Problems moving Time Machine drive from USB to Airport Extreme

Greetings compadres.
I'm using a WD external Mac hard drive for my Time Machine backups. I was using a USB hub and directly connecting my MacBook to the hub, thus a seamless connection to the external hard drive.
Now, I want to connect my external drive to my Airport Extreme for wireless back ups. I tried this before and I couldn't figure out a way for the system to recognize the drive to continue my previous back ups. Eventually, I just reformated the drive and started my back ups over.
Is there a way to switch to wireless and continue my old back ups?
Much obliged,
- robert

That's not supported by Apple, but Pondini has some advice on the matter here: http://pondini.org/TM/AEQ2.html

Similar Messages

Moving Time Machine Drive from Direct Connect to Network Share

I have a 1 TB external USB 2 drive I use for my Time Machine backup. I'd like to move that drive to a file server and continue backing up to it. The problem appears to be that when backing up to the drive as a network volume, Time Machine wants to create a new sparsebundle for the backup and not use the existing TM backup folder on the drive.
Is it possible to migrate a Time Machine drive from direct connect to network while preserving the backed up data? Thanks!

Kenneth Kirksey wrote:
I have a 1 TB external USB 2 drive I use for my Time Machine backup. I'd like to move that drive to a file server and continue backing up to it.
Depending on what "file server" you're using, that may or may not work reliably. Here's the criteria they must meet: Disks that can be used with Time Machine. And be careful here: just because some 3rd-party hardware claims to support Time Machine doesn't necessarily mean that Apple supports it, or that it will work in all circumstances.
The problem appears to be that when backing up to the drive as a network volume, Time Machine wants to create a new sparsebundle for the backup and not use the existing TM backup folder on the drive.
That's correct.
Is it possible to migrate a Time Machine drive from direct connect to network while preserving the backed up data? Thanks!
See #18 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Moving Time Machine backups from Time Capsule to External USB Drive

Hi all,
hoping someone out there can help I'm trying to move my time machine backups from my old Time Capsule to my external USB drive. I've already used the Airport Utility to "archive" my Time Capsule to a USB connected WD MyBook Elite.
Right now my WD MyBook Elite has both the archive, and recent (roughly 5 backups) of both my MacBook & MacMini. I've tried to follow the seemingly simple steps located in the FAQ's here [URL="http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/18.html#id22"]Copy NETWORK backups to be used LOCALLY[/URL] , but I cannot past step 1.
[Quote]Right-click the new volume on your desktop or Finder sidebar and select Get Info. If the Ignore ownership on this volume box is checked, click the padlock at the lower right and enter your Admin password at the prompt. Then remove the check mark from the box and close the window.[/Quote]
There is no option to "Ignore Ownership" in Snow Leopard for the Spars Bundle or when expanding it to see its folders.
Any advice?
I'm basically trying to combine my backups to unit them into one seemless backup each for:
Mac Mini & MacBook.
Thank you in advance.

Dark Heart wrote:
[Quote]Right-click the new volume on your desktop or Finder sidebar and select Get Info. If the Ignore ownership on this volume box is checked, click the padlock at the lower right and enter your Admin password at the prompt. Then remove the check mark from the box and close the window.[/Quote]
There is no option to "Ignore Ownership" in Snow Leopard for the Spars Bundle or when expanding it to see its folders.
That's not referring to the sparse bundle you're copying FROM, but the new volume you just formatted on the USB drive you're copying TO.
If you didn't just format the partition, that box may not be shown -- it not, there's no problem and you don't need to do anything in that step.
I'm basically trying to combine my backups to unit them into one seemless backup each for:
Mac Mini & MacBook.
I'm not sure what you mean by that: you cannot combine the backups of two different Macs. You can put them both on the same hard drive, either in two different partitions, or, if any are going to be backed-up over a network, in a sparse bundle.
If I've misunderstood, please clarify exactly what you're trying to do.

