Size of hard disk for needed for Time Machine backups

How does one determine what size of hard disk one should buy for one´s backups?
My MacBookPro´s built-in hard disk has a capacity of apprx 190GB. Does time machine back up EVERYTHING on one´s hard disk (i.e, documents, applications, operatimg program, settings, boot sectors etc. (at the moment I only have one partition and no WINDOWS loaded)

Does time machine have the capacity to back up (and then restore) EVERYTHING on one´s hard disk (i.e, documents, applications, operatimg program, settings, boot sectors etc. (at the moment I only have one partition and no WINDOWS loaded)?

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Do I need startup discs to upgrade hardware on MacBook Pro or can I restore the hard drive from from a Time Machine backup?

do I need startup discs to upgrade hardware on MacBook Pro or can I restore the hard drive from from a Time Machine backup?

Ok, well go and grab a small 2.5" hard drive enclosure so you can put the new drive in & temporarily use it like an external hard drive.
Download Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper and make a bootable clone of your current HDD on the new HDD.
Once that's done you can test the clone by booting from it. To do this hold Optioni while booting to select the external (new) drive. If everything looks ok, you can go ahead and swap over the HDD's.
So much easier.

I just installed a larger hard drive, and used my Time Machine Backup to transfer my info back to the new hard drive. When I open Iphoto, my thumnails are there, but they aren't linked back to the actual photos.I see the photos in my HD. What should I do

I just installed a larger hard drive, and used my Time Machine Backup to transfer my files back to the new hard drive. When I open Iphoto, my thumbnails are there, but they aren't linked back to the actual photos. I see the original photo files in my HD. Is there a way to link the Iphoto thumbnails back to the original files?

Use the Firewire cable and t boot the old Mac's hard drive to the new Mac's desktop and transfer your entire iPhoto folder.
Use Disk Utiliy to erase'format HFS+ Journaled your TimeMachine drive and use the free Carbon Copy Cloner and clone your new boot drive to the external, it's hold option bootable.

Error message when trying to install mavericks. It won't let me select a disk to install Mavericks on. Message says "This disk is used to Time Machine backups." It is NOT used for back ups. help

When trying to chose a disk on which to install mavericks I get a message that says "this disk is used for Time Machine backups" and cannot be used. Help!

I don't know what will help at this point. You should never update a system that has problems, unless you're absolutely sure that the problems are caused by a bug that is fixed in the update. With your backups in an uncertain state, you should not update or do anything else except start a new backup.

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!

Entering password for an encrypted time machine backup

During a recent hard disk failure. I have had to restore my system from a time machine backup.
I keep this backup on an encrytped external drive.
I booted into recovery mode, erased the drive to fix the hard disk errors (it wasn't repairable).
Then I tried to mount the encrypted drive for recovery.
Everytime I entered the password, a 50 character string with all character types it failed to unlock.
I tried the disk on another mac and it unlocked fine.
Then I noticed that the recovery mode defaults to US Input Source and I have a UK macbook (2007).
So I changed the input source to British.
Still the password doesn't work.
Then I noticed that once you click unlock the password entry box defaults to US again and doesn't let you change it.
Fortunately UK keyboard isn't very different to US and I figured out that the only difference was to use Shift 3 for # rather than option 3 that we normally use on the UK keyboard.
Is there a work around this? Is it a known issue.
Glad I don't have an arabic or russian keyboard :-)

File a bug report with Apple.

Best Setup for Lion Server Time Machine Backup with Drobo?

I've been thinking about this a lot, yet I don't feel I have a good solution for this, so I'm going to throw it out to the community.
I have a home server setup using a Mac Mini running Lion Server 10.7.2 with a Firewire 800 Drobo attached. The Drobo is used for both Time Machine backups and files. I also have a Powerbook G4 running Leopard and a MacBook 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with Lion 10.7.2 which connect to the Server and the Drobo wirelessly thorugh an Airport Extreme.
I want to use Time Machine to have all of my computers back up to the server & Drobo, but realize there are several ways to go, each with their pluses and minuses:
Server Time Machine Backup:
+ Centralizes backup process, rules, and other elements
+ Currently Mac Mini is backing up to the Drobo correctly using this process
+ Have setup size limit on Server backup so that it does not eat up file space
- Would combine laptop backups with server backup into one sparse image: this would lead to the computer with the largest backup needs taking up too much space
Client-Driven Time Machine Backup:
+ Allows for customization of backup processes by computer
+ Can setup specific space requirements for each computer
+ Backups are separate from each other
- Wireless backup from laptops to Drobo is not functioning currently
Any thoughts or experiences on how best to set this up? I tend to do most of my work on the MacBook, hence I am concerned about it having it's backup space eaten up by the server, but that may be more of a theoretical issue than a real one.
Thanks in advance for your help!

