Time Machine encrypted disk image backup?

When Time Machine backs up my hard drive, it backs up a password-protected disk image as an open folder. Is there a way to back up the disk image without Time Machine opening it up?

I've played around with this a little. As best I can tell, when cloning an entire HD volume both CCC and SuperDuper will always copy an image file (.dmg, .sparsebundle, etc) that resides that on that HD, whether or not that file's disk image is mounted at the time. However the contents of the mounted disk image volume will not be copied separately, and so If the disk image is encrypted, no unencrypted content will get transferred this way. However as mentioned in the SuperDuper link above, it's better to unmount the image in any event, in order to ensure that the underlying .dmg or .sparsebundle file gets copied faithfully.
If you want to copy the contents of a mounted disk image with CCC or SuperDuper, you can do so as a completely separate procedure from copying the HD. If you first mount the image (giving a password if it was encrypted), that mounted image will appear as an independent volume in the "source list" of CCC or SuperDuper, and you can choose that volume as a source for the copy procedure. You would need to designate a different target volume as well, so as not to overwrite your HD clone. If the disk image was encrypted and you deliberately copy its mounted image separately in this fashion, the resulting files on the target will not be encrypted.

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Time Machine or Disk Image

Hi Everyone,
I want to backup my data to be sure that in the event something goes wrong I can get it all back again. My question is, in the situation where for some reason I have to reformat my hard drive, will there be an option in Time Machine to restore the system completely to a working version? As in, can I just go and reinstall it using the Time Machine data and get everything back?
OR
Would a disk image do this or do the exact same thing? If I created a disk image of my entire drive, after reinstalling the OS and formatting the HD, could I just load the drive as it was from a disk image?
I'm mostly concerned about my applications. I realized recently that several of my discs have gone missing and thus I no longer have my registration codes. I'm looking for a much easier way than having the hassle of contacting the companies or having to repurchase if things go wrong.
Thanks for your help!
Cheers,
Jillian

Here are a few points regarding what will be needed to get back up and running.
If you back up with Time Machine, you will need both your Leopard install disk and your Time Machine backup, in order for Time Machine to put it all back together.
If you back up to a disk image, you need to be able to boot from an external disk of some kind, or attach your Mac to another Mac, because something has to open the disk image and clone it back onto your original Mac that had the problem.
If you back up to a bootable external hard drive (using Disk Utility, SuperDuper, or Carbon Copy Cloner), you only need that drive. You can boot from it and use it to clone itself back to the Mac.
As far as the software licenses go, it's really hard to predict what will happen unless you have an exact list of which software it is and you know how they store their registrations. Looking at my own Mac:
1. Some software stores registration info in the application, so it moves with the application. No prob.
2. Some software stores registration info in a separate file. Sometimes it's in the same folder as the app. Sometimes it's in the Preferences folder. Sometimes it's in the Application Support folder. As long as that file is still where the program wants to find it, you're OK.
3. Some software does #2 but makes the file invisible, making it hard to locate.
4. Some software does #2 but gives the file a name that does not identify which application it belongs to, and encrypts the contents. So you can't figure out where it is or what it looks like.
5. Some software does #4 and has tied your registration info to a specific hardware combination, so there is a possibility that if it finds itself on a modified computer (e.g., you replaced the hard disk) it will notice the change, and fail to register.
If you are lucky, your software will be easy to migrate. But the more expensive or established the software, the more likely it is that at least one of your programs will need to be re-registered due to anti-piracy measures taken with the registration storage.

Time Machine error: Disk image could not be mounted

I had two macs 1 and 2.
1 was stolen. I bought a new one (New 1) and it took the place of mac 2.
Mac 2 was reformated and restored from the TimeCapsule with the backup from the old 1.
The new 1 succeeded in continuing the back-up from 2.
But the mac 2 can't get used to backing up on another sparseimage on the Time Capsule. The result is, that both of the computers now makes back-up to the same sparseimage as if they were two users on the same computer. But the TimeCapsule doesn't accept that they can be using the sparseimage at the same time and claims that the backup is used by another.

I was encountering the same problem. I would navigate to my external drive and I would see the folder for the sparceimage and it would have a circled minus sign icon on the folder and it was not possible to mount it using DiskImageMounter. I would get a window stating the "operation not supported on socket". When I looked at the Time Machine preferences, the disk image was not available so I could confirm that it was chosen as the backup disk. However, when it became the scheduled time for Time Machine to do its scheduled backup according to the information in the Time Machine preferences pane, the disk image mounted and the backup seemed to commence. Similarly, when I went to Time Machine and asked it to "Backup Now", the disk image mounted, and the backup proceeded. However, the disk image then dismounted and again it was no longer available to Time Machine. When I ran Time Machine, I could not choose the disk image and restore files from it because it was no longer mounted.

