Question Concerning Time Machine Back-Up

My hard-drive is officially full. I want to delete pictures off of my hard drive but I dont want to assume that they will remain on my Time Machine. I read something when I opened my Time Machine application and saw that it said something about "Deleting Old Back-Ups". I have tons of pictures that I would be really upset if I lost, I need to delete these pictures because my Macbook is full, but I dont want to loose these pictures. It is safe for me to delete my pictures or should I back them up on an external hard drive that is not in Time Machine format. Best Solution to this problem is much appreciated.

"Best Solution" is probably a new internal hard drive. You can buy ones that are up to 750G that will fit your MacBook. If you're using the original HD in your black MacBook, it is probably only, what, 80G? Maybe 120? Even an upgrade to 500G would be a huge gain and doable for less than $100US.
Buy a new drive, buy a USB SATA enclosure (macsales.com offers these as kits; other places may as well) and use a free tool like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! to clone your current HD to the new drive in its enclosure. Then swap the new drive into your MacBook and it will be just like your old one, but with lots of free space
"Second Best Solution" is using a different external drive as long-term storage or as a host for your whole iPhoto library:
http://basics4mac.com/article.php/moveiphotolib

Similar Messages

  • Questions about Time Machine back-up

    Hello. I am planning to upgrade the hard drive on my MacBook Pro (probably an SSD), and I would like to install Snow Leopard on it (My MacBook Pro is mid-2009, so it came with Snow Leopard + installation CD).
    This will be my first time using Time Machine, so I have some questions.
    When I use Migration Assistant to transfer my files from Time Machine backup to the new hard drive, does it also transfer things like Sarafi bookmarks, sticky notes, iTune song play counts, mouse sensitivity, finder settings, menu bar apps, etc.?
    Should I deauthorize iTunes before removing the old hard drive? Furthermore, do I have to re-enter product keys on softwares? (major softwares I use are Autodesk suite, Movie Magic Screenwriter, Guitar Pro 6 and MS Office 2011).
    I also have Windows Vista on Bootcamp. Can I do a backup of that partition on Time Machine?
    Thank you.

    Everything will be transferred. Intact.
    When you boot the computer with the new drive and fresh OS, you have to enter information about yourself. Early in the setup process you will be asked if you want to transfer information. At this point you can select the Time Machine back up and let the Mac do the rest.
    The Time Machine backup has to be connected to the Mac, of course.
    (This is Setup Assitant, and is easier to use than Migration Assistant.)

  • Does Time Machine backs up also the format of the volume?

    Since many softwares cannot be installed on case-sensitive volume, so I erased the whole volume and install OS X Mountain Lion with format of OS Extended(Journaled). Then I use Time Machine backing up to the new system.
    But now when I'm trying to install Adobe softwares, here's what I see.
    still, It hints that this is a case-senstive volume.
    Then I go to check the Disk Utility:
    Very weired! It shows as "Mac OS Extended(Journaled) in the Drop-down list, but "case-senstive, journaled) in the discription in bottom.
    Anyone has some clues of this??
    Thanks.

    As well as doing backups and other things, you can use Disk Utility to create RAID volume sets. 
    Returning to the image you posted, RAID is selected at (1) and so it thinks you are about to create a RAID volume.  The format for the new volume would be as shown at (2).  On the other hand, the volume at (3) is selected and it is that volume's format which is shown at (4). 
    I don't think you wanted to create a RAID set; maybe Disk Utility got a click you didn't intend for it.  RAID is explained a bit in the Disk Utility help.
    I have found a lot of good information about Time Machine at this site: 
      http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
    To go back to your original question: 
    > Does Time Machine backs up also the format of the volume?
    My guess would be "No"; but see pondini.org for a definitive answer.

  • Time Machine Back-Up Drive Question

    Is it possible to use the Time Machine External Drive for storing information aside from back-up files, while using it for Time Machine at the same time? For example, I collect live shows of a certain band. Would it be possible to store the music files on the Time Machine Back-Up drive and still be able to use the drive for Time Machine? Thanks in advance.

    Ben Goodkind wrote:
    Is it possible to use the Time Machine External Drive for storing information aside from back-up files, while using it for Time Machine at the same time? For example, I collect live shows of a certain band. Would it be possible to store the music files on the Time Machine Back-Up drive and still be able to use the drive for Time Machine? Thanks in advance.
    No problem but I suggest this:
    Create a folder for you personal backups and put everything in them.
    TM will create a unique folder for itself and it will be happy with that.
    I have, on my G5, a TM drive that also has several old backup folders, (Not TM) which live perfectly with TM.
    Just don't put anything into the TM folder.!

