Time Machine and partitioned drive

Hiya.
I have a macbook pro running snow. I use TM to an external hard drive.
When I first got the macbook I (foolishly) thought it would be a good idea to partition the internal hard drive. I've now realised my error and would like just one partition, however this does not seem to be possible without wiping the drive (or buying something like ipartition...)
Can I wipe the hard drive starting up from a version of osx on the hard drive, create one partition and then use TM to put back my osx setup to the new single partition? Or can it only put back the two partitions?
Thanks!

jonniecrossley wrote:
Hiya.
I have a macbook pro running snow. I use TM to an external hard drive.
When I first got the macbook I (foolishly) thought it would be a good idea to partition the internal hard drive. I've now realised my error and would like just one partition, however this does not seem to be possible without wiping the drive (or buying something like ipartition...)
Can I wipe the hard drive starting up from a version of osx on the hard drive, create one partition and then use TM to put back my osx setup to the new single partition? Or can it only put back the two partitions?
If OSX is the first partition (on top of the diagram that Disk Utility shows, when you select the top line of the drive and click the Partition tab), then you'll only have to delete the other partition. If it's second, this is going to be a bit more complicated: if so, post back and we'll tackle that.)
Then you can just drag the lower-right corner of the top partition down to fill the remaining space.
As Jolly Giant mentioned, I'd strongly recommend making a second backup of everything before you start this. You shouldn't need it, but remember: Murphy was an optimist!
Once that's done, you'll have to be careful of a few things. First, you'll need the procedure in #E3 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* to view the backups from the now-missing partition.
Second, you'll need to restore the top-level folders to an alternate location. Select them, click the "gear" icon in the TM Finder window's toolbar and select the +*Restore <item> to ...+* option, then specify the now-single partition on your internal HD.
Third, you may have to "redirect" some things from the deleted partition, if you had, say, your iPhoto library there. And you may have had some aliases directing things there.
Last, do all this with TM off. TM's first backup after this will be a big one; everything you moved from the deleted partition is new to the remaining partition and will be backed-up again. That will, of course, take a lot of space and considerable time. TM will, eventually, delete it's backups of the deleted partition, but if you're going to have a space problem on your TM drive, you might want to leave TM off for a while, be sure everything came over properly, then use TM to delete all backups of the deleted partition. Use the same procedure as above, but this time select the +*Delete all backups of <item>+* option.

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Time Machine and partitioned External HD

I have an External Hitachi Easy Drive HD, 1 Terabyte, connected via USB to my Mac Mini, which I have partitioned. The smaller partition of 200GB is for a clone of my Mac Mini OS 10.5.8 and all contents, making it a bootable drive. The remainder space of 731 GB is for Time Machine storage. From my Mac Mini, I opened Time Machine and under preferences, change disk, and designated the Time Machine partition for the "use for backup". I have designated folders under "options", exclude; that are not to be in the Time Machine backup.
I initiate Time Machine. It now backs up completely the whole Mac Mini 200 GB partition that is already on the External Hitachi HD and then adds to it the designated Time Machine partition as well as the Time Machine back up. They appear as two distinct folder with contents.
Why? How can I control this behavior?

Euchre is correct, although I'm surprised it backed-up another partition on the same drive without sending you a warning message first.
TM will eventually delete those backups, but not for a while. If you want, you can delete all the backups of that drive via the procedure in item #12 of the of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.

Time Machine and partition on external drive

Planning to buy a big external drive, but, is it possible to partition the external drive and make TM work on one ?

