Time machine backup question

Hello,
Three weeks ago my iMac up and died. I got it back two days ago, and to my relief the Time Machine backup did its job and restored all my data.
However, when I checked on the Time Machine status today, to see if it had continued to make backups post-restore, it had not.
It said 'Backup Delayed' and that the disk was not available.
I restarted the machine and the Time Capsule, and reselected the disk for Time Machine.
When I did that, it proceeded to take a long time 'preparing for backup', and when it eventually began, it said that it had 500+GB of data to back up! That is my whole hard drive.
Is it not able to tell that it just restored the whole Time Machine contents and go on from there? It should have almost nothing to backup since my total restore. Instead it seems like it wants to re-backup everything. I cancelled it.
What do I do? Do I have to let it back up *again* the whole 500GB that it just spent the last day restoring? I really don't want to do that. Those long restore and backup sessions are wearing on the hard drives, and in this case it ought to be totally unnecessary.
Thanks
Bob

I haven't tried it yet, but supposedly this works:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1198345

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soccomp wrote:
What I am going to do is erase my OS hard drive and do a fresh install of Lion and then restore all my data and files to it using Time Machine
Do you mean use Setup Assistant when your Mac boots up to transfer everything but OSX (via this window)?:
(That's the Snow Leopard version; the Lion version is a bit different.)
If so, that will transfer only from the backups of the OSX partition. Time Machine keeps the backups for each drive/partition separate, and only presents the ones with OSX on them here.
I always do a fresh install when changing OS because it eliminates problems
Such problems are fairly unusual. Most folks do just fine by simply upgrading "in place."
And unless you bought a Lion OSX USB thumb drive, or have another Snow Leopard bootable volume, you'll have a problem: you must use Snow Leopard to download Lion from the App Store, so you can't erase the drive first.

HT201250 Hi, I hope this question won't seem too basic but if I want to use a new larger external drive for my time machine backups, will it do a new full backup the first time I plug it in and if so, do I really need all the old backups on my smaller ext

Hi, I hope this question won't seem too basic but if I want to use a new larger external drive for my time machine backups, will it do a new full backup the first time I plug it in and if so, do I really need all the old backups on my smaller external drive?

50maz wrote:
Hi, I hope this question won't seem too basic but if I want to use a new larger external drive for my time machine backups, will it do a new full backup the first time I plug it in
Yes, it will do a full backup.
and if so, do I really need all the old backups on my smaller external drive?
Only if you want to be able to go back in time to those previous Time Machine backups. When you plug in the new larger external drive, you will only be able to go back as far as the first day you plugged it in and ran the first Time Machine backup on it.

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Due to NAS issues, when I started a new time machine backup it did not have the old backups available. My question is do I need to delete them or will time machine automatically reclaim the space? There is only one sparse bundle but when I enter time machine I don't see my historic backups. I use a synology DS212 for my time machine. Started a new backup which is 218gb but it says 618 gb is occupied therefore it looks like 2 or 3 backups are still on the disk. Before my NAS issues the last backup was in 2014. As you can see there is a second sparse bundle from 2012. Not sure what that is.

This is an old message now, but what happened to me similarly was:
I had a major computer crash and through complicated pathways ended up reinstalling (Mavericks) as a new user (long story).
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It's like I had {OldShareName}.sparsebundle and then it was replaced by {NewShareName}.sparsebundle, all of the old info vanished.
(I have spent a week finding old files elsewhere and have completed a satisfactory self-restore. It pays to "archive" [my own variation of] as well as "back-up".)
My belief is that if this were a wired-netword-drive, e.g. plugged right into my iMac with a USB cable, then the old file would have remained.
But this is an NAS drive, connected directly to my Airport wireless router, and I don't know the significance of the fact that it stores its Time Machine backups as "sparsebundle" files rather than simply as plain(er) files.
As usual when things get complicated with computers (not just Apple computers) there was never a warning message. Something like "YOU'RE ABOUT TO DELETE A TIME MACHINE BACK-UP FILE!!!" would have made my life a lot simpler.
BTW, I did try a "restore from Time Machine" option the first thing I had my "new computer" (old hardware, 2009 iMac) up and running, using Migration Assistant, and it ran for many hours and then failed in the wee hours - what that has to do with anything I'm not sure.
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Charles

