Moving TM Backup to Larger Disk

Got a new 2 TB disk for TM. Existing disk is just 500 Gb. Followed procedures for moving the existing backups using Disk Utility Restore with the Erase option checked. Both disks formatted Extended + Journaled GUID partitions. Disk utility fails with "Catalog file on image/volume is too badly fragmented" "Could not validate source - Bad file descriptor". Yet when I run verify disk and repair disk no problems are found. Also ran Tech Tool Pro 5 and it reports no problems. How come Disk Utility reports no problems but then can't actually restore from that same disk that it says there are no problems with?

Charles C Lloyd wrote:
Can anyone refer me to where it is described that Snow Leopard's Finder does the right thing with these copies?
If you mean some official statement from Apple, we've never seen one. It works for me, and others (the completely rewritten Snow Leopard version only). But for some (including V.K., who's also a UNIX guru), it doesn't. (Another of Time Machine's little mysteries.)
I'd like to understand how it works and what the limitations are. Namely, I would like to drag in the TM tree of another machine and merge the two (on a NAS).
Not do-able by any method. And TM doesn't back up well, or at all, to most NAS devices: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html
Some folks claim to have transferred local backups to a Time Capsule via an elaborate procedure of starting a backup to the TC, so TM makes a sparse bundle on it, then cancelling it, deleting the contents of the sparse bundle, then copying the local Backups.backupdb folder into it. Very cumbersome and time-consuming, not to mention "iffy."
But you cannot merge the backups of two different Macs into one sparse bundle and have it be usable at all. In theory, you might be able to put each into a separate sparse bundle (that's how TM backs up more than one Mac to the same network drive, such as a Time Capsule or shared drive on another Mac).
Is it a requirement that we start the copy from Backups.backupdb?
Yes.
Or does SnowLeopard always do the right thing when copying hard links (which is hard to believe).
Copying a complete set of backups usually works.

Similar Messages

Time Machine says backup is larger then the actual disk

I recently had a HD die, I replaced it and restored from my TM back up. I then formatted the TM drive and am now trying to do a full back up however when I do I get an error saying that the back up size is 525GB but my HD is only a 500GB drive of which only 450GB are used.
I ran disk warrior on my main HD, ran disk utility to fix the disk and permissions. I formatted the TM drive and now I'm zeroing out the TM drive (hopefully that will work)
Anyone have any ideas why it would be reading the back up size wrong?
Thanks!
Message was edited by: zymosan

zymosan wrote:
I recently had a HD die, I replaced it and restored from my TM back up. I then formatted the TM drive and am now trying to do a full back up however when I do I get an error saying that the back up size is 525GB but my HD is only a 500GB drive of which only 450GB are used.
That's correct, as odd as it may seem.
Time Machine adds 20% to the estimated size of the backup, for workspace on the backup disk. That's usually not a problem, because a Time Machine disk should be much larger than the data it's backing-up; otherwise, there isn't enough room to keep old backups.
It varies greatly, of course, depending on how you use your Mac, but as a general rule, TM needs 2-3 times the space of the data it's backing-up to keep a reasonable "depth" of backups for you.
Short-term, you can "squeeze" a backup onto the disk by excluding something large (so the estimate is under about 410 GB) and run a backup. Then remove the exclusion and run another. Since the second backup will be much smaller, 20% of it will be much smaller, too, so it should fit.
Longer-term, you need a much larger HD; at least 1 TB.

Can I move existing time machine backups to new, larger disk?

I have used Time Machine with success for a long time. Now I have a much larger disk drive and want to move the old backed up files to the new drive, then continue building files after that.
The current Time Machine backup file's Info says it is --get this-- 48.66 TB in size. But it sits on a 2 TB disk. I don't know if that's a mistake or a peculiar way to account for all the updates.
In the Time Machine preference screen it says I have 169 GB of 2 TB available.
Can I just copy this folder onto the new (4 TB) disk and tell Time Machine to select that as the current disk and have it continue to build and houseclean my accumulated history?
(I've started that process, but it tells me I will be copying zillions of files and will take a boatload of time to do it. It gives me a message that there isn't enough space to make the copy. But, of course, there really is.)