Time Capsule and Time Machine (Sparse Disk Image Bundle)

I just changed the HD that I use to backup TM for Time Capsule. I do not know why it is taking so long (more than 45 min) to calculate size... I took a look at TC and I found "Backups.backupdb" with no item (in TC) and a disk image called "Mac Pro’s Mac Pro.sparsebundle" right beside another dm called Mario.sparsebundle (my MacMini). Did it change from before, it used to be a folder called Backups.backupdb and inside her, folders with your computer's name? Is there something wrong? Should I stop TM?
Mario Lordeiro

You may have successfully increased the sparsebundle's potential capacity while failing to resize the contained partition. That seems to be what happened when I tried this myself. A resized sparsebundle containing the same files would not occupy much more space on disk than it did before.
*Provided you have a backup*, you could try the following:
Remount the image, then run Disk Utility and select the .sparsebundle (non-indented icon) in the left pane. Click on the Partition tab, and then see if you can pull down the lower right corner of the disk image partition to increase its size. If you can, then drag it to the bottom and click Apply.
Again don't try this without a backup. It may not be worth doing in any event - it's easy enough just to make a new, bigger sparsebundle and copy your stuff over.

Did Os Lion clear time machine archived disk images under OS Snow Leopard?

Just looked back on my time machine drive - and realised to my shock that there were no snapshots of my files prior to mid July 2011. I bought this 15in Mac Book Pro in April and have used the same back up drive throughout. I have 480GB of free capacity on the drive. The only thing that happened the week of the 'first' archived 'snapshot' is the upgrade to OS Lion...
Anyone else find this?

Changing the short name may have been the problem, but I would have thought Migration Assistant would have done it (messily - you'd have two accounts and loads of permissions to change).
Best I can suggest for now is that you have a good look at Pondini's TM and Setup/Migration Assistant articles
http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html

Backing up to encrypted disk image on an external usb drive

I'd like to use an encrypted disk image on an external USB drive as the target for my Time Machine backups, but it seems that Time Machine will only recognize physical external drives, and not mounted disk images in the "Change Disk..." window.
Is it possible to make Time Machine use disk images mounted from an external USB drive?
Thanks.

..."Is it possible to make Time Machine use disk images mounted from an external USB drive?"...
Actually, with a few caveats, it is possible.
Just follow one of the many tutorials on the web for creating an encrypted sparse bundle for use with "TimeMachine" on a network volume (i.e. MACaddress.sparsebundle naming convention, password stored to the system keychain, etc.), and then attach the drive locally and select the drive (not the mounted disk image) as the backup drive. As "Glen Carter" reported in another thread on this site, "TimeMachine" is smart enough to know to mount the disk image for backups when the drive is connected locally.
There are caveats for example, - while backups remain automatic, it appears that actually browsing the backups requires that the disk image be mounted manually first, then accessed via the "Browse Other Time Machine Disks…" option.
One caveat to pay particular attention to is what happens when the drive starts to fill up and space becomes limiting - the processes of deleting expired backups and sparse image compaction may not be well integrated, as discussed here:
http://www.flokru.org/2008/03/15/time-machine-backups-on-network-shares-2-possib le-problems/
The article implies that the end result could be deletion of all backups! The article is dated March 2008 but I have no idea whether the issue has been resolved.
Just be advised that it is an unsupported configuration so the extra security will come at the cost of some convenience and potential increase in the chance of data loss. Most users recommend using supplemental backup strategies since the intended purpose of TimeMachine is actually very limited and often misunderstood. Apart from that, it is a rule written in stone that whenever encryption is used, the encrypted items themselves must be backed up.

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.

HT201250 My Time Machine is not backing up and gives me this error report, 'The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Valarie'siMac.sparsbundle" is already in use. Time machine could not complete backup. Can anyone help me?

My Time Machine is not backing up and gives me this error report:
The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Valarie'siMac.sparsbundle" is already in use
Time Machine could not complete backup
Can anyone help me?

Look at the discussion on the following forum:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3882138?start=0&tstart=0
The responses given there may help.

HT3275 Can some HELP, I keep getting this error with my Time Machine Back up, "The backup disk image "/Volumes/JKPN Safe/JKPN IMAC.sparsebundle" is already in use.

Can some one HELP me , I keep getting this error with my Time Machine Back up, "The backup disk image “/Volumes/JKPN Safe/JKPN IMAC.sparsebundle” is already in use.

See > http://pondini.org/TM/C12.html

Time Machine could not complete the backup "Time Capsule". Unable to access disk image backup "/ Volumes / Time Capsule / iMac.sparsebundle" (error 112). How can I repair it?

Time Machine could not complete the backup "Time Capsule". Unable to access disk image backup "/ Volumes / Time Capsule / iMac.sparsebundle" (error 112).
How can I fix it?

