Time Machine backup larger than my new HD

Hello,
I am planning on buying a Retina MBP with 512GB storage.  I recently sold my iMac and backed up my 600GB worth of data.  I want to make sure I can at least transfer my core OS settings, apps, and files first, but I know the process isn't easily configurable.  Will I have issues setting up my new mac and has anyone successfully done this using the wizard?
Thanks,
Jonathan

ultimatist wrote:
but I know the process isn't easily configurable.  Will I have issues setting up my new mac and has anyone successfully done this using the wizard?
You can omit things, like entire user accounts, or the content of one or more of the sub-folders (Desktop, Documents, Music, etc.) in a user account.
By all means, use Setup Assistant when your new Mac first starts up, not Migration Assistant later.  See Using Setup Assistant on Mountain Lion or Lion for the gory details.

Similar Messages

  • Initial time machine backup larger than the original

    I have been using time machine with a 1 TB time capsule without issue on a older Macbook in the house. I just got a Macbook pro and am attempting to backup on the same time capsule. During setup, Time machine states there is 118GB to back up when looking under options (which is correct). Then when it goes to back up after "processing" it states that it is backing up 330gb (larger than my harddrive of 250GB). I took off about 167 GB of files off the time capsule. I erased the backup file on time capsule and started over. It still says that there is correctly 118GB to back up before it starts but now after processing it says it will be backing up 163 GB. (330GB-167GB=163GB) Of note there is 45GB of other stuff including the backup of the other Mac still on the time capsule. (163GB-45GB=118 GB.) It appears to be calculating to re-back-up what is already stored on the time capsule. How do I deal with this issue?

    Your backup drive has been use to backup both computers. TM may think it should still be backing up both computers. If both computers are on the TC network that would be the normal expectation.
    If that's not the case but you've given the new computer the same Computer Name as the old computer, then TM may be trying to backup files that are non-existent but still located in the backup set. If this is the case, then reformat the TC.

  • Initial time machine backup larger than actual computer harddrive

    I've got an iMac with a 1TB harddrive and am trying to use a time machine set up to back up my harddrive. The external harddrive I'm using for my back up is also 1TB. I currently have about 135GB of free space on my iMac's harddrive and my external drive is completely empty. When I try to back up using time machine it tells me that the back up is 1.2TB and cannot fit on my 1TB external harddrive. What would cause the initial back up to be larger than the actual computers harddrive? Is there anything I can do to rectify this issue without me needing to purchase a larger external harddrive for back up?

    Ikue wrote:
    The external harddrive I'm using for my back up is also 1TB. I currently have about 135GB of free space on my iMac's harddrive and my external drive is completely empty.
    That means you're trying to back up about 865 GB to a 1 TB drive; and that's not large enough for Time Machine.
    Time Machine not only keeps copies of everything currently on your Mac, but also previous copies of things you've changed or deleted, so it needs a lot more space than the data it's backing-up. 
    What's causing your immediate problem is, TM adds about 20% to the estimated size of the backup, for workspace on the TM drive and in case the estimate is too small.  So 865 GB + 173 GB = over 1 TB.
    Long-term, you need a much larger drive for Time Machine, at least 1.5 TB, probably 2 TB.
    Short-term, you can squeeze your backups onto the 1 TB drive by excluding some big stuff per Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #10 and running a backup.
    Then remove the exclusion, and run another backup.  Since the second backup will be much smaller, the additional 20% won't be so large as to exceed the size of the TM drive.
    But TM won't be able to keep backups very long, and if it needs to do a large backup, there may not be room.

  • Hard drive packed up, but had Time Machine backup. I installed new sad and upgraded to Mountain Lion., but I can't find iPhoto library and photos or iTunes songs? Is there an answer to this?  Graham

    Hard drive packed up, but had Time Machine backup. I installed new ssd and upgraded to Mountain Lion, but I can't find iPhoto library and photos or iTunes songs? Is there an answer to this?  A backup run did not install either photos or songs. Graham

    Thanks so much but none of that helped.  It was driving me crazy because it would back up another external drive.  I just changed the name of the drive from iPhoto/iTunes Library to Media Libraries and IT WORKED!! I guess for some reason it didn't like the drive being called iPhoto or iTunes ???? I don't understand but I have tried so many solutions and exchanging things out but the name change did it????!!!
    Thank you for your help and replying to this.  Guess I made my own issue!

  • I am getting error "The disk is used for Time Machine Backup" when installing the new OSX Mountain Lion upgrade"

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    The folder would be at the root of your hard drive. Double-click Macintosh HD and look there.
    If it isn’t there, I’m not sure what it is seeing.

