Resume Time Machine Backup On New MBP (props available)

Hello Officials,
I do not mean to scare away answers, but I am an experienced Mac boy, and would be forever honored with help on (this now) complicated issue below:
Info:
My old MBP had a couple of logic board replacements, now I have the new MBP. I want to perform a clean install, and thus don't want to restore from my full time machine backup (3.3TB of data). I did use Migration-sh't-Assitant for my apps, (and proper delete process for ones I didn't want) but want further options. My main problem is that I would like to go back to having my old version of Mail (with mailbox's and rss) and my old +Address Book+. (I am aware of the longer steps to get these two to work) _As well as_, I want to resume my Time Machine backups from my old backups.
Goal:
Continue using my old Time Machine backups for my new computer. Without 'Browse Other..'.
*You Should Know -That I Know*
I can hold option for a different Time Machine, it is a terrible way to operate the machine and its files.
It is a challenge due to the MAC address.
I can just re-sync Mail with all my other accounts, but I have a lot. I don't want to do that.
Address Book, even on my 'Browse other time machine disks' this is quite funky. Open to suggestions.
I already moved the backup onto a new drive. This is different.
Link
An interesting terminal walkthrough. Unfortunately is dated and filled with errors:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20080128003716101
I have been looking into this for hours, I'm interested in what there is.
_*+THIS IS POSSIBLE TO DO+*_
I sincerely thank you for your time, you are truly kind-
~Dylan Jones
Message was edited by: thedylanjones

thedylanjones wrote:
Hello Officials,
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
But there are no "officials" here; this is a user-to-user forum. We're all users, just like you.
I want to perform a clean install, and thus don't want to restore from my full time machine backup (3.3TB of data). I did use Migration-sh't-Assitant for my apps, (and proper delete process for ones I didn't want) but want further options. My main problem is that I would like to go back to having my old version of Mail (with mailbox's and rss) and my old +Address Book+. (I am aware of the longer steps to get these two to work)
Not sure what you mean here. Do you mean the old versions of the Mail and Address book apps, or the old data? What version of OSX is on each Mac?
An interesting terminal walkthrough. Unfortunately is dated and filled with errors:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20080128003716101
That's outdated (2008), and not needed on Snow Leopard. When the first backup of your new Mac starts, you should get an option to "re-use" the backups. See #B5 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). But note that however you answer that, Time Machine will do a new, full backup of the new Mac.

Similar Messages

Clean Install of SL, now would like to resume Time Machine Backups

I recently did a clean install of Snow Leopard in an effort to solve some problems I was having with Aperture. Now that I have the clean install up and running, and have reinstalled most if not all of my apps that I need, I would like to resume using Time Machine to back up my system. My old backups are on Time Machine in the backups.backupdb folder. I dont think I want to delete those, as I'm still finding from day to day there's info back there that I would like to copy over. Is there any way to have Time Machine just resume backups using that same folder?
I'm also not able to move that backups.backupdb folder to a new subfolder (I am being told ownership is not enabled, and even when i click the get info button and the little lock at the bottom of the pane I do not see an option for ignoring ownership) and I am concerned if I start a new Time Machine backup of my current system it will replace the current folder. If anyone has any expertise in this area and can help I would greatly appreciate it.

Abbstrack wrote:
I recently did a clean install of Snow Leopard in an effort to solve some problems I was having with Aperture. Now that I have the clean install up and running, and have reinstalled most if not all of my apps that I need, I would like to resume using Time Machine to back up my system. My old backups are on Time Machine in the backups.backupdb folder. I dont think I want to delete those, as I'm still finding from day to day there's info back there that I would like to copy over. Is there any way to have Time Machine just resume backups using that same folder?
I'm also not able to move that backups.backupdb folder to a new subfolder (I am being told ownership is not enabled, and even when i click the get info button and the little lock at the bottom of the pane I do not see an option for ignoring ownership) and I am concerned if I start a new Time Machine backup of my current system it will replace the current folder. If anyone has any expertise in this area and can help I would greatly appreciate it.
NEVER move or do ANYTHING with TM backups by hand from finder. TM will not delete your old backups when you start an entirely new backup sequence. set up TM on the new install. on the first backup it should offer you to continue the existing backup sequence. if you choose that option then it will continue the old backups. but it will make a full system backup on the first run and if it runs out of space it will start deleting old backups.

