Multiple backup.backupdb folders

Has anyone else had this happen?
Snow Leopard installed, a WD mybook external usb hard drive setup with TM, but...
1) hard drive doesn't always get recognized
2) manually mount drive
3) TM works once or twice
4) go to bed or leave computer alone and fin out that multiple backup.backupdb folders are all over your desktop.
Since installing 10.6.1 nothing but problems with TM!! I've reformatted, repartitioned and reinstalled drivers for WDmybook. Totally frustrated with Snow Leopard!

Ronaldo0014 wrote:
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Has anyone else had this happen?
Snow Leopard installed, a WD mybook external usb hard drive setup with TM, but...
1) hard drive doesn't always get recognized
First clue.
2) manually mount drive
3) TM works once or twice
Second clue.
4) go to bed or leave computer alone and fin out that multiple backup.backupdb folders are all over your desktop.
Third clue.
Since installing 10.6.1 nothing but problems with TM!! I've reformatted, repartitioned and reinstalled drivers for WDmybook. Totally frustrated with Snow Leopard!
OSX is having some sort of trouble communicating with your WD drive. Check with WD for firmware updates, and even newer drivers. Try different ports, cables. Make certain all connections are tight and secure. If the WD has a separate power supply, try plugging-it in to a different outlet (or, preferably, the same surge protector or U.P.S. system your Mac is on).
Exclude it from any anti-virus scanning.
Exclude it, at least temporarily, from Spotlight indexing, via System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy.
Temporarily un-check the +Put the hard disk(s) to sleep ...+ option in System Preferences > Energy Saver.
How old is this drive? You may be seeing the first signs of it beginning to fail. All HDs do fail, of course: some sooner, some later.

Similar Messages

Migrate Backups.backupdb Folder to new disk AND MERGING 3 Systems HELP

Hey everybody. I need some help migrating and merging some old Time Machine backups. The partition on the new drive where I have to move the data is where I've been doing my current TM backups, so it has it's own Backups.backupdb folder.
I WANT PanGalacticGargleBlasterDisk to look this:
DESIRED OUTCOME:
________________PanGalacticGargleBlasterDisk___GUID PT_________
Time Machine Partition
Non Time Machine Data
Backups.backupdb
machineA
machineB
machineC
CURRENT SITUATION:
________________PanGalacticGargleBlasterDisk___GUID PT_________
Time Machine Partition
Non Time Machine Data
Backups.backupdb
machineA
________________TowelDisk___APM PT____________________________
Time Machine Partition
Non Time Machine Data
Backups.backupdb
machineB
machineC
Constraints:
• I have no other drives big enough to clone this TM data to.
Other Notes:
• All Partitions are formatted Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)
• I DO have Carbon Copy Cloner
• I am not terribly afraid to use the Terminal if necessary
I've had trouble moving the Backups.backupdb folder before, so I'm hoping someone out there understands all these file permissions better than I do. Thanks!

Thanks. Pondini's FAQ #18 (http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/18.html) says:
• You cannot merge two or more sets of backups, even for the same Mac.
I guess I would have to reformulate my immediate goal as:
A) Reformat the disk with the older TM data [Backups.backupdb(machineB, machineC)], while
B) Retaining the "powers and abilities" of those Time Machine backups so I can restore and boot from those systems in the near future.
That's more important than actually merging the TM backup folders.
NEW POSSIBLE SOLUTION?
Can get the data in the Backups.backupdb folders to reside on the same partition for just a little while? For example:
1. Create a disk image from the partition with [Backups.backupdb(machineB, machineC)].
2. Move the disk image to the on the same partition as the other Backups.backupdb(machineA) folder partition in non-functional state, NOT as a folder.
3. Reformat the now empty drive.
4. Restore the partition that had the [Backups.backupdb(machineB, machineC)] folder in it to some other partition in the future?
What would I need to check to make sure this works (permissions?, formatting?, PT type?, etc.)
Thanks for your help!

HT203322 Still having issues with installing Yosemite after deleting "Backups.backupdb" on the internal hard drive. I have restarted multiple times and cannot find any other back up files, yet I still receive the same error message during installation.

I am using a 2011 iMac on 10.6.8. I recently downloaded the Yosemite upgrade and during the installation process ran into the "this disk is used for time machine backups". I ejected the external drive I use for time machine backups and turned off time machine in the application. I then followed the instructions of the help article (OS X: Cannot install on a volume used by Time Machine for backups - Apple Support) by moving the folder "Backups.backupdb" that I was able to find on my internal hard drive to the trash. I have restarted several times after completing this process. I am still running into the same error during the installation process. I have searched the hard drive for any other backups and I cannot find any. I searched the hard drive using the command cmd-shift-g and searched for “backups.backupdb” and was unable to find any folders or files. Any other suggestions?

