Time Machine Backups of Encrypted Disk Images, Part 2

Hi:
If Time Machine is backing up a hard drive that contains a subset encrypted disk image as part of its contents, and this encrypted disk image is mounted (in an unencrypted state) where the enclosed data has been changed/manipulated in any fashion, what and when does Time Machine backup?
In other words, does the data in the encrypted disk image only change when the encrypted disk image is unmounted? Or is it somehow backed up real time even when the encrypted disk image is mounted on the desktop in an unencrypted state while Time Machine is working?
Sorry I can't explain this very well, but hopefully the gist is clear.
Thanks!
(OS 10.8.2)

Time Machine doesn't back up a disk image file while it's mounted, whether encrypted or not.

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Does Time Machine backup an entire disk image?

Currently I am on Tiger. I have Leopard in my drawer and will install it when 10.5.1 is released.
I have a question about Time machine.
Currently I use Deja Vu to backup my entire startup disk Disk-A to another disk-B. I can swap these over as startup's if a problem occurs.
Can I do the same thing with time machine?
Thanks,
Steve.

I'm assuming that your disk B is a bootable clone of disk A. If that's the case then, no, Time Machine doesn't do that. However, you can use your Leopard install disk to restore a bootable version of your system and all your files from Time Machine's backups. Time Machine has the advantage of being able to do that type of restore from previous dates and times, unlike a single clone. You can also use Time Machine to restore specific files that you have deleted, accidentally or otherwise, from your main drive.
I use both a bootable clone and Time Machine and consider them complementary backup solutions. BTW, 10.5.1 was released on the 15th.

Can Time Machine write to a Disk Image on a Time Capsule?

I just inherited a Gen 1 Time Machine (500gb). I have three Macs on my network. In my current set up I have an external 500gb drive split into three equal partitions, one for each Mac.
I know I cannot partition the TC HD, but I also know I can create one or more Disk Images.
Question: Can Time Machine write to a Disk Image on a Time Capsule?
Thanks.
MotionMan

I know the backups will not mix.
One of the Macs is a MacBook that only hooks up to the network every couple weeks. Before I partitioned my existing TM backup disk, the TM backups of the other two Macs were filling the disk. When the MacBook then tried to make a backup, the oldest backups of the MacBook would drop off.
So, the other two Macs had backps for months, but the MacBook ended up with much less. That is what lead me to the 3 partitions, so each Mac had an equal space for their backups.
Odd that there there is no good solution for this.
MotionMan

How can I tell if my Time Machine backups are encrypted?

Hi - I would really appreciate it if someone could help me find out if my Time Machine backps are actually encrypted.
I know that there is an 'encryption' option when choosing a disc for Time Machine to backup to, but the problem is I cannot remember whether or not I actually ticked it (as it was a couple of years ago).
Other info that might be helpful:
- The disk I use Time Machine to backup to is actually a Apple Time Capsule
- I do have FileVault2 enabled on my mac
- I have never encrypted the Time Capsule disc itself (via Disk Utility or anything similar)
- One possible clue might be: When I go into Time Machine preferences, and click on 'Select Disk...' (as if to choose another disk to back up to), and select the disc that Time Machine currently backs up to (i.e. the Time Capsule disc), it does show an 'Encrypt backups' checkbox at the bottom of the window... however this checkbox is unchecked and also greyed out.
Thanks in advance
a_quinn