  • Complicated corrupted main drive and lost Time Machine back-ups question

    Here's tough one I can't pin down answers to:  I have an iMac Early 2008 running Lion.  The main hard drive system (probably) corrupted over the course of 2-3 months until it became unusable.  I had Sophos on it, but removed it about a month ago and reliability improved but only for about a week.  Finally the hard drive crashed.  I used the Recovery partition while able to have Disk Utility add a second partition to my back-up drive, which contains Time Machine back-ups, my iPhoto folder and a few other files but no system.  I installed Snow Leopard from disk to the new partition, checked the first partition, which seemed fine, then upgraded the Snow Leopard partition to Lion and updated and ran under a temporary user.  Next I explored the main drive, which Disk Utility said was fine, but doesn't always show up.  While in Disk Utility, I noticed that the first partition on the back-up drive showed up as empty!  After some panicking, I've a second back-up drive on the way, but how do I access the TIme Machine back-ups, get my original user back and get access to over 15 years of files that are locked into that user?
    My (2nd) back-up drive arrives tomorrow, so I'll able to get to work soon.
    Thanks for any help.

    Ok so wahat you mean is I need to name a partition "Time machine" in order for TM to back up any volumes and TM will always start with the volume titled Timemachine ?
    so as I stated
    A. All my OS applications _________Rename this to time machine or can I ues the volume name it is now?
    B. All my files for those applications  ---------Once that is done TM will back this up?
    C. All My Itunes / Music etc---------Once that is done TM will back this u last?
    Also I did a test run and I geet the error msg that the backup disk of my OS needs 1.36 TB but only 1.34 exists. The orignal  OS  disk has only 232GB of data why is tome machine asking for all that space?
    I set the partition at 1.34 so there would be way more than enough space to copy.
    R

  • Restore iPhotoLibrary specifically from EXTERNAL Hard drive  Time Machine back up?

    My laptop Photo Library is corrupted somehow. I tried to restore from a prior in Time Machine on laptop and made the mistake of not saying to keep BOTH copies,  but after trying for 3 hours of telling me it was doing it through various windows, a little one popped open saying something about permissions and it opened an old iPhotoLibrary  from 2 years ago! ... I do have that one now and am copying it off my laptop as fast as I can to FLICKR
    cuz APPLE has become a PHOTO sinkhole... (We are talking 20,000 pics folks with scanned in family pics from 100 yrs ago!)
    I think I have a good copy on my External Hard Drive Time Machine back up from about 3 weeks ago. How do I use that to Restore from
    or should I just wait for this PHOTOS thing to come out?
    NEXT Question is there a convenient way to split it into MULTIPLE ones..eg KEEP old stable photos in one or more.
    and use another for all the new ones not editted or sorted yet? I do see there is a new Option under iPHOTO/File menu to just switch
    libraries but, of course, you cant even see that if your Library wont open!

    For TM help post in the forum for your OS - and see https://www.apple.com/support/timemachine/ and http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html and http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
    Depends on undisclosed information
    With the current OS and iPhoto you switch library using the switch library command - with any version you can switch libraries by holding the option key down while you launch iPhoto which brings up the select library window
    And generally it is not a smart idea to have multiple iPhoto libraries - it generally has no advantages and makes things much more difficult and complicated and often leads to user errors that cause major problems
    If you want to anyway the most convent way to split libraries is to use the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ - 
    LN

  • How do I revert my iWeb published site (the actual published site in internet is up to date) the one on my repaired computer is old from a time machine back-up and out of date?

    The question is above I repaired my hardrive and the iweb site is from an old time machine back-up. In the web my site is up to date and I want to update my computer stored iWeb site to the site in internet ?

    You need to copy and paste the content from the published files back into iWeb and recreate any missing pages since iWeb has no import facility.

