one), in the "cascade" in the center of the display (the first, lowest one, represents "now"). Navigate to the folder you want to restore, select it, click the "gear" icon in the Finder window's toolbar and select the +Restore to ...+ option. Then you'll get a prompt for the destination.

Use back up from Time Machine to start new MacBook Pro

Using the Time Machine and an external Hard Drive I back up my 3 years old MacBook (running Lion and with hard drive of 250 GB)
I am planning to purchase a new MacBook Pro (with a hard drive of 750 GB)
how do I transfer all my software and Data to my new computer?
if I plug my Time Machine to it will set up my new computer just the way I have my old Computer?
will all software work properly?
Any thing else I should have in Consideration??

K2spuky wrote:
Using the Time Machine and an external Hard Drive I back up my 3 years old MacBook (running Lion and with hard drive of 250 GB). Will all software work properly?
The old machine is running Lion already, then all your programs are ready already for the new machine with Lion.
how do I transfer all my software and Data to my new computer?
if I plug my Time Machine to it will set up my new computer just the way I have my old Computer?
Plug the TimeMachine drive into the new computer, boot it and when you go through the setup there will be a opportunity to transfer from the TM drive.
Shouldn't be a problem as your already on Lion.
Of course if your older machine software is crappy and slow, so will your new machine.
You might decide to fresh install instead, create the same user on the new machine then install all your programs from fresh original sources and then transfer files manually from the older machine, droppping the contents right into the same user folders as on the old machine.
More work, but actually saves work if your older machine is screwed up. Because Setup and Migration assistant has no brains, it transfers crap just as well as the good stuff. and despite what it says, it seems to transfer programs even if you state you just want files. Why I don't know, it's what someone said.
I never use either, because reinstalling the whole OS again, especially Lion with the Internet download, is not worth the chance. I'd rather download a few programs and transfer manually, takes about the same amount of time.

How to resolve errors (-50 and -8058) when moving Time Machine backups to new disk?

I'm trying to move my Time Machine backups (about 600GB total) to a new external hard drive. I started the process last night, but after an hour or so received two errors, each repeated multiple times:
"The operation couldn't be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8058)."
"The operation couldn't be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -50)."
I opted to cancel the file transfer. I looked up the error codes but I'm still not sure what they mean. I found an old support article about error code -50 (Mac OS X 10.1: "Error Code -50" Alert Appears When Copying Files From a Remote Disk) and an old support article about error code -8058 that doesn't appear to be entirely relevant to my issue (Mac OS X 10.4: Error -8058, unable to eject when trying to copy a disc in Finder). I've also found a number of Support Community discussions, none of which are particularly helpful.
Questions:
What do these two error codes mean? Are the files that cause these errors somehow corrupt?
If I click "Okay" when the error dialog appears, are the files that are causing the errors transferred or are they omitted from the transfer?
If I transfer the files and click "Okay" when the errors appear, or if I use Terminal and cp -R as suggested in Mac OS X 10.1: "Error Code -50" Alert Appears When Copying Files From a Remote Disk, will I have trouble recovering files from the new backup disk?
Do I need to verify/repair permissions on the original Time Machine disk before attempting the transfer?
Is there some other method I should use (e.g. Terminal instead of Finder) to transfer the backups?
Details:
MacBook Air
Mac OS 10.8.5
Both the old and new Time Machine disks are formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

The two drives are handled as separate drives, even if they have the same name.
In essence, the old backups are from a drive that's no longer connected; see #E3 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

HT4927 How do I retrieve photos from Time Machine on a new macbook air?

My previous mac book pro had all my photos on it. I thought I saved the library to a disk, but was unsuccessful. I also backed up my photos to my Time machine daily. Once my macbook and coffee got acquainted, it no longer worked. I am unable to retrieve my photos from anywhere, nor do I know how to access them from my time machine. When I enter time machine, the date only goes as far back as to when I started back ups with the new macbook. How can I obtain them? I have a lot of baby photos I'm without.

Not for photos as I don't have alot of room, nor am I 100% know what I am doing.

Issues with restoring a Time Machine backup onto new Macbook Pro Retina

I recently got a new Macbook Pro Retina and I've been trying to restore a Time Machine backup made today from my old Macbook Pro laptop. I didn't restore from the first start up (foolishly, seemingly) simply because of the trivial reason of wanting to see the system all clean and new.
I've tried the Migration Assistant but it gets stuck on "looking for source..", despite having the ex.HD plugged in and double checking the existance of the backup itself on the ex.HD.
I've also tried booting the laptop up in the 'restore' mode (cmd R) and restoring from there but it sends me in a constant loop of 'this backup was from a previous model of laptop' or something to that affect. It also doesn't display the recent backups at all, only displaying those from the beginning of this year for some reason. All backups are in the same place on the ex.HD so its not an issue with locating the backups.
Really stuck on this one! Would really appreciate some help!
Thanks a lot, and merry Christmas

Yes, you can restore to another machine if needs be.

