Time Machine/File Vault

I'm using OS 10.5.1 with File Vault active.
Is the TIme Machine back-up on the external drive secured with File Vault??

+Thanks. I confess I do not know how to tell the difference between GUID and Apple Partition Map. I see that the drive has Master Boot Record scheme- is that related? I have tried another hard drive with the same results. Both are Mac OS Extended (Journaled)format.+
If a partition shows up formatted as Master Boot Record it can't also be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Do you have more than one partition on your Time Machine disk? If that is the case the partitions may be formatted differently and the partition you are using for Time Machine must be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
If you only have one partition and it is formatted with Master Boot Record, Time Machine will not work properly. You can see what partition scheme you are using for your Time Machine disk and how the partitions are formatted in Disk Utility. Launch Launch Disk Utility from the dock or from the Applications > Utilities folder. Click on the upper icon for your Time Machine disk in the left window and the partition type will show on the bottom of the Disk Utility window. It should be GUID for Intel Macs and Apple Partition Map for PPC Macs.
Click on the indented icon(s) below upper Time Machine icon. That will show the formatting for each partition. If it says Master Boot Record for the partition you are using for Time Machine you will have to repartition and reformat the disk to get rid of it. That will erase the disk so copy any files you need first. Then follow the directions in this article.

Similar Messages

  • Time Machine, File Vault and External Hard Drive

    I use file vault on my well travelled MBP.  When I get home I connect to my EHD for a regular backup using Time Machine.  I am the only user on the MBP.  My questions are:
    Since the MBP is encrypted is the backup encryted on the EHD?
    Should I ever need to restore from Time Machine using the EHD would I therefore need the password to access the backup?
    If the EHD is NOT encrypted, how do I accomplish this and have File Vault work as seemlessly on the EHD as it does on the MBP
    MacOS X 10.7.5
    Thanks

    1. Only if the external HD is encrypted, which can be done by formatting it as an encrypted volume with Disk Utility before setting it up with Time Machine, or by checking the option to encrypt the drive in the Time Machine system preferences.
    2. No. The password for unlocking the drive is kept on the drive, so if you need to restore from backup all you should need is to supply the password when using the OS X Tools.
    3. See #1.

  • Install new hard drive, restore from Time Machine, File Vault Problems

    Hello all,
    I spent way too much time on this seemingly simple task, so I thought I would share my experience with others so they can avoid some pitfalls when upgrading a hard drive in a system that uses File Vault 2 encryption. The basic goal here is to replace a drive in a system that has only one drive, and the OS is Mavericks, and then have the new drive encrypted as before.
    The problem is that a Time Machine restore onto a new drive will leave that without a Recovery Partition, which is required for File Vault 2 and some other important things. So we need to build a recovery partition. There are possibly several ways to do this.
    Here's what worked for me (this is compiled from many sources that I found and already closed the tabs in my browser so I can't list all my sources):
    1) Make a full backup to an external hard drive using Time Machine.
    2) Go into the App Store and download OS X Mavericks but dont install it (close the window when it pops up asking to continue the install). Do this even if you already have Mavericks. At this point, there will be a folder in your Applications folder called Install OS X Mavericks (or similar).
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    4) Open a terminal and type
    sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction
    5) Wait for this to finish (took me about 30 min). Eject the USB drive and power down.
    6) Remove the old hard drive and set it aside. Keep it for a few weeks until you know the new drive is working as expected.
    7) Install the new hard drive and insert the USB drive. Hold the option key and press the power button. Choose to boot from the USB installer.
    8) Use the disk utility to erase whatever partition shipped with the new drive, replacing it with a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) system. Verify that GUID is the partition type (in Advanced options).
    9) Close the disk utility and install Mavericks. This can take a long time. My new drive is an SSD, and it sat at the "1 second remaining" part for about 20 min. Let it reboot (maybe it was 2 times?) and go through the setup until it finishes the install.
    10) Boot into the freshly installed OS and open a terminal and type:
    diskutil list
    11) If there is a partition listed as Apple_Boot Recovery HD (mine was 650 MB), then you now have a recovery partition. If not, then go into the App store and download Mavericks, but don't use the USB this time, choose to do a regular install (or reinstall to be more correct).
    12) Now there will be a recovery partition on the new drive and Time Machine will not overwrite it when restoring. Power down the system.
    13) Plug in the Time Machine backup drive used in step 1. Press the option key and power on. Choose to boot from the recovery partiton (Mavericks).
    14) Choose to restore from Time Machine backup. Wait until it finishes and log into the old familiar account.
    15) Start a terminal and verify the recovery partition is still there (type diskutil list and see that the Apple_Boot Recovery HD is there). If it's missing, choose to download Mavericks from the App Store again and run the installation from this one.
    16) Once there is a Mavericks recovery partition on the restored data you can simply turn on File Vault from the System Preferences Security section. It will require a reboot and then you login and wait for it to finish.
    What a major pain to go through all of this for the sake of upgrading a hard drive. This should not be anywhere near as complicated. I hope this helps others avoid the very time consuming trial and error I went through in developing this procedure.

