Opening Time Machine Backup in Windows

Hi,
My MacBook recently had a harddrive failure for the second time in a year. I think I have everything backed up from it through a Time Machine external harddrive, although after reading some of the posts on iTunes and iPhoto backups I'm not so sure. I have my external harddrive connected to a windows laptop through macdrive. Where do I look to find the iPhoto and iTunes backups? I can't seem to find them in the file structure. Is there a way to do this withough connecting the harddrive to another macintosh running Leopard? I also have an older G5 running 10.3.
Thank you!
Thank you.

If you're going to tinker, make a backup of the folder, first. However, read through and find out why that might not work on windows, even with MacDrive.
The files are in the same place in the directory structure as they are on the disk. However, I'm not sure what you will see with the PC. Inside the main backup folder there are dated incremental backup folders. There is an alias to the "Latest" backup folder, or you can go to the latest dated folder. If you dig into that folder, you'll find your HD file structure.
However, if a file has not changed, a hard link is created in the incremental backup folder to the original. Nothing actually exists there--the file system just creates a pointer in its directory that says "pretend like this original file is here." I don't know how MacDrive/Windows will interpret those links. If it cannot resolve the hard links, then you would have to wade through each of these folders to recover any incremental changes.
If you damage the backup while tinkering with it in Windows, you may not be able to recover it with TM.
After you replace the Hard Drive, you can use the Installer disk to recover your TM backup to the new drive.

Similar Messages

ITunes Library from Time Machine Backup to Windows 7?!

Hi everyone,
Yeah, I'm switching over to a PC...
Does anyone know how to put an iTunes library from a Time Machine backup to a PC (running Windows 7?)
Thanks!

When I tried to relaunch itunes holding down the option button and select my backed-up itunes folder from time machine
Is this after you restored the iTunes folder from Time Machine? Or were you trying to select the iTunes folder on the Tme Machine drive to use as the iTunes library?
Quit iTunes.
Open Time Machine.
Selct \Music\iTunes\ in Time Machine.
Go back to when you want it restored from.
Click on Restore.
When it asks, select Replace.
After it is finsihed copying, launch iTunes.

Restoring time machine backup to windows machine

Hey. Just asking a general question. My Imac was stolen but I had made a time machine restore approximately 2 weeks prior to the incident. Unfortunately I was unable to afford to replace my Imac and purchased a windows 8 machine instead. Is there a way to restore the Time Machine backup to Win8. I just want to extract my pictures and music and documents. Thank you very much.

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?

Issue with Time Machine backup to Windows 7

My problem is tough to search for as the keywords are common for other issues, so excuse me if this is something that's already been answered.
I want to use Time Machine to back up my MBP onto a folder inside a partition of a harddrive on my windows 7 machine. This partition is exclusively for backups; there are 2 disk images that are backups of partitions on my windows machine and that is all.
I created a folder for the backup i was about to create of my Mac. I followed these instructions for networking and sharing settings: http://hciguy.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/using-time-machine-to-backup-your-mac-to- an-ntfs-drive-over-the-network-running-win-7/
Everything seemed to be in order. Finder was able to connect to and mount the folder I made for the backups. Then I noticed something frustrating. The files that the instructions said I should copy to the windows folder appeared in Windows Explorer, but Finder thought that that directory was EMPTY. I created a folder using Finder to see what would happen to it, and it disappeared before I could name it. It appeared in Windows Explorer, however, where I deleted it.
This is not an issue of hidden files; I already explored that theory. Also, I think that this issue is what keeps Time Machine from failing its backups. The error that TM keeps giving is related to the username and password, but I am using the correct windows login and password, as I did to connect to the volume initially.
Thanks in advance