I have resolved the problem - I did not actually delete the "backups.backupdb" folder, I only deleted the contents of the folder. I must have only searched on the user account for the folder after I thought I had deleted it. Thank you for the assistance everyone and I apologize for the inconvenience!

I moved my Backups.backupdb folder to a larger hard drive and the transfer went fine with the space taken was correct but when i open my Backups.backupdb folder and browse there is actually no folders or files, the folder shows 280gig used but empty?

So i draged my time machine Backups.backupdb folder from my external hard drive to a larger external hard drive, the folder size was 280gig and took some time to transfer and once transfered i checked the size on the larger drive and the folder size was correct 280 gig. Job done i thought but the next day (stupidly after formating my oringinal drive) checked the Backups.backupdb i see that there is actually no folders or files in the Backups.backupdb??? when transfer the file it shows the 280 gig and names the files being tranfered but i just can't find them. Any clues how i can acces these files?
Thank you in advance for any help and let me know if any specifics are needed

That is not the proper way to do what you want. You need to use Disk Utility to clone the old backup drive to the new backup drive.
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new backup drive. Source means the old backup drive.

Time Machine Backups.backupdb with "Lacie Rugged 500GB External Hard Drive"

So I bought a Macbook Pro Yesterday. I have a black Macbook from a few years ago and wanted to transfer my Hard Drive onto the new Macbook Pro. I have an external hard drive called "Lacie", made by rugged/neil poulton with 500GB of space. So yesterday I plugged it into my old Macbook and used time machine to store all of my data on the external hard drive. After it was done I plugged the external hard drive into my new Macbook. I ran Time machine and it took about an hour. Then I clicked on my "LACIE" hard drive icon on my desktop, and dragged the folder "Backups.backupdb" into my Hard Drive on my new laptop. Then a Copy window popped up and said "preparing to copy to Macintosh HD". After about 5-10 minutes the Copy Window displayed "Copying 489,020 items to Macintosh HD, Zero KB of 206.96 GB- Estimating time remaining..." I've left this window open for the past 2-3 hours and nothing has happened. It's still remaining at "Zero KB of 206.96 GB-Estimating time remaining...". Does anyone know how I can fix this problem? Did I skip a step? I feel like after 3 hours it would have at least transferred something or changed somehow. Should I rerun Time Machine?
Thanks a lot.
-Luke

jpdemers wrote:
Copying a Time Machine archive from one hard drive to another is a very slow process, especially over a USB connection. You're talking about almost half a million separate files, and the drive not only has to write them all, it has to create a directory that lists and locates all of them. I'm not sure why the Finder's "Copy" window sticks at zero KB., but if you're patient (we're talking 15 hours or thereabouts, depending on the performance of the drive), it will all get transferred eventually. You can see the dated folders popping up on the target disk, if you check on it from time to time.
I've done it for archiving purposes, prior to getting Firewire drives, but this is entirely the wrong way to transfer files to a new system. (For one thing, you're copying thousands of system files that aren't relevant to the new Mac, and thousands more that already exist.) Why do things the hard way, or the wrong way, when Setup Assistant was created for this specific task?
Amen.

How Do I Restore the Old Backups.backupdb in Time Machine. It Replaced It With a Reinstalled OS's Backup.backupdb But Time Machine Is Still Filled at 1.9TB of 2TB

Hi. I fresh installed Mavericks but I didn't transfer my files from Time Machine coz' I was going to do it manually with (folders like documents, pictures mainly) when it asked (before it lets you boot to the Finder) but as soon as I chose to let the freshly installed Mavericks use the Time Machine with the old backups, it replaced it with a new Backups.backupdb. The good thing is the old backups seem to still be there because, the freshly installed OS X is only around 11GB but the Time Machine is 2TB yet it's filled with 1.91TB (only 90GB freespace).
Is there a program to somehow see these old backups, so I can backup it manually copy and paste to their respective folders on the newly installed Mavericks? Or a Terminal command to make that possible, let me see the old back ups (I hope it's just hidden, retrievable)? I've switched off Time Machine for now coz' there's not much to back in the newly installed Mavericks.
Thank you in advance.
God bless, Rev. 21:4

Thank you. It's all back to normal (took around 7 hours on the late 2009 iMac). Time Machine's become better now compared to the last time I used it to migrate everything automatically (Snow Leopard days). With Maverick's Time Machine, it's almost like a cloning (except for the password) tool now. But it's always great to name the account and maybe the hardisk the same names so can just replace a newly installed OS.
God bless. Thanks again.

