Moving TM backups to new drive

I have new larger external drive which i will use to store my video in one partition and for Time Machine backup of my internal drive on the other partition I have created.
Can I move the TM backups from an old drive to the new and then switch on TM to the new drive? In other words, can I move the place TM backs up to the new drive and not lose my history?

Doug Clo wrote:
Okay.
Intel Mac - that would be my processor?
Yes.
I have Intel - and the partition map scheme is Apple Partition Map - so that is wrong?
The partition is formatted Max OS Extended (Journaled).
So if i understand correctly I need to reformat the drive?
I have two partitions on this drive. I've just moved a pile of stuff onto the other partition. Am I going to have to reformat the whole drive to get the TM working properly, and can I format just the partition I need?
Probably not (but it's the whole drive that's either GUID or APM).
Also check the old TM drive; see what it is, especially the Format.
There's some disagreement over this, but TM and most things will probably work on an APM drive. What won't is, if you ever put a bootable "clone" on it, an Intel Mac won't boot from it.
So I'd say, you're probably ok with the drive "as is" unless you intend to boot from it.
And yes, if you didn't specify erase, on the target, do so.
Post back with the results, and we'll see what else you might be able to do.

Similar Messages

Moving backups to new drive -- without using disk utility restore

Hello,
I have done some research on this already but I don't believe I've found the solution. I just bought a new media / backup hard drive, and I've moved my itunes library (over 100 GBs) to this drive. Now I have researched how to move the time machine backups to this drive, and know you can't just copy the files.
The instructions I've received tell me to use the disk utility to restore the old time machine backup drive to the new drive, however if I do that won't I lose the iTunes stuff currently on that drive?
Is there an easier way to move that data without me transferring the iTunes back to my laptop, and then restoring through disk utility, and then re-transferring the iTunes again?
thanks,
James

jimumbra wrote:
Hello,
I have done some research on this already but I don't believe I've found the solution. I just bought a new media / backup hard drive, and I've moved my itunes library (over 100 GBs) to this drive. Now I have researched how to move the time machine backups to this drive, and know you can't just copy the files.
The instructions I've received tell me to use the disk utility to restore the old time machine backup drive to the new drive, however if I do that won't I lose the iTunes stuff currently on that drive?
yes, you will. but it is also a VERY bad idea to keep other data on the same partition as the TM backup. first, this data will not be backed up by TM. if you value your itunes data you should have it backed up. also, TM is very buggy and there are too many situations when you need to delete existing TM backups and start from scratch. this should be done by erasing the entire TM partition. you should never delete any TM backups from finder. also, TM will eventually fill up the entire partition with TM backup. it will start bumping up against other data on the partition and you won't be able to put anything else on it.
the upshot is that you should make a separate partition just for TM. don't keep any other data on that partition. you can add a partition to the drive without disturbing your itunes data. type "create new volumes" in disk utility help to see how. however, that's not a good idea IMO as you'll have both the itunes data and the TM backups on the same physical drive. when the drive fails (and it will eventually) you'll loose everything.
Is there an easier way to move that data without me transferring the iTunes back to my laptop, and then restoring through disk utility, and then re-transferring the iTunes again?
thanks,
James

Moving TM backups to another drive?

I want to use a different drive for TM backups, but I do not want to lose the ones in the current drive. Can I just copy them to the new drive and then select it as the TM drive?

cationic wrote:
Seems to be working now - I had to click the "Erase destination" option. I had not done that because the destination drive is new, recently formatted.
that means you didn't reformat it before. new drives are usually formatted with MBR partition scheme and FAT file system which is wrong for TM. make sure you do it with GUID partition scheme as I said and the drive format is Mac OS extended. if you didn't change the partition scheme TM might work for a while but you may run into problems later. see this link
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1550?viewlocale=en_US

Drive full, add on to copied backup in new drive?

Well, I finally filled the external drive using Time Machine.
OK... got a new larger drive. Copied files from the old drive to the new thinking it will just start up from where it left off. Nope. Now it's starting a new backup. Called support. "That's the way it works"
If I want to get to older files I have to plug in the older hard drive and stop any Time Machine backup or it will remove older backups on the original drive.
How can I use the new drive with just adding onto the old copied files?