eyebo wrote:
My problem is tough to search for as the keywords are common for other issues, so excuse me if this is something that's already been answered.
I want to use Time Machine to back up my MBP onto a folder inside a partition of a harddrive on my windows 7 machine. This partition is exclusively for backups; there are 2 disk images that are backups of partitions on my windows machine and that is all.
I created a folder for the backup i was about to create of my Mac. I followed these instructions for networking and sharing settings: http://hciguy.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/using-time-machine-to-backup-your-mac-to- an-ntfs-drive-over-the-network-running-win-7/
Everything seemed to be in order. Finder was able to connect to and mount the folder I made for the backups. Then I noticed something frustrating. The files that the instructions said I should copy to the windows folder appeared in Windows Explorer, but Finder thought that that directory was EMPTY. I created a folder using Finder to see what would happen to it, and it disappeared before I could name it. It appeared in Windows Explorer, however, where I deleted it.
This is not an issue of hidden files; I already explored that theory. Also, I think that this issue is what keeps Time Machine from failing its backups. The error that TM keeps giving is related to the username and password, but I am using the correct windows login and password, as I did to connect to the volume initially.
Thanks in advance
I would suggest posting this exact question to the OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard or OSX 10.5 Leopard forums. In each there is a subforum on Time Machine. Those people there are experts on TM. whenever I have an issue on TM, I get answers literally minutes after posting. They are good. You will find that many users specialize in certain forums. I will see different names in each one.
Any ways, post the link to the thread in the Time Machine forum here, so that anyone sees this, knows to go over there.
I'm pretty good at TM, but I have no clue how to answer your question. I think you're using competing operating systems, and they're having a war. Metaphorically.

Time Machine backup to Windows Share Now Failing Verify

Hi Everyone - I have searched everywhere and can't find any help.
This is my situation. I have my TM backup to an SMB windows share and its been working fine for months. Two things changed recently: a) I installed Windows 7 on my windows box and b) I installed that TM update that provides greater reliability. Backups worked fine for weeks after both of these changes, but just this week backups failed and TM wanted to create a new backup. I tried to recreate a new backup, but it keeps failing with errors below. When I try to run a verify disk on the sparsebundle (with disk util) I always get errors, but of course, I can not fix the errors when the sparsebundle is on an SMB. I am currently running a chkdsk on the windows drive, but I don't think its damaged.
8/18/10 11:39:02 PM com.apple.backupd[800] Copied 18.3 GB of 20.3 GB, 164128 of 640370 items
8/18/10 11:39:41 PM com.apple.backupd[800] Copied 164129 files (18.4 GB) from volume IntelSSD160.
8/18/10 11:39:43 PM com.apple.backupd[800] No pre-backup thinning needed: 828.7 MB requested (including padding), 578.34 GB available
8/18/10 11:39:51 PM com.apple.backupd[800] Copied 379 files (7.3 MB) from volume IntelSSD160.
8/18/10 11:39:51 PM kernel hfs: node=4844 fileID=4 volume=Backup of MYMBP device=/dev/disk3s2
8/18/10 11:39:51 PM kernel hfs: Runtime corruption detected on Backup of MYMBP, fsck will be forced on next mount.
8/18/10 11:39:51 PM kernel hfs: cat_delete() failed to delete thread record on volume Backup of MYMBP
8/18/10 11:39:51 PM kernel hfs: Runtime corruption detected on Backup of MYMBP, fsck will be forced on next mount.
8/18/10 11:39:51 PM kernel hfs: node=4844 fileID=4 volume=Backup of MYMBP device=/dev/disk3s2
8/18/10 11:39:51 PM kernel hfs: Runtime corruption detected on Backup of MYMBP, fsck will be forced on next mount.
8/18/10 11:39:51 PM com.apple.backupd[800] Starting post-backup thinning
8/18/10 11:39:51 PM com.apple.backupd[800] No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
8/18/10 11:39:51 PM com.apple.backupd[800] Backup completed successfully.
8/18/10 11:39:57 PM com.apple.backupd[800] Ejected Time Machine disk image.
8/18/10 11:39:57 PM com.apple.backupd[800] Ejected Time Machine network volume.
8/19/10 12:31:04 AM com.apple.backupd[1120] Starting standard backup
8/19/10 12:31:04 AM com.apple.backupd[1120] Attempting to mount network destination using URL: smb://GUEST:@192.168.1.107/TM
8/19/10 12:31:07 AM com.apple.backupd[1120] Mounted network destination using URL: smb://GUEST:@192.168.1.107/TM
8/19/10 12:31:19 AM com.apple.backupd[1120] QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM DIRTY
8/19/10 12:31:19 AM com.apple.backupd[1120] Runtime corruption detected on /Volumes/TM-1/MYMBP_58b035f1b3d1.sparsebundle (fsck_hfs -q termination status: 3)
8/19/10 12:31:19 AM com.apple.backupd[1120] Attempting to mount network destination using URL: smb://GUEST:@192.168.1.107/TM
Anyone encounter this? I essentially can not use TM right now. Could the TM update and/or windows 7 upgrade be a contributor? Any help is much appreciated.