Time Machine - Deleted Backups/backupdb

I've searched everywhere but I haven't seen this exact scenario. So, here's the deal: I got a new AirPort Extreme, recently, and was reading online that I could attach my external HDD to it, via USB. I'm thinking, "Great! I can take this thing off my desk, to give me more room." I ejected the XHDD and connected to the APE. I could see it under Devices/Shared, and when double-clicking on it, I could access all my files. (I have other folders on the drive; Movies, iTunes Music, eBooks, etc. Using AirPort Utility, I could not select the drive to use as a Time Machine backup drive. I had been using this XHDD for TM backups, for a while, when connected directly to the iMac. I then read "Sadly, we can't do a Time Machine backup and then move it to the AEBS, so we have to do it this way." So, I deleted the Backups/backupdb folder, and everything in it, so I could then reattach the XHDD to the AE and set it up to work for TM backups. I DID NOT delete my other folders. When the Trash finished emptying the 2.5+ million files, I tried to eject the drive, but got a message saying that it was in use and could not be ejected. I thought it might be performing some residual background task. After about an hour, I tried again to eject - No Joy! So, I rebooted the iMac. Now, the volume won't show up on my desktop and it has been sounding like its working (doing something) for the past couple of hours. I can see the drive in DiskUtility, but there is no volume listed under it. Not sure what I should do to get this thing to mount. I'll worry about the TM issues later -- right now, I just need to access the other folders on the drive. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I do have Data Rescue, as a last resort, I guess...

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Ouch!
First, you need to know that Time Machine backups via an Airport Extreme are "iffy" and +*not supported by Apple.+* See Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
Second, Time Machine works best when the backups are in a separate partition. See #3 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). If yours had been done that way, you could have simply erased the partition via Disk Utility, in a matter of moments.
I don't know what's wrong with the disk now.
Disconnect it from your Mac. If it has it's own power supply, unplug it or turn it off for a few minutes. Reboot your Mac again, just to be sure everything's cleared, then reconnect it (via a different port, if possible) and power it on.
If that doesn't help, what does Disk Utility show for the *Partition Map Scheme* on it (at the bottom of the window when you select it)?
If it's either +Apple Partition Map+ or GUID, that's correct. If not, that may be at least part of the problem. Does it show the correct *Total Capacity?* What does it have for *Write Status?*
If you have a copy of +Disk Warrior,+ or another 3rd-party heavy duty disk repair app, it might be able to fix it.
Otherwise, yes, you may need +Data Rescue.+ Make sure it's a compatible version.

Permissions on backups.backupdb

My son's external WD 1TB HD that he used with Time Machine for his backups crashed. He sent it to me and using Newer Technology's Universal Drive Adapter, I am able to get it booted and see all of his files. I was able to copy his folders with his work product (he is an animator using a Mac Pro and MacBook Pro) but when I tried to copy "backups.backupdb" it tells me that the file cannot be copied because it is permissions based. Yet, it does not ask for a password. Is there something special that needs to be done to copy the backups.backupdb file?

If you wish to clone a copy of the TM backup drive do not attempt to simply copy files. Backups.backupd is the entire TM backup folder. It contains everything TM has backed up to the drive. Because TM uses specialize file links you simply cannot copy the folder. Instead you should clone the entire drive's contents to another properly partitioned and formatted drive. Use the Restore option of Disk Utility. The TM backup drive is the source device while the drive to which you are cloning is the target/destination device.
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4.Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external drive to which you are cloning.
Source means the TM backup drive.

HT5096 Need to move Time Machine Backups.backupdb folder from old to new USB disk! Help!

I have followed the suggestions at : Time Machine: How to transfer backups from the current backup drive to a new backup drive - Apple Support
However, these fail - If I format GUID, Mac OS Extended (Journaled), I get an error that case sensitivity must be enabled.
I have unchecked the box "Ignore ownership on this volume" as suggested, so that is not the issue.
This error DOES go away if I (ignoring the article's suggestion" format the disk as GUID, Mac OS Extended (case-sensitive, Journaled).
Then, I can initiate the copy. It will begin copying my 2.5+ Million files (1.66T) but it will begin to fail near the end (28 hrs later) with errors like "__DS_Store already exists" and "Invalid Instruction (100)" and I can't stop or complete the copy. I must unplug the USB cable, as an interrupt or eject will fail as an operation is in progress.
I would appreciate, more than anything, some command line invocation that will accomplish my task. I have tried:
"sudo cp -rP /Volumes/Source/Backups.backupdb /Volumes/Target/" both as a user, and also after a sudo su - as root. All fail, citing permission errors.
There's something special about the way the folder security "goes deeper" than unix permissions, and I can't seem to find a way to copy the stinking folder! Please help! I am looking at the tmutil command but don't see an appropriate verb action for moving a time machine directory.
Any help would be appreciated! I don't really want to "dd" the entire volume!
Thanks!
Joe

