Time machine backup to another mac

Hi,
Here's my config : I have a mini that has a drive attached locally for TM use. I use it to back up the mini, but also a MacBook. It works mostly fine. The only problem I have is that it seems that to backup my macbook I have to browse in the finder to the mini, and even to the TM drive, otherwise TM does not see the drive attached to the other mac.
Is TM so dumb he cannot remember a network location and try to connect to it ? Or maybe he tried when I was away from home (or after a sleep/restart), and decided to give up after a few attempts, awaiting manual mapping of the drive ?
Is this a bug ?

I also have a Mac Mini that I use as a "file server" for the house. The Mini uses TM to back up to one of its attached drives. I also have two laptop macs on the same home network and each uses TM to back up to a drive attached to the Mini. (I.e., The mini has three external, attached drives that are dedicated to each of the three Macs in the house.)
My laptop moves between home and work. At work I configure TM to back up to a portable, attached drive. When I get home, I reconfigure TM to use the remote drive on the Mini. However, to do this, I must first use Finder to reach the Mini and log in, thus getting the mounted drive to appear on the desktop. Then I select the Mini's volume (drive) that is used as the TM backup drive for the laptop. This is the only way I can get that drive to show up in TM's preferences "Change Disk" window in order to redefine the TM backup drive. TM doesn't "remember" that drive, since it can only remember one destination drive at a time.
HOWEVER, once I've defined the Mini's drive as the destination, I can eject the drive from the laptop's desktop. When TM does its hourly backup, it automatically connects to the sparsebundle file on the Mini's drive that is used as the destination. As long as I don't redefine the destination drive, TM finds the remote drive.

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Access my Time Machine backup with another Mac?

The HD on my 24" iMac just bit the dust and I am using my old eMac to try to get some work done while I wait for another. Fortunately, I have a Time Machine backup. Is it okay to access files off my Time Machine backup with my eMac, as long as I don't change anything? I don't want to mess up my backup before I can restore it to my new Mac.
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Should be, if the eMac is running 10.5.x be sure to turn off TM backups though.

Restore Time Machine backup to another Mac

If I use time machine to backup my Macbook Pro to an external hard drive, then lose my Macbook Pro, can I restore my data to another Mac? Does anyone know the answer

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/timemachine.html
But every indication is that simply starting off the Leopard disk will ask you, if the device (backup) is hooked to the computer.

Time Machine backup to another Mac on the network

Hi, my wife is getting a new iMac. I was wondering if I partitioned the new drive in the iMac, one for the iMac OS X installation & the other for backing up my MacBook Pro over the network. Would this work?
So it would be:
iMac backed up to exteral firewire drive
MacBook Pro backed up to second partition on iMac over local network
My network uses a 8 port gig switch & an Airport Extreme router.
Any ideas or help would be great, thanks.

Check out this article:
http://lowendmac.com/zisman/08az/time-machine-shared-backup.html

How to fix podcast privileges when using time machine backup on another mac

hello,
my imac broke down the other day and is now at the menders. i had been using time machine with a LaCie 500gb external hard drive.
i am now using my macbook pro as a substitute and want to use the itunes library from my LaCie instead of copying everything over again. I have managed to achieve this by changing the library destination in itunes preferences. However, when i try to "get" the latest podcasts that usually subscribe to, it says "you do not have enough access privileges for this operation". similarly, when i try to buy anything from the itunes store, it will not let me download, giving me an error 5000 message instead. i had signed in correctly by the way. the purchased songs are still in the downloads folder but greyed out.
any advise would be much appreciated. i'm not that technically minded so please spell anything out to me!

johndave, did anyone ever respond to your post?

I have a mid2009 MacBook Pro for which I have been using a USB WD HD for Time Machine. I'd like to get a wireless HD and start a new Time Machine backup for this Mac and retire the 5 year old WD drive. Can I start over?