abnospam wrote:
Hi Everyone - I have searched everywhere and can't find any help.
This is my situation. I have my TM backup to an SMB windows share and its been working fine for months.
Is that a "supported" destination? According to this Apple article: Disks that can be used with Time Machine
*+If your backup disk is on a network, the network server must use Apple File Protocol (AFP) file sharing, and both your computer, and the networked backup disk, should have Mac OS X 10.5.6 or later.*+
8/18/10 11:39:41 PM com.apple.backupd800 Copied 164129 files (18.4 GB) from volume IntelSSD160.
8/18/10 11:39:43 PM com.apple.backupd800 No pre-backup thinning needed: 828.7 MB requested (including padding), 578.34 GB available
8/18/10 11:39:51 PM com.apple.backupd800 Copied 379 files (7.3 MB) from volume IntelSSD160.
It appears to have finished the actual backup (two passes).
8/18/10 11:39:51 PM kernel hfs: node=4844 fileID=4 volume=Backup of MYMBP device=/dev/disk3s2
8/18/10 11:39:51 PM kernel hfs: Runtime corruption detected on Backup of MYMBP, fsck will be forced on next mount.
8/18/10 11:39:51 PM kernel hfs: cat_delete() failed to delete thread record on volume Backup of MYMBP
Then has a problem; apparently unable to delete the thread record, although listed 3rd, seems to be where it choked.
8/19/10 12:31:19 AM com.apple.backupd[1120] QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM DIRTY
8/19/10 12:31:19 AM com.apple.backupd[1120] Runtime corruption detected on /Volumes/TM-1/MYMBP_58b035f1b3d1.sparsebundle (fsck_hfs -q termination status: 3)
And can't fix it on remount.

Restoring Time Machine backup to Windows 7

Hi
I own a Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard (until recently).
In an atempt to partition the drive with Boot Camp, it froze, and after a restart, the drive showed only 9GB free.
I backed everything up on Time Machine, and decided to format the drive and install Windows 7, since that's what i was about to do anyways.
At this point, i do not have access to Snow Leopard, however, my data is backed up on external drive through Time Machine.
What would be the easiest way to transfer my data from the Time Machine external hard drive to my current Windows 7 partition?
Other than of course restore the OS from backup.
Thank you very much.

Hi
I own a Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard (until recently).
In an atempt to partition the drive with Boot Camp, it froze, and after a restart, the drive showed only 9GB free.
I backed everything up on Time Machine, and decided to format the drive and install Windows 7, since that's what i was about to do anyways.
At this point, i do not have access to Snow Leopard, however, my data is backed up on external drive through Time Machine.
What would be the easiest way to transfer my data from the Time Machine external hard drive to my current Windows 7 partition?
Other than of course restore the OS from backup.
Thank you very much.

Open Time Machine backup in XP?

hi guys,
I have a macbook pro and a XP PC. If i make a backup with time machine on my external HD and then plug it into my PC. Can i open the files Time Machine made?
Thanks,
cya

I have the same problem, with time machine trashing my backup.backupdb folder. Were you ever able to resolve your problem M L D?

Open time machine backup from a different computer

I just got a new MBA and want to restore some apps from my MB pro that has a larger disk drive than my new one.
So I don't want to restore everything as it will not fit on the new computer.
Can I restore some of my apps and folders from a previous MBP backup ?