  • Time Machine backup smaller than source

    Hi everybody -
    I just did my Time Machine backup, and I've noticed that the content on the backup is about 5 GB smaller than the content on my MBP's source. (And yes, this deficit is taking into account the items I have already excluded from backup.)
    In fact, when I open up Time Machine options, and I see the list of excluded items, the "approximate size of backup" says 240GB, but the actual size of the backup is 235GB. Any idea what's going on here? Assuming that everything is working as it should, I'm not terribly concerned about this discrepancy, but if it's indicative of something not working properly, I want to get it taken care of, should I experience a need to restore to a previous backup at some point.
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    Try a new post in the 10.6 Time Machine forum.
    DALE

  • HT3275 Reuse Time Machine Backup after moving to new Machine

    So I've been using TIme Machine for ages, and usually the restore are fine, but one thing has always bugged me:
    When I restore (say for a new hard drive) or bought a new machine (in this case i got the Retina MBP)... and i turn on Time Machine again... I haven't been able to find a way to use the old backup disk on my Time Capsule.
    Looking into the support info, I found this:
    Message: Time Machine starts a new, full backup instead of a smaller incremental backup
    There are three reasons why this may occur:
    You performed a full restore.
    Your Computer Name (in Sharing preferences) was changed--when this happens, Time Machine will perform a full backup on its next scheduled backup time.
    If you have had a hardware repair recently, contact the Apple Authorized Service Provider or Apple Retail Store that performed your repair. In the meantime, you can still browse and recover previous backups by right-clicking or Control-clicking the Time Machine Dock icon, and choosing "Browse Other Time Machine disks" from the contextual menu.
    Reading that, I'm led to assume that's just one of the quirks and I can't do anything, and deleting Time Machine backups is quite a hassle as it is.
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    ladines wrote:
    My account name is the same in both systems.
    The account name isn't what controls the permissions;  it's the automatically-assigned and mostly-invisible User ID number, also called a UID.  The first user account you create is number 501, the next 502, etc.  So if you ever had more than one user account, the one(s) you have now may be different.  See the pink box in Problems after using Migration Assistant for a detailed explanation.
    You really can't change the permissions on Time Machine backups (that would kinda defeat the purpose).
    Try creating another account, and see if it has permission to the backups.  If it does, you have a couple of options:
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    * Your existing user account should be able to see and restore from new backups (done from the new drive).  When you need to view or restore things from the old backups, use the new account.  Eventually, as the older backups are deleted, the problem will fade away.

  • Transferring Time Machine backup from old to new Time Capsule

    After transferring my old Time Machine backup from a 5 year old Time Capsule to a new Airport Time Capsule, my MacBook Air wants to start a new full Time Machine backup to the new TC. I was under the impression that the Time Machine backups would pick up where they left off. Was I mistaken? Is the backup supposed to begin anew even if you've transferred an old backup?
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    pmpknetr21 wrote:
    After transferring my old Time Machine backup from a 5 year old Time Capsule to a new Airport Time Capsule, my MacBook Air wants to start a new full Time Machine backup to the new TC.
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    Pondini doco http://pondini.org/TM/18.html
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    As a general principle I generally recommend people do start a new backup. Archive the old one.. it is easy to access old backups.. Again see pondini FAQ.. 14-17 on all the neato things you can do.

  • Can not access time machine backups. after transfer to new macbook pro

    Irecently up graded to a new MacBook Pro.  I baked up all my files on an external drive using time machine.  Now when I try to retrive my files from the backups.backupdb folder I can not access may of my files.  Message: "The folder “Music” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents."
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  • Time Machine backup smaller than hard drive

    Hi,
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    Thanks.

    Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
    tmutil compare | open -f -a TextEdit
    Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
    Launch the Terminal 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 Terminal in the icon grid.
    Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
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    Removed:
    Changed:
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  • Old time machine backup partition erased, but new partition failed

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    How are you looking for the backup?
    Time Machine will only show the active backup.
    You can hold down the Option key while selecting the Time Machine menu and you will have the option to Browse other Time Machine backups.
    Here is some good info on how Time Machine "thinks:" http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

  • Use Time Machine backup to create a new user

    Hi,
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    First of all my situation.
    Me and my wife have decided to share the same MBP 13" unibody with Lion istalled.
    Previously this MBP belonged to my wife and some days ago I replaced her HD with mine Seagate 750 Gb.
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    The following from our resident expert may help you:
         http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
    Hope this helps

  • How to reinstall a time machine backup under lion on new harddisk ?

    I want to reinstall a computer backup (time machine) on a new harddisk. The operation system is lion. Since I have no OS disk - as I would have with show leopard - how can I start ?

    Use Lion Recovery and select "Restore from Time Machine backup".

  • Time Machine Backup smaller than the actually used storage on my Mac

    Hey there. I just made my first Time Machine Backup on my Time Capsule, but I was surprised to see, that the backup is only 118.73GB big, while my "Macintosh HD" says that I have already used 120.43GB. Fortunately everything works (further backups, entering Time Machine etc.).
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    Hi there,
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