I have a mid2009 MacBook Pro running Mavericks for which I have been using a USB WD HD for Time Machine. I'd like to get a wireless HD and start a new Time Machine backup for this Mac and retire the 5 year old WD drive. Can I start over?

no archive/ backup is perfect, HD clones can be set to make incremental additions, same as time machine however, though they are more time involved in doing so.
See the + and - of all data backup/ archives below and "spread it around".... or the "dont put your eggs all in one basket" philosophy.
Peace
Data Storage Platforms; their Drawbacks & Advantages
#1. Time Machine / Time Capsule
Drawbacks:
1. Time Machine is not bootable, if your internal drive fails, you cannot access files or boot from TM directly from the dead computer.
2. Time machine is controlled by complex software, and while you can delve into the TM backup database for specific file(s) extraction, this is not ideal or desirable.
3. Time machine can and does have the potential for many error codes in which data corruption can occur and your important backup files may not be saved correctly, at all, or even damaged. This extra link of failure in placing software between your data and its recovery is a point of risk and failure. A HD clone is not subject to these errors.
4. Time machine mirrors your internal HD, in which cases of data corruption, this corruption can immediately spread to the backup as the two are linked. TM is perpetually connected (or often) to your computer, and corruption spread to corruption, without isolation, which TM lacks (usually), migrating errors or corruption is either automatic or extremely easy to unwittingly do.
5. Time Machine does not keep endless copies of changed or deleted data, and you are often not notified when it deletes them; likewise you may accidently delete files off your computer and this accident is mirrored on TM.
6. Restoring from TM is quite time intensive.
7. TM is a backup and not a data archive, and therefore by definition a low-level security of vital/important data.
8. TM working premise is a “black box” backup of OS, APPS, settings, and vital data that nearly 100% of users never verify until an emergency hits or their computers internal SSD or HD that is corrupt or dead and this is an extremely bad working premise on vital data.
9. Given that data created and stored is growing exponentially, the fact that TM operates as a “store-it-all” backup nexus makes TM inherently incapable to easily backup massive amounts of data, nor is doing so a good idea.
10. TM working premise is a backup of a users system and active working data, and NOT massive amounts of static data, yet most users never take this into consideration, making TM a high-risk locus of data “bloat”.
11. In the case of Time Capsule, wifi data storage is a less than ideal premise given possible wireless data corruption.
12. TM like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
13. *Level-1 security of your vital data.
Advantages:
1. TM is very easy to use either in automatic mode or in 1-click backups.
2. TM is a perfect novice level simplex backup single-layer security save against internal HD failure or corruption.
3. TM can easily provide a seamless no-gap policy of active data that is often not easily capable in HD clones or HD archives (only if the user is lazy is making data saves).
#2. HD archives
Drawbacks:
1. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
2. Unless the user ritually copies working active data to HD external archives, then there is a time-gap of potential missing data; as such users must be proactive in archiving data that is being worked on or recently saved or created.
Advantages:
1. Fills the gap left in a week or 2-week-old HD clone, as an example.
2. Simplex no-software data storage that is isolated and autonomous from the computer (in most cases).
3. HD archives are the best idealized storage source for storing huge and multi-terabytes of data.
4. Best-idealized 1st platform redundancy for data protection.
5. *Perfect primary tier and level-2 security of your vital data.
#3. HD clones (see below for full advantages / drawbacks)
Drawbacks:
1. HD clones can be incrementally updated to hourly or daily, however this is time consuming and HD clones are, often, a week or more old, in which case data between today and the most fresh HD clone can and would be lost (however this gap is filled by use of HD archives listed above or by a TM backup).
2. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
Advantages:
1. HD clones are the best, quickest way to get back to 100% full operation in mere seconds.
2. Once a HD clone is created, the creation software (Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper) is no longer needed whatsoever, and unlike TM, which requires complex software for its operational transference of data, a HD clone is its own bootable entity.
3. HD clones are unconnected and isolated from recent corruption.
4. HD clones allow a “portable copy” of your computer that you can likewise connect to another same Mac and have all your APPS and data at hand, which is extremely useful.
5. Rather than, as many users do, thinking of a HD clone as a “complimentary backup” to the use of TM, a HD clone is superior to TM both in ease of returning to 100% quickly, and its autonomous nature; while each has its place, TM can and does fill the gap in, say, a 2 week old clone. As an analogy, the HD clone itself is the brick wall of protection, whereas TM can be thought of as the mortar, which will fill any cracks in data on a week, 2-week, or 1-month old HD clone.
6. Best-idealized 2nd platform redundancy for data protection, and 1st level for system restore of your computers internal HD. (Time machine being 2nd level for system restore of the computer’s internal HD).
7. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
HD cloning software options:
1. SuperDuper HD cloning software APP (free)
2. Carbon Copy Cloner APP (will copy the recovery partition as well)
3. Disk utility HD bootable clone.
#4. Online archives
Drawbacks:
1. Subject to server failure or due to non-payment of your hosting account, it can be suspended.
2. Subject, due to lack of security on your part, to being attacked and hacked/erased.
Advantages:
1. In case of house fire, etc. your data is safe.
2. In travels, and propagating files to friends and likewise, a mere link by email is all that is needed and no large media needs to be sent across the net.
3. Online archives are the perfect and best-idealized 3rd platform redundancy for data protection.
4. Supremely useful in data isolation from backups and local archives in being online and offsite for long-distance security in isolation.
5. *Level-1.5 security of your vital data.
#5. DVD professional archival media
Drawbacks:
1. DVD single-layer disks are limited to 4.7Gigabytes of data.
2. DVD media are, given rough handling, prone to scratches and light-degradation if not stored correctly.
Advantages:
1. Archival DVD professional blank media is rated for in excess of 100+ years.
2. DVD is not subject to mechanical breakdown.
3. DVD archival media is not subject to ferromagnetic degradation.
4. DVD archival media correctly sleeved and stored is currently a supreme storage method of archiving vital data.
5. DVD media is once written and therefore free of data corruption if the write is correct.
6. DVD media is the perfect ideal for “freezing” and isolating old copies of data for reference in case newer generations of data become corrupted and an older copy is needed to revert to.
7. Best-idealized 4th platform redundancy for data protection.
8. *Level-3 (highest) security of your vital data.
[*Level-4 data security under development as once-written metallic plates and synthetic sapphire and likewise ultra-long-term data storage]
#6. Cloud based storage
Drawbacks:
1. Cloud storage can only be quasi-possessed.
2. No genuine true security and privacy of data.
3. Should never be considered for vital data storage or especially long-term.
4. *Level-0 security of your vital data.
Advantages:
1. Quick, easy and cheap storage location for simplex files for transfer to keep on hand and yet off the computer.
2. Easy source for small-file data sharing.