See Pondini's Time Machine FAQ: http://pondini.org/TM/18.html

Backup too large for volume

I have 2 macbook pro's (120GB & 160GB) backing up to a 500GB TM.
both were backing up just fine, however in the past month the 160GB
macbook pro keeps getting this message.....
"backup too large for volume?"
and subsequently the backup fails?
the size of the backup is less than the free space on the TM drive...
any help?

dave,
*_Incremental Backups Seem Too Large!_*
Open the Time Machine Prefs on the Mac in question. How much space does it report you have "Available"? When a backup is initiated how much space does it report you need?
Now, consider the following, it might give you some ideas:
Time Machine performs backups at the file level. If a single bit in a large file is changed, the WHOLE file is backed up again. This is a problem for programs that save data to monolithic virtual disk files that are modified frequently. These include Parallels, VMware Fusion, Aperture vaults, or the databases that Entourage and Thunderbird create. These should be excluded from backup using the Time Machine Preference Exclusion list. You will, however, need to backup these files manually to another external disk.
One poster observed regarding Photoshop: “If you find yourself working with large files, you may discover that TM is suddenly backing up your scratch disk's temp files. This is useless, find out how to exclude these (I'm not actually sure here). Alternatively, turn off TM whilst you work in Photoshop.” [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1209412]
If you do a lot of movie editing, unless these files are excluded, expect Time Machine to treat revised versions of a single movie as entirely new files.
If you frequently download software or video files that you only expect to keep for a short time, consider excluding the folder these are stored in from Time Machine backups.
If you have recently created a new disk image or burned a DVD, Time Machine will target these files for backup unless they are deleted or excluded from backup.
*Events-Based Backups*
Time Machine does not compare file for file to see if changes have been made. If it had to rescan every file on your drive before each backup, it would not be able to perform backups as often as it does. Rather, it looks for EVENTS (fseventsd) that take place involving your files and folders. Moving/copying/deleting/saving files and folders creates events that Time Machine looks for. [http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/14]
Installing new software, upgrading existing software, or updating Mac OS X system software can create major changes in the structure of your directories. Every one of these changes is recorded by the OS as an event. Time Machine will backup every file that has an event associated with it since the installation.
Files or folders that are simply moved or renamed are counted as NEW files or folders. If you rename any file or folder, Time Machine will back up the ENTIRE file or folder again no matter how big or small it is.
George Schreyer describes this behavior: “If you should want to do some massive rearrangement of your disk, Time Machine will interpret the rearranged files as new files and back them up again in their new locations. Just renaming a folder will cause this to happen. This is OK if you've got lots of room on your backup disk. Eventually, Time Machine will thin those backups and the space consumed will be recovered. However, if you really want recover the space in the backup volume immediately, you can. To do this, bring a Finder window to the front and then click the Time Machine icon on the dock. This will activate the Time Machine user interface. Navigate back in time to where the old stuff exists and select it. Then pull down the "action" menu (the gear thing) and select "delete all backups" and the older stuff vanishes.” (http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/backups.html)
*TechTool Pro Directory Protection*
This disk utility feature creates backup copies of your system directories. Obviously these directories are changing all the time. So, depending on how it is configured, these backup files will be changing as well which is interpreted by Time Machine as new data to backup. Excluding the folder these backups are stored in will eliminate this effect.
*Backups WAY Too Large*
If an initial full backup or subsequent incremental backup is tens or hundreds of Gigs larger than expected, check to see that all unwanted external hard disks are still excluded from Time Machine backups.
This includes the Time Machine backup drive ITSELF. Normally, Time Machine is set to exclude itself by default. But on rare occasions it can forget. When your backup begins, Time Machine mounts the backup on your desktop. (For Time Capsule users it appears as a white drive icon labeled something like “Backup of (your computer)”.) If, while it is mounted, it does not show up in the Time Machine Prefs “Do not back up” list, then Time Machine will attempt to back ITSELF up. If it is not listed while the drive is mounted, then you need to add it to the list.
*FileVault / Boot Camp / iDisk Syncing*
Note: Leopard has changed the way it deals with FileVault disk images, so it is not necessary to exclude your Home folder if you have FileVault activated. Additionally, Time Machine ignores Boot Camp partitions as the manner in which they are formatted is incompatible. Finally, if you have your iDisk Synced to your desktop, it is not necessary to exclude the disk image file it creates as that has been changed to a sparsebundle as well in Leopard.
If none of the above seem to apply to your case, then you may need to attempt to compress the disk image in question. We'll consider that if the above fails to explain your circumstance.
Cheers!

Moving backed up file in disk to tape using RMAN

Hi All,
Is there a way in RMAN to move an already backed up file present in disk to tape?
The scenario is as follows:
RMAN backs up database to disk on week days initially. At a particular day, say during Saturdays, those backed up file (made on week days) in disk will be moved to tape (to clear disk space). I wish to know if RMAN has this capability to move the backed up file from disk to tape (FLASHBACK is not enabled in the database). This will help RMAN to restore the files from tape in case of restore/recovery. I don't want RMAN to take the backup on tape straight away.
Oracle Database Version : 10.2.0
OS : SunOS 5.10
I'd be grateful if you can provide me with suggestions.
Thanks,
...