    Talked with Apple last night. Everything we did to restore lost images failed to fix the issue. I did have the images still on my camera's SD card so I was not breaking out in a cold sweat.
    All Time Machine backups showed the same issue. HOWEVER, I suddenly remembered I also had a SuperDuper backup and voila. The images were there.
    Moral of the story: you can't ever be too rich or have too many backups (I also have an offsite backup).

  • Cannot delete Time Machine file from external hard drive

    Hello,
    I'd like to delete my original Time machine file from an external hard drive ( Lacie mini ). I move the file into the trash bin and it constantly "deletes". At one time I left it deleting overnight and the file still wasn't trashed.
    I am going to hook up Time Machine to a different, dedicated external hard drive, but I'd like to gain space on the drive that Time Machine is currently on.
    I currently have Time Machine turned off ( I do have everything backed up with my home folder on another external HD ). Should Time Machine be turned on for me to trash the file? Is there a better way to delete the file?
    Much thanks in advance.

    V.K. wrote:
    ... the best and the quickest way to delete it is to erase the TM hard drive....
    But what if a person doesn't want to erase the TM drive? My MacPro came with tiger installed, but since tiger-intel-retail discs don't exist, my copy of tiger is what i have. I was all manner of foolish directing TM to that drive, but damage is done. What can someone in my position do?

  • Can't access Time Machine files since upgrading to Mavericks

    I have searched the community and found that people have experienced issues backing up to Time Machine since upgrading to Mavericks, but my problem appears slightly different from the ones I've found.  I can see that my Time Machine is actually backing up since the upgrade as it was before the upgrade.  The issue I'm having is that I can't access the backed-up files in any way. 
    When I try to open time machine it launches the "space view" with all of the historical tabs lined up for me to scroll through, but imediately closes that window and gives the error message: "Can't connect to a current Time Machine backup disc".  It's so weird, because it says that there have been backups completed since the upgrade (most recently this morning).  If it wasn't writing to the disc, it would have showed me an error of some sort.
    What I am, specifically, trying to accomplish is that I need to restore some iTunes playlists that I somehow managed to delete this past weekend.  I figured that I would easily be able to access the library file that contains the playlists from Saturday morning, when I KNOW that playlist was still there, and just restore it.  Now that I am seeing that I can't access any of my time machine files, I'm realizing that I have an even bigger problem, and that all of my files are, essentially, going without backup at this time (assuming I can't access the files that have already been backing up).
    If anyone has some insight as to how I can fix this problem, I would greatly appreciate it.

    Hi John, (The above was for your attention) I'm 72 and must've hit the wrong button!!!
    I followed your instructions to the letter, but sadly, no success...all my backups are showing on the TM external HD, but I cannot access them after instsalling 'Mavericks'
    I spent the entire day on and off the phone with Applecare (they are very nice, and I'm sure they know most of the stuff needed; but not this problem. They are phoning back tomorrow as the senior chap was not available.
    I love my apple products, and like you, have been using their gear for well over 25 years...not studying the things, but using them all the way through.
    My present Mac,  a 24" iMac is nearly 7 years old, bought on December 11th 2007, and this is the first time I have had a significant problem, and never a virus..got bless em!. I bet there are not many Windows users around who can say the same!
    However, if I cannot access my backups, I'm a bit lost, as all my accumulated stuff is there!
    I guess the worst case scenario is that I revert to OS X 10.7.5, and wait 'til the bugs are ironed out in Mavericks....Ho Hum
    Message was edited by: briinoz

  • I have a power pc (g5) computer that I will soon be replacing with a current i5 or i7 mini. How do I transfer the Time Machine files from the internal hard drive on the G5 to an external drive that I will later use with the Mini?

    I have a Power PC G5 computer that I will soon be replacing with a current i5 or i7 Mini. How do I transfer the Time Machine files from the internal hard drive on the G5 to an external drive that I will later use with the Mini?