Problems Moving Time Machine to New Hard Drive, Error -8062

I'm in 10.8.5, trying to copy my Backups.backupsb folder from my current 2TB ext drive to a new 4TB drive, following Apples instructions for changing the Time Machine drive. Both are Seagates, single partitioned (GUIDE) formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
The 2TB is nearly full, hence the move. This morning after 12 hours of the projected 14 to copy the backups file over, I got an alert that action could not be completed because of Error 8062    I've found pages with suggested fixes from simple restart to more elaborate measures. The one thing I've done so far is restart and check Disk Permissions for both drives, which read as okay.
But before trying again, since error occured 12 hours into the process (of course it did,) I would like to see if the portion of the file that shows in the folder, size 1.46TB out of the 1.93 total, could be "replaced" by the original folder and thus not have to copy everything again.
One apparent problem is that, after a similar attempt to do similar replacement after a problem 3 hours into copying, instead of asking if I wanted to replace it, it just started copying it with "(original)" added to the end of the folder name. That file tagged (original) is the 1.46TB partial copy. So I deleted the much smaller initial partial copy, but of course the *true* original folder from the active Time Machine will not replace the existing partial copy. I don't know if removing (original) from its name so it matches will help because I can't; the folder is greyed out and I can't alter the name. I've tried changing Permissions on it, and tried Terminal commands that will supposedly change the name of a hidden file - nothing works.   Of course, I don't even know if it would ask to "replace" the next time I try, since it didn't do so when the folder names matched on the first attempt.   And since *when* does Finder not ask to "replace" an identically named folder, anyway? This begs the question if it is simply not going behave like a normal folder with files no matter what I do to it.
Is there anything else I can try? Barring a solution, any other precautions I might take to try to avoid the joy of anohter "cannot complete" 12 hours in?   I've got multiple backups to make of loads of data, including a full extra backup to keep offsite, and would love to avoid such time wasters.
Thanks for you kind assistance!
Brian

This looks right on point and very thorough. I've started a new backup directly to the new drive. Since I don't necessarily need the old drive for storage of anything else for the time being, I will probably do as he recommends and keep the old backups ther, at least until I'm reasonably sure I'm never going to need anything dating back that far, and long enough to confirm the new configuration is stable, and everything is there and backed up off site.
I"m all for simple solutions right now! :^)

Moved Time Machine drive - can't see backup.

I was having trouble with my Time Machine drive, which was connected by USB to my Airport Extreme. I moved the drive to a USB connector on my MacBook Pro to improve the speed, and after formatting the drive, made a complete, new backup with Time Machine, which took about 8 hours.
Then I moved the drive back to the AirPort and told Time Machine to use it for backup. Time Machine doesn't see the earlier backup (I can verify that it's there using the Finder) and is now doing another complete backup of my MBP.
What's wrong here? How can I tell Time Machine to use the backup it made yesterday instead of starting over?
Walt

Actually, Tech Support told me that they support only Apple Time Capsules connected to the Air Port Extreme. They most certainly do NOT support using Seagate drives such the ones I have been using successfully for over three years, on two MBPs.
I firmly believe (but Apple does not want to hear this) that my problem originated with the erratic WIFI connections since I upgraded to Lion, which has been discussed at length in the forums. Time Machine reported backups failing when the WIFI connection could nto be restored after waking from sleep.
My wife's MBP, running Snow Leopard, is working just fine on the same hardware.
Walt
EDIT: I tried "Inheriting" the backup that was made via the direct USB connection, but it still doesn't show up in the TM history. The tmutil program is interesting - it does distinguish between the "machine_directory" - the backups.backupdb folder that was made by the direct USB backup, and the sparse_bundle file that was created by the AirPort backup.

Time Machine from USB to Airport Extreme

I recently bought a airport extreme and would like to move my Time Machine backup to the network so I'm not tied down all the time. However when I moved it to the network it wants to make a full machine backup (like it was starting from new). Is there any way to keep the backups going as they were without having to sacrifice 70GB on my drive or reformatting and losing my 2 years of backup?

Scooter1015 wrote:
I recently bought a airport extreme and would like to move my Time Machine backup to the network so I'm not tied down all the time.
note that TM backups to an USB drive connected to an airport extreme is not supported and may not work. _*Disks that can be used with Time Machine*_.
if you want to try, though, this will help: http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/AEQ2.html
However when I moved it to the network it wants to make a full machine backup (like it was starting from new).
the reason is that TM treats backups to a locally attached drive differently vs. networked drives.
see this: http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/18.html
JGG

TIme Machine verification issue (Drobo and Airport Extreme)