Update. I used a free control panel ("secrets") to make invisible files appear and was able to find the trash folder on the external drive. I was able to move the backup folder while holding the command key and have had two successful hourly backups. The only problem that remains now is the trash file for the external drive.
In regards to erasing it, that is not really a viable option right now because I am in the process of switching to this new 1TB drive and it has some other folders on it that I may need access to in the next few days. I installed my 500 GB (that I previously used for TM backups) into my intel iMac (5,1).
Before doing that I cloned everything from the 500 to the 1TB using carbon copy cloner. Now I'm just going back and cleaning things up. Which is why I need the ability now to not have things immediately deleted.

Multiple Backups on Time Capsule

Can I create multiple backup folders on Time Capsule to use for individual backups on multiple Macs on the same Time Capsule? If not how would I backup mulitple Macs on the same Time Capsule?

Time Machine automatically creates separate files for each Mac that backs up on the Time Capsule.
Each user can only see the backups of their respective Mac.
The practical limit of multiple Macs backing up to the single Time Capsule would probably be in the 4-6 range.

Windows 7 Professional Multiple Backups

Does Windows 7 Professional enable me to schedule multiple backup jobs for different backup locations and schedules?
I would like to create one backup job to backup my data partition (which is separate from my c:\ drive) and a c:\ disk image to an external USB drive daily, and another job to backup the same data and image to a network drive on a different schedule (weekly, for example).Windows 7 RC dual booting with VISTA Home Premium
2 GB memory 160 HD
Gateway Laptop
HP Officejet 6310 All-in One inkjet printer
Verizon FIOS Internet Connection

Hello Christine,
i do not know whether you still get alerts for this Thread....but since you wrote "can you please let me know what are your consideration in creating two backup jobs of the same data to seperate locations", I will describe my own considerations.
1) My most important backups are weekly incremental backups on a local disk
2) To protect myself against a catastrophe (e.g. my house could burn, burglars could steal all my Hardware,....) i also backup less frequently (typically around every month or every two months) the same data to a set of two external disks, that I store remotely in the safe of my bank.  I create a backup on one of these two disks, go with this disk to my bank, store it in the safe, take with me at home the other one of these two disks that was in the safe, wait one or two months, create again backup on that disk, go to the bank,......)
3) In addition, I backup a "small subset" of the above data dayli to an internal disk. This small subset consists of the folders used for my "active projects" (for my active projects, that I am working intensively on, I do not wish to take the risk of losing one week worth of work/changes.... this loss would be too large)
If interested to know which data is backed-up in item 1) and 2) above:
- a System Image Backup of my C: partition
- a File/Folder backup of my "data files" located on the :H partition (on same physical disk as the C: partition). This is around 20 GB wort of data and includes among other my Word documents, .pdf files, Windows Live emails, downloaded Webpages, IE Favorites, MS Word dictionary, ...)
   - a File/Folder Backup of the large amount of Photo Files (today 120 GB; I expect a rapid size increase, among other because I will soon scan my old slides and will soon start to use the .RAW photo format that results in larger photo files)
A technical detail that might seem irrelevant for your developers but that is essential for me: when "switching" from a weekly incremental Backup written to my local/internal disk to a backup written to my external disks, it is essential for me that the Backup Software does not perform again after every such "switch" a Full Backup (this is what Windows Backup is currently doing in W7). For me, with my large amount of photo files, I can not afford to do often a Full Backup.
In this context, I should also describe that I want to keep my photo file backups for a long period of time. Because it is quite likely, that it is only in one or two years that I will detect current problems wit a subset of my photos (I have a lot of photos, that I will only look-at again in one or two years). Therefore, I do not want a solution that (because of disk space considerations) will need to overwrite a 6 month old Full Backup with the most current Full Backup. I therefore need to avoid frequent switching from Incremental backup to a new Full Backup.
Another detail: For me it is important to be able to have trust in the quality of the Backup Software. This is especially important for the relative fragility of incremental backups (incremental backups are more fragile, because they depend on the availability and quality of multiple backups). This is why I recently decided to perform my weekly incremental backups with Windows Backup (as opposed to a incremental backup with a Backup Software that I bougt recently from another Software Company and that is faster and more flexible but less reliable than Windows Backup).
If you allow me to deviate from the subject: my most important problem with Windows Backup is the lack of detailed documentation. In a attempt to "keep it simple", too much information has been sacrified in the documentation. Even the otherwise excellent "Windows 7 Inside Outside" book does not contain sufficient descriptions. I am loosing extremely much time, just because of the lack of detailed documentation. Backing Up reliably is for a lot of users something essential.... and to do it reliably, we need more detail information than your team thinks.
Some few final words: in case you know him, I would like to express my gratitude to "Gordon 7" who provided me
a lot of very useful information and help on Windows Baup in the Thread " http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprogeneral/thread/f83c4cf3-15d6-4eb2-816b-63b7184e5dca    "

