Time Machine backup file differs in size from HD

I just backed up my MacBook for the first time using time machine to a time capsule. I checked out the file size of the sparse bundle file and its approx. 70gb, however my HD has 86.5gb on it. Is this correct? I thought the backup file would be the exact same size as the HD.
Also, there is a disk image mounted under the HD in the finder called "Backup of "name's" computer". Does that have to stay or can I eject it?
Thanks in advance for the help.

cgapper wrote:
Thanks for the info on the disk image, it has since disapeared.
16gb of size difference seems like a lot. Could it be that there are 16gb out of 86gb that isn't being used efficently on my HD? While it was doing its initial backup, I noticed toward the end when I checked on it in the morning, there was still approx 16gb left to transfer.
I agree, 16gb is "a lot" just for fragmented files. When I performed my first full backup, the disk image virtually matched the size of my data on the Mac. So I don't have an explanation not knowing more about your setup.
BTW - How did you check "the file size of the sparse bundle file". Are you connected via ethernet or wirelessly? When ever I call up Get Info wirelessly it never reports a size, just "Calculating size...".
When I checked back a few mins later, the figures in the progress box had changed to 'xx' mb out of 6mb. Seems kinda wierd to me. Any more thoughts on that? b
Yes, what you say at the end was the 2nd pass of Time Machine. This explains it...
*Time Machine Appears to Make 2 Backups*
It is normal for Time Machine to perform two passes with each backup. This is because some files/folders have likely changed while Time Machine was performing the first pass of the backup backup, particularly if the current backup took some time to complete or your computer was in use during the Time Machine backup. So it picks up those changes with a second pass. George Schreyer refers to this behavior in his article on Time Machine: “The copy process is pretty straight forward and can happen in two passes if changes happen DURING a backup.” [http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/backups.html]
Cheers!

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Time Machine backup files ... going from SL to ML.

I've done a clean install of ML from SL on my MacBook Pro.
Under SL, Time Machine backed to portable HDD. All these backups are still visible and date back to early 2012. That is, if I "Enter Time Machine" I can browse all the backups upto early 2012.
So far, I have not done a backup. What happens when I run Time Machine for the first time (assuming I keep it pointed it to the earlier backup file on the portable HDD)?
Will it delete the older backups/data? Or will it just continue adding Time Machine backups to the existing ones? I have a feeling that there will be some files from these backups that I would like to use in future, but not sure right now. In the mean time, I want to run Time Machine and would love it if new backups just added to the earlier ones.
Cheers,
Mark.

markyd wrote:
I've done a clean install of ML from SL on my MacBook Pro.
That means the disk is treated as a different one, at least temporarily.
Your best bet was to use Setup Assistant when your Mac first started up after installing Mountain Lion, to transfer your apps, settings, user accounts and data from your backups.
It sounds like you skipped that, and created a new user account. That's going to be a problem. Your best bet now is to use one of the workarounds, probably #4, in the green box of Problems after using Migration Assistant.
If you do, the erased drive should be "associated" with the old backups -- the backups are actually changed to make it look like the backups were done from it. Then they'll all appear in the same timeline.
If not, the new installation will be treated as a separate HD, that's no longer connected. You can see and restore from them via the procedure in #E3 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting. However, the user account you created probably won't have permission to the old backups. The pink box in the fist link above explains why. Thus the need for the workaround.

Time machine backup files disappeared after moving from Osx 10.6 to 10.8.2 .

I had moved from a 6+ year old iMac to a new one with 10.8.2

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
I don't think that they have disappeared. They are just "hidden" in your Time Machine drive because Time Machine detects your old backups as for a different Mac than the one you are using right now.
In order to see your old Time Machine backups, read > http://pondini.org/TM/E3.html

I have a time machine backup file on a USB hard drive. I bought a time capsule / airport extreme, flat 3TB. I wish to transfer the backup file from the usb hard drive to the time capsule hard drive. 10.6.8

I have a time machine backup file on a USB hard drive. I bought a time capsule / airport extreme, flat 3TB. I wish to transfer the backup file from the usb hard drive to the time capsule hard drive. 10.6.8

Unfortunately, Time Machine backups that are stored on a drive that has been connected directly to a Mac are completely different than Time Machine backups that are stored on a Time Capsule.
Frankly, it is not worth the effort and trouble to try to transfer the old backups to the new Time Capsule.....my opinion....having done this in the past.
It is possible though, but I would not recommend it due to the complexity and downsides involved with this. To give you an idea of how to do this, check out this support article.
http://pondini.org/TM/18.html
Even if you transfer the "old" backups over to the Time Capsule successfully, Time Machine will not simply "add on" to the old backups.
Time Machine will make a new complete backup of your Mac and then add incremental backups from that point.
My advice.....start a new backup on the Time Capsule and move forward. Keep the USB hard drive around for a month, maybe 2 or 3 in case you need to go back to an old backup for some reason. At that time, you will not likely need the old backups at all since you will have a current 2-3 month history of new backups. At that point, you can erase the USB drive and use it for another purpose.