Well I'm not sure if I am following you but I will explain how I set mine up. When I got the Drobo I inserted 2 drives and selected the highest available volume I could (16TB). My drives are 4 TB each and I knew I would soon add 2 more. Then Drobo did its thing and prepared these drives. The Drobo shows up on my mini desktop as an external drive. When I log into my server from my other computer I can see the mini server volume and the Drobo volume. I can access each no problem. They act as regular volumes. Soon after I added the second two drives and everything stayed the same meaning I could still see and access the Drobo on the desktop of my mini. So it sounds like you used the Drobo dashboard to partition yours for two volumes? Are they both showing on the desktop?
"Maybe the Drobo needs to be mounted on the desktop to be considered AFP feature enabled." I could be wrong and hopefully someone will correct me but I think the Drobo (or volumes) have to be mounted on the desktop to work with AFP.

Apply preferences for lightroom from time machine backup

I have a new 27inch iMac. The previous (most recent) TM backup from my previous computer might have had some corrupt files (not related to adobe software). Apple instructed me to only migrate my applications (which I've done) and to then manually drag documents over. I've set CS6 and lightroom up but non of the 3rd party editing applications I used like topaz, alien skin, and NIK came over. Furthermore, all my preferences that were saved like watermarks, export settings, develop settings etc are missing. I'm searching for file(s) that I could drag over from the time machine backup over to my new machine that would as best possible save me from rebuilding Lightroom from scratch. NOTE: I am able to access all my various cat files stored on various external drives without issue. Just need to preferences back if possible.
Thanks!

Awesome kglad I appreciate that very much!!

89 hours for Restore from Time Machine backup!! Is this typical?

Trying to restore my iMac after a hang up in the boot process....grey screen----->apple----->progrees bar to 1/10 full----->shutdown.
Troubleshooting steps thus far,
-Booted from Lion install USB.
-Ran Disk Utility and all tests show that the startup drive is in good order.
-Went to Restore from a Time Machine backup and chose Iomega USB 2.0 backup drive.......internal HD would not show up in destination list.
-Went back to Disk Utility and erased internal HD and formatted for HFS+ (Journaled)
-Tried to restore from Time Machine again, was able to select internal HD as destination this time.
-Estimated time.......89 HOURS!!!
24" iMac (Mid 2007)
2.8 Ghz Core 2 Extreme
4 GB Ram (667 Mhz)
500 GB HDD (ATA)
2 TB Iomega USB 2.0 backup drive.
I understand this machine is no spring chicken, however, this amount of downtime seems excessive. Why so slow? Any ideas to speed it up?
Thanks.

Sounds like your internal HD may be failing.
If it's working slowly, having to do numerous retries, etc., everything will be very slow.
Note that Disk Utility won't necessarily find that sort of problem with a HD; it only checks the file system on the drive for consistency -- all the various directories, catalogs, etc.
Less likely, but possible, are problems with RAM, the USB drive, the USB port on your Mac, or even the USB cable.
Unless you're well into the restore, you might want to try running this: Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test. Run the Extended tests (that may take an hour or more, depending on how much RAM you have). Write down any error code(s) it shows.

Hard drive issues due to Time Machine backup? Can't source the problem.