That's the solution I tried. First tried Copy Copy Cloner, gave up when didn't copy in 24 hours. Used SuperDuper which did copy but even with the clone Apple support informed that it looks for the particular drive as well as the copied files.

Time machine doesn't recognize old time machine backups after new drive

After getting my original hard drive replaced on apple care. Time machine refuses to recognize time machine backups dating back to October when I first installed Leopard. The Records are there on an "off-board" Lacie drive. Any fixes for this? I have had so many problems with Time Machine I am afraid to turn it back on. Last time it took over 40 hours to do an initial back-up.

Yes I had been having multiple problems and once saved the entire system in archive and install and also time machine had been active since October when I first installed it. all of this was saved to an off-board Lacie drive I can find the old time machine files easily enough but time machine since the new drive, does not recognize them. Since I got the drive back with tiger installed, I first had to re-install Leopard so I don't know if that caused Time machine to start over . I did do an archive and install at that time but there was nothing really to archive since they had not recovered my old files. If this wasn't bad enough The Technician replaced my administrator password with his own and the was off for a few days and I couldn't do anything for awhile. You have been very helpful thank you for your time on my behalf.
Respectfully,
Thomas Carlisle

Any "drag and drop" tricks for transferring TM backups onto new drive?

I've read many of the previous threads like mine, but my situation seems to be unique.
I have a damaged Time machine disk that is corrupted and can't be repaired by any disk utility programs. And I want to temporarily transfer the TM backups to another hard drive while I reformat the TM disk. I have snow leopard, but the finder won't let me drag and drop my time machine backups (Backups.backupdb) onto a new drive. I get the same "The backup can’t be copied because the backup volume doesn’t have ownership enabled" error. However, when I get info on the drive I want to transfer the backups to and uncheck "ignore ownership on this volume", I still get an error when dragging and dropping the time machine backups. The new error reads "This operation can't be completed because it isn't supported."
Are there any other things I can try to get drag and drop to work? I would have used the methods described above (clone the TM drive using disk utility or CCC), but I can't do that as my time machine disk contains a lot of other items besides the TM backups, and the disk I'm trying to drag the TM backups too is actually smaller than the TM disk. Since my TM disk is corrupted, I can't delete the extra files on the disk to make a clone that would fit on my smaller new disk. So I'm unable to clone my TM disk because it's too big. Is there any other way to make the drag and drop work in snow leopard? Everyone says it should, but I've been unable to get it to work.

Jottle wrote:
I have a damaged Time machine disk that is corrupted and can't be repaired by any disk utility programs. And I want to temporarily transfer the TM backups to another hard drive
That cannot be done. If the backups are corrupted beyond repair, they're useless. Even if you manage to "clone" them, the copy will also be corrupted beyond repair and useless.
my time machine disk contains a lot of other items besides the TM backups
That's a problem, too. See #3 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
Copy as much of the "other" stuff somewhere temporarily, reformat the disk into (at least) two partitions (see #5 in the FAQ Tip), copy the data back, and start TM fresh on it's own, exclusive partition.
Or, depending on the age of the disk, I'm not sure I'd trust my backups to it. It might be smartest to replace it. Use the old drive for the "other" stuff, and the new drive exclusively for TM backups of both your internal and the "other" external.

Moving Referenced Photos to new Drive

I have my media files on external drives and these are getting full now. My main media drive contains 480GB of files and 380GB of them is my referenced Aperture Library (30K+ pictures and video clips).
For some tests I want to put the data onto newer and bigger drives.
Copying the whole disk in the Finder works well and is done after approx. 2 hours (maybe a bit more).
In Aperture I have to show all files, select them all and choose "Locate Referenced Files...". In the Dialog I choose the location for any one of the 30000+ listed files and search it on the new Drive. Then I'm doing a "Reconnect All".
So far so good. But now one of the most time consuming Aperture Processes starts to work. Unfortunately this is a modal process and I can't do nothing but staring at this slow process.
OMG it is so unbelievable slow.
FOUR hours later the job was done and everything is fine.
Is there something I can do to speed up that task? I mean - has this to be that slow? It takes longer than copying more files in the Finder. Hello?
I'm on hold with my further Drive test because the whole thing takes too long at the moment.
Any suggestions?
(I refreain from using "Relocate Masters" inside Aperture because the Referenced files are spread over the media disk and I want to clone the whole disk outside of Aperture.)