Nas on airport extreme not recognized by time machine. same nas was previously used as time machine backup on different airport extreme. are there any configuration files that i can delete to fix this problem ?

nas on airport extreme not recognized by time machine. same nas was previously used as time machine backup on different airport extreme. are there any configuration files that i can delete to fix this problem ?

Time Machine has been working just fine, but in the last week or two it has given up the ghost. I reset the connections to the drive, and it will basically save a few bytes of data and then hang.
Although Apple originally announced, prior to the release of the first 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Stations (AEBSn), that it would support Time Machine backups to AirPort Disks, they removed that option before they did finally release the base station for sale.
Since then, Apple has posted (as you have noted) that they DO NOT support Time Machine backups to AirPort Disks. As far as I know, they have not changed from that position and those who do these backups find that they become corrupted over time. Sorry, but it sounds like you just confirmed that for yourself.
1) Has one of the recent updates either on the AE (firmware) or OSX disabled this function?
No. Again, this feature has never been supported by Apple for every generation of AEBSn released.
2) Are there any changes I can make to get this working again?
If your data backups are critical to you, then you will want to use a different solution for your Time Machine backup destination drive strategy. I would suggest that you connect your WD My Book directly to your Mac in the mean time.
Your other options would be to either use a Time Capsule (which interestingly does support TM backups to AirPort Disks) or a non-Apple solution like the Drobo FS or HP MediaSmart server.

Determining the Size of a Time Machine Backup File

When I highlight a Time Machine backup file and then click on Get Info under File to determine the size of the backup file, the disk drive works its heart out, but the Get Info window never arrives at a determination of the file size being seemingly stuck in the "calculating size" state.
Anybody have an idea of what's going on?
JohnnyS

JohnnyS wrote:
Regarding your statement: "If you Enter Time Machine (the "Star Wars" interface), from a Finder window with a "size" column, then browse your backups, you should be able to see the sizes easily." - what do you mean by the "Star Wars" interface?
Ah, you are new to Time Machine. Sorry, that's how you view and restore from your backups. Hold your mouse down on the TM icon in your Menubar and select +*Enter Time Machine,+* or click the TM icon in your Dock, or the +*Time Machine+* app in your Applications folder.
If I look at the pull-down menu under Finder, I do not see Enter Time Machine. Am I looking in the wrong place? Obviously, since I couldn't get by the first step, I never got to a "size" column, and to be honest, I don't know that I have ever seen a Finder window with a "size" column.
You can add one, by selecting View > as List, then View > Show View Options in a Finder window's menubar, and select or de-select whatever columns you want.
I'm a little embarrassed by my lack of knowledge, but if I don't acknowledge my shortcomings, I'll never get the question answered. Thanks for taking your time to try to help me.
Don't be. We all started at zero at one time or another.
I'm not sure just what you were looking for in your first post. The size of all your TM backups is just the amount used on your external disk, unless you have other data in the same partition (which isn't a good idea). Because of the way TM works, you can't really determine the size of an individual backup, and it really wouldn't mean much.
Perhaps if you clarified just what you want to know, we can help answer it.
For more info on Time Machine, you might want to review these:
Time Machine Tutorial
Time Machine 101
How to back up and restore your files
Time Machine Features
Apple - Support - Mac OSX v10.5 Leopard Time Machine
and perhaps browse the Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
If you have a problem setting-up or using Time Machine, start with the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum. It will show you how to locate the message(s) that describe the problem, then help you fix it.

