Time Machine backing up a drive which is no longer connected

I have recently removed (and replaced) one of my external drives. I have Time Machine running on third drive. When I look at my recent backups, Time Machine is still creating a folder (and contents) for the drive that no longer exists. The only difference being, it is putting " 1" after the drive name. What is going on?

*Bump*
I'm going to be switching my Timemachine drive shortly, and I'm considering not transfering my backs, just to get around this bug. Obviously that's not ideal, so if anyone can shed light on this it would be great.

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Time Machine back up entire drive the first time it is used?

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If the size of the backup fails to match the size of the used space on the backed up disk drive, it could because of the fact that it only backs up what is needed for recovery of the disk drive. It does not backup Trash, cache files or swap files which could account for the difference.

Does time machine back up second drives

I have a second drive installed in my MacBook Pro for document storage, etc. I replaced my optical drive with a second drive. Does Time Machine back up the second drive as well?

Open the Time Machine pane of System Preferences and verify that the drive isn't excluded. Drives in some formats, such as FAT32, can't be backed up by Time Machine.
(74490)

How can I empty trash from outboard Time Machine back up hard drive?

I cannot wempty the trash from my outboard Time Machine Hard Drive. I keep getting error messages.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
OS X can only restore data to the drive where Time Machine backed up files from.
If you want to restore files from the Time Machine backup onto an external drive, your only option is to access to the Time Machine drive manually (open a Finder window and choose your Time Machine drive in the Finder sidebar), navigate through its folders and copy the files you want to the external drive

HT201250 Can time machine back up external drives to external drives?

I was wondering if I can use Time Machine to back up external drives. I know it backs up just my Mac, but need to know if
it will back up an external drive to an external drive.

Open your Time Machine drive. Open the Backups.backupdb folder therein. Open the Computer Name (e.g., Adam Smith's iMac) folder. Open any folder there whose name contains a date later than when you attached your (other) external drive. You should see a list of folders representing the drives that are being backed-up. One is typically Macintosh HD, your internal hard drive. There should be one for your other external drive.

How can I reset/override a forgotten password for Time Machine back up hard drive?

I have a g-drive slim but can't remember the password because I haven't used it in a long time. Checked g-drive website and it wasn't very helpful:
http://support.g-technology.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=132146&sid=88d7393f2 f66e67581b8143e9b30f8ef
Also checked Apple Support for Time Machine and nothing on how to reset/override.

Hi Vitamin A,
I apologize, I'm a bit unclear on the exact nature of the issue you are describing. If you are talking about an issue with an encrypted backup, there may not be a way to override the password:
You need your backup password to restore files from Time Machine backups. If you forget your backup password, Time Machine can’t use the backups.
OS X Mountain Lion: About the Time Machine backup password
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11340
If you are less concerned about the backup or other information and would like to continue using the disk, you may need to delete the existing volume or partition:
Disk Utility 12.x: Erase a disk, CD, or DVD
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5849
Regards,
- Brenden

How can I remove old Time Machine back-ups for a Mac I no longer have??

So, i am trying to back-up a brand new MBPro to my Time Machine but it says there's not enough room. Only 13.5 GB avail and need 284 GB. Is there a way to go into Time Machine and delete all the old back-ups from my former MBPro? (I've already migrated all the files and data to the new MBP from my iMac, also on the same Time Machine.) If I could wipe out the old MBP back-ups that should create enough room.

Delete the backups.
Q12 here. http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

Time Machine back-up/restore after hard drive failure - lost data

Our iMac was subject to a hard drive recall. So before getting the hard drive replaced, I did a full Time Machine backup (over wifi to a HD connected to Airport Extreme). Once done, I took the iMac to the Genius Bar and they sent me home with a machine with a new copy of the OS installed.
Came home and upon setting up OSX, I selected something like "restore from Time Machine backup." Told it where the drive was.
I now realize that the most recent back-up that is on that drive is from January 2012. So I lost ten months of data. When I look at Finder at the external drive, in the Backups.backupdb folder, all of the dates there are 2012-01-10-XXXXXXX. There is also a "latest" folder in there, but that also looks old.
So first, does anyone have any suggestions on where to look for this full backup I did? When I enter Time Machine, the time bar on the right only shows "latest" and "January 2012." Interestingly, it does not have older backups either.
Note - the backup I did was a manual one. I stopped having Time Machine do automatic backups because they took way too long over the air. So I would start manual backups about once per month. I never thought to check the hard drive to see if they were there.
Thanks for any help.

I think I have solved half of this. Upon starting the Mac after the disk swap, when I went to restore from Time Machine, I disconnected the drive from Airport Extreme and connected it directly to the Mac via USB. Apparently, this is not ok.
I reconnected the drive to Airport Extreme and now can see all of the backups.
So my question now is whether (1) do I revert to the week-old Time Machine (I want to do this) and (2) do I have to do it over wifi or is there a way for me to access this backup via a direct connection? I'm worried that over wifi, it will take days to restore (it's only 100 GB, but it seems to take forever).
Thanks in advance.