RMAN will not move the already backed up files.
Instead you can use CATALOG START WITH option to move the files from disk to catalog.
Schedule this as a job then RMAN will move the backup files.
refer this,
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/backup.102/b14192/maint007.htm#i1007978
Thanks
Edited by: Cj on Dec 14, 2010 1:29 AM

Backup too large for the backup volume??

Hi,
My disk is 30Go of windows and 120Go of Mac. Only 115Go are used. My backup volume is 185Go.
But Time machine tells me, *on the first backup*, that it needs 330Go for backup??? What the f**?
All my external disks are excluded, and it does say the size of the included files is 115Go. How come time machine needs *three times* the space of the original data??

When my Time Machine disk had only 50GB left, I got the message that it couldn't back up because it required 118GB to do so. Because there was, for some reason, only one day backed up, I deleted the backup files to start fresh. Now I am getting the message:
"This backup too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 1056.6 GB but only 929.4 GB are available."
Well, the backup only require 118GB a little while ago, and the initial full backup that I deleted was 880 GB. Nothing has been added to the startup disk, and a 400GB disk has been excluded to try to make this work, so this message can't be right.
How do I make this work? I did not interrupt or abort another backup, and I've already reformatted the drive, with the same result. Do I have to keep reinstalling Time Machine every time I want to backup?

Disk Utility: Cloning to larger disk?

I would like to clone the content of a 256GB drive (specifically a TimeMachine archive) onto a 1TB drive in order to increase the available space. A file copy of the archive does not capture all of the necessary hidden files and other information.
As suggested in the Time Machine forum I have cloned the drive using the Disk Utility->Restore feature with source the 256GB drive and destination the 1TB drive (and with Erase Destination enabled).
The 256GB drive contained a single partition which held a 230GB TimeMachine archive and showed 3GB free. The 1TB drive has one partition and DiskUtility drive shows:
Capacity : 931.4 GB (1,000,070,627,328 Bytes)
Available : 2.9 GB (3,140,665,344 Bytes)
Used : 229.9 GB (246,896,115,712 Bytes)
So instead of showing over 700GB free it is showing only 3GB. This is also true in the Finder.
I have attempted this procedure with both Apple and GUID partion maps and the result is the same. The source drive has an Apple partition map.
My question is first, whether what I am attempting is possible: Can I clone the archive to a larger disk and then utilize the additional disk space? If so, what must I do in additional or instead of DiskUtility->Restore to complete this process?
Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks.

dw0s wrote:
Thank you for detailing the procedure and I have verified step by step that that is what I have done. I have also preceded it by erasing the new disk and repartitioning it (1 GUID partition). The restore operation requires about 3 hours and then the verify takes 45 minutes. I should add that the last time I repeated this operation (the third time) the verify ended with a nonspecific error however the disk had mounted and the restore seemed complete--except that disk size and availability was as I described above.
I tried this yesterday - using Disk Utility to move a Time Machine Backup from a 750GB drive to a 1TB drive, and got a specific error - a timeout error. When I mounted and looked at the disk afterwards, I saw the same thing as you did: It would report only as much free space as the original had. I checked it with Disk Utility, which reported "invalid b-tree node size", and was not able to repair it.
My hunch is that the timeout may have been due to one of the two MyBook disks falling asleep during the verification operation (I was asleep myself , so I couldn't see what really happened), but the log says that it copied form 8PM to 0:20 AM, then verified until reporting "Could not restore, operation timed out" at 3AM.
Does anyone know of a trick to keep the MyBooks awake?

Automating backup to a disk image

I've been playing with Automator to create a backup of some files (Safari Bookmarks, AddressBook items, etc). I was able to create a workflow that involved selecting these items, copying them to a folder, and then zipping that folder up. That worked fine, but I wanted to use a Disk Image instead, so I recreated the workflow as:
Get Specified Finder Items (The Disk Image) >
Open Finder Items (opens the Disk Image) >
Get Specified Finder Items (The Files) >
Copy Finder Items (copies to the Disk Image) >
Upload Files (Transmit, uploads the Disk Image to my backup server).
The workflow is failing on Copy Finder Items (to the disk image).
The msg is "Couldn't create: /Volumes/MacbookProUserBackup/MacbookProUserBackup.sparseimage"
I have already crated the disk image, and it mounts in the workflow fine, it's just for some reason Automator won't copy to it.
Anyone have any ideas?