Hard drive failure! New hard drive/Time machine backup/iPhone questions

Hello,
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Do you still have the original System Reinstall DVD set that came with your Mac?
If you created that Lion external drive you have from YOUR Mac, when Lion was installed on it, and it also contains a Recovery HD partition you can use that to boot to the Recovery HD and reinstall Lion on the new drive. And or Clone that external to the new internal drive you installed.
Right since your Mac came with Snow Leopard you can't use the Online Internet Recovery system to reinstall Lion, as your system didn't originally come with Lion, but you should still be able to boot to it to do diagnosic things like using Disk Utility, going to the Net to get help and even Restoring the system from a Time Machine backup. But you will get an error if you select Reinstall Mac OS X. The firmware update is usually applied with system updates.
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scardanelli wrote:
I've had a bunch of issues with my computer (you can look at some of my other questions on these forums) which, to my mind anyway, seemed to be finally given a diagnosis when my HD crashed. It may be paranoia but there have been enough problems that I'd rather do a clean install to be on the safe side.
I have an early 2011, shipped with Snow Leopard.
I was under the impression that Time Machine can't be used as a boot drive and the OS X Recovery is a firmware update (on my computer) or hard wired in (on later computers). I might be wrong. I was planning on using the internet recovery, the HD failed right after I got some password protected files unencrypted and onto an external drive (was that necessary?) but wasn't sure if it's a problem if it installs Mavericks.
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Installing OS X from Time Machine Backup. Questions

Hi. I have a quick question.
When you buy a new iMac, and you re-install/restore OS X from a Time Machine Backup taken from another machine, is EVERYTHING copied across?
What I mean is, will it restore the new machine into EXACTLY the same state as the old one? Will it carry across the same OS X version (10.6.2), all the Apps you had installed (and registered), every single detail?

Reuben Feffer wrote:
Thanks V.K.
What are Time Machines two restore options?
Here's the situation. I have a brand new 21.5-inch iMac that I would like to get exchanged, because it's faulty. I've put quite a lot of data on the new iMac and I have a Time Machine drive attached to it. It would save me A LOT of time if I could simply restore that data from the faulty 21.5-inch iMac to the properly-working 21.5-inch iMac. So, exact same hardware.
Tell me more about this Backup Utility on the Snow Leopard install DVD. If I perform a restore using that, will it re-install the Operating System, all the Fonts, Apps, EVERYTHING from my Time Machine backup?
yes, everything. but it should only be done on exact same hardware as i said. if you'll get a new mac which is exactly the same hardware as the faulty one then you can use it. to use it boot from the snow leopard install DVd and choose "restore system from backup" from the utilities menu. then just follow the instructions. this will wipe the hard drive and restore your whole system just as it was at the backup time.
if you get a different kind of mac then use setup assistant instead. that will keep your user data, apps, fonts etc but give you a fresh OS.
Message was edited by: V.K.

Stolen Time Machine Backup drive - security questions

Hi,
I had my Time Machine Backup drive stolen out of my bag at the airport. My question is, is there any security on the drive? i know its not encrypted, but i'm wondering if someone can plug the drive into another computer and have full access to all of my files w/o any need for password etc?
thanks,
-g

Yes is the short answer.
If you were using File Vault, I think your backups would be encrypted too, but I don't use File Vault so I don't know for certain.
What I do is create a small encrypted disk image and store all of my sensitive information such as passwords, etc. on it. Your keychain on MacOS X is similarly encrypted, so those passwords are automatically safe. But any documents you had or e-mail messages, or address book info is all available.

A question about restoring from an old Time Machine backup

My computer has been acting very slow and freezing frequently lately. The spotlight background processess keep hogging the processor, and
It keeps getting catalog b-Tree corruption. I've already done one complete reformat of my drive and a restore from a time machine backup hoping it would fix things, and that didn't work.
I tried a complete reinstall and used the migration assistant to move all my files and settings from my time machine back over to it.
That worked for about a week, then had b-Tree corruption that could only be fixed with disk warrior.
I was suspecting a hardware problem, but I have done thourogh tests of my Ram with memtest from single user mode, and a disk surface scan with Tech Tool Deluxe. Everything checks out.
I am thinking there is some corrupt system file or setting that is getting reinstalled from my Time machine backup that is messing things up.
This all is a leadup to my question:
I would like to try restoring from a much older Time Machine back up (6 months ago or so before I started experiencing problems).
If I do that, can I still use Time Machine to restore individual files and directories from later backups?
I'd like my system settings and applications to be from six months ago, but my desktop files and documents to be from my most recent backup.
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-Matt

Yeah, I usually check the FAQs before posting a question.
They do talk about how to restore from an older back up, but not about what happens to your newer files once you have done it. They also talk about accessing files from another computer's time machine backup, but its not clear if that would work on a different fork of the same machine.
I may just have to learn from experience, but I don't want to risk losing any data.
I do recommend time machine though. Its saved me several times.
If anyone else has experience with this let me know.
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Time Machine Backup/HDD/FileRecovery question

Ok so lets say hypothetically, my dad put his SS number and as well as other important documents in his mac. I told him to delete it right away and here's the steps I did. (We're just very cautious since someone stole my sisters identity once already)
So here's what I did, backed up his files in a external hard drive, reformatted his hard drive. Then reinstalled Mountain Lion and put back all his pictures, applications and music.
What I want to know is if I make a time machine backup of this new reinstalled like new Mountain Lion, will it also SAVE the old traces of what was in the hard drive?
Like for example, I buy a 1Tb external. I use time machine to back up the whole thing (the Fresh Mountain Lion I just reinstalled) Then smash the old hard drive that had the SS numbers etc. Will Time Machine SAVE the traces of the sensitive data? can they be recovered from the TIME MACHINE back up? Sorry I don't really know about file recovery etc, lets assume one of the best file recovery/hackers gets a hold of that TIME MACHINE backup, will he be able to recover that data?