Last night my computer began to run extremely slow. All apps simultaneously lagged (spinning wheel of death), but then began working again after about 0.5-1 minute. This whole-system crash repeated about every 10 minutes a total of probably 5-6 times. The last time all apps stopped functioning and (CPU usage of iTunes was 85-95% for some reason (viewed using activity monitor), I am guessing due to its use of multiple hard drives as my music is stored on an external drive) and my computer just shut off after about 3 minutes of completely stalling. Rebooted computer and was left with an EXTREMELY slow system; opening up the quick menu (forgot the name, button on the top row of keyboard) for booting applications took 2-3 minutes. I eventually started disk utility, verified disk. It said I needed to repair disk by restarting my computer while holding down [Command] R message. Made sure i had a backup (at the time of that backup my computer was experiencing the problems above, 11:21pm), so I restarted whilst holding command R. Booted into the OSX utilities, retried the disk repair, received the "Disk Utility cannot repair this drive: back up as many files as you can..." message. Erased/reformatted my internal hard drive, and ran "repair disk" again; disk utility found no problems with the disk. Restored my files to my internal hard drive using OSX utilities (using the full system restore of the 11:21pm backup), and left it running while ran some errands. When I came back to look at my computer, it had attempted startup and crashed with the "kernel error" or whatever where all the text is on the left of the screen. It said something about not being able to find "disk2", which I believe was the disk containing OSX utilities (as veiwed in disk utility while running OSX utilities). Force shutdown, reboot with command R, wiped my internal drive again. Decided to only install a fresh version of OSX in an attempt to scan for viruses (using Sophos Antivirus, running scan as I am typing this), as the slow behavior of my computer had been very strange and began almost instantaneously (seemed like a virus/malware). No threats found so far with Sophos (scanning all my external drives too to source the problem in time machine backups), but I have deduced that there is something wrong with the most current Time machine backup, as it re-established the "problem" (easily fixed once drive is erased using OSX utilities) with my hard drive once I restored it to my internal hard drive. I am wondering (if it is not a virus) if I will need to repeat this whole process with every time machine backup to find where it went wrong, or if i can somehow pinpoint the problem easier. Will all of my Time Machine backups be corrupted now? Why would the Time Machine backup affect the state of the hard drive (does in need to be repaired or not)? Very confused at these random problems. If it is a virus (I will post the results of the Sophos antivirus scan as soon as it is finished), can I remove it from the backup and then restore it with no problems? What do you suggest I do? Will it make a difference to restore the most recent backup (11:21pm) using Migration assistant now that I am running a fresh install of OSX mountain lion? How can I source and eliminate the problem?

Activity Monitor – Monitor Performance Problems
Performance Guide
Why is my computer slow
Why your Mac runs slower than it should
Slow Mac After Mavericks
Things you can do to resolve slowdowns see post by Kappy
Try running this program and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read.
Etrecheck – System Information

Upgrade MacBook Hard Drive - Restore System from Time Machine Backup?

I have a MacBook that I want to upgrade the hard drive of. Am I right in thinking, all I need to do is:
Run Time Machine one last time, to make a recent backup of the MacBook
Install the new hard drive in the MacBook
Insert the Snow Leopard DVD, and start a clean installation
During installation, select the option to Restore System From Backup...
Will this copy across ALL of the contents of the old MacBook's hard drive, to the new MacBook's hard drive? A perfect clone? Because that's what I want to do.

I performed the installation, restoring a Time Machine backup from the external hard drive to the new blank internal one I put inside the MacBook. Everything went fine, except for one problem.
Now, whenever I try to open Safari, it immediately crashes with the error message:
"Safari quit unexpectedly
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)"
What's going on? How can I stop Safari from doing this? I've repaired permissions using Disk Utility, and Spotlight has finished re-indexing everything.

Primary Hard Drive Recognized as a Time Machine Backup Drive

Hi,
I am having some trouble installing the latest OSX Mavericks due to the installation application erroneously recognizing my primary hard drive being used for Time Machine backups. I have removed my backup drive from Time Machine, removed the backup drive from my laptop altogether, turned off Time Machine in system preferences and restarted numerous times in an attempt to get the OSX Mavericks installer to recognize my primary hard drive.
Is anyone else having this problem? Is there something I am missing?
Thanks!

As Time Machine deletes files when the drive gets too full (deletes the oldest backup to make room for a new backup), it would depend on which backup your movies are and when they'd get deleted. Once you delete them on your hard drive, they won't be in the newest TM backups either. I'd suggest you copy them to another hard drive or a flash drive/USB stick - of course they'd need to be large enough.