REstoring from old time machine backups on new install

Hi, I've been looking for good documentation on this and haven't seen an answer yet.
I want to blow away and reinstall my OS (10.5.1) I made a full backup to my time machine disk and I had planned on reinstalling the OS and all my apps for a clean start, then when the time came to move my photos and itunes back just connect my time machine disk to the new installation and copy the data back. Once I was satisfied that everything I needed was restored from the time machine dist to the new install I would go ahead and re-enable time machine on the new install and blow away my old backups starting from scratch. Has anyone done this yet? I do not want to plug in the old time machine disk and not be able to access the data that was created by the old installation. I would be bitter to say the least. Before anyone suggests another means of backing up I have thought of that, but, I'd like to see if this works.
I understand the scenario of beginning an install and choosing to restore that way, but, the reason I'm reinstalling is to start with a fresh OS form scratch an be able to restore selectively.
Thanks for reading my wordy post, I look forward to hearing back!
Thanks again

I think I'm facing the same issue as you. I ran Time Machine on my MBP. Now I've bought a new iMac. I started it with the Leopard CD and instead of installing Leopard on the new machine, I selected Restore from Time Machine Backup (or something like that). Everything from my old machine is now on my new machine. Sweet!
Only one problem. I've now enabled Time Machine on the new iMac and it tells me that there's not enough room on my external 320 GB drive for its first backup. It also tells me that its first backup will be 112 GB in size! This large size leads me to conclude that Time Machine will not add to the backups from the old MBP, but instead start a new series for the new iMac. To confirm this, I looked on the backup drive.
On the external backup drive, there are a series of 4 KB files, one for each machine that has previously been backed up. These names are nearly identical to the machine's MAC address (which you can find by open Network Preferences > Airport > Advanced). Time Machine will create a sparsebundle file for each machine backed up over the network; its name will have the format MachineNameMacAddresssparesebundle (Backups made when the backup drive was connected locally are saved in a folder called Backups.backupdb). So, to delete an old backup from a machine you're not using any more, you need to delete the 4 KB file containing the machine's MAC address, AND either the sparsebundle file OR the machine names' folder inside the Backups.backupdb folder.
Hope this helps.

How to resolve errors (-50 and -8058) when moving Time Machine backups to new disk?

I'm trying to move my Time Machine backups (about 600GB total) to a new external hard drive. I started the process last night, but after an hour or so received two errors, each repeated multiple times:
"The operation couldn't be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8058)."
"The operation couldn't be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -50)."
I opted to cancel the file transfer. I looked up the error codes but I'm still not sure what they mean. I found an old support article about error code -50 (Mac OS X 10.1: "Error Code -50" Alert Appears When Copying Files From a Remote Disk) and an old support article about error code -8058 that doesn't appear to be entirely relevant to my issue (Mac OS X 10.4: Error -8058, unable to eject when trying to copy a disc in Finder). I've also found a number of Support Community discussions, none of which are particularly helpful.
Questions:
What do these two error codes mean? Are the files that cause these errors somehow corrupt?
If I click "Okay" when the error dialog appears, are the files that are causing the errors transferred or are they omitted from the transfer?
If I transfer the files and click "Okay" when the errors appear, or if I use Terminal and cp -R as suggested in Mac OS X 10.1: "Error Code -50" Alert Appears When Copying Files From a Remote Disk, will I have trouble recovering files from the new backup disk?
Do I need to verify/repair permissions on the original Time Machine disk before attempting the transfer?
Is there some other method I should use (e.g. Terminal instead of Finder) to transfer the backups?
Details:
MacBook Air
Mac OS 10.8.5
Both the old and new Time Machine disks are formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

The two drives are handled as separate drives, even if they have the same name.
In essence, the old backups are from a drive that's no longer connected; see #E3 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