I have just replicated the issue you are having and can confirm that TWO completely different Aperture 3 installations behave exactly as you describe. I have not dug into WHY this no longer works but it does not - volume name, mount point, partition name, device name, everything that comes to mind and meets the eye is identically but the masters remain off-line until you "reconnect'.
I cannot believe that Apple did this on purpose - I can assure you I have done this many many times in the past and it worked fine. If it is a mistake and should work let's hope it gets fixed - if it works like this on purpose I would love to know that possible rationale would make this make any sense whatsoever. This is a big big problem for multivolume libraries.
Does anyone's Aperture 3 installation let them do this?
RB

Moving an old TM backup to new drive

How do you migrate TM to your local hd and then restore to a re- partioned portable hd? I wanted to reformat my external hd to increase the portable size, 2 partitions now with TM as the 2nd partition. I was hoping just to reduce partition 1 size and increase 2 size for the TM. You cannot do. Thanks.

I have used SuperDuper! to clone the contents of my TM drive to a larger drive and it worked marvelously but...what you are talking about doing would scare the pants of me. You'd have to partition your internal hard drive so you can clone TM - as far as I know a clone is the only way to successfully copy a TM drive. Having done this you'd be able to test whether or not the cloned TM drive works or not because you could run TM's verification on it.
Here's what scares me though. Now you repartition the external drive, destroying TM on that external drive and so now, at least for a brief period of time both your data and backup exist on the same physical drive. What are the chances of disaster striking and you lose everything? A million to one? A billion to 1? A thousand to 1? I don't know, but I do know the number isn't zero and I do know of people who have used a partiton of their computer's drive for backing up and lost everything.
So if you have the $$ I'd recommend another external drive and use it as your temporary storage. Afterwards you'll have a second drive which you could use, for example, as an off-site backup.

Moving Files & lrcat to new drive - lost edits

Hi, I recently dragged and dropped my lrcat & files to a new raid backup drive. When I started up LR it was 'empty' (I was in shock) so I reimported the CR RAW files into the folders as well as the devlop presets. The problem is that i have lost most of the editing I had dne to my images i.e they have reset.
Is it possible to retrieve the updated images from a backup and merge them into the current LR settings without duplicating? (or should I reset my LR and restore from the backup)?
Thanks, need help!

More info might help
1. The files were copied and not moved? You've verified that the photos and catalog still exist on the original drive?
2. If you find the catalog on the original drive and launch Lightroom with that catalog do the folders appear, but not the photos?
3. If the photos and catalog were moved and not copied, what happens when you launch Lightroom with the catalog from the new location?
In any case it's very unlikely that you have to redo your work. Unless your catalog is gone or corrupted and you don't have any backups, the catalog still has all your changes, you just need to launch LR with the right catalog and point it to the files if necessary.

Need help copying Time Machine backups to new drive

I was attempting to move my Time Machine backups from one hard drive to a newer hard drive, by copying the Backups folder. It gets through the process of preparing the files to copy but then as it starts to copy the file I get an dialog error box saying that it can't convert one file and that I need to install a newer version of IWork. I don't have IWork installed on this computer, but I have used pages on the iCloud website. I have attached a screen shot showing the error. The copying stops at this point. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed?

That usually works better than a Finder copy and is often faster.
If required.
Inherit a Backup
Inherit a Backup (2)

Moved folders to a new drive, new drive letter help?

Hi all,
I've got a bit of a problem that I'd love to find a really easy answer to. I bought a new PC, migrated all my old images to a hard drive that I was using as a backup for the past few years of images (I put all images in year folders and make catalogs based on the year) AND I migrated to LR3 at the same time. Now It wants to know where all these lovely files are. I've tried right clicking on the drive letter under "Folders" but I don't get an option to find the drive, it seems the only way I can go about finding all these images is to go through and link each individual sub-folder (we are talking about 200 folders here). And here is what hurts the most - every time I go to find the folder the damn picker reverts to opening the lightroom catalog folder not the last folder I was in. Is there any easier way to go about this?
Thanks in advance
Hali

I can (and have been) doing that with indvidual folders but I was hoping for an answer that would allow me to do that with the drive letter. And I don't get something that says update folder location it says "find missing folder" which I guess is the same thing...but what a pain! I do have all my folders under one master folder (Master folder is the year, sub folders are the days I've shot and where) I suppose I could just sync the whole "2009" folder but I'd lose all of my lightroom goodies like that I think.