  • Defrag Time Machine Back Up Drive??

    getwellroad 
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 6, 2011 9:50 AM 
    i previously posted this question, but I mistakenly clicked my own comment as the correct answer. i think this makes the thread appear to be finished; so, because i'm still not completely sure what to do, i have attempted to copy and paste the discussion here:Sorry.
    Just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented.  is it wise to do this or should i not??
    Grant Bennet-AlderWest of Boston, USALevel 7 (27,805 points)
    If your backups take a few seconds longer, so what. I say leave it alone.Beige G3, G4/867, G4/dual 1.25 MDD, MacPro'09 w cheap SSD, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier, and 9.2, 10.5 and Server - LW IIg, LW 4/600, ATalk ImageWriter L
    The hatterLevel 8 (42,475 points)
    Let's hope a couple things: that you have bootable clones of your drives also; that the backup drive for TimeMachine has over 3x capacity of the data you plan and are storing. I would also switch TM backup drives so you have a 2nd. Fragmented free space affecting performance happens when the drive is too full which may mean there isn't enough free space for a full backup set. 1.5TB for backing up 500GB, while WD Green 3TB is $140 and WD Black 1.5TB is, about the same price. I'd be worried about the integrity and directory, and whether you can afford to lose that drive. Defragging is also a very slow operation. the ideal: to just clone a drive, or start over with another drive and wait. cloning TM volumes has not been done or has it? SuperDuper hoped to but I don't think they or Bombich's CCC made it there. Trouble with highly fragged is when free space gets to 20% normally, 1/3 or so though for TM volumes, and finding where and a chunk of space for the file being written. Does TM use large spare image files of like 2GB? Best would be to ask in the TimeMachine section Snow Leopardhttps://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.6_snow_leopard?view= discussions#/?tagSet=1009where there are some good FAQ and tutorials, and people that know the ins-and-outs and shortcomings.
    getwellroad
    my boot drive is my internal hardrive which is a 250 GB drive.  The drive i am using for TM is 500GB, but you are saying that is really too small.  TM, as i understand it, creates a copy of everything, and then subsequent backups record any changes that were made since the last backup.    and what do you mean "bootable clones"  and do you mean for my internal hard drive AND each of the 3 external hard drives that i have?  i'm using one of the three for backup using TM, and i am storing movie files on the other 2.  i work at a church, and we use many short films that we purchase online.  i then import that file into iMovie to give my volunteers a consistent second and a half of black before the clip and 4 seconds of black at the end of the clip. This provides smoother transitions, i've found, than trying to use most of the clips in their original form.  i then have been filing these away in folders on the other 2 hard drives.   Regarding the TM drive. Drive Genius is telling me that "the used space on the volume 02 [that's the name of the drive] is 25% fragmented (59.14% of total space).
    btw, Time Machine keeps:hourly backups for the past 24 hoursdaily backups for the past monthweekly backups for all previous monthsand the oldest backups are deleted when your disk becomes full.
    Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), LaCie d2 Quadra 500GB external driv 

    1st)  A fragmented drive is not evil.  It will not hurt anything.  At worse it might slow down reading a file.  However, as has been pointed out by others in this thread, who cares as this is a backup device, not a device you are going to be reading a lot.
    2nd)  The time you spend defragmenting the drive will far exceed the time you will save when writing new data to the drive.
    3rd)  Defragmentation will just increase your energy consumption, as all the reading/writing needed to move the files around in order to defragment it, will cause the drive to consume more energy than if it was just sitting idle waiting for the next hourly Time Machine backup.
    4th)  Defragmentation (if done frequently) may shorten the life of your drive.  Not mentioned in "3rd" above is that the extra energy used translates into heat, plus you are moving the read/write heads back and forth all of which affect the drives mechanical and electrical components.
    NOTE:  There are situations where having a defragmented drive is useful, but mostly it has to do with needing to stream media at a high rate of speed, and fragmented files can affect that.  However, a backup drive being used for incremental Time Machine backups is not in that category, and most home Mac usage does not need a defragmented file system either.

  • How to restore Time Machine back-up if not even Recovery Tools work?

    After a hard and unexpected crash on 2012 macMini I tried everything from this list: OS X Yosemite: Ways to start up your Mac Only 2 things worked: hardware test (via Ethernet: option+D; everything passed) and detailed status mode (command+V) which listed a bunch of errors concerning booting (missing or corrupted files and/or folders). Which is probably the reason I couldn't launch Recovery Tools - neither locally nor directly via Internet (Ethernet plugged in,  option+command+R). I would get the message that the Tools are launching, but after the Apple logo showed up followed by the spinning circle, the screen would go light grey 4-5 seconds into the process and the thin black progress bar would appear. It would grow to 1/3 of its length, stop for several seconds, then the computer would restart, the bar would show up again, grow to 1/3 etc., etc.
    Assuming that nothing else could be done I started the mini in the target mode (T), plugged it into my old 2007 mini and re-formatted the internal drive, thinking that I could either try Recovery Tools again (no luck) or just clean install Yosemite on the 2012 mini first and then use my Time Machine back-up to restore my files. Unfortunately 2007 mini can only install Lion - even on the external drive - but nothing higher (so I can't upgrade to Mountain Lion, Mavericks and finally to Yosemite). And 2012 would not start with Lion on it. Still no luck with Internet Recovery Tools btw (same symptoms).
    The only other thing I can think of is finding a newer Mac and use it to install Mavericks or Yosemite on my 2012 mini. If this fails, it's a trip to the Apple store.
    If anyone has any other ideas, please share.
    (2012 has no CD/DVD drive)