Issue trying to use old Mac Time Machine backup on new Mac

I've just got a new iMac 27" to replace my old 21" and am planning to restore files from the Time Machine backup I have. On the iMac 21" I used an external hard-drive connected to an Airport Extreme Base Station to back up using Time Machine. On the new Mac the external drive is connected directly to the USB port. The old machine is now about 10,000 miles away from me.
The issue I have is I cannot read the back-up from the old machine on the new.
During the first startup I tried to read from the Time Machine backup but the system told me I could not use it because it was from a different machine - it read all the back-up dates and let me chose, but did not allow to use it.
After startup was completed, I run a software update to make sure everything had the same version and tried Migration Assistant (with the HD still connected to the USB port), but the wheel keeps spinning not finding any disk.
I can read the .sparsebundle file on the external drive and I see it is intact. Disk Utility recognizes it and Status is Not mounted. When I try to open it with Disk Utility it says it is not mountable.
Any of you know how I can resolve this? I am thinking of a way of opening the file and reading it.
I really just need my music, my movies and my pictures, but I have 1.2T of that so it is not something I can download from the old Mac.
Thanks a lot in advance.

I've just got a new iMac 27" to replace my old 21" and am planning to restore files from the Time Machine backup I have. On the iMac 21" I used an external hard-drive connected to an Airport Extreme Base Station to back up using Time Machine. On the new Mac the external drive is connected directly to the USB port. The old machine is now about 10,000 miles away from me.
The issue I have is I cannot read the back-up from the old machine on the new.
During the first startup I tried to read from the Time Machine backup but the system told me I could not use it because it was from a different machine - it read all the back-up dates and let me chose, but did not allow to use it.
After startup was completed, I run a software update to make sure everything had the same version and tried Migration Assistant (with the HD still connected to the USB port), but the wheel keeps spinning not finding any disk.
I can read the .sparsebundle file on the external drive and I see it is intact. Disk Utility recognizes it and Status is Not mounted. When I try to open it with Disk Utility it says it is not mountable.
Any of you know how I can resolve this? I am thinking of a way of opening the file and reading it.
I really just need my music, my movies and my pictures, but I have 1.2T of that so it is not something I can download from the old Mac.
Thanks a lot in advance.

Migrate Data from External (non time machine) backup to new HD

I have a late 2007 iMac that HD went bad. Only 51 sectors were bad and I was able to Carbon Copy off 99% of the data onto an external drive. I have gotten a new HD installed and have restored the Lion OS. My question is, How do I migrate all of the data that I was able to save to new system so everything is there? For example, all of my saved emails, Pictures, desktop, etc, etc.
Thanks for any help that you can give.
P.S. I tried renaming the Applications and System folders out of the way, starting the new drive at a "T"arget drive on the iMac and then copying those two folders (What would copy) onto the new HD on the iMac ... unfortunately it didn't show any success.
Thanks again!

Okay, I have finally completed the task that I set about trying to complete a week ago.
I reformatted the drive s instructed above as one partition of GUID Mac OS Journalled format.
I then wanted to clone my Time Machine back up hard drive to the new hard drive in Disk Utility. When I tried using the restore function, it would copy all the back-up's that had been created using "Backup", but would error out on the first app when copying the time machine backups.
Confused, I then tried Carbon Copy Cloner and it too errored out, but on the third app in the apps folder of the first time machine back up file.
Before giving up I tried to clone the hard drive using Super Duper!
11 hours later I now have a perfectly working cloned hard drive. I redirected my time machines to the new hard drive and it backed up to the correct folder as if nothing had changed. So all is good now and I just wanted to thank everyone for their advice.
Thanks.
PS. I have no idea why DU and CCC errored when copying... but at this point, I don't really care. It worked with Super Duper!

Restoring Time Machine Backup on new SSD

Using STOCK HDD 500GB 5400RPM, Have a Time Machine backup on an external Seagate USB 3.0 drive, about 140GB used on my disk, if I restore to a 240GB SSD will it work smoothly or will there be problems due to the lower capacity on the 240GB SSD?