Can i transfer my time machine backup to another drive?

can i transfer my time machine backup to another drive?

Did you prep the new drive?
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. 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 Partition 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.
New drives usually are pre-formatted for Windows, not Macs. WD is generally well known for their poor level of Mac support.

Restoring a time machine backup from a Mac mini to a new Mac mini server

Hi,
I just replaced a faulty Mac mini with a Mac mini server. I have a time machine backup of my Mac mini and want to transfer it over to the Mac mini. How do I do this?

This is a bit of a guess... But I Imagine you would have to start with the workstation OS install DVD first, and go from there at the appropriate point. Any chance you have or could make a CCC backup instead? I am assuming you could boot a mini server from a backup of mini non-server. Then you could copy it over. This is probably worth a phone call to Apple TAC

When I get to the select disk page it says that the HD is uesd as time machine drive. How can I remove time machine backup from my Mac.

I am tring to installe OS X Mavericks. When I get to the select disk page it says that the HD is uesd as time machine drive. How can I remove time machine backup from my Mac.

Open up your Finder and click on Go on the top menu bar. Select Computer and then double click Macintosh HD. In here delete the backup folder. Might be called backups.backupdb.

HT201250 Can I copy a time machine backup from one mac to another?

I have two Mac Book Pros that I use for work - I have one at home and one at work. I'd like to copy the contents and setup from my work Mac to my home Mac using a time machine backup, and then continue to use the time machine backup back at work. I.e. the time machine would only be used with the home Mac to copy over the contents and setup of my work Mac.
Can I just do a straight time machine back up in my 2nd (home) mac, or will this override the back up I have from the 1st (work) machine?
Thanks!

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Of course. Note that you can restore a Time Machine backup on all the Macs you want, always that the Mac uses the same or a newer OS X version than the one that had the Mac you used to make this backup.
Also, you can back up different computers to the same Time Machine drive. In this case, Time Machine will create different folders in your Time Machine drive for each computer, so one Mac backup won't conflict with the other computer backup.
To restore a backup, use Migration Assistant. Just connect the Time Machine drive, open Migration Assistant (it's in /Applications/Utilities) and follow the steps to restore the backup onto the computer

Using Time Machine backup from one mac to another

I had a Mac book pro running 10.7.5 and used Time Machine to backup the system. The macbook died and I want to restore the Time Machine backup to my iMac running 10.7.5.
Question 1: Is this possible and how is it done?
Question 2: Will it restore all the software and files from the macbook pro to my iMac?