I would first create a blank disc image large enough for what you need. Mount the disc image on your Desktop. Use the Restore option of Disk Utility to clone the TM backup to the mounted disc image. Do not use simple copy for this.
Note that the largest disc image with which you can work is a dual-layered DVD that can store about 9 GBs. If your TM backup is larger than this then you cannot put it in a disc image. But you can clone the backup to another hard drive.

"Backup too large"...but i still have room on HD!

So I have a 300 GB external HD, and this issue keeps on popping up. Its the 3rd time its happened now. Both previous times, I have just started over, reformatted external drive and started Time Machine from scratch again. I'm real tired of doing that.
So heres the problem: After a while of normal updates, (usually a few weeks or so) at some point I encounter a Time Machine error message stating: "This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 91.0 GB but only 60.1 GB are available." ( well obviously that last part changes. But thats specifically what it says right now).
OK, so isn't TM supposed to do incremental backups and then when it runs out of space, start deleting the oldest information? Thats my understanding. So in other words, maybe i start losing backups from a month ago or so, but I should still have recent backups. However, when I go into TM, it has not been backup up since I first got that message. The earliest I can go back to is July 20th in Time machine (even though I should be able to access July 21-Today,August 2). Although its true that i only have 60GB left on my external HD, why is TM trying to do a 91GB backup? I have not added 91GB of stuff lately.
My iMac HD is 297GB, so even if that was totally full, since my external is 298GB, i technically should NEVER get a message that my backup is too big. I guess worst scenario, is that my backup only goes back a day or two, when my Imac hard drive is maxed out.
Thanks in advance for any help!
Darren

DauthiSlayer wrote:
So heres the problem: After a while of normal updates, (usually a few weeks or so) at some point I encounter a Time Machine error message stating: "This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 91.0 GB but only 60.1 GB are available." ( well obviously that last part changes. But thats specifically what it says right now).
As Larry says, your TM drive is wayyyy too small.
But it looks like something else is going on here, too, that's causing extra-large incremental backups. Whatever that is, getting a larger disk will allow more room for those backups, but won't make them any smaller.
There are some OSX features and 3rd-party applications that cause large Time Machine backups. Common ones are FileVault, vmWare Fusion, Parallels Desktop, Entourage, and Thunderbird. Any application that uses a single large file or database may do this.
FileVault (System Preferences > Security) converts your entire Home Folder into a single, encrypted disk image. So any change to anything in your Home Folder is treated as a change to the encrypted image, and the whole thing is backed-up. TM minimizes the impact, though, by only backing it up when you log out, but it's still going to eat up a lot of space on your TM disk.
Some apps, such as Entourage, sometimes use a single file, often a database, to store their data. With Entourage, for example, every time you send or receive a single message, the whole database is changed, and will be backed-up the next time. Apple mail, of course, stores messages individually, so this doesn't happen.
We've also seen this with folks using the +Directory Backup+ feature in the +Tech Tool Pro+ app. It makes lots of large files in a: +*~/Library/Application Support/TechTool Protection/<name of hard drive/*+ folder.
If in doubt, Click here to download the TimeTracker app. It shows most of the files saved by TM for each backup (excluding some hidden/system files, etc.).
One solution is to simply exclude the item from TM so it isn't backed-up regularly, then when you do want it backed-up, just copy it somewhere that's not excluded.

Migrating bootable disk to a larger disk

I've been trying to move my OS from a smaller hard disk to a larger one, but I am completely stumped. I've tried using the Lenove Rescue Disk- didn't work. I've tried EasesUS to do backup - didn't work. I've tried Wondows recovery from a disk image -didn't work. In every scenario, the Lenovo bios seems to intervene to prevent making the new disk bootable. When I should get a blank screen or a windos screen, I get the Lenovo screen. It always ends with an error, such as an inability to locate the image, inability to see the media, etc.
I have an M seeries computer.
Is it possible to move my OS to a larger disk?
If so, how?

hi fitzgreen203,
Welcome to the forums.
It should be possible to migrate or clone the stock OS (say you have a stock 500GB HDD) to a bigger capacity (say 1TB).
Can you try these steps:
Option 1:
Clone / Migrate the OS from stock HDD to the new one.
- OS Migration (using Paragon Backup & Recovery Home)
- Disk Cloning (using Macrium Reflect)
Option 2:
If you have a preloaded Win8.1 OS, you can also try the following to transfer the OS only.
1. Check this guide on how to obtain a Windows 8.1 ISO (see Option One)
2. When finished, follow this guide to make a bootable UEFI Win8.1 installer via DVD/USB flashdrive and use it to install Windows (the installation should be able to detect the Windows 8.1 product key in the UEFI firmware that will let you activate Windows).
Let me know how it goes.
Regards
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How do I create a backup DVD OS disk for my new mac mini ?

how do I create a backup DVD OS disk for my new mac mini ?
in case of failure HD etc
no disks came with it

No disk-version of Lion, but a Lion Thumb Drive http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD256
For the downloaded OSX Lion form the Mac App Store you can use this http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/39701/lion-diskmaker to make yourself a disk.
And have a read here http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=getting-lion-installers on how-to get/make a machine-specific OSX Lion installer disk.
Stefan

HT204247 Why is my iPhone Backup WAY larger than estimated? Pics incl.