Hello. I recently purchased a Drobo (1st gen, off ebay) to replace a 1TB WD MyBook I was using as a Time Machine backup and Media Server.
The Drobo is connected to an Airport Extreme base station over USB 2.0. My Mac is connected by ethernet to the Airport Extreme.
I followed the instructions on the Drobo website to create a separate 500 gb partition for Time Machine and the rest to accommodate my media collection. http://support.datarobotics.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/67/related/1/session/L2F 2LzEvc2lkLzdta1VHNmZr
The Time Machine backup seems to go OK, taking several hours to backup 160gb of data. Later on in the day, I'll get a message that says:
"Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you."
I've tried redoing the backup 4 or 5 times now. I've tried repairing permissions and the repairing the disk on both the Mac and the Drobo. I've learned that Time Machine Backups to Airdisks aren't officially supported by Apple (Although I never had a problem with my previous hard drive attached to the Airport Extreme, and Drobo say it's fine on their website - "Time Machine with a Drobo device connected to an AirPort Extreme or network attached (NAS) works. Just make sure you have updated Time Capsule or Airport Extreme to firmware 7.3.1 or later."
Every time, after a couple of hours, I get the verification warning and have to delete the backup and start again. I wouldn't mind just going and buying another 500gb external drive to just attach to my Mac, only I now have a separate 500gb volume sitting on my Drobo that I can't do anything with and I can't delete because I don't have anywhere else to transfer the data from my Drobo while I reformat it!
I'm running out of ideas and would love it if someone can offer some advice. Thanks guys!

Hi. Thanks for the response and sorry for the double post in the Airport forum. I'm really just not sure if this is a Time Machine, Airport or Drobo issue.
Everything is updated to the latest versions and I've been looking at the Drobo support site, but all I see is that Drobo is 'supposed' to work with Time Machine over Airport Extreme. However, I've tried everything I can think of and scoured forums over the weekend to try and get to the bottom of this. It's just bizarre that a cheap WD hard disk used to work, and a much more expensive Drobo doesn't.
I've posted the same message to the forums over at the Drobo site, so we'll see what comes of it. I'm not that hopeful. This mysterious black box on my desk seems to have a mind of its own. Even now, even though I'm not reading or writing any data to it, I can hear the Drobo accessing data on the disks and moving things around. I'm not surprised if it's a bit too much for Time Machine to handle. I'm just a bit annoyed that I followed all of the advice from Data Robotics to the letter and it doesn't work, even though it should.
I think I'll just give up and buy a firewire drive (I'm out of USB ports). I'm sure I'll find something I can move onto this redundant 500gb partition. Thanks for your help.

Switching from USB to Airport extreme

I have been backing up via time machine to my usb hard drive, connected directly to the computer, for many months. I now want to back up wirelessly using using the same usb disk via airport extreme but I don't want to loose my backups. What can I do to keep my old backups intergraded with the new ones once I start backing up wirelessly?

Skemez,
You can't. Time Machine stores "network" backups in a completely different way. When you switch, it must start with a new full backup.
If there's some compelling reason to keep the old backup, you can use Disk Utility to "clone" your Time Machine backup volume to another drive, thereby "archiving" it for later retrieval.
Scott

Time machine backup from USB drive connected and backing up to Time Capsule

Hi all forum virgin here, so be gentle.
I'll get straight to it. Much net trawling hasn't resulted in a definitive answer on this which surely I'm not alone in
I have: MBP networked to TC (where TM resides) and USB drive connected.
A- I simply want to TM backup not only MBP but USB drive on network as well?
As far as I can see there is no way of selecting this and after TM back has finished the only way I can check is
to enter TM (fancy space screen view) and obviously idrive doesn't appear in finder view.
I have tried connecting to MBP and obviously TM backs it up too and I can see in Enter TM. But I need this
drive on network so a further 2 things here:-
B- when I remove from MBP and TM backs up again will it see it's not there and delete as a change?
C- will it keep in previous backups if I cycle back to that particular one?
Andy help here would be most welcome

Slymon2000 wrote:
B- when I remove from MBP and TM backs up again will it see it's not there and delete as a change?
Sooner or later, yes, as LaPastnague says. It depends on when the backups are done. The first backup of each day is kept for a month; all others are deleted after 24 hours. After a month, the first backup of the week is kept as long as there's room, and the others deleted.
Obviously not a reliable solution.
A better method might be to use a different app to back it up to the TC's internal HD, but that presents another problem. See #Q3 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule for an explanation and some possible workarounds.
The 3rd-party apps CarbonCopyCloner and ChronoSynch can do network backups (others probably can, too).
So you might be able to "reserve" some space on the TC's HD and use one of those apps. As LaPastnague says, though, that will be relatively slow.
If there isn't enough room on the TC's internal HD, you could get another USB drive and connect it to the TC also (via a powered USB hub) and back up to it. That will be even slower, though.