    Hi, likely the easiest is to just poll the drive & get something like this...
    Get MacScan...
    http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/macscan.html
    http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/U3NVSPATA/
    But if you have a good external drive already, just clone it.
    Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
    http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
    Or SuperDuper...
    http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/

  • How can i RECOVER a time machine file from  the trash

    I hope someone can help me... I have spent hours and hours reading forums but none that have addressed my problem.
    My daughter gave me her old backup drive.  She also has a MAC so she had Time Machine backups on the drive already.  I started backing up onto this drive about a year ago.  Backups have been done now for a year or so.  Last night I got the message that I was running out of space so I looked at the drive and realized that her backups were still on the drive so I moved them into the trash.  Then Time Machine wouldn't work anymore and I realized that not only did her backups get moved but all of mine did as well.  I need the backups because after I upgraded to Mavericks many of my photos dissappeared from iPhoto.  These are photos that I can't recreate - I sell jewelry and take pictures before I send the piece out.  Everything is one-of-a-kind so it's very important for me to get these back.  I realize now that I never should have moved the backups into the trash as I will have a problem deleting it once I separate her backups from mine but I will deal with that after I figure out this problem.
    Is there anything I can do to move the backups back from out of the trash and into Time Machine again? (BTW - I don't know which version of Mavericks I have - I have done all available updates so I assume it is 10.9.3)

    As long as you don't delete the trash, the files should be recoverable.
    I suspect using the Put Back command could take a long time, so be patient.
    If your Time Machine backups are mixed with your daughter's backups you might want to buy a larger drive and move the Time Machine files to the new drive.
    Regarding missing photos in iPhoto...There might be options to rebuild/recover that data from iPhoto rather than trying to revert to a Time Machine backup.
    Check out this third party app, iPhoto Library Manager. It has a demo.
    http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/
    Options for a larger drive.
    I like the Seagate USB 3.0 Backup plus drives. Works on USB 2.0 ports. They come formatted for PC but easy to format in Disk Utility.
    I don't recommend Western Digital because of the boot problem with some of their drives.
    LaCie makes good drives.
    All Mac formatted drives will cost more and it’s easy to reformat with Disk Utility. Do not use the software that comes with the drives. It’s recommended that you use Apple’s Disk Utility.
    Prices vary but this gives you an idea of what you’ll find. As you notice the second and third TB is usually only $15 more per TB. Normally, you’ll find these prices but right now the 1T is more than the 2T
    Seagate Backup Plus 1 TB USB 3.0 $85
    Seagate Backup Plus 2 TB USB 3.0 $99
    Seagate Backup Plus 3 TB USB 3.0 $115
    I have seen the 3T on sale for $99.
    Locally, Best Buy seems to have the best prices.

  • Is there a way to access Time Machine files associated with an old user name?

    My iMac was running super slow and there was a bunch of programs, etc. that I wanted to get rid of anyway so I thought I would do a "clean install" from my Snow Leopard disc.  I moved items on my desktop to my Seagate external drive and then unplugged it.  I have had Time Machine saving to it for a long time so I was confident I could just move a few items (pictures, music, etc.) back on to my hard drive when the install was completed.  To my surprise, when I went to Time Machine I found the items I had moved from my desktop but no earlier versions of my other files. 
    In researching this issue a little bit, it appears that perhaps I created a new user name when I did the install and that my historical items are likely still on the Seagate but stored somewhere associated with my old user name.  I understand that if I can change my user name back to the original that I may be able to access the items and transfer the items I want.  To compound the situation, I have no idea what my old user name even was.
    Does this make sense to Mac experts out there?
    If so, is there a way to see the old user names and access the Time Machine files?
    I've been avoiding telling my wife that I may have lost all our kid photos so I'm desperately hoping someone can help.

    The problem is that Time Machine detects your new OS X copy as a new Mac and it doesn't let you access to your backups. To access to them, see > http://pondini.org/TM/E3.html
    Another option would be to access to your backups manually. Open a Finder window, select the Time Machine drive in the sidebar and go to Backups.backupdb > your computer's name > one of the backups > your partition's name, and copy the data you want

  • How to completely delete all backed-up time machine files but not other files in my external hard drive?

    I use a 500G WD as my external.. I have documents and movies there that i do not want to delete. Simply i just want to delete my time machine files completely and for my mac to not recognised it as a time machine HD.. TY guys  p.s. A video would be nice

    If you have the external HD setup as one partition, you cannot delete only the TM files as a unit.  You will have to use the brute force method of deleting directory by directory.
    If you have the drive partitioned into a TM backup partition and another partition for your other work, you can simply reformat the TM backup partition.
    So, the first question is, how is your drive setup, as one or as two partitions?

  • How to view Time Machine files on a Capsule

    Hi guys,
    Info:
    OS X 10.10.3
    Time Capsule version 7.7.3
    iMac 21" Mid 2011
    Issue:
    I use the time capsule as a backup specifically