You might want to take a look at Pondini's excellent support document......Time Machine Troubleshooting
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
See # C17

HT3275 I received this message and I'm unsure how to fix it "Time Machine couldn't complete backup to Time Capsule the backup disk image"/Volumes/The Vision Board/Alex Parry.sparsebundle" is already in use

I received this message and I'm unsure how to fix it "Time Machine couldn't complete backup to Time Capsule the backup disk image“/Volumes/The Vision Board/Alex Parry.sparsebundle” is already in use

Look at the more like this on the right column of the web page.
This is the most common error here.. we answer it 5-10times every day.
Simple method.. pull out the TC power cord .. count to 10.. plug in the TC power cord.
Look at the other references for more info.

HT3275 time machine error says: The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Apple 's iMac G5.sparsebundle" could not be accessed (error -1).

While backing up to Time Machine, I receive this message: time machine error says: The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Apple ’s iMac G5.sparsebundle” could not be accessed (error -1).

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
That message is caused by several reasons. Read the Pondini's site to fix the problem > http://pondini.org/TM/C17.html

How to backup a mounted & encrypted disk image?

I have read all the posts about creating a sparse bundles. I guess this allows you to backup the disk image as long as it is not mounted? Will it still backup if it is mounted? Will it be usable when I restore it?
What if all I want to do is just backup the mounted disk and not the image? I did some tests and it seems to work. When I look at the backup on a different machine by taking over the disk, I see the volume as a possible restore and I see the files. Am I missing something? I thought I had read that this does not work? I do realize that the backup is not very secure since I can now restore files on an image I had intended to maintain secure. It would be nice if time machine allowed me to backup in an encrypted format the required some password for the restore. Create sparse bundle on that backup disk and backup to that mounted image?
Steven

Well since it is encrypted, no matter how you delete it, it should remain secure. That is an advantage of an encrypted file
However, if you want to over write the contents of the file, you can just drag it to the trash and select secure empty trash.
NOTE: if you have a lot of other deleted files in the trash, it is going to take longer to do the secure empty trash as those other files are also going to be securely erased. I've made the mistake of doing the secure empty trash with several hundred files in the trash, some of which were rather large files.

Time Machine, Encryption and Backup

Hi,
I am using an encryption software to encrypt some folders of my account (called Kryptospace: http://www.cemacsoft.com/products/kryptospace/kryptospace.html)
So here is the situation:
* In Documents I have a folder called Private, this folder is the mount of an encrypted DMG (Located in ~/Library/Application Support/Kryptospace).
* I have got Spotlight to reference this DMG - which works fine
* By default TM set the folder as Excluded so I removed that from the Preference Panel
* But I noticed that Time Machine does not backup the data within the folder
Do you know how could I get TM to backup this folder, I don't mind if it's not encrypted since the backup is secured (unlike a laptop that I could lose).
Thanks & Regards,
Daniel

Daniel,
As long as Time Machine is backing up the disk image, itself, it is keeping your files backed up. The only problem with this scenario is that the entire disk image file must be re-written during every backup for which files inside the disk image have changed (the disk image file will have been modified, so a new, complete copy is backed up). This is less efficient from the standpoint of disk space usage.
What I have posted above will hold true, as long as the third-party software doesn't do something odd with the disk image. You are aware that there really is no need to use a third-party solution to do something that OS X, by itself, can handle quite well? You could create your own encrypted disk image using Disk Utility, store it somewhere convenient in your HOME folder, then create an alias that points to some location inside the disk image, and the results would be the same. If you included the key (password) for the image in your Keychain, access from your account would be seamless and transparent.
Scott

Encrypted Disk Image and Backup

If one uses Apple’s Disk Utility to create an encrypted disk image, what happens when SuperDuper, Time Machine, or any other backup utility is running while the (unencrypted) image is mounted on the desktop?
Are both the encrypted image and the unencrypted data transferred to the backup device? Or is just the secure encrypted data copied to the destination?
Nothing urgent on this, just curious. Thank you!

I've played around with this a little. As best I can tell, when cloning an entire HD volume both CCC and SuperDuper will always copy an image file (.dmg, .sparsebundle, etc) that resides that on that HD, whether or not that file's disk image is mounted at the time. However the contents of the mounted disk image volume will not be copied separately, and so If the disk image is encrypted, no unencrypted content will get transferred this way. However as mentioned in the SuperDuper link above, it's better to unmount the image in any event, in order to ensure that the underlying .dmg or .sparsebundle file gets copied faithfully.
If you want to copy the contents of a mounted disk image with CCC or SuperDuper, you can do so as a completely separate procedure from copying the HD. If you first mount the image (giving a password if it was encrypted), that mounted image will appear as an independent volume in the "source list" of CCC or SuperDuper, and you can choose that volume as a source for the copy procedure. You would need to designate a different target volume as well, so as not to overwrite your HD clone. If the disk image was encrypted and you deliberately copy its mounted image separately in this fashion, the resulting files on the target will not be encrypted.

Time Machine encrypted disk image backup?

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