Can I move the time machine drive from being a usb drive

Hello
I am not sure whether this fits best in the time capsule or in the time machine forum. I try here as this a issue thar arises only to time capsule users.
I have a new USB drive that I want to use for time machine backups. Eventually I want it to be attached to the time capsule and make the time machine back up via wifi. However the first backup is 261 Gb and this is too long for the wi-fi. I am doing it right now via the USB and take 12 hours (estimated).
After the USB backup will be finished, can I move the drive to the time capsule and let time machine make the backups via wifi? I mean, is time machine going to find the backup done via USB or once started with USB I am stuck with that?
Thanks for answering and for reading
Roberto
PS
maybe was better on the time machine forum, still don't know.

Backup strategy
Backing up a client computer to Time Capsule hardware with Time Machine software via the network provides ample time for contemplation, and rumination as to why the backup is taking so long. An initial 200Gb backup has an estimated time of "3 days" even on a wired network. Incremental backups following the initial backup are also beset with delays, with various message which can be viewed with the programmer's delight, the "Console" app. Otherwise the System Preference Time Machine interface is mute. The glacial pace of the Time Capsule backup process is exhaustively documented on the internet, but with no solutions - at least that I have found any after too many hours searching.
The System Preferences->Time Machine interface is always used to start a backup, monitor, or stop a backup, whether the backup drive is present on the network via Time Capsule, or if the backup drive is directly connected to the client computer.
On the positive side, Time Machine performs quickly and provides hourly backup to external drives directly attached to the client computer. The delay appears in network backups via Time Capsule.
Another positive is that network backups to Time Capsule are reliable when the client computer is stable, always on, and never detached from the network. In this case, the mute interface offered by system preferences->Time Machine is welcome. For example, my Apple Mac Mini web server (always on) is reliably backed up to a Time Capsule.
The negative experience is encountered when backing up a laptop when, as laptops do, the laptop wanders from the network. As stopping a backup can take 15 minutes, backups are necessarily interrupted when dashing off to work with your laptop. In the network where I have experience, there are 5 laptops and 1 stationary (Mac Mini) clients living on an all-Apple network. Failing to complete a backup via network for days on end gives no feeling of security.
Reading from Podini's excellent website
http://pondini.org/TM/Works.html
and extracting a summary, files copied from a client computer using Time Machine are stored on the backup drive in one of two formats: sparse bundle (special file type) when backing up to Time Capsule (or to a drive attached to a Time Capsule), or a folder with the client computer name when the backup drive is Firewire attached to the client. A closer examination of the sparse bundle file on the network with the Finder shows that the same folder appears with the computer name.
So, Time Machine backups always go to a folder with the client computer name, and this folder is either inside a sparse bundle or not depending upon if the backup drive is mounted on the network via TC or directly attached to the client.
An external drive mounted on the network via Time Capsule will create a sparse bundle file for the client or add to it if it already exists. Even if backups are present of the same machine, but not in a sparse bundle, Time Capsule will create a sparse bundle if it does not exist for the current backup client computer, and start a new backup.
An external drive directly connected to the client has a different experience. No Time Capsule is involved. Upon turning on backups via Time Machine, the backups will go to a sparse bundle file with the client computer name, if it exists. If the sparse bundle file does not exist, a folder is created with the computer name.
A strategy of backing up to an external drive moved between various computers and the Time Capsule might resolve some of the many delays. The strategy is simple, if delays are encountered, directly attach the backup drive to the client computer. If a backup is to be manually deleted in order to begin anew, directly attach the backup drive to the client computer before deleting the sparse bundle file.
To begin a new backup with this strategy of "drive+TC", initiate (via TM) the backup on the network (via TC), then stop after 10 minutes (with TM), noting that a sparse bundle of zero size is created. Continue the first backup by directly connecting the external backup drive to the client then pointing Time Machine to the newly connected drive. The backups by way of direct connect will go to the existing sparse bundle. Wait three hours rather than three days for a 200Gb backup to complete. Subsequent backups will go to the sparse bundle file on the backup drive, whether the backup drive is on the network (via TC) or directly connected.
But what of the internal drive on the TC? In this strategy, it is not used for backups unless the client computer is always attached to the network.
With so little documentation from Apple, we are left to speculate as to the cause of TC largo. Normally, slight documentation means little to know for the user, and the user is spared the complex machinations under the hood, but when the operation is flawed the user is left without resources.
A secure backup strategy stores a backup offsite, just in case the house burns down, or buglers make a clean sweep of computers and backup drives. Unfortunately, this means doubling the equipment, including two Time Capsules and two external drives attached to the TCs. The offsite copy is rarely mentioned in the same paragraph as the Time Capsule, likely because of the cost. It's an uncomfortable fact that a sole TC is vulnerable to local hazards, along with the local client computers.
This is the strategy I'm testing now. I'll send an update in a few days.