Time Machine Backups.backupdb folder more than one directory for the same machine

Hi I am trouble shooting a Time Machine issue for somebody. They have multiple backup directories for the same machince in the Backups.backupdb folder. This causing the directory that is being used to have a restricted amount of space to use, therefore the backup timeline is only lasting for one month where oldest backups are being deleted. On top of this I notice that the options to delete individual backups or all of them is not available. I read that this can happen where there is duplication in backups.
Any suggestions in how to remove backups that are redundant and select the correct one to keep appreciated. And...suggestions on why this may have happpened. One reason could be that when the Mac was originaly bought, two portable iomega drive were purchaed one to use at a main residence and the other at a country home. Each disk may have been used at different times for Time Machine.

Start with Pondini's TM FAQs.

Multiple backups of same iPhone on one computer possible?

Moved this over here from a different area in hopes of getting more eyeballs on it.
Does anyone know if it is possible to have multiple backups of the same iPhone on your computer? I have tried changing the name of the phone (ex. my_iPhone, myiPhoneA) but it still only lists one phone (the most recent name) in the "iPhones backed up on this computer" list in itunes. If anyone has been able to do this, or just knows it could be done, any help would be greatly appreciated.
Also, does anyone know where the computer actually stores the backup info. Assuming I could overwrite an existing backup file with them, being able to navigate to and save those files would allow me to do pretty much what i am looking to.
thanks,
christian

Yes. It's possible to have more than one backup of your iPhone on your computer. The backup is stored in this folder: Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup in your users profile. You have to disconnect your iPhone, navigate to the folder, move that folder to another part of your computer, and then plug your iPhone back in. This should create another backup in that folder. Then if you add the folder that you moved back in. You'll have two different backups. This is a link to the article where I got this info from. It also has the other places backups are kept on your computer.
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/22/more-on-iphone-backups

How can I save multiple backups of my iPhone?

This weekend I purchased a new 13" MacBook Pro. In the process of transferring data from my old MacBook Pro to the new one I almost lost all of the data from my iPhone. In the process I realized that by default iTunes only keeps one instance of the backup data - the most recent one.
To avoid such a near miss in the future and to add some healthy redundancy into my life, I would like to be able to keep at least one additional backup copy of my iPhone data. Elsewhere it has been suggested to periodically copy the backup folder to another location. This seems terribly inefficient. Is there a more Apple-like way to create and manage multiple backups of my iPhone and iPad data?
Thanks!

That's the only suggestion I have seen (or maybe renaming the files where they are). It is most un Apple-like for a person to want to do anything than how the programs are set up to do things! You're making life complicated.
I guess if you were absolutely deteremined to make it "easier" you could write an Applescript to automate the copying process.

How to keep multiple backups of an iphone in itunes

I have two iPhones, both of which are iPhone 4 with latest iOS 6.1.2. Everytime I connect one iPhone with iTunes on my windows-based computer, it generates a new backup on the computer thus now there exist more than ten backups of this iPhone (labeled with different dates in iTunes->Preference->Devices). However, everytime I connect the other iPhone with iTunes, it updates the latest backup on the computer thus now there exist only two backups of that iPhone. I've not found any setting different betwee those two iPhones. Since sometimes I need to restore iPhone from an old backup, how can I explicitly ask iTunes to keep multiple backups like the former iPhone?
I know this can be done manually if I rename the corresponding backup folder in ...\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup. I'm just looking a more "automatic" way in iTunes setting.
Thanks.

Hi Venkat,
Why u want to do with CM25?
Do you have to do splitting before dispatching the operations?
If not you can do the same through CM27
Just need to select all the operations of the order(By pressing shift) then click on Dispatch(press F5)
Still iam doubtful about your question,pls revert
Regards,
SVP

Multiple backup.backupdb folders

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for