SUPE12MAN wrote:
What I want to know is if I make a time machine backup of this new reinstalled like new Mountain Lion, will it also SAVE the old traces of what was in the hard drive?
No. It only copies files currently on the Mac's internal HD.
Going forward, if things are changed or deleted, it will keep copies of the old versions, for some time. How long varies: depending on the circumstances, it can be as little as 24 hours or until the disk is full and it begins to delete the oldest backups.
But that's only files that have already been backed-up, and there is a way to delete all backups of selected items. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #12 for details.
Message was edited by: Pondini

Question about restoring from Time Machine backup because of new SSD

Hi,
I have a 15" Late 2011 MacBook Pro running 10.10.1 with a Toshiba hard drive inside. I want to replace the Toshiba HDD with a Crucial MX100 SSD. I use a Time Capsule to backup. After I install the SSD, I would want to restore my data to the new SSD using my Time Capsule, but I have a few questions:
1) My Mac shipped with OS X 10.7; My Mac is running OS X 10.10.1; Should I use Internet Recovery to start the restore (even though when I start OS X Internet Recovery it will download 10.7 recovery), or should I use a USB drive to start Recovery?
2) After booting into Recovery, do I format/partition the SSD into 1 partition, GUID partition table, Mac OS Extended Journaled, etc before restoring using Time Capsule?
3) Do I need to use Trim? Please tell me your opinion on the OS X Yosemite and Cindori Trim Enabler controversy.
4) How do I install Recovery HD on my new SSD?
5) Please tell me all tips you have about this entire process.
Thanks,
Mike

The ability to load OS X Internet Recovery is provided by firmware independent of the SSD. Just make sure your MBP has the latest firmware, which was released years ago.
You won't need a separate step to install OS X. Answered more completely in (2).
Merely format the SSD Use Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) and as many partitions as you desire. One is sufficient.
Only Crucial can answer that. You might be better off purchasing a SSD from a company known to support Macs, such as OWC / MacSales. I have several of their SSD products and haven't had to devote a moment of thought to Trim.
That's done by virtue of the Recovery firmware. It will recognize that no Recovery partition exists and will create one, after which you won't have to use OS X Internet Recovery (though it will remain an option).
If you obtain your SSD from OWC that's really all you need to know. Mechanically, it's not much more complicated than installing memory. As far as recovering the original HD's contents, restoring from the Time Machine backup is also straightforward. TM doesn't know and doesn't care that it's a SSD.

Question about Time Machine backup on external drive containing photos

I have a Le Cie external hard drive with iPhoto '08 photos on it. I bought the drive when I started running out of room on my early 2008 iMac and moved a bunch of iphoto pictures and imovie movies onto it. Can I use this same external drive to run Time Machine backups? Or would that risk losing the photos that are already on the external drive?? Can an external drive be used for both photo storage and Time Machine backups?
Ultimately, my goal is to update to iPhoto '11, but I would like to have all my photos backed up first in case it doesn't go well.
Thanks!

Yes. You can back up your internal the external drives to the TM drive.
Here is a site that has probably all the info you will need for using and troubleshooting TM. Bookmark this to read and for future reference.
This was created by Pondini:
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Hi, Question about secure empty trash. I moved some Time Machine backup files to the trash from an external hard drive. Now I can't secure empty trash. It starts, finds 74,003 files, and does nothing. The external hard drive shows it's empty, but it isn't

I moved some time machine backup files from an external USB hard drive to the trash. Tried secure empty trash. It counts 74,003 items, then just sits there. The external hard drive window shows it's empty, but the info pane says it only has 50G of memory left. I left the secure empty trash on over night. It did nothing. Ideas?
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Relaunch the Finder, then from the Finder menu bar, select
Finder ▹ Preferences ▹ Advanced
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Question re searching time machine backups

Per apple's info, if you do a search in the finder, then open time machine, you should be able to go back to each time and perform the search in that time period. However, when I search for file "X" in the finder and it shows up, then try to go back in time machine, the file does not come up in the search window at any other past time, even though I know it is there. This happens with any search that I do; yet, if I go back to the folder that I know contained the file, it IS in the folder for the time machine backups. Obviously, if I know the exact folder, this is no big deal, but if I am searching for a file, it is a problem.
Again, per apple's documents this is supposed to work. Thoughts?

I saw this document, and it suggests that spotlight should work:
Open a Finder window and type a search word or phrase in the search field in the upper-right corner.
Focus the search by choosing a search location in the location bar.
*_You can search your entire computer (This Mac) or the folder that was selected in the Finder when you started your search*_. New search results begin to appear after you select a location.
Refine the results by specifying search criteria.
Specifying criteria in a search window
Click the Time Machine icon in the Dock.
If Time Machine isn’t in the Dock, look for it in the Applications folder.
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