Time Machine Backs Up but doesn't retrieve

I use to have Time Machine back up to an external disk that was connected to a shared computer on my network. It worked great. It kept a disk image on the external disk which it mounted each time Time Machine would back up or when I entered Time Machine. Recently I have connected that external disk directly to my computer by USB. Time Machine is still backing up to this drive, it still knows that my oldest back up is from November 2007 and keeps track of it's latest backups. BUT, when I open Time Machine it no longer mounts that disk image and there is no backup history.
What have I done wrong? Do I need to delete my disk image and start over?

james a Leff wrote:
Thanks (though I've found that genius bar guys, if you hit the right one, are better than applecare guys; the latter follow scripts and flowcharts, but the former are freer to think on their feet, not assume you're a newbie, etc etc).
In most cases, that may be true. But the folks at the Apple Stores rarely know much about Time Machine, since they don't actually use it. It's worth a try (and cheaper if you don't have AppleCare), but we get many reports here of wrong advice from the Genius Bar about Time Machine.
I guess one option is to wipe the disk, wipe my time machine and finder plists, and start again.
I'd lose all previous backups, but I'm pretty sure (knock formica) I haven't suffered any data loss recently.
That's always an option. Do you have another drive? I always recommend secondary backups, on separate hardware, anyway, but especially if you're thinking of doing that. Once you hit Erase, you have no backups.
Just to be sure we're on the same plane......I'm talking about going to the TM icon in menu bar with option held down, and choosing "browse other time machine disks". I get no choices. But with the wording of "other", should I see my main TM disk there?
Yes. It should list all TM backups that OSX can find, for any Mac, including yours. The only exception is, if they've been marked as corrupted. See #E2 in Troubleshooting.

Mountain Lion causing apps not to work, how can I downgrade to Lion without Time Machine Back-up?

Since installing Mountain Lion, I have found applications that don't work. I want to go back to Mountain Lion, unfortunately I had trouble with my Time Machine back up hard drive a couple days after installing Mountain Lion and I don't have any back up to work from. Tried to go to App Store and redownload Lion from there under purchases, but I got message that said "You can’t upgrade this version of Mac OS X because a newer version is installed."
I have another mac that I can download the Lion install package to and then drag it over to this computer, so the question is, Will I be able to re-install Lion over the upgraded Mountain Lion without any problems?

Babowa - By On Screen, I mean it still shows up in the disk utility and reads the following:
MATSHITA DVD-R   UJ-898:
Firmware Revision:    HE13
Interconnect:    ATAPI
Burn Support:    Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache:    1024 KB
Reads DVD:    Yes
CD-Write:    -R, -RW
DVD-Write:    -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies:    CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media:    To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose File > Refresh Information
There are several links here on the support forums with manyyy others having the same problem: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4150905?start=30&tstart=0

Time Machine backing up for no reason

I am running Time Machine on an iMac with OS 10.6.8. It backs up to a 250Gb Time Machine backing uMinimax hard drive via Firewire cable. I have set up about 120Gb to be backed up. However, after doing that, every one of its hourly backups consists of backing up about 20 Gb (even though I haven't touched the computer). I have tried deleting the timemachine.plist preference, erasing the bachup disk, and restarting Time Machine, but to no avail. Help, please!

See #D4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for some common culprits, and ways to find out exactly what's getting backed-up.

I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down eliminate

I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down menu with the gear box symbol to eliminate

I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots. Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
See Pondini's page for more explanation: What are Local Snapshots? http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.
The local TimeMachine snapshot probably now contains a backup of the moved library. Try, if connecting your Time Machine drive will reduce the size of your local Time Machine snapshots.

Brand new Mac, had to erase drive through disk utility as time machine back up failed. Now disk utility only has the option to install Mountain Lion which my Mac won't allow. Anyone any ideas as my Mac won't load anything up but disc utility!

Brand new Mac, had to erase drive through disk utility as time machine back up failed on initial setup, USB cable popped out Now can only access disk utility as won't load to log in screen. The only has the option in disc utility is to re-install Mountain Lion which my Mac won't allow or loading another time machine back up but after an hour of it processing, that didn't resolve the issue either! The time machine back up is the latest back up of my Mac Book Pro which was using OS X Maverix. I'm guessing I'm going to have to take my Mac to the store but that would be a hassle so does anyone have any ideas?

Follow this guide using another Mac.
Insert your newly created Mavericks USB into you Mac, press the power button and then hold down 'option,' until it gives you an option to boot from the USB. You will then be able to erase the internal disk with Disk Utility and reinstall Mavericks straight after.
After that you should be able to use Migration Assistant to restore your applications and user data.

Is a Time Machine back up sufficient if I have a USB pen drive with Mavericks from which to reinstall the OS?

I have used SuperDuper to make bootable back ups in the past, but if Time Machine backs up files on the fly it seems unnecessary to make a full back up from time to time. The bootable backup is easier to restore, but takes up another disk. The chances of both the computer's and the Time Machine disks failing simultaneously are, one hopes, fairly remote.
Any advice or comments appreciated.

Yes you can always boot in recovery mode and restore from the TM backup. If your data is important to you then you should have a secondary backup on another drive for safety. Drives are cheap and you just never know what's could happen. Lightning strikes in a home can fry more than one piece of equipment at one time. If you can't afford a large enough drive for a secondary backup, then a smaller drive could be used to backup just your data files using SuperDuper.
I only have one backup drive myself. But my backup drive is partitioned with TM on one and a SuperDuper clone on the other partition. Even a TM backup can become corrupt or fail. I also just like to have a bootable SD clone in case my internal fails. I can boot from the external SUperDuper clone partition and continue on until my internal could be replaced.

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??

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??

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 Leopard
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.6_snow_leopard?view= discussions#/?tagSet=1009
where there are some good FAQ and tutorials, and people that know the ins-and-outs and shortcomings.

Time Machine backing up a drive which is no longer connected

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