Andyl1980 wrote:
I am wondering if restoring the time machine backup that i currently have on to the new SSD after i have installed it by holding down the OPTION key at restart and selecting RESTORE FROM TIME MACHINE....
This is the best option if you want to keep everything you had on your old hard drive.
Another option you have is to reinstall OS X through OS X Recovery (hold Command and R keys while your Mac is starting up) and then, restore the backup during Setup Assistant, so you can choose what you want to restore. This may give you better performance, as OS X will be cleaner

Time Machine backup on new Mac - but too big?

Hi,
I am the current owner of a Macbook and i use 160GB of my harddrive. I am contemplating on buying a Macbook Air 11" with 128GB "HD", but I am hesitant, since I don't know how the computer would handle having to start up from a Time Machine-back up made from my Macbook, that would of course be larger than the Macbook Air has capacity for.
Is it even possible?

firemandan900 wrote:
I just had to replace my 13" Macbook Pro through warranty. When I first turned it on I selected to restore the computer from my time machine backup and after several hours it finished successfully with the exception of Ilife which on the restore had to be updated before it would open the restored databases. The other issue I am having is that timemachine is no longer working. I would prefer to have timemachine backup to the existing archive structure it created on the old machine but right now it just says it can not find the volume. Is there a way to keep using the existing backup
If there's room, TM can start a new set of backups for the new Mac on the same disk or Time Capsule. But it will make a new, full backup of the new Mac, so if your TM disk/partition isn't at well over twice the size of the data it's backing-up, your best bet will be to erase the drive with Disk Utility and let TM start over.
There's a downside to that, though. TM on the new Mac won't delete the oldest backups from the old Mac when it needs room for new backups.
Instead, it will delete the oldest backups from the new Mac, leaving the old backups "stranded." Without erasing the TM disk/partition, you'll have to delete the old backups one at a time, via the TM interface, which is quite tedious and time consuming. See the instructions in item #12 of the Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of this forum.
or do I need to delate the archives and start a new archive?
That's probably your best option.

Need help copying Time Machine backups to new drive

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

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

Issues with restoring a Time Machine backup onto new Macbook Pro Retina

I recently got a new Macbook Pro Retina and I've been trying to restore a Time Machine backup made today from my old Macbook Pro laptop. I didn't restore from the first start up (foolishly, seemingly) simply because of the trivial reason of wanting to see the system all clean and new.
I've tried the Migration Assistant but it gets stuck on "looking for source..", despite having the ex.HD plugged in and double checking the existance of the backup itself on the ex.HD.
I've also tried booting the laptop up in the 'restore' mode (cmd R) and restoring from there but it sends me in a constant loop of 'this backup was from a previous model of laptop' or something to that affect. It also doesn't display the recent backups at all, only displaying those from the beginning of this year for some reason. All backups are in the same place on the ex.HD so its not an issue with locating the backups.
Really stuck on this one! Would really appreciate some help!
Thanks a lot, and merry Christmas

Yes, you can restore to another machine if needs be.

Cannot access Time Machine backups on new MacBook Pro

Hey, I'm new to the forums, just wanting to throw it out there.
But to the point- Yesterday, I purchased a new MacBook Pro. I upgraded from a regular MacBook. I want to keep my Music, Pictures, and other Documents, so I used Time Machine to make an image of the old machine. I want to copy those specific folders over individually, so I didn't use the option to restore from the Time Machine backup. When I copied my Music folder into the location I wanted it, I tried to open the folder, and received an error message saying:
"The folder "Music" could not be opened because you do not have sufficient access privileges."
I went through Get Info and changed Permissions to Read and Write for Everyone. I don't really know what to do from here... It also does this when I try to access the backups on my external hard drive. Please help me!