a_quinn wrote:
- Because I originally created this Time Machine Backup (to the Time Capsule) back in my 'OS X Lion' days,
I wondered; you posted in the Mountain Lion forum, but your profile still says Lion.
that means that my backups now (and moving forward) will continue to be un-encrypted
Correct (as of now, anyway). You cannot encrypt existing network backups. I doubt that will be available in the future, and would take forever.
- The only way to encyrpt my backups now, moving forward, is to remove this Time Capsule disc (from Time Machine Preferences), and start all over again ensuring that I check the checkbox next to 'Encrypt Backup' when selecting the Time Capsule's disc to backup to.
Well, in theory it's possible, but would take forever, squared.
You could archive the TC's contents to a USB drive connected to it, per #Q6 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule).
Then delete the original, start a backup with encryption, and as soon as the encrypted sparse bundle is created, cancel the backup.
Mount the sparse bundle, open the disk image, and delete the Backups.backupdb folder inside it.
Connect the USB drive to your Mac, mount that sparse bundle, open its disk image, and copy the Backups.backupdb folder to the one on the TC.
Depending on how large the sparse bundle is, that could easily take a couple of days, at least, even connected via Ethernet.
Just for testing one day, I encrypted a very small set of existing test backups on a F/W 800 drive - 6 dated backups using a whole 12 GB. Took an hour.
An alternative would be, just do the "archive" and keep the USB drive "on the shelf" for a while. You can always connect it to your Mac and access those backups via the Browse Other Backup Disks option.
Trying to keep a couple of years worth of backups usually isn't a good idea. It's a very complex structure, so the odds of damage increase, it takes much longer to populate the TM browser, and it works slower and slower, and if you didn't need something for 6 months, are you really going to need it in 2 years?

What happens if you Time-Machine backup an encrypted file-vault HD?

This is related to my previous post - but deserves special mention for those people who are using time-vault AND Time-Machine.
My question is this: If the backup of my Hard-drive is encrypted, and I then reinstall from backup, what will this situation likely produce?
This is what I have done. I also Archived and installed my Mac prior to installing from my Time-Machine backup.
I now have an error message that displays the following message at the login screen:
"Unable to log into the file-vault account "......." at this time. An error has occurred."
My password IS CORRECT. I have not changed it, and the log in window does accept my password, but it doesn't progress any further than the error message I gave above.
I'm wondering if the encryption process of file-vault is linked directly with the original installation I had of Mac OS-X before I Archived and installed.
Any thoughts/knowledge/Insight?? I want my old Mac back! (I don't recommend using file-vault). Any body else had this problem or can see what is happening to me here?
Thank you
Greg

I just did a backup, moved a folder with 600mb of images into a different folder, and did another backup. The free space on the backup drive dropped by the size of the folder's contents. The backup copied the files as I watched in System Preferences, and it looked like it was really copying the files to the external drive again. It looks like Time Machine isn't as smart as I hoped in this regard.
Still - I'd think the wasted space is only in the every-hour-for-the-last-24-hours bucket of Time Machine. I'm guessing the every hour backups are like a sliding window, where a backup that's 24 hours old drops out every hour rather than all the hourly backups getting wiped at midnight and starting over.
Regardless, only one version of the moved folder will eventually be stored as the daily backup for that day. I don't have proof, but that's what I think.
So, if you've moved a bunch of folders around or renamed them, the extra copies of the same exact files should drop off within 24 hours.
That's my interpretation, but I'm in no way positive!! The lengthy Ars review didn't offer an answer to this question.

Time Machine Restore vs Restoring disk image to Macbook Pro

Hi guys,
Is it best to restore my new Macbook pro Retina from a 2011 Macbook pro via a time machine backup or is it best and easyer to restore my Disk Image from my old Macbook Pro 'Macintosh HD' to my new SSD in a 2013 Macbook pro Reitna via Disk utility??

If you have a new Mac and an old Mac, then it's probably best just to use Migration Assistant to transfer your data, settings and apps from the old Mac to the new one.
If you have fitted a new, blank SSD to the new Mac, then that will need an OS, obviously, before you run Migration Assistant. However, you can transfer an image of the old computer to the new one -- I cloned my 2009 MacBook's drive straight onto the SSD I put into my 2012 MBP.
Usually, any OS will work on any Mac (that it supports), but that's less true of brand new machines, particularly with new hardware technologies like Retina.
I would install the OS from the Recovery Firmware, and then migrate the data using MA.

How to resolve errors (-50 and -8058) when moving Time Machine backups to new disk?