Thank you for reading!
I have an iPhone 5S 16 GB running ios 8.1.3. My iPhone is being backed up to iCloud. Currently the backup is estimated at nearly 600 MB. I am utilizing iCloud photostream. I do not have photos saved locally. The largest app under the estimate (when clicking "manage more storage" is only 12 mB.
Why is the backup SO large?!

You are welcome for reading. 600 MB backup is not large, by all means. I have no imessages, about 60 photos and my backup is over 1 Gig. You just don't realize what happens with files. If you were to create smallest file possible by using notepad on your computer and typing one letter, it would still have more then 20 kbytes. We are talking apps that require bigger files for even smallest stuff. So you can pursue that avenue - why or why or just be happy that yet you don't have to pay for storage over 5 gigs. Your poison.

Can I back up my MacBook Pro hard drive on Backup Plus Slim disk, while upstreaming photos to the iCloud?

Hello, I have never backed up my MacBook Pro since I bought it 3 years ago (ouch) and I have never saved anything on the iCloud. I am on a catching up mission now. I upgraded my OS to Yosemite, set up iCloud and started upstreaming all my photos (more than 4,000) into iCloud. I also bought a Backup Plus Slim disk to do a full back up of my Mac's HD using Time Machine. The problem is that at the moment my internet is slow due to problems in the area I live (being fixed but it will take days). I started the upstream of my photos over a day ago and I still have more than 3,000 left to do. I would like to start the back up process onto the external disk in parallel (too long a story to explain why here), but I am not sure whether the two processes will be able to work together?
Thanks for letting me know.
Robertrorro

Hello, I have never backed up my MacBook Pro since I bought it 3 years ago (ouch) and I have never saved anything on the iCloud. I am on a catching up mission now. I upgraded my OS to Yosemite, set up iCloud and started upstreaming all my photos (more than 4,000) into iCloud. I also bought a Backup Plus Slim disk to do a full back up of my Mac's HD using Time Machine. The problem is that at the moment my internet is slow due to problems in the area I live (being fixed but it will take days). I started the upstream of my photos over a day ago and I still have more than 3,000 left to do. I would like to start the back up process onto the external disk in parallel (too long a story to explain why here), but I am not sure whether the two processes will be able to work together?
Thanks for letting me know.
Robertrorro

Large Disks On Solaris Intel 8EA

I am trying to setup a Large Disk ( 27 or 40 GB Maxtor ) using
Solaris 8EA on a Pentium Pro MAchine. The Disk Partitions fine
and am able to setup multiple Filesystems for 8 or 9 GB's
easily. But when trying to access these Filesystems
online I get several disk errors and Timeouts.
I tried several configurations for the Disk. Has anyone
face the same problem. Is this fixed in Solaris 8 Final
edition.
Thanks,
Harshan.

Actually the hardware is fine. I tried testing the hardware with
different operating systems. I think Solaris8 has a bug dealing with large SCSI and IDE drives.

Backup my network disks/file storage so it can be reverted later.

Hey, i've got a file server running, every user got it's own storage. Is it possible to make a backup of this disk to different location without VSS?
It's just needed because what if an user deletes a very important file accidently... then he needs the IT group to be able to recover it. Not himself. that's what i had in mind.
Thanks.

Hi,
We could not use Windows Server Backup without VSS. Windows Server Backup uses VSS and block-level backup technology to back up and recover your operating system, files and folders, and volumes.
You could restrict uses’ permissions to restore files from a backup. Members of administrators group and backup operators group have the right to restore files and folders on a computer by default. Members of the Server Operators group on domain controllers
also have this right. Other user accounts or groups must have the Restore up files and directories user right specifically assigned to be able to use Windows Server Backup to restore content to a computer.
For more detailed information, please refer to the article below:
Backup and Recovery Overview for Windows Server 2008 R2
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd979562(v=ws.10).aspx
Best Regards,
Mandy
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected]

Moving TM Backup to Larger Disk

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