Time Machine backup mirrors Hard Drive, but doesn't back up

I noticed a few days ago that my external hard drive, on which I store my Time Machine backups, only mirrors the content of my Hard Drive instead of actually backing up. I don't know if it has anything to do with that fact that I finally recently upgraded from OS Snow Leopard to OS Lion, which is the last OS upgrade my late 2007 model MacBook will accept. I'm using 10.7.5, build 11G63
I can drag files from my Time Machine backup folders going back to Feb. 22, 2013 on to my desktop, but they do not copy. Instead, they move out onto the desk top from the Time Machine folders and the same files disappear from the equivalent hard drive file folders, as if they had been dragged to the desk top. Likewise, any file I drag from any hard drive folder to the desk top disappears from the equivalent Time Machine folder. Conversely, files moved from the desk top to either a Time Machine folder or its hard drive equivalent show up in the other.
I don't know the significance of the Feb. 22 date, since I upgraded to OS Lion sometime after that.
Any suggestions?

I solved this myself. I found that, after upgrading to Mac OS Lion from Snow Leopard, some of the aliased folders in my Time Machine backup hard drive are not locked, but the regular folders are locked. Apparently this is new in Lion. (As I mentioned above, my MacBook is too old to upgrade to Mountain Lion.) I had based my query above on my ability to delete things from some aliased folders on my backup hard drive. Fortunately, they are locked in the equivalent non-aliased folders.

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Restore using Time Machine to new hard drive, but last "full" backup was 2012. how do I restore the rest of the Time Machine backups, particularily IPHOTO libraries for each user?

Restore using Time Machine to new hard drive, but last "full" backup was in 2012. How do I restore the rest of the Time Machine backups, particularily IPHOTO libraries for each user?
I entered Iphoto for my user and only photo up until 2012 were in the library. I thought the restore would do the incremental Time Machine backups too.....
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It usually means you are running Mavericks but have an earlier version of iPhoto. Open the App Store and upgrade your version of iPhoto to the Mavericks version.
The iWork apps are free with a new iOS device since 1 SEP 2013. They are free with a new Mac since 1 OCT 2013. They are also free with the upgrade to OS X Mavericks 10.9 if you had the previous version installed when you upgraded.The iWork apps are free with a new iOS device since 1 SEP 2013. They are free with a new Mac since 1 OCT 2013. They are also free with the upgrade to OS X Mavericks 10.9 if you had the previous version installed when you upgraded.
iWork and iLife for Mac come free with every new Mac purchase. Existing users running Mavericks can update their apps for free from the Mac App Store℠. iWork and iLife for iOS are available for free from the App Store℠ for any new device running iOS 7, and are also available as free updates for existing users. GarageBand for Mac and iOS are free for all OS X Mavericks and iOS 7 users. Additional GarageBand instruments and sounds are available for a one-time in-app purchase of $4.99 for each platform.

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I solved this myself. I found that, after upgrading to Mac OS Lion from Snow Leopard, some of the aliased folders in my Time Machine backup hard drive are not locked, but the regular folders are locked. Apparently this is new in Lion. (As I mentioned above, my MacBook is too old to upgrade to Mountain Lion.) I had based my query above on my ability to delete things from some aliased folders on my backup hard drive. Fortunately, they are locked in the equivalent non-aliased folders.

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You can try this. OPTION boot the computer.
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
"OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the disk icon labeled Recovery HD.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
This should boot the Mavericks Utilities Menu.
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, 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 one. 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 Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
When the formatting is done quit Disk Utility and return to the Main Menu. Now select the option to restore/reinstall OS X from a Time Machine backup. Follow the directions.

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Hi, I have an iMac that I recently bought Leopard for specifically for Time Machine, which I heard rave reviews. I have a 160gb internal drive that I use for the OS and a 750gb external drive that I use for storing all my media (pics, music, movies). I recently bought an additional external hard drive, capacity 1tb. The original intention was to backup both my internal drive and my external drive to the new 1 tb drive through time machine.
When I go into the Time Machine preferences/options, it lists that the 750 drive is not to be backed up and I cannot remove it from the list. I called Apple support and they stated that you cannot backup an external drive through Time Machine which I think is ridiculous.
Both drives are connected to the computer via Firewire. Is there something I'm not doing right? Does anyone have a possible solution?
Please help as I incredibly annoyed with Apple if this is actually the case. Thanks

