Time Machine: can it work with TWO users?

For reasons of corrupted Preferences (i.e. plists) I had to create a new User Account (where I had to "recreate" all personal settings/preferences) and transfer my data to this new account. Until I have verified all data and settings over the next few days I don't want to delete the "old" User Account, as you will understand.
Before creating the new user account, I have used Time Machine to backup my data (to a 2GB external HD). My question is: since TimeMachine backs up a Computer and not a User, can I now continue to use TimeMachine and be able to switch between users when in TimeMachine?
I think that the answer will be Yes, but I just want to be a 100% sure that I am not overwriting anything on the 'old' user account.
Thanks in advance for your advice. Cheers, Veit

vburger wrote:
Ah, thanks for the clarification! I learned something new; didn't know that the files were individually accessible on the TimeMachine HD.
That's really not a good idea. If you accidentally change, move, or delete anything there, you can corrupt your backups. And if you copy files from your backups via the Finder, the permissions may not be copied properly.
And it won't help one user trying to restore a different user's files; whether you're looking via the Finder or the "Star Wars" display, user permissions are the same as on the originals that were backed-up. If you need to restore files from a different user account, log on as that user.

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Time Machine will NOT work with Airport Disks!

It looks like Time Machine will not work with Airport Disks after all. All references to Airport have been removed from the Time Machine page:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/timemachine.html
It also specifically says: "You can designate just about any HFS+ formatted FireWire or USB drive connected to a Mac as a Time Machine backup drive. Time Machine can also back up to another Mac running Leopard with Personal File Sharing, Leopard Server, or Xsan storage devices."
Surely, they would have included the Airport Extreme Base Station in this list if it was supported.
I really hope there will be another firmware update for the AEBS which will bring compatibility with Time Machine, because Time Machine was the only reason for me to buy an AEBS. (I only use it as a small backup server, I don't even have wireless networking enabled. There were other solutions, e.g. from Synology, which are faster and more reliable than AEBS disk sharing, but Synology stated their network drives would not be compatible with Time Machine.)

Here's how you can potentially use your AirDisk with TimeMachine (beware that YMMV), but it should work as it works with every other "unsupported" device.
1) Mount your AirDisk so it appears on your Mac
2) Open Terminal.app
3) change directories to the AirDisk's root folder located in "/Volumes"
ie: cd "/Volumes/AirDisk Name"
4) execute this command to "bless" the drive to be used with time machine:
touch .com.apple.timemachine.supported
5) Start TimeMachine and if all went well, it should recognize your AirDisk drive and use it for TM.
This should also work on NFS shares, SMB shares, AFP shares, basically anything. It has worked up until the last developer seed, so unless they yanked this at the last minute, it should still work.
Now, the reason why Apple removed this feature may be due to the unreliability of the AirDisk, so be cautious.

HT201250 My 10.7.3 Time Machine won't work with external disks. Worked fine with Snow Leopard, and even Lion 10.7.1

My 10.7.3 Time Machine won't work with external disks. Worked fine with Snow Leopard, and even Lion 10.7.1
I have tried everything, even buy new external disk from different manufacture.
If I cant get a fix soon, I am downgrading back to SnowL.

Still no luck. I tried all the tricks, reconfiguring TM (remove selected disk option, and re-setting it, and trying different disks). Tried new combo updater, and the newer TM update after that. Tired two different disks too (one is my older firewire WD MyBook 1TB, and my brand new 3tb Seagate GoFlex USB... either one plugged into back of computer - no intermediary devices). I did get the TM buddy wiget and it produced the following log, from the last attempt, where I setup lots of exclusions so that backup quantity was small (under 10gb). Still it failed to complete. Here is that log, for what it is worth:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/TM-Disk/Backups.backupdb
9.56 GB required (including padding), 911.15 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Copied 0 files (0 bytes) from volume Mac HD.
Backup canceled.
To prove a point, I will take these disks are run them on my other Tiger and Snow Leopard laptops to prove TM works fine on those with these disks. But I fear the only options are to either have my tech re-install LION... or just have him reinstall SL instead. Im at wits end.

Time Machine doesn't work with Windows Server 2008

At work we use a Windows Server running with Windows Server 2008 to backup our work via Time Machine. All my collegues are running Snow Leopard appart from on that runs under Leopard because it's a G5.
A few weeks ago I installed Lion to try it before upgrading all the computer and found that time machine won't work. Apperantly I found that it is due to an AFP connection.
Can anyone tell me if I can do anything apart from trying to use another Backup Software like Data Backup?
Would really like to use Time Machine as it's SUPERB ;-)
Regards

Perhaps that drive is too small to use for Time Machine. Your Time Machine drive needs to be at least twice the size of the drive it is backing up, preferably 3 times.