You can do that through Migration Assistant (in /Applications/Utilities) > http://pondini.org/OSX/MigrateLion.html It lets you choose which apps and folders you want to restore.
Another way would be to restore your files from the MacBook Pro backup manually. To do it, you need these steps > http://pondini.org/TM/E3.html

Will time machine backup my windows xp partition?

as the subject reads

Yeah, i've found the only benefit to NTFS on a mac is it supports files bigger than 4Gb
I'm thinking of going back to FAT32 because osx STILL doesn't natively support read/write to NTFS, only read
And the 3G NTFS driver is REALLY buggy. I can't get it to work with 10.5 correctly.
I tried formatting my bootcamp partition as fat32 and windows installed to it, but it wouldn't boot, came up with a generic disk error
I think that was because the partition was bigger than 32Gb, which FAT32 is not supposed to support.
You can format a partition much bigger than that (my 750Gb was FAT32 until last week) without any problem, but I don't think windows will boot off anything bigger than 32Gb unless its NTFS
thanks for the help!

Time Machine Backup Error. Time machine could not delete the backup disk image .sparsebundle

Time Machine is giving an error message. Time Machine couldnt complete the backup. I am using the Seagate GoFlex Home. Error message states Time Machine could not delete the backup disk image "/volumes/Go Flex Home Backup/iMAc.sparsebundle". Does anybody have any ideas?

I have deleted all files in the Time Machine backup via Windows, Finder, and GoFlex UI.
I think this is your problem.. you need to follow the exact setup from seagate to get TM running again.. please read the manual... I do not have one but I do have another brand of NAS and setting up TM involves a fairly complex set of instructions.. because it is not a native Apple device.. your computer does not recognise it as TM capable.. you need to use the work around the manual will explain.

I cannot able able to start my macbook and then i started my mac in a recovery mode now mac os X utility window opens with 4 options 1. Restore From Time Machine Backup 2. Reinstall Mac OSX 3. Get Help Online 4. Disk Utility if i try to restore my mac wit

i cannot able able to start my macbook and then i started my mac in a recovery mode now mac os X utility window opens with 4 options 1. Restore From Time Machine Backup 2. Reinstall Mac OSX 3. Get Help Online 4. Disk Utility if i try to restore my mac with time machine no option appears if i reinstall from Mac OSX error comes and cannot able to recover from disk utility please help how can i reinstall mac OSX

Guitar21,
your MacBook Pro has booted into its Recovery mode. From the OS X Utilities menu, select Disk Utility. On the left-hand side of the Disk Utility window, select your internal disk’s boot partition (typically called “Macintosh HD”). On the right-hand side, press the Verify Disk button if it’s not greyed out; if it is greyed out, or if it reports that errors were found, press the Repair Disk button. Once the verification/repair is completed, exit Disk Utility and select Restart from the Apple menu to restart in normal mode. Does it get to the login screen now?

Would like to verify Time Machine backup but when I enter TM and then open iPhoto, it only provides me a gray window telling me the size of the file. How do I make sure all iPhoto pictures have been backed up on Time Machine?

Would like to verify Time Machine backup but when I enter TM and then open iPhoto, it only provides me a gray window telling me the size of the file. How do I make sure all iPhoto pictures have been backed up on Time Machine?

HaJo-aus-BS wrote:
Since Snow-Leo time machine offers an option to verify backups, but I have found that it does not work for external disks attached by USB or FireWire.
Yes, that's for network backups only.
What can I do to make sure that the backups are OK?
You can tell if the File System (the various directories, catalogs etc.) is ok by repairing your backup drive, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
You can "spot check" whether the Time Machine "Star Wars" display seems correct.
You can do a full system restore to another disk per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions, then start up from it and see if things are there and seem to work.
You can keep "secondary" backups (always a good idea). See #27 in the FAQ post for some suggestions.

Which format for external hard drive to use with time machine backup and connect to windows laptop?