Time Machine backup file corrupted and locked

This morning when I switch on my Mac there was a dialogue box telling me that my Time Machine backup file was corrupted and that Time Machine would have to create a new backup file.
I am backing up my Macs to a disk connected to my Airport Extreme. It's been working for months without any problems. Other than this morning. Time Machine buddy had the following message:
+Starting standard backup+
+Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/MyBookHome+
+Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/MyBookHome+
+QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM DIRTY+
+Runtime corruption detected on /Volumes/MyBookHome/iMac27.sparsebundle (fsck_hfs -q termination status: 3)+
+Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/MyBookHome+
+Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/MyBookHome+
+Backup verification failed for image /Volumes/MyBookHome-2/iMac27.sparsebundle!+
+Moved previous backup image to /Volumes/MyBookHome-2/iMac27_2010-11-01-032949.sparsebundle+
+Recovery backup declined by user.+
+Backup canceled.+
+Ejected Time Machine network volume.+
Has anybody seen something like this before?
I now have a locked and renamed sparsebundle on my disk and backups are not working anymore.

aschmid wrote:
Yes you are right, I know it isn't supported - as so many other things but they work!
This one is notorious for working for a while, then . . . not.
In addition to the problems above I got a pop-up from Time Machine saying the backup file is broken and it needs to create a new one. I told it to go ahead and what happened is that it actually proceeded to DELETE the old backup file before creating a new one - there goes my several months of backup history!
Yes, just as it says in the message. See #C13 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).
All I can say do now is connect my drive directly to my iMac and figure out a way how I can backup my other iMac and the MacBook I have. On the AE this just worked remotely.
Yeah. Until it didn't.
Really not much options here to backup a home with 3 Macs!?!
Sure there is. Back the others up to the same drive, over your network, via sharing. See #22 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), for details and setup instructions.

Can anyone access time machine backup files by connecting to time capsule by ethernet cable?

I operate an imac connected to a time capsule. It works great. My internet is connected to the time capsule with an ethernet cable and I access the internet on my imac using an ethernet cable connected to the time capsule. I can also connect to the time capsule using wireless.
A colleague of mine wants to connect to the internet and because of location issues the only convenient way is to let him connect to my time capsule using an ethernet cable. He can access the internet fine and he uses a windows PC. Now my question is, will he be able to access my time machine backup files if he connects to my time capsule using an ethernet cable? I have not given him my password.
Any help will be appreciated. I want to help him get online but I want to make sure he cannot access my time machine backup files.
Thanks

There are actually 3 passwords on the Time Capsule - assuming it has the same setup as my Airport Extreme Base Station.
One password for the WiFi connection.
One password to access setup of the device
One password for access to the storage drive - most people leave the check-box to just use the base-station setup password again.
And, as I said before, you also have the option to encrypt your TM backups. So even if somebody runs off with the device and breaks in to the disk, it will all be garbage without the TM password.
This is the screen as it is on my computer:
As you can see, to access my drive I have it set to use the device setup password.
Here is a screen shot of the other options:

Time Machine Backup File Size : Very Small compared to MAC HD

I did my first backup and my MAC HD where everything is at is about 319.73 in capacity and Im only using 167.78 storage space. When the backup is complete the file size is only 40Gb , I find that so odd , is that normal will everything restore to its original state If I had to reinstall the OS ?

OK, here it is
Starting standard backup
Attempting to mount network destination using URL: >afp://[email protected]/Data
Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/Data
Running backup verification
QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
CopyHFSMeta: cannot replay journal: Invalid argument
Backup verification passed!
QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
Disk image /Volumes/Data/myname’s Computer (2).sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time >Machine Backups
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Detected system migration from: /Volumes/Dom's HD
No pre-backup thinning needed: 21.02 GB requested (including padding), 889.63 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Copied 26534 files (22.3 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Starting post-backup thinning
No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Backup completed successfully.
Ejected Time Machine disk image.
Ejected Time Machine network volume.
So, is the problem that I used Time Machine on my previous machine to backup to a different volume? Then perhaps it has just tried to backup things that may have changed in the couple of months since I last backed up on that machine?
If so, how do I get time machine to start afresh with my new Time Capsule?

Deleting time machine backup files from old time machine disk

I have an external USB HD that USED to be my Time Machine backup disk. I have replaced it with a newer FW HD and use the old one for archiving files, disk images, etc. The old disk still had 100gigs of backup files on it from time machine. To free up space, I thought I'd drag a few months of backups off the old dick into the trash. This worked. But I can't empty the trash. When I go to put the backup folders BACk on the USB disk, I get an error. So they are stuck in the trash.
Any help? Thanks.