Moving old backups to new Time Capsule on OS 10.5.8

Hello
Because my powerbook is not dual core I'm still running 10.5.8. I recently bought a Time Capsule to serve as both my wireless network, and new Time Machine backup drive, among other things.
I'd like to save my backups I've done in the past (currently stored on an iOmega external HD) over to Time Capsule before doing a new backup. I read on a support link on the apple site called Time Machine 101, on how to do this, but the subject heading was "Mac OS X v10.6: How to transfer your back ups from your current hard drive to a new hard drive." So that led me to think maybe I wouldn't be able to do this with 10.5. Does anyone know if I can do what I'm hoping to do?
Much thanks as always in advance.

GoBraves wrote:
Should be good. Are you saying I can only backup one drive to Time Machine?
Oops, sorry, I missed this one.
No, you can back up as many drives/partitions as you want (and have room for), as long as they're internal or externally-connected via FireWire or USB, and are formatted properly.
When you first connect such a drive after setting-up TM, it will usually put it into the +Do Not Back Up+ box in TM Preferences > Options automatically. To back it up, just select it there and click the minus sign at the bottom. If it's shown in gray, you can't remove it. That means it's either your TM backup drive/partition, or isn't formatted for a Mac.
I'll be using the backup HDs for either storage of my music library or photo library, and for being the storage device for some FLAC files I'll be downloading/sharing. (Dave Matthews Band geek here.) The FLACs I wouldn't need to backup, but the music/photos I'd want to.
Do you mean the current backup HD, that will no longer be used for TM? If so, yes, that'll work fine.
If you're going to be using the Time Capsule's internal HD for other data, besides Time Machine backups though, you'll eventually have a problem, as Time Machine, by design, will fill up all the space available to it. There is a sort of a workaround, in the blue box in #3 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum, but a better solution would be to attach a USB drive to the TC. Use one for backups, the other as you want. In that configuration, however, Time Machine cannot back it up, so you'll need to make other arrangements.

Moving system to larger newer drive

I have a healthy 250gb system drive that is just about filled up.
What is the best procedure for moving the image on the old drive to a new larger drive and still retain all of my application authorizations and whatnot.
I also use super duper to back up this drive.
Thanks
Andy Murdock
[email protected]

Use SuperDuper to clone the current drive to the new one. Swap the drives. Boot from the new one.

Moving old backups into new air capsule

is it possible to set up an air capsule to inherit the backups that time machine made on an external USB hard drive? I'd hate to lose all the backups i have since 2011. Thanks

The problem here is that Time Machine stores backups differently on an external hard drive compared to a network drive like the Time Capsule. You will not be able to combine the backup files into a single file.
Life will be tons easier if you simply start new backups on the Time Capsule and keep the USB drive around for another 5-6 months until you have some backup history on the Time Capsule.
If you find that you don't really need to go back and look at backups that were made two years ago, you might want to consider erasing the USB drive at some point and using it as a general purpose drive....or a second Time Machine backup drive.
In other words, have Time Machine backup to both the Time Capsule and hard drive. The application will automatically alternate backups between the Time Capsule and hard drive. When....not if...one drive fails, you will have a solid backup history on the "other" drive.

Restoring Time Machine backup to new drive in G5 iSight

Hi all
I successfully replaced the hard drive in my G5 and installed OS 9. Man, what a chore to get into the old beast.
However, I have not been able to upgrade to Leopard using my upgrade disk - this is to bring it back to the same OS as before the HDD upgrade.
Now I need to restore the Time Machine backup but when I try to boot off the Leopard disk it fails.
Are there any other ways to get the G5 to see and restore the Time Machine backup?
Cheers
Scott

So, You're saying I can do this from a different computer with its own Time Machine?
In other words, I have my Time Machinedrive from the dead iMac and a fresh, formatted drive both hooked up to an unrelated computer with its own Time Machine.
If I enter Time Machine on that computer won't it show me the data it backs up for that computer only?
Will Time Machine know that there are two Time Machine backups (the one from the iMac and the one from the new host machine), and allow me to select the one from the iMac?

Moving TM backups to new drive

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