Absolutely, in fact it is recommended to give TM its own partition. Use the first partition of the drive (that's the one that ends up at the top of the list in Disk Utility).
Make sure the partition is double, if not three times, the size of what you will be backing up.
Note that you have the option (Sys Prefs-TM-Options) to exclude drives and folders from backups. This may save a lot of space and is useful for the applications folder (as you likely have that stuff on CD/DVD), for music (if you have it on CDs), the downloads folder etc; see [this page|http://www.ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine -backups] for more ideas on what to exclude so as not to backup unnecessary stuff. Also, if you work with scratch disks (in Photoshop or video applications, for instance), exclude them as well as that's just unnecessary.
/p

Time Machine and partitions

I am running OS X 10.6.8 and am setting up a new 1 TB external hard drive to do Time Machine backups. I would also like to use a small portion of this drive to store some other material that is separate from what I am backing up, i.e. non-Time Machine material. I am considering partitioning the drive to set this space aside, but I'm wondering if I need to bother. My understanding is that Time Machine will not overwrite existing files like this if it encoundters them as it fills up the disk, it will just think it has less room. But is that correct? If you put other things on your Time Machine drive will it leave them alone?

OK, I guess I'm not following. I thought, from the reply from Niel above, that if I just put some stuff on the drive without partitioning it and then started using Time Machine, that TM would just write its stuff around my other files and leave them alone. You seem to be saying that when you set TM up it creates a partition for itself, i.e. wipes the drive (I have not started to use it yet, so I don't know if that is the case). I guess he was suggesting the same thing. If that is the scenario, I can understand that I should make a partition for the other things first, rather than manually putting them into the TM partiton after it has been set up.
As for backup, this is going to be a backup drive in the first place, so the material on it will be redundant with its primary locations.

Time machine and hard drive space problems

It's a long story, but in a nutshell...I've had some problems with my time machine backups on my external hard drive and my MacBook Pro has been taking a long time time boot up. So, I decided to wipeout the backups on my external by deleting them (I know that's a bad idea) and then I started to transfer all the stuff from my MacBook Pro that I wanted to backup, and now I have ran out of room on the external (1TB) drive. However, the space that is being used doesn't seem to match what should be available. There is around 200gb (I think) that isn't accounted for.....is there some hidden stuff I might have missed?

johnl927 is suggesting you wipe your external hard drive to remove any ghost files or errors in the file system. That would be the fastest and least time consuming way to go.
Your alternative is to run Disk Utility, verify disk and the partitions of the external hard drive, and if still in doubt verify permissions. The disk may sometimes claim to have less free space than really available because at some point in the past your computer or else where you plugged it in forgot to do some general housekeeping on the external hard drive.

Time Machine and Partitions GUID or Apple

Am having that today now only problem with T.M. But can get it to work by right clicking and all the rest. But was wondering, I just checked my 3 drives 1 internal and 2 external. The internal drive is the GUID partition table and so is my 320gb with my tiger backup, but the drive I'm using for time machine is the apple partition map. Would that make a difference? And how do I partition it to the GUID partition table. Also have read some posts about the computers name, how can I find it ?
Thanks Neil

Alright I think you are experiencing a problem that I had with time machine; just for curiosity what hard drive are you using? I am using Mybook, but I think this should help anyways. Before you do anything i would make sure the computer reads the drive, like when you plug it in, does something come up? If not then go to disk utility and format it to FAT after this everything should work fine. Now open up the disk utility and click on the partitions tab, once there create two partitions but make sure you click on the options thing and make them both GUID, also be sure it read Mac OS Extended (Journal). Once those partitions are created go back and revert the process (Make it one partition) name it whatever you wish but keep the GUID setting and the os extended journaled. Now everything should work flawlessly. You shouldn't have any time machine problems. I do recommend having two partitions that way time machine is not taking up your entire external drive, because it will use it all up if you have 1 partition. When I first got used time machine I let it use a 750 Gig drive; I had this as my main storage unit and would place movies and other non mac related documents in there, after a while I noticed that some of my stuff was vanishing like some messed up prank my computer was pulling on me, but no, time machine just deleted stuff you put on your drive to make room for backups, so once again don’t make my mistake make two partitions.

Time Machine and Hard Drive Weirdness -- start again?