Time machine backup from USB stick doesn't work

Hi all,
I've got an MacBook Air (1st gen) with Lion, with a 80GB internal HD. This HD is quite full now, so I decided to move my rather large iPhoto library (c. 30GB) to an external 64GB USB stick. Up to that point, everything worked well.
I'd like to include the USB stick to my Time Machine Backup. The USB Stick is formatted as HFS+. It appears in the list of excluded drives in the Time Machine setup. If I click the 'minus' button to remove it from that list, it goes away, but comes back as soon as I leave the TM setup and reopen it. Accordingly, Time Machine does not generate any backups of the USB stick. The external Backup has enough free space to make a backup, so this should not be the problem.
Any ideas how I could fix that problem?
A workaround could be to use a 3rd party tool to backup the library. I tried Carbon Copy Cloner, but CC can not do incremental backups of bundles. Any recommendations?

I am having the same issue on my macbook air (end 2010)
I bought a 32gb usb stick and Time Machine always excludes it.
I assume that Time Machine should be able to backup it.
Could it be because it is a USB stick and not a USB hard drive ?
Also as a workaround could be make that a usb stick is reconnized as a hard drive ?
Any recommendations?
thanks

Moving Time Machine Backup from Old Mac to New Mac

I had my old MacBook happily backing up via Time Machine to my Time Capsule. Then I bought a new MacBook and moved all my files etc across with the Apple Migration Assistant.
However, having problems with TM - tells me there is no room on my TC to complete my backup (not true, plenty of disk). However, I suspect this is because it views the backup data on my TC as "owned" by the old Mac and hence that chunk of disk is unavailable to the new Mac.
Is there a way to associate the old backup data with the new Mac?
Or do I need to wipe the TC clean and start all over again?
Thanks,
SM

Hello only:
I performed a similar migration a couple of months ago. In my case, I used a SuperDuper clone on an external firewire drive as the source, but what you describe (#1) should work fine. In any event, keep the G5 handy as you can firewire attach it to the new Mac if you wish.
If I were you, I would just delete the files you do not wish to move from the G5, run a backup now for Time Machine, and then proceed with your transfer.
Barry

Moved TM backup drive from USB to Airdisk, now is not recognized

I have a USB external TM backup drive that I need to relocate. I have an Airport Extreme that I plugged the disk into and now TM does not recognize the disk as a backup of my computer. The disk is mounted and selected in TM but it wants to do a complete backup. Is there something special that needs to be done after moving the disk for TM to recognize it as a backup of this computer?
Thanks.

krreagan wrote:
I have a USB external TM backup drive that I need to relocate. I have an Airport Extreme that I plugged the disk into
I hate to have to tell you this, but backing-up that way is unreliable and not supported by Apple. See: Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk.
and now TM does not recognize the disk as a backup of my computer.
Because of the different way Time Machine stores it's backups when they're done over a network, you can't keep backing-up to the same set of backups. See the blue box in #E2 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

What is the exact protocol for ejecting Time Machine disk from USB?

I have an external drive that I connect and use for Time Machine. When I'm done, I eject the drive and Finder disappears. I pull the USB connector and the OS complains that I did not eject the drive properly.
I've seem the other threads, and I'm afraid I'm going to get a lot of discussion and no answer. So here's a simple question:
What is the exact protocol for closing Time Machine and disconnecting the USB cable to the drive without getting a complaint from the OS?
Thanks
Mike

Drag the icon to the trash or highlight it and use the eject button or highlight it and use Command+e.

Problem moving Time Machine backup in Mavericks (missing "Ignore ownership on this volume")

In order to move Time Machine backup it is necessary to Make sure "Ignore ownership on this volume" at the bottom of the "Sharing & Permissions:" section is not checked.
However, this option has disappeared from Volume info window after upgrading to Mavericks 10.9.
Any idea how I can find this?
Thank you.

Once you're in the TM interface you will see a basically normal Finder window (with a lot of weird graphics, hence its other name The Star Wars interface )
On the right of the screen is the timeline allowing you to move backward and forward in time. Once you find what you want you can select the files or folders and restore.
As in the normal Finder multiple selections are allowed. I suggest you play around with it a bit at first and try restoring a file or a few files or folders just to get a feel for it.
good luck
regards

Problems moving Time Machine drive from USB to Airport Extreme

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