Using MacBook Time Machine in a new MacBook Pro-possible?

Hi All,
Apologize if this is a re-post question or very basic. But appreciate your help.
I have been using a MacBook (white) for sometimes and take advantage of the Time Machine in its MacOS X to back up my files. I am planning to get myself a new MacBook Pro. However, I wonder whether I could use all the time machine backup in my external harddrive of my MacBook with the new MacBook Pro.
Is anyone can give me suggestion? How to do this if this is possible.
Thanks

you can use Migration Assistant (it's in /Applications/Utilities) to migrate your user data and applications from the MB backup to the new MBP. You'll also have the same option during the initial computer setup. after that MBP will need to start its own backup sequence. It can't use the old MB backups except in browse mode.

"Reconnecting" Time Machine Backups on New Macbook Pro

I recently got a new macbook pro and used Time Machine to set it up. Unfortunately, when I attempt to continue to use time machine backups, I get the warning that I don't have enough space.
I next attempted to use the Pondini B6 troubleshoot to reconnect my backups via the terminal (http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html), however upon attempting to execute the "sudo tmutil inheritbackup" command I received the following error message:
The backup "I***Mac" can't be inherited because it would conflict with "I***’s MacBook Pro" (with I***Mac being the name of my old laptop and I***'s MacBook Pro being my new one).
Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I just wipe my backup HD?
Thanks so much

It helps!
After this:
sudo tmutil delete "/Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Computername 2/"
sudo tmutil associatedisk -a /Volumes/Mac\ HD /Volumes/Time\ Machine/Backups.backupdb/Computername/Latest/Mac\ HD
I was able to go into Time Machine and see the backups that were in Computername that I hadn't been able to see via Time Machine (but could see from the command line).
And then I deleted a folder in TIme Machine (a profile inside ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox and the entire old backup in /Volumes/Time\ Machine/Backups.backupdb/Computername/ was deleted. Perhaps fat fingers? I dunno. I have a volume copy of the Time Machine volume, so I'll try again...

Time Machine transfer to new Macbook Pro

I bought a new Macbook Pro last week that I need to replace tomorrow due to slight case damage - I installed loads of applications such as Office 2008, transferred all photos etc and wondered if I do a Time Machine backup today before I return it tomorrow - can I transfer everything back over and have all applications working without having to reinstall them?
Cheers

Yes, you'll just need to do a restore using the Install disk.

Moving Time Machine sparsebundle to new backup drive

Hi all,
This may be a bit of a unique situation, but hopefully I can get some guidance...
I've been backing up two different computers using Time Machine, with the backups stored on a hard drive attached to a third computer (an old MacBook) that's set up as a server. So the backup drive has had two different sparsebundle files, one for each computer.
That drive filled up, so I've recently purchased a larger one. To keep things a little cleaner and to keep the larger computer's backup from crowding out the other one, I've decided to put the TM backups in two separate partitions on the new drive. I set up the partitions in what is hopefully the correct way based on some other discussions I've read (Mac OS-Extended, case sensitive, journaled; partition map scheme: GUID Partition Table).
However, I couldn't find any tips on how best to transfer over the old TM sparsebundles to keep using them on the new drive. SuperDuper probably wouldn't work since I only want to copy one of the sparsebundles into each of the partitions, not duplicate the existing drive.
So I'm hoping I can just copy them over manually using the Finder (that's what I'm doing now — and will be for the next 5 hours or so). Once it's done I'm planning to point the TM Preferences at the new partition and hope that it recognizes the existing backup. (If that fails, I'll mount the sparsebundle first.)
In the meantime, I just wanted to confirm that this is the correct way to go, and see if there are any other factors I need to take into consideration.
Thanks!

maxfreund wrote:
Thanks! Your timing is perfect -- I was just looking at Pondini's FAQ on exactly my situation:
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/18.html
This would seem to confirm that I'm on the right track. I guess I'll know for sure in around 5 hours!
Always a Good Read...
Let us know how it goes...

HT201250 Time machine backup to new macbook

I am purchasing a new macbook.
If I use time machine and want to incorporate its backup into a new macbook, does it back up my itunes backup information of my iphone as well?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Time Machine makes a backup of everything on your OS X partition except you want to exclude some data. Also, if you want to restore files, you can choose what you want to restore, so the answer is that your iPhone backups will also be backed up

Moving Time Machine to a new macbook

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