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
You need to Restore the files from the backups, not copy them via the Finder. Time Machine, as you now know, uses special "deny everybody everything" permissions on it's backups to keep us mere mortals from moving, changing, or deleting them, which can hopelessly corrupt them. Restoring one Mac's backups to another one takes a few extra steps.
TM keeps the backups for each Mac separate, and normally only shows the ones for the Mac it's running on, even if there are other Macs' backups on the same disk/partition.
Since you're on a different Mac, you need the (badly named) +Browse Other Time Machine Disks+ option to see the old backups. Start with a normal Finder window, then hold down the Option key while selecting the TM icon in your Menubar, or by control-clicking (right-clicking) the TM icon in your Dock.
You'll see a selection screen showing all the disks/partitions that have TM backups on them. Select the one you want, and you'll be taken to the normal TM "Star Wars" interface, where you should see all the backups on that disk/partition.
You can then navigate to a backup (presumably the most recent one), in the "cascade" in the center of the display (the first, lowest one, represents "now"). Navigate to the folder you want to restore, select it, click the "gear" icon in the Finder window's toolbar and select the +Restore to ...+ option. Then you'll get a prompt for the destination.

"Reconnecting" Time Machine Backups on New Macbook Pro

I recently got a new macbook pro and used Time Machine to set it up. Unfortunately, when I attempt to continue to use time machine backups, I get the warning that I don't have enough space.
I next attempted to use the Pondini B6 troubleshoot to reconnect my backups via the terminal (http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html), however upon attempting to execute the "sudo tmutil inheritbackup" command I received the following error message:
The backup "I***Mac" can't be inherited because it would conflict with "I***’s MacBook Pro" (with I***Mac being the name of my old laptop and I***'s MacBook Pro being my new one).
Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I just wipe my backup HD?
Thanks so much

It helps!
After this:
sudo tmutil delete "/Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Computername 2/"
sudo tmutil associatedisk -a /Volumes/Mac\ HD /Volumes/Time\ Machine/Backups.backupdb/Computername/Latest/Mac\ HD
I was able to go into Time Machine and see the backups that were in Computername that I hadn't been able to see via Time Machine (but could see from the command line).
And then I deleted a folder in TIme Machine (a profile inside ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox and the entire old backup in /Volumes/Time\ Machine/Backups.backupdb/Computername/ was deleted. Perhaps fat fingers? I dunno. I have a volume copy of the Time Machine volume, so I'll try again...

Time machine backup to new external hard drive

I owned a external harddrive that crashed recently. I used this harddrive to keep Time Machine backups from 3 different computers.
Fortunately a friend was able to retrive the files that where on the harddrive
Now I have a folder called Backups.backupdb. containing all the backups Time Machine made over 3 years on one off my computers.
I bought a new external harddrive with the idea to put this folder onto the new harddrive and continue using Time Machine.
When I try to copy the folder Backups.backupdb to the new external harddrive I get an error there is not enough space on the new disk.
The original folder has a size of 210 GB, when I use OmniDiskSweeper to check the size of the folder it indicates the folder has a size over 700 GB.
(I understand Time Machine uses aliases to refer to files.)
How can I solve this problem? And will I ever be able to view my old Time Machine files as I was used to in Time Machine?
Thanks in advance.

Rather than do that, which means starting over from scratch, losing all your edits, organisation and so on, why not simply use iPhoto Library Manager to revert the Library to the older version? Easier, less destructive.
The instructions on that are here
If you really want to start over: you can access the Originals folder simply by going to your Pictures Folder and finding the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.

3 TB external for Time Machine backup of /new/ 2 TB HD

i feel like i finally got things to stop moving around with my 2 year old move to mac and i am wondering the following:
i have a 3 tb external that is backing up my MacPro internal Snow Leopard drive that is 1 TB. I also have an additional 1 TB internal drive that is running a clone backup using CCC.
i would like to upgrade to Lion and have 2 - 2 TB Black Caviar drives that i am considering using to replace the 2 - 1TB drives listed above.
should i start my TIME MACHINE backup to the 3 TB drive /fresh/ and should i expect problems with a new 2 TB primary drive?
I just can't see dropping more cash on an even bigger drive but at the same time i could use the extra space with the 2TB primary drive.
TIA

Not to worry.
See item #E3 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum.

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

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

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

Resume Time Machine Backup On New MBP (props available)

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for