Time Machine no longer working with External Hard drive

Hello
I have an iMac 24 and an Iomega 500Gb drive. TimeMachine was working fine when I first set it up over Firewire. I then bought a MacBook and tried to use a the same drive to run separate Time Machine backups. I aborted it when I ran out of time as I was going away.
The iMac and the MacBook no longer recognise the Iomega drive as valid. I get an error about the drive being read only.
How can I resolve or reset this to get the iMac backups working? I'll probably buy a portable drive for the MacBook backups.
Thanks

mosey,
Unfortunately, your going to have to reformat the drive. There is no fix for the "Read Only" issue at this time.
*_How Should a Time Machine Hard Disk be Prepared?_*
For Time Machine to work properly, the hard disk must be formatted “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” and its’ Partition Scheme should be either GUID or Apple Partition Map.
Time Machine is incompatible with disks partitioned as Master Boot Record (MBR). Unfortunately, this describes nearly every hard drive you can buy because MBR is a Windows partition scheme. (Naturally, this DOES NOT apply to Apples’ Time Capsule.)
For some, Time Machine begins to perform as expected with a new external hard disk. But then the initial full backup or subsequent incremental backups fail. The user only later discovers the hard disk was still partitioned as Master Boot Record (MBR).
One article on Time Machine made this observation: “Virtually everybody will have to open Disk Utility and repartition the disk as APM or GUID. It doesn't really matter which one because the Time Machine disk will not be bootable anyway. APM allows a disk to boot a PowerPC, GUID allows the disk to boot an Intel processor but both are easily digestible by Time Machine on either kind of processor.” [http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/backups.html]
It’s been recommended by many here that your reserve at least double the size of your primary hard disk, that way Time Machine backups have room to grow as the size of your data grows. Additionally, the more space you give Time Machine the more history it can preserve. The less space you reserve for Time Machine the sooner older backups & deleted items will disappear.
Procedure
Connect the hard disk you wish to use for Time Machine backups.
Launch Disk Utility.
It will appear twice in the pane on the left. (Make sure you recognize that it is different from the 2 icons that represent your Macs' internal drive.) The upper entry represent the device as a whole, including the controller inside. The lower entry represents the hard disk contained within the device.
Click on the upper icon of the external hard disk.
Select the "Partition" tab.
For "Volume Scheme" choose "1 partition". (Chose 2 partitions if you intend on storing other data on the disk besides your Time Machine backups.)
Name the disk.
Format should be "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".
Click "Options".
Select either GUID or Apple Partition Map. (See above for significance)
Click "OK".
Click "Apply".
Now chose the level of secure erase you desire. (More passes means more time)
Once the external hard disk is repartitioned, select it again in Time Machine preferences and use it for your backups.
Let us know if this was helpful.
Cheers!

Time Machine no longer working with 10.5.5

Hello all,
I have a 500GB Time Capsule and my MacBook had previously backed up quite happily to it. Since installing 10.5.5, however, it just won't work. The disk image mounts, but Time Machine just hangs on "preparing for backup". I checked with Console, and this is what I found:
9/16/08 7:34:16 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[147] Backup requested by user
9/16/08 7:34:16 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[147] Starting standard backup
9/16/08 7:34:32 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[147] Network volume mounted at: /Volumes/Backups
9/16/08 7:34:39 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[147] Disk image /Volumes/Backups/Lappy 3000_0017f2328487.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of Lappy 3000
9/16/08 7:34:39 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[147] Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of Lappy 3000/Backups.backupdb
9/16/08 7:34:49 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[147] Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Lappy 3000
9/16/08 7:34:55 AM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[147] Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
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Steve Holton wrote:
Adding a data point to what Glenn pointed out.
Last night it took 20 minutes to do the deep traversal then 12 minute to backup the updates. That's on relatively modest 55GB worth of data being backed up.
This is perfectly normal and the backup should NOT be interrupted.
If people are curious what is happening when TM backs up, then I suggest adding a wonderful little widget called "Time Machine Buddy" which will give you all the information you need as to what is going on during a TM backup (or failure).
You can find TM Buddy under Status in the Other Widgets directory on you Mac.

Time Machine won't work with Time Capsule

HI all
I have been using TM to backup to an Iomega portable drive but because the drive is relatively small and because I thought that having less wires around the place would be a good thing, I bought Time Capsule. However when I try to backup to TC I get one and/or two error messages. The first is that backup failed because TM couldn't create a directory. The second is that backup failed because TM couldn't write the files. When the first message occurs it's during the 'preparing backup' phase. The second happens with about 200mb copied.
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So before I do anything I'd appreciate if people had any thoughts.
thanks
WG

You have made no mention of how Time Capsule is connected. For the initial backup, you should be connected using an ethernet connection. It would be a fresh, new backup. Did your setup of TC go smoothly? I assume the network is all setup and that the TC disk sharing is enabled.

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Really need some help with this.
Did an archive and install of Leopard then installed Snow Leopard. No problems yet.
90% of Video sites would not work. Uninstalled and reinstalled Flash. Uninstalled ShockWave, could not reinstall with 10.6.1.
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a couple of things I've noticed are right clicking on dock icons does nothing, no option to quit or keep in dock.
Apple Techs', had me change my account months ago to fix a problem with safari crashing. It didn't really work and more problems resulted.
*So now my big question is: How do I move need items over to the new account.* I don't want to move everything over as I might bring what caused the problem in the first place.
What I need are several apps,(like ilife, iwork, firefox, devonthink, 1password etc.) downloads, desktop, docs, files, and book marks.
*What is the best way for me to do this?* Is there anything I need to do re: Snow Leopard on the new account?
I feel like I have a new and functioning Mac again just around the corner.
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Z

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@Brian:
I think I have the same issue
https://discussions.apple.com/message/19083821#19083821
What's your MBP version?
Could you check if you still have a drop in your transmission speed? (as I shown in my thread)
thx

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These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
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If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

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Florence,
J'ai trop d'Epson (SX405 dans mon cas). Epson Scan fonctionne OK pour moi parfois, mais pas d'autres moments. Une bonne façon de numériser plus facilement sur votre Mac est d'utiliser "Image Capture" - qui devrait être trouvé dans votre dossier "Applications". Si votre imprimante Epson travaille sous Mavericks, alors "Image Capture" sera probablement trop.
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Time Machine: can it work with TWO users?

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