Hi! I have an external hard drive on which I have transferred my iTunes library (just mine - not others). I have also a folder containing just films (some but not all of which are in iTunes too) Everything has been working just fine until yesterday I noticed that Time Machine was not including the external hard drive in back up as it wasn't formatted. So I have moved everything back to the Mac hard drive and and ready to format the external hard drive - but understand that if I do the contents cannot be opened from a windows laptop ... is that right? Is there are format I could choose that would allow Time Machine to back up and allow Windows to open as well (the idea being that I take the external hard drive with me on holidays etc!!) Many thanks for any advice.

ok - I understand. I have managed so far to format the drive (on windows) to exFAT file system - which apparently works with both Windows and Mac - but you're correct - it will not be included in time machine backup as I have checked the back up files and Samsung is not showing. Reckon I'm onto having to buy yet another portable hard drive just for windows - or of course buy myself a new mac book!! Can I ask you please - does the drive have to be clear of everything before I change the format - or can I change it with the files still in there? Also, got any quick ways duplicating the files onto another External Hard drive (for use on the windows laptop) At the moment the files are taking 2/3 hours + to copy over! Thank you!

Unable to access time machine backup. The folder "Documents" can't be opened because you don't have permission to see its contents.

My MacBook Pro with 750GB storage refuses to startup due to a problem with logic board (unfortunately I'm in Singapore and there is no Apple store here and zero customer support). I'm trying to access some of the files from the time machine back-up using my MacBook Air with 120GB storage, but I'm unable to open the backup. I receive an error message "you don't have permission to see its contents". Unable to access time machine backup. The folder “Documents” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents.
I don't really want to migrate the data from the time machine to the MacBook Air as I simply don't have sufficient storage space on the MacBook Air. The iPhoto library which I'm trying to access is 200GB, which is more than the size of the MacBookAir.
Is there any way I can view the photos and documents stored on the time machine backup.
Thank you very much.

When you setup the Mac, you created a Admin user account with say name X
You ran Migration Assistant and it migrated user Y from the Windows machine.
User Y has different permissions than User X.
User X can't normally access User Y's account.
So what you do is log out of User X via the Apple menu and into User Y, this way you have permission to access the files.
If you want to transfer files from User Y to User X account
Transfer files between user accounts on the same machine instructions
Finder > Go menu > Computer
A window appears with your boot drive, double click on it to open
Inside is Users folder, double click to open it
Inside is your User accounts, double click on the one you want to send files too
Double click on the Public folder drop the files into the DropBox folder,
The permissions will change and can be used in the other user account when you log into it and moved to the appropriate folders.
Applications are typically installed and kept in the Applications folder which is a global access folder all users can access to run them from, but not all users can modify unless they are a Admin user.
Windows programs won't run on a Mac, but they can be instaled into a virtual machine program that is running Windows.
Windows in BootCamp or Virtual Machine?

Cannot open time machine; message on screen: time machine in backup. I want to find last 12 mos. of pictures.

cannot open application to time machine: Message on screen: time machine in backup.
Purpose to get into time machine; is to pickup lost photos

northernresort wrote:
I workedwith apple support on the phone it believe the backup is corrupt.
Yup, sure sounds like it.
It does have a .sparsebundle for the machine that is backup up. There is only 52G free on the 1T time capsule, so it seems that the data is there,
That's good, obviously. Often it won't mount at all, and you're in a very large pickle.
I'm not seeing nor beleive I'm having a hardware issue with the time capsule.
Probably not.
I'm wondering if I have some sort of version issue between 10.7.x that the Time machine on the time capsule was created with and 10.8.4
No, at least not that's been reported. A sparsebundle is a sparsebundle, as far as we can tell.
I don't use hdiutil or fsck, so bear with me. Drag the sparsebundle into Disk Utility's sidebar and try Repair Disk on it. See what messages it shows. (They may not appear in the window; click the Log icon or select Window > Show Log from the menubar.)
Do you have a copy of DiskWarrior? It can operate on a sparsebundle, and sometimes can fix things Disk Utility (and hdiutil or fsck) can't.
I haven't found any good way to parse out/copy files from a sparse bundle
If you double-click it, does the disk image (named "Time Machine Backups") mount (should appear on your Desktop and/or Finder sidebar)? If it does, can you open it via the Finder? If so, you'll find the usual Backups.backupdb folder inside, with one folder named for your Mac, and inside that all the date-stamped backup folders, each with one folder per drive that was backed-up, and inside that the full folder structure.
If so, you can probably drag & drop, but depending on what kind of damage there is, and where, that may not work well, if at all.
Best, of course, is if you can repair it and just do a full restore.

Opening Time Machine Backup in Windows

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for