I have always understood that there is no need to delete backup files from Time Machine. Once it reaches 'full' it begins to delete them sequentially of its own accord.
Good policy to check out Pondini's comments.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.htm
Or type Pondini into Google for a broader selection of his offerings.

How do I restore Time Machine backup files (from TC) to an external HD?

I did a full Time Machine backup of my machine to a Time Capsule. All told, around 500GB. The MBP to which I'd like to transfer the files doesn't have a big enough hard drive. However, I do have a 1TB External HD that I could use. Can I use Time Machine or Migration Assistant to move/access the files? I'm using Lion.

See: Mac 101- Time Machine, Time Machine - 101 Tutorial, Pondini's Time Machine FAQ - All You Need for Time Machine, and Pondini's Time Machine FAQ.

First Time Machine backup not the same size as my computers HD

I just completed my first Time Machine backup of my computer's hard drive. I have a 160 GB hard drive (actual capacity = 148.73 GB) with 145.43 GB used. I expected my backup to be the exact same size or darn near close. When I did a "Get Info" on the backup, its size was 62.11 GB. I looked through some of the files of the backup and it LOOKS like its all there but can't be certain of it. I would like to know the answer to this and PLEASE PLEASE DON'T give me the run around! IE: go see this page, go see that page, click this link, etc.! Just give me the answer straight up. I've already been looking all over this forum and at other Time Machine websites and have NOT found a good answer. I would REALLY appreciate just a straight up answer! Thanks!

Would you like me to give you a complete list of every website I have looked at? Would that help? Well, here they are:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427?viewlocale=en_US
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/D2.html
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20071101005330768
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/D5.html
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2655/leopardtime_machine_delete_files_folders_frombackup/
http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial &channel=s&hl=en&source=hp&q=DeletingTime+Machine+backup+files+in+MacOS+X&btnG=GoogleSearch
http://www.apple.com/feedback/timemachine.html
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/26704/timemachineeditor
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1342&start=75
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/A4.html
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1342&start=0
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/D7.html
Those are all the websites I have visited in regards to Time Machine. Other then that, I have for the most part already stated what I have done. Hope that helps.

Limiting space for Time Machine backup-file

Hi,
I've got a time capsule and I'm using time machine to secure my files.
now the backup-file of time machine is constantly growing. however, I'd like to use the time capsule as a storage medium for my data too.
How can I limit the space, that the backup-file is allowed to use (say 400GB), so that the backup file doesn't block my whole space at some point.
Thanks for the help

So I opened the Disk Utility Program on the Mac and unluckily, the time capsule doesn't appear on the list. Why is that?
Not sure what you are seeing there.
When I click New Image in Disk Utililty, a Finder like interface appears to allow me to navigate to the Time Capsule disk. Double clicking on "Data", or whatever you have named the drive (Mine is named Time Machine Backups) will get you to the root level, where any number of Disk Images can be added.
Also, can I move/copy files from the existing image (where the data sits now) to the new one, or would it even be possible to wrap a new image around some of the folders I have there already?
Not sure what you mean when you say "existing image". Do you mean the sparsebundle file where all of the Time Machine backups are stored? If yes, leave that file alone.
I no longer use my Time Capsule to store Disk Images....it takes a long time to create each image, and a few extra steps to move files in and out of the images....so I use a separate hard drive for "other" data, and yet another drive for a "clone" of each Mac on the network.

Why is my time machine backup to large to install from?

I'm trying to setup my new MacBook from a time machine backup of my old IMac. My backup file is 250gb and there is over 400gb of space on the hard drive but it keeps coming up with a message saying there is not enough space to do the install.
I've had to leave my IMac at home interstate and need my iBook setup the same - unfortunately doing another backup with only the essential files and configurations is not an option. The situation seems strange though - is there another way?

lplex wrote:
I need help with TM, too, as it tries to do a full backup after I restored my Macintosh HD from TM as suggested by Disk Utility.
If you're on Snow Leopard or Lion, and did a full system restore by starting from the Recovery HD (Lion) or your Install disc (Snow Leopard), Time Machine should have figured it out and done an incremental backup.
If it didn't, and you're on Lion, and your backups are on a local disk (ie, not on a network), you may be able to tell TM to "associate" the restored disk with the backups manually, per #B6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. That usually works, but not always.
If you're not on Lion, or your backups are on a network, there's no way to force it.
Message was edited by: Pondini -- omitted the link!

Time Machine backup file differs in size from HD

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