I bought a LaCie 500 Gig slick Porsche metallic drive to go with my slick metallic iMac last year. Set up Time Machine, was in awe, life was good. In recent weeks, I've noticed the drive running hot and a little louder than normal. Since it's not crucial for me to have TM always on, I just turn the drive off.
Recently, I noticed TM machine wouldn't mount. It was doing a lot of work, running real warm, but not mounting. In disc utility, the drive was blinking in and out of being accessible. Finally I was able to access it, and I verify/repaired it twice.
The next time it booted up, the drive icon wasn't in 'go' green but 'wait a bit' yellow. In preferences, I could see it preparing and preparing. It seemed like it would never end, and finally needing to go to sleep, I turned it off on yellow. This morning, it mounts GREEN and is working normal. Not hot, not noisy.
Here's the big question: now what I do?
You see, I've got some warranty left on this drive, and I can't figure out if it's about to break, or Time Machine is breaking the drive.
My gut tells me to trash my backups.backupdb file and start all over again. After all, I'm at a nice place where I don't need anything from a while ago. I figure if I try to do this and it outright fails to backup, this is an indication of a weary drive.
Also, if I were to backup all over again, it would be about 160 gigs of info. My backup drive currently has 130 available. There's maybe another 60 gigs or so of stuff on this drive tops, and so it seems Time Machine has nearly doubled in size of what it's backing up.
So, would y'all recommend purging the backup and starting again?
Sorry for longwindedness, but just trying to provide all info I can,
Me
Also, I see that I've got about 130 Gigs open on the 500 gig drive. I'm using half of my iMac's 300 gig drive, and so by my best guestimation I'd say Time Machine has already double

Jerome,
First, make sure Spotight is not set to Index the LaCie drive. That could have been the cause of the excessive use.
Next, if Time Machine hasn't been backing up for a while ("wouldn't mount"), then the next time it successfully mounts it will do a long "Preparing..." (I believe it's called a "Deep Traversal") session to compare what has changed since the last time it connected. This is normal and will show the drive as busy (Yellow light). Let it do its' thing in that case - perhaps leaving it on over night.
Your Drive is most likely fine.

My Time Machine and backup drive are not recognized and do not work after this update...is there a way to fix this?

After I upgraded to Yosemite, my MAC Time Machine backup drive is no longer recognized and the process freezes when I try to re-install the drive from the drive's software. Is there a way to fix this?

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. You must hold down the shift key twice: once when you turn on the computer, and again when you log in.
Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually login automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem?
After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

Time Machine and external drives

Since upgrading to OS X 10.7.4, I keep getting messages complaining that a server could not be found. The server in question being the machine on my home network that has my Time Machine volume on it.
I use a laptop as my primary machine and spend my working life split between my office at home and visiting customer's offices. Before I upgraded to Mountain Lion, Time Machine obviously couldn't back up while I was out and about so it used to notify me in the Time Machine menu on the top of my screen. This worked fine for me and I knew that data I added to my machine wouldn't be backed up until my laptop was connected to my network at home.
Since upgrading to Mountain Lion it seems that Time Machine has changed so that it repeatedly notifies me about the unavailable Time Machine Volume by way of putting a dialog message in the middle of my screen, in front of everything and interrupting my workflow by demanding I hit the OK button before I can do anything else. It seems to do it several times in a row each hour or thereabouts. It's so annoying! Why has the behaviour been changed so that it constantly gets in my way?
OK, I understand that some users might not have noticed that subtle little bit of feedback in the menu and this could be dangerous. I also understand that stopping the user in the middle of whatever they are doing and getting them to positively respond to a dialog message does ensure that they have some idea about something, but in all fairness the message doesn't exactly say "Time Machine cannot back up your data because the disk it backs up onto couldn't be found". If users are so unaware of the intracacies of Time Machine then this dialog doesn't cut the message clearly enough, and if they are savvy enough then it just annoys them.
I believe it would have been better if a setting had been introduced, and was set to "on" by default, allowing the user to choose to have 'verbose and insistant' reporting of any errors. That way, less familiar users would by default get messages like this one, but with much clearer wording, suggesting there's a problem, and people who are aware that their Time Machine can only back up data while they are connected to the Time Machine drive could disable the messages and just have the little bit of validating information in their menu bar.
Would this not seem like a good way forward?
While I admit that this issue could go away when I install 10.7.5 I am still somewhat certain that it wont have the helpful feature that I suggest here.
Now, how do we get Apple to take this on as a feature request?