    Your description of Internet Recovery sounded much like Safe Mode, not Internet Recovery. I don't think you will see an Apple at all. It should be a spinning Globe. Or, when you say "spinning circle" was that the globe spinning?
    From the App Store on the 2007 mini, can you download the Yosemite installer?
    That's about all I can think of besides taking it to an Apple Store.

  • Can I install my time machine back up onto a properly formatted external hard drive?

    I have a MacBook Pro with a 750GB harddrive, with 500+ Gb of data on it.  Just before I traverse to Europe, I did a TimeMachine back up. 
    I now want to give my Mac to a friend, and buy a AirMac when I get home.  Even if I get the one with the largest drive it will not hold the full 500+'back up. 
    I have an 8 year old Mac Book pro at home as well.  It will be a few months before I can buy the new AirMac. So my question is ....
    Can I install my current backup on a properly formatted external hard drive, and will it then run like a computer --until I get my new AirMac?
    Thanks for your help (and please don't be too tough on me for what may see to de a dumb question)
    Soper777

    The Time Machine backup is not bootable
    You will have to install Leopard first

  • I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and i can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help

    I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and I can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help? I can find the mail folder in my libraries, but the Restore Button is grayed out

    OSX treats the reformatted drive as a different one; it's the same as replacing it, and the old one is no longer connected.
    See #E3 in  Time Machine - Troubleshooting to see and restore from the "old" drive.
    And, you may not want to restore via the Finder; see the blue box in #15 of  Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

  • HT3275 where did my time machine back up go to on new hard drive?

    Hi, I recently had hard drive fail on my late 2006 iMac.  Had a new hard drive installed.  Restored my computer from the most recent time machine back up from my external drive, but can't find restored data on iMac.  Any ideas?
    Went to the latest backup and hit 'restore' took about 2.5 hours for the data to transfer to new hard drive.  I can tell it's chewing up the new hard drive space but the data/profile from my old mac is nowhere to be found on the new hard drive.

    It might have created a new user and loaded under that.. new user being the old user. But if you have issues do it again, only this time pick where the backup will go.
    http://pondini.org/TM/16.html
    The other questions might also be relevant as a new hard disk will make the Mac appear to the TM backup as a new computer.
    See 14-18 for restore info.

  • Getting Time Machine back up to a Sparsebundle on external HDD (Drobo)

    Hey,
    I've been chasing this issue around for a while but can't seem to find the answer.
    There are a lot of resources out there describing how to get your Mac to backup to a Sparsebundle on a NAS, and more resources telling you how to write protect the Info.plist file so that Mac OS doesn't resize the image to take up all of your NAS.
    However I've got a Drobo connected directly to my Mac Mini. The Drobo pretends to have a 16TB drive so that you can add storage as and when you need it.
    I am already using it to back up my MBP over the network to a Sparsebundle and until recently I was using the same scheme (a size limited sparsebundle) to back up the Mac Mini that the Drobo is connected to.
    I achieved this by following the excellent directions on http://anitechtalk.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/time-machine-dns323/ (one of the only sites that mentions the new way that Apple handles Time Machine Sparsebundles)
    However this has recently stopped working and no matter what I do I still cannot get my Mac to see the Sparsebundle as a TimeMachine aware 'drive'- instead it just backs up to the root of the '16TB' Drobo- and at some point it's going to get rather full.
    Argh.
    (And yes, I know that the other solution is to re-partition my Drobo to have a small partition at the start of the disk for Time Machine to use- but it's too late for that as I've already got 1.85TB of data on there and I doubt that I can re-partition that without losing all of the data.)
    Can anyone help me get Time Machine to accept my Sparsebundle as a 'disk' that it can backup to?
    Thanks in advance.