Andrew Graceffa wrote:
Hi, I have an iMac that I recently bought Leopard for specifically for Time Machine, which I heard rave reviews. I have a 160gb internal drive that I use for the OS and a 750gb external drive that I use for storing all my media (pics, music, movies). I recently bought an additional external hard drive, capacity 1tb. The original intention was to backup both my internal drive and my external drive to the new 1 tb drive through time machine.
When I go into the Time Machine preferences/options, it lists that the 750 drive is not to be backed up and I cannot remove it from the list. I called Apple support and they stated that you cannot backup an external drive through Time Machine
they told you that?! unbelievable. that's quite false. TM will back up any directly attached drive (external or internal) provided it's properly formatted. it has to be formatted mac os extended. how is your drive formatted?
which I think is ridiculous.
Both drives are connected to the computer via Firewire. Is there something I'm not doing right? Does anyone have a possible solution?
Please help as I incredibly annoyed with Apple if this is actually the case. Thanks!!!
Message was edited by: V.K.

Time Machine backup & External Hard drive issue

Hello,
I have a MBP running Snow Leopard. I use two external Hard drives for Time Machime backups. The first one Seagate2TB is working with TM just fine.
The second one Seagate3TB worked with TM just fine for about a year until two days ago. Since two days ago, TM doesn't backup any new data (or file changes) anymore to this 3TB drive. It back's up only a few kb and cleans up, while it should backup at least 200Mb that I just uploaded to my MBP.
Here are two (maybe) useful additional info:
- I used disk utility to verify this 3TB hard drive and it returned okay. I also use this 3TB hard drive to backup a different Macbook and it still works just fine.
- At the same time, my TM woks on my other 2TB hard drive.
Can someone please let me know what the issue is and how to fix it?
Thank you very much.
PS: These hard drives are connected to my MBP via a USB cable not time capsule.

thanks for the suggestions -- actually, the "real" issue is that my technophobe spouse needs the "documents" file backed up. TimeMachine "should" work --does not. And because working from dropbox (which is a great idea and already installed) would mean opening up a file other than "documents" - it would cause such anxiety, I was hoping to write an apple script to back up the file daily to someplace else without me having to physically do it myself.
Here is what I am trying --I will put the entire folder on DB and then create an alias (that looks like the same title as the original) and leave that on the computer -- I wonder if that will work?!
Or maybe I am confused. I thought I needed to work from the document in DB in order for it to sync there...
Thanks again for the ideas!

What's the most recent opinion about Time Machine backups to Hard Drives connected to the USB port on the Airport Extreme Base Station (5th generation)?

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Keeping in mind that this is not supported by Apple, I have been successful at doing the following:
1) Format the entire drive (1 Partition) as Mac Extended (Journaled). You must click in Options and set it as a GUID Partition Table (first option)
2) Plug drive via USB to AEBS
3) Using Airport Utility, use Manual Setup, then under Disks, select the new Disk and click File Sharing, then Enable File Sharing and Secured Shared Disks (recommended, of course). Other settings are up to you.
4) IMPORTANT: you will NOT see this Disk in Time Machine until you open Finder and double-click on it. You will not need to do this again (hopefully).
5) Now it should appear in Time Machine. Remember to exclude any large files like Virtual Machines, since they will be re-backed-up (is that a word?) every time it changes in any way.
6) Remember that the first backup (over WiFi) is the longest. Leave the computer alone during this period.
Good luck, and let us all know how it went for you!

HT1553 Advice on restoring time machine backup after hard drive replacement install?

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Hello...
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I already had an external attached to the Mini and plan on using that as well, but I tend to hoarde information and run out of space really quickly. So keeping the mini around, preferably in a way that I can access it as an external through my iMac, would be perfect. I have very little experience with networking and don't have a wireless connection (yay modem cables!) so I don't quite know how to figure this out.
Has anyone done this? Would a FireWire 800 work? Would I need to set up a network between the two and use them as independently connected computers?

Had hard drive renewed due to product recall (iMac) backed up complete system on time machine . Had the drive done got mac back tried to reinstall from time machine .The new drive tells me that the space has been taken up but can't find where the file hav

Had hard drive renewed due to product recall (iMac) backed up complete system on time machine . Had the drive done got mac back tried to reinstall from time machine .The new drive tells me that the space has been taken up but can't find where the file have gone. Need to free up the space that the ghost file take up so I can drag drop from ex drive onto harddrive

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Time Machine backup mirrors Hard Drive, but doesn't back up

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