Multiple Hard drive how to customize Time machine backup

i know we can do mutiple HD back up using timemachine .
But-
is there way i can costomize what to back up for each hard drive?
because-
im back up 2 diifferent hard drives.
my computer is almost 4TB to fully back up.
i have
4TB External HD
and Apple airport time captule 3TB.
looks like i have to do exact ONE Setting ( Option) for both HD.
is there anyway i can do timemachine back up different setting
for two different Hard drives?
such as
1st drive 4TB back up fully
2nd drive back up ony music and movie
ONLY using timeachine so always scheduled to be back up. and i can go back using timemachine...
please help

You have a lot of data to protect. With that much data you may want to consider cloned backups instead of Time Machine backups. You would need at least one backup hard drive for each live hard drive. Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) and Super Duper! (SD) are good applications to use.
Closing backup techniques are covered here.
Most commonly used backup methods:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3045
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6031
From your description you appear to be storing as single copy of some of your data (music and movies) on the Time Capsule 3 TB drive. If so, that is not a good idea. If that drive crashes you will lose that data, even if there is a copy of it in the Time Machine backup because the Time Machine backup and the live data are on the same drive.
So I suggest you reorganize your large live data onto external hard drives that are not the 3 TB Time Capsule drive and then create a backup drive for each external live drive and run CCC or SD to clone them. You can continue to backup the internal drive to the Time Capsule but, in addition, I would make a cloned copy of it on external backup an external hard drive.
If the data that won’t fit on your internal system drive will fit on the external 4 TB drive then you would have only one external drive to clone. If it really is more then 4 TB of total data then you could use two external live drives and two clone drives.

Switching upsizing my internal hard drive - how to ensure Time Machine backup works

I'm replacing my 250 gig hard drive in my Macbook Pro with a 500 gigabyte version. I'm concerned about being able to use my Time Machine backups. Can anyone shed some light on how to do this properly?

As far as I know, you can use Time Machine back up on new 500GB HDD as well.
Time Machine drive connect MacBook Pro, then boot with pressing Option key with new drive to select Time Machine back up drive as boot drive to restore or make clone back up with Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper on another external HDD, then boot from it to restore.
http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-upgrade-an-os-x-lion-systems-hard-drive/

External hard disk not recognized by time machine

I have an external backup disk, Passport, that is no longer recognized by time machine or my computer. I used it a couple of weeks ago to restore my wife's MacBook. Hers is an older model and uses Lion. Since then my MacBook Pro--mavericks will not mount the external hard disk.
OKAY==after leaving the Passport on for a couple of hours it now is mounted. Don't know what happened, but it is now working.
CANCEL problems

I see it's now working but make sure you are running the latest version of WD software.
http://community.wd.com/t5/News-Announcements/New-Release-WD-SmartWare-Version-1 -3-6-for-Mac-10-5-10-9-11-25/td-p/628441

How long for an initial Time Machine backup?

The HD I using for Time Machine crapped out on me, and I had to reinitialize with Disk Utility. The HD is FW800, connected to a 2010 iMac.
The amount of data in the initial TM backup is 823 GB. It looks like it's going to take nearly 2 days for everything to copy over.
Does this amount of time sound right? The reason I ask is that when I first did this procedure 2 years ago, I don't remember it taking this long. My data has definitely grown since then, but not by much. Don't recall exactly, but I want to say maybe 500-600 GB?
TIA in advance for any help.

You're right. The HD in question is a LaCie Quadra 1GB. It's one of two I swap out weekly for TM backups. It should still be in warranty, so I'll try to take adavantage of that.
What's interesting, though, is I just searched for something Spotlight. Apparently this disk, and another I use for SuperDuper! backup are both indexing while the copying is going on. The TM HD needs another 60 hours to index and the SuperDuper! one needs 9.
I've never noticed this before; never though to check, really. Especially regarding SuperDuper. Need to look into how Spotlight indexing works. Oh, well. The important thing is I do have a cloud backup of important data running every four hours, so the work is safe.
Thanks again for your help.

Size of hard disk for needed for Time Machine backups

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