It can be done without any problem and everything will be restored from the Time Machine backup.
If you want to replace the actual content of the hard drive of your iMac with the content of the Time Machine backup, press Command and R keys while your Mac is starting, choose the option to restore the Time Machine backup and follow the steps.
If you want to keep both content, use Migration Assistant to create a new user with the data of the MacBook Pro. Open Migration Assistant and follow the steps. Then, open  > Log Out, and log in the new user to access to the migrated data

Which disk did Time machine backup if running Mac OSX 10.6.8 on an external startup disk?

The original hard drive on my 2007 iMac was pretty full, so I was using an external hard drive as the startup disk while I got around to replacing the original hard drive. I could still see the original hard drive and its contents and it still had a bootable copy of OSX 10.6.8 on it, but I was starting up from the external drive running OSX 10.6.8. I recently attached another external drive and backed up with Time Machine. Now the original internal hard drive has crashed. I can no longer see it to even try to repair it. My question is, was that internal hard drive backed up with the Time Machine backup, or was only the external startup disk backed up? If the internal one was backed up, how can I retore it's contents to another drive? - Thanks

Sorry to hear.
Other possibilities...
Data Rescue...
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
(Has a Free Demo to see if it could or not, but you'll need another drive to recover to).
rccharles on file recovery...
"Stellar Phoenix Macintosh - Mac data recovery software, recovers data from damaged, deleted, or corrupted volumes and even from initialized disks."
They have a trial version, so I guess you can see if your data can be recovered...
http://www.stellarinfo.com/mac-data-recovery.htm
FileSalvage is an extremely powerful Macintosh application for exploring and recovering deleted files from a drive or volume. FileSalvage is designed to restore files that have:
    * been accidentally deleted.
    * become unreadable due to media faults.
    * been stored on a drive before it was re-initialized/formatted.
http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id= 1

Copying from a Time Machine backup to a Mac with Tiger

I've got a Time Machine Backup of my MBP, which is running Leopard (obviously). I'd like to grab all of the files (recursively) from the latest TM backup of my "Documents" directory onto another Mac with Tiger.
From the command line (on the Tiger machine with the TM firewire backup drive connected), I've tried:
sudo cp -RL /Volumes/Daily/Backups.backupdb/My MacBook Pro/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/sbrown/Documents/* ~/Documents
However, it does not follow the hard links. How can I get it to follow whatever links it needs to to give me a complete set of the files in the Documents folder?

Confirmed best practice (after hours with AppleCare)--will allow you to create a comprehensive backup of whatever you need from a former TM backup, without traversing aliases or needing to keep a Leopard install around after the initial step.
You DO need to have Leopard still installed, just once. Simply boot into Leopard, navigate to your backup volume and go to Latest--> in the Backup DB. This is your entire system as it most recently appeared. If you have enough hard drive space on your TM volume, you can copy every folder here to the root level of the same TM volume. This would ensure a complete, up-to-date and Tiger-visible backup at the root level. However, you can also just copy the folders you need--to the same root level of the TM backup--and the OS will break all the hardlinks and create normal (duplicate) files in the new location.
This is good because it bypasses your likely-small internal hard drive (which, if you're on a Powerbook, is a precious commodity). It just makes a dupe of your most recent backup. The other method (Show Original) won't let you get the entire drive state back easily. It requires manual lookup of every file you think you need, then a reboot into Leopard if you need another. This method lets you create a working archive.
Hope that helps...
Message was edited by: dmaterialized

Retrieving work files/data from a time machine backup off another computer

If I create a time machine backup on one imac (imac 1) onto an external drive, I want to know if I can use this backup on another mac (imac 2) and restore or retrieve the old work files as and when required work from the external drive (time machine backup)? onto imac 2?

You can't use Time Machine for Restoring on iMac 2 (if you made an TM Backup with iMac 1), but you can easily drag files from the "Time-machine-Backup-volume" in Finder on your iMac 2!

Can I have 2 Separate Time Machine backups on one Mac?

I have a Mac running Snow leopard which I keep connected to an external USB drive. That drive is set up to automatically back my machine through Time Machine and it works great.
I would like to also do a backup of my machine and all its files onto a portable USB drive that I can then take to the office (i.e. remove it from the house) for security purposes. Once every couple of weeks I would plan on bringing the portable USB drive back home, plugging it into the Mac, doing another Time Machine backup and then removing it again.
Can I have 2 separate Time Machine backups onto 2 separate hard drives (as described above) on a single Mac?

Well I tried it, and it worked.

Time machine backup to another mac

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