    Thank you for the video link. I did it pretty much exactly the way the young man explained. The one thing I didn't do was click "customize" as he does and unclick the multiple language support and he also clicks "rosetta" to support older programs. I wonder if that's the issue? The guys at Macmall told me that I would need to update the o.s. before I restored. I did that originally but have since (as mentioned before) erased the main drive. I noticed that when he does his install, his external drive does not show up on the list in which you want to install the o.s. on... should I unplug my external? I'm just trying to look at ever detail. I know the recovery file is there. The one thing it (the external) did say before I started posting here was "in progress". I'm not sure what that means? I promise I'm not an idiot. I consider myself an above average user. I usually help other that have issues... but I've yet to restore from a Time Machine back-up and I'm looking forward to learning how to do it.... the right way. I appreciate all of the advice. I have some pretty important files on my external back-up. I am really hoping that this is possible. I'm beginning to think the external is where the issue lies. The "in progress" next to the file name concerns me. I know there's a lot of data on the drive because it's nearly half full. So there's stuff there....
    Deep breath in...... reeee laaaaaaaxxxx

  • HT201250 How to change Time Machine back up time

    Is there a way to change the hourly Time Machine back up time to once or twice a day?

    Tidy wrote:
    Now I have my original back up on time capsule which time machine can't see and it keeps starting over again to make a new backup - so my time capsule disk shows two separate backups one the original one of 2 days ago named for my computer and a new one almost the same gigabytes (139gb) which it has called Macintosh sparse bundle ???? 
    It's possible the first one is damaged, but that seems unlikely, unless you turned the TC or Mac off while it was trying to do a backup.  But even that shouldn't cause TM to start a new one (absent any messages to that effect).  And it shouldn't be named "Macintosh" unless you've changed your computer name to that via System Prefs > Sharing.
    A clue may be lurking in your logs.  Use the widget in #A1 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting to display the backup messages from your logs.  Locate both backups in question, then copy and post all the messages for each one here. (Since the first backup has been a couple of days, the widget may not show the messages for that backup; if not, the pink box shows how to use the Console app to find them.)
    With the messages from both backups, we may be able to see what's going on.
    I'm thinking that I should just leave time cap ON and see which it backs up to then delete the other one.
    Let's see what we can find first. 
    I assume connecting iMac to time cap via Ethernet cable would not be a problem?
    Correct.  Doing the first, full backup via Ethernet is recommended.
    Also if just turning time machine off is enough to disrupt time capsule backups how about turning the iMac off, which I will have to do once in a while.
    Neither should be a problem, unless a backup is in progress and either the TC or Mac is shut down abnormally.

  • Having trouble restoring old files from an external Time Machine back-up to a new internal hard drive...HELP!

    O.k. So my main hard drive died on my iMac and I had to replace it. I have my old system backed up on my external with Time Machine. How do I access it to get my old files back on my new hard drive? I have read multiple forums and I have yet to find a solution. I was told that when I first turn the computer on and get to the third screen, it would ask me if I wanted to restore from a previous back-up. It did but it didn't show my external until I went through the set-up and got to my home screen. The drive showed then. It also asked to install updates...and I did. So everything is up to date. I have not turned time machine on yet because I'm affraid that if I do, it will erase my old back-up on my external. I tried using the Migration Assistant in Utilities and all I get is the spinning wheel when I tried to get that to work. So now I am here asking for help. I'm not very hopeful that I'm going to be able to get all of my old files back...  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Thank you for the video link. I did it pretty much exactly the way the young man explained. The one thing I didn't do was click "customize" as he does and unclick the multiple language support and he also clicks "rosetta" to support older programs. I wonder if that's the issue? The guys at Macmall told me that I would need to update the o.s. before I restored. I did that originally but have since (as mentioned before) erased the main drive. I noticed that when he does his install, his external drive does not show up on the list in which you want to install the o.s. on... should I unplug my external? I'm just trying to look at ever detail. I know the recovery file is there. The one thing it (the external) did say before I started posting here was "in progress". I'm not sure what that means? I promise I'm not an idiot. I consider myself an above average user. I usually help other that have issues... but I've yet to restore from a Time Machine back-up and I'm looking forward to learning how to do it.... the right way. I appreciate all of the advice. I have some pretty important files on my external back-up. I am really hoping that this is possible. I'm beginning to think the external is where the issue lies. The "in progress" next to the file name concerns me. I know there's a lot of data on the drive because it's nearly half full. So there's stuff there....
    Deep breath in...... reeee laaaaaaaxxxx

Maybe you are looking for