vincas,
Your backup of the failed drive should still be there. You're not seeing it because the volume is not present, according to your Finder. This is one of those "ah, I see" things.
Do you have a replacement for the failed drive yet? If so, either format it and give the new volume the exact same name as that on the failed drive, or simply change the name of the mounted volume on the new drive accordingly (with the same name). Once you have done this, connect your Time Machine drive. Open a Finder window showing the empty, but properly named volume, and click the Time Machine icon in your Dock to open Time Machine. You should be able to navigate "back in time" to see the backed up contents and restore same.
If you do not yet have a replacement, the backed up files can be accessed in the Finder normally by navigating into the Time Machine backup folder. Open a date/time stamped backup, and you should find a folder for every volume that was backed up at that time. Any files you find can be copied manually.
Scott

Time Machine and USB Drive

I use Time Machine to backup my datas. The problem is that my HDD (on my MAC) was full, and added an Firewire DD on my MAC. Is it possible to include my firewire in the backup on Time Machine ( no problem with the capacity of this drive)?

JGaron wrote:
Is it possible to include my firewire in the backup on Time Machine
provided there's enough room on the destination drive, yes.
in fact, time machine should automatically include any properly formatted drive, connected directly to your computer, for backup.
have a look @ #1 and #2 here: http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html.
JGG

Time machine and 2TB drive...can t backup

I have a 2TB drive as main and a 2TB drive as target. Even if there is less than 1TB of data on the original drive, time machine refuses to back up the drive and instead asks for 2.5 TB as a destination drive.
This is clearly a design problem. The backup target should be relevant to the amount of data to back up and NOT to the size of the original drive. If there is 500Gigs on the original drive and that data reides on a 2TB drive, Time Machine should be able to back that 500Gigs and then when in need of more space either warn that space has to be made or requesting a bigger drive.
So basically after having spend 2 days copying my data to a single drive I realize that Time machine is not clever enough to dynamically calculate the space needed.
Or am i doing something wrong? having to clone the drive, replace it with a 1TB and then reclone back is a pain in the sphincter. Please fix this for a future version. If there is the space for at least one backup, one should be able to at least have one copy.

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message that corresponds to a failed backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showning, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

Apple TV, Time Machine and External Drives

I have an apple TV, A 1TB time capsule and a 1GB hard drive attached to the time capsule. My itunes library is too big for the apple TV. My itunes application is on my laptop and my library is on the storage drive, backed up by time machine.**
My question - Obviously any content I sync to apple TV is available to the whole family but am I right in thinking that all the other content that can't be synced because of size can only be accessed when I am at home with my laptop?
If so then it would appear that mac have invented a fantastic product but made the weird assumption that our home movies, audio and movie downloads will not exceed the maximum size of the ATV unless we buy a dedicated computer! I am not much better off than I was when I simply streamed music through airport or had my ipod connected to my stereo. Because I cant sync my whole library I have to sync only playlists so there is no cover flow, just a list to scroll through same as I had on my ipod!
It makes me wonder if the design and marketing department at apple have lost the plot and concentrated on media sales rather than customer satisfaction. If you take into account that the itunes movie rentals are more expensive and no more recent than those in Blockbuster (I just rented 5 blue ray for £10.00) then the ATV is looking like a temporary toy that already fails to meet the needs of the average consumer. I love apple products but at the moment I'm thinking I could have just plugged endless storage devices into my playstation and achieved much more.
Someone please tell me I'm wrong.......