I'm trying to move my Time Machine backups (about 600GB total) to a new external hard drive. I started the process last night, but after an hour or so received two errors, each repeated multiple times:
"The operation couldn't be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8058)."
"The operation couldn't be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -50)."
I opted to cancel the file transfer. I looked up the error codes but I'm still not sure what they mean. I found an old support article about error code -50 (Mac OS X 10.1: "Error Code -50" Alert Appears When Copying Files From a Remote Disk) and an old support article about error code -8058 that doesn't appear to be entirely relevant to my issue (Mac OS X 10.4: Error -8058, unable to eject when trying to copy a disc in Finder). I've also found a number of Support Community discussions, none of which are particularly helpful.
Questions:
What do these two error codes mean? Are the files that cause these errors somehow corrupt?
If I click "Okay" when the error dialog appears, are the files that are causing the errors transferred or are they omitted from the transfer?
If I transfer the files and click "Okay" when the errors appear, or if I use Terminal and cp -R as suggested in Mac OS X 10.1: "Error Code -50" Alert Appears When Copying Files From a Remote Disk, will I have trouble recovering files from the new backup disk?
Do I need to verify/repair permissions on the original Time Machine disk before attempting the transfer?
Is there some other method I should use (e.g. Terminal instead of Finder) to transfer the backups?
Details:
MacBook Air
Mac OS 10.8.5
Both the old and new Time Machine disks are formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

The two drives are handled as separate drives, even if they have the same name.
In essence, the old backups are from a drive that's no longer connected; see #E3 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

Problems with Airport Extreme Firmware 7.6.1. and Time Machine Backups to USB Disks

I found that when I upgraded to Firmware 7.6.1 my Airport Extreme was no longer able to maintain afp server connections to USB disks mounted to the APE. If I power cycled the APE it would work for a while and then fail again. This even applied for connectins on gigabit ethernet, not just wifi. Consequently my Time Machine backups became unusable. Rolling back to 7.6 fixed it, but I permanently fixed this by changing the IPv6 mode from "Automatic" to "Host". No problems since then.

I hate to have to tell you this, but backing-up that way is unreliable and not supported by Apple. See: Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk.

Moving time machine backups to another disk

I'm trying to move my time machine backups one external drive to another. I'm getting an error that says "The backup can’t be copied because the backup volume doesn’t have ownership enabled."
I was told I had to check off Ignore Permissions for this disk but I have no idea where to do that. it is not in GET INFO. I am using Snow Leopard.
Any ideas how I can copy the time machine files from one disk to another?
Thanks.

I recommend doing as I suggested. Cloning is the only correct way to backup a Time Machine backup drive. If you have data on the other drive you don't wish to lose then create a new partition on that drive. See the following:
To resize the drive do the following:
1. Open Disk Utility and select the drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list.
2. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
3. In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle upwards until you have reduced the existing partition enough to create the desired new volume's size. The space below the resized partition will appear gray. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. (Note: You can only make a partition smaller in order to create new free space.)
4. Click on the [+] button below the sizing window to add a new partition in the gray space you freed up. Give the new volume a name, if you wish, then click on the Apply button. Wait until the process has completed.
You should now have a new volume on the drive.
It would be wise to have a backup of your current system as resizing is not necessarily free of risk for data loss. Your drive must have sufficient contiguous free space for this process to work.

Time machine - backup of a disk attached via usb on a time capsule

Hi,
I would like to know it is possible to backup data with TIME MACHINE of an external disk attached directly to a time capsule via USB.
I use it as a network disk for all my Mac's to access at the same iphoto library.
Thank you very much for your help

To back up the drive, connect it directly to the Mac and remove it from the exclusion list in the Time Machine preference pane.

How do I restore from time machine backup onto unmounted disk drive "disk0s2?" :-(

In trying to restore my MacBook Pro after a strange freeze, I seemed to have unmounted the main disk drive. So, I have no drive on which to restore my computer using my time machine backup. What do I do now???