flintonmac wrote:
Thats a rather ragged defence of a poor bit of design.
It's not a defence, it's an explanation. If you don't like the Apple tv model then fair enough but it's not bad design by any stretch of imagination. My point being that Apple tv deliberately moves away from the model you seem to want to follow, you have your right to your opinions but you need to accept this isn't what most people want and why you can now rent 5 disks for £ 10 from Blockbuster.
My main point. If you don't sync your whole itunes library then you have to scroll through a playlist which removes the convenient cover flow interface
Not at all, there is no cover flow and lets hope that if there ever is, it's an option only. Cover flow is very pretty but quite impractical for large libraries.
and leaves you in the same position as you would be scrolling through the content of external drives on any other media player.
Not at all, all the other media players I have reviewed have resulted in a chaotic interface when it comes to searching for media on attached drives.
It would not have been hard for apple to allow itunes to send a playlist that is seen by the apple tv as its entire content.
That's exactly what the Apple tv does. It strikes me that you haven't really taken the time to see how the Apple tv works properly or what it has to offer you.
My secondary point. Apple is behind most other service providers in terms of providing access to new releases and price.
Again that's incorrect, Apple offers similar content to some other online media providers but usually more than most. It's true that in comparison to traditional physical media, it's offerings are somewhat poorer but this is the result of protectionism applied by the movie studio to try to support a flagging physical medium industry, all online suppliers have the same issue with the movie studios.
While I am moaning...... The HDMI connection stays live even in standby so every user has to reach behind the TV when changing from apple to cable tv. Not a reasonable solution so it means that I use the AV outputs instead. If you link that to my second point then yes I can rent DVD's in HDMI but I have to change my cable set up before I do.........
If this is an issue with the Apple tv then it's something that does need resolving, but at this stage you can't say for sure it's not your tv, if it works fine on one port but not on another it sounds more like the tv to me. None of the 5 tv's we have that have an Apple tv connected to them display this behaviour.
Your points are very valid in your case, I'm not dismissing them, just pointing out the model you would seem to prefer is the model that most people are wanting to turn away from, so it isn't bad design, it's just that you don't like it.

Time machine and Hard drive

Hi,
i want to buy a hard drive which i can use as a time machine whilst also using as a standard hard drive is this possible?
i was thinking of buying the WD my cloud 2tb what do you think?
want to spend about £100...
or shall i buy a Time capsule and a Hard drive separate? but want to link this

About TM "Backup Drive is Full" Alert
TM only deletes older files if they have been deleted from the source and when TM needs space on the backup drive for a new incremental backup. Time Machine "thins" it's backups; hourly backups over 24 hours old, except the first of the day; those "daily" backups over 30 days old, except the first of the week. The weeklies are kept as long as there's room.
So, how long a backup file remains depends on how long it was on your Mac before being deleted, assuming you do at least one backup per day. If it was there for at least 24 hours, it will be kept for at least a month. If it was there for at least a week, it will be kept as long as there's room.
Note, that on a Time Capsule the sparsebundle grows in size as needed, but doesn't shrink. Thus, from the user's view of the TC it appears that no space has been freed, although there may be space in the sparsebundle.
Once TM has found it cannot free up enough space for a new backup it reports the disk is full. You can either erase the backup drive and start your backups anew or replace the drive with a larger drive.
I suggest your do a fresh install of OS X on your new SSD, then you can manually transfer what your want from your backup. But I would work from a cloned backup instead of a Time Machine backup because it will be easier to transfer your stuff.
Clone Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
     1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue
         button.
     2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
     3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
     4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it
         to the Destination entry field.
     5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
         the Source entry field.
     6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

HT201250 Can I partition my external hard drive and use one partion for time machine and the other one for data that i may want to use in different computers?

I have this doubt. I've just bought an external drive, especifically a Seagate GoFlex Desk 3 tb.
I want to know if it is recomendable to make a partion exclusively for time machine and let another one so I can put there music, photos, videos, etc that I should need to use or copy to another computer.
May half and half, 1.5 tb for time machine and 1.5 tb for data.
I have an internal hard drive of 500 GB (499.25 GB) in my macbook pro.
Any recommendation?

As I said, yes. Be sure your Time Machine partition has at least 1 TB for backups.
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two (2). Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

Time Machine and partitioned drive

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