Give this a try:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions - Lion/Mountain Lion
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
See if you are able to get the partition to mount. If not select the Terminal from the Utiilities menu. At the prompt enter:
sudo mount disk0s1
Press RETURN and authenticate. Your password will not be echoed. Press RETURN again. I'm assuming you have a disk with one partition. If that's not correct, then do not use the above command.

Time machine backup to usb disk

How do I set up a USB disk attached to an airport extreme as a time machine backup device?

First please be aware that Apple does NOT support Time Machine backups to HDDs attached to the AirPort Extreme Base Station. However, if you still wish to do so, you simply need to first use the AirPort Utility to share out the attached USB drive, and then, 'point' Time Machine to this drive.
For details on how to set up a Time Machine drive, please check out the following Apple Support article.

Incremental backup from time capsule (time machine backup) to external disk

I have two questions regarding backing up a time capsule backup.
I would like to backup the time machine backup of my Macs from a time capsule to an external hard disk. The time capsule is a first geneneration one with 500 GB. The external hard disk has 500 GB as well with USB and firewire ports..
First question: What is the best way to connect these two hard drives - I am using a MacBook Air with two USB ports ?
Second question: What backup software could I use to do incremental backups - I tried ChronoSync but it is not picking up the changes of the sparcebundles ?
Thank you for every valuable advice
Regards

CAAN wrote:
I have two questions regarding backing up a time capsule backup.
I would like to backup the time machine backup of my Macs from a time capsule to an external hard disk.
Backing-up your backups is generally not a good idea. If there's a problem with the original backup, it will be copied to, and perhaps magnified on, the copy.
You'd be much better off making "secondary" backups separately. See #27 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum), for some suggestions.
About the only alternative is to "archive" the TC's contents to a USB drive connected to it, but that's not incremental, and has other downsides as well. See #Q6 in [Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule|http://web.me.com/pondini/TimeMachine/TimeCapsule.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

I can't clone (Duplicate) my Time Machine backup properly via Disk Utility

I have an ext. HDD Time Machine backup sitting beside my 10.8 MBP.
I want to create an identical ext. HDD Time Machine backup, because it's safe to have 2 identical HDDs backing up my system.
But when I follow this apple guideline, a problem occurs:
Time Machine: How to transfer backups from the current backup drive to a new backup drive
URL: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5096
The problem is I get a strange path even if I drop "Backups.backupdb" of 3TB1 (The source HDD) onto the root level of 3TB2, the destination HDD (I mean there's nothing in there so I just drag & drop onto the HDD). And the result is my new ext. HDD eating up about 60GB more space.
I have attached pictures of the paths for both Source HDD and Destination HDD, please look.
Why does it alter my file hiearchy like this?
Please help some high-level Mac guy thanks!

Why not just use TM to back up to 2 external drives. TM will alternate between the two when it backs up.
Alternately, you could have a 2 back up strategy like others have using SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner. Both are excellent 3rd party apps to clone your internal drive(s) and both have schedulers.

Does Time Machine still ignore mounted disk images? Specifically, encrypted sparse bundle disk images?

My Time Machine backs up to Time Capsule which cannot be encrypted. I also have confidential data in an encrypted sparse bundle disk image in my home folder. When TM backs up and the encrypted sparse bundle disk image is mounted and I'm accessing the data, does TM back up the data "in the clear" decrypted form or does it exclude the disk image because it's mounted? I've done a little research, but there's conflicting information. Not sure what happens in Lion now...

Time Machine does not backup mounted disk images! The encrypted sparse bundle disk image was mounted, I updated a doc and did a TM backup - the file was not listed in the TM repository and the doc remained unchanged in the encrypted sparse bundle disk image on TM. Then I ejected the disk image and did a TM backup - the updated doc was backed up in the encrypted sparse bundle disk image! Thank you!

Time Machine Backups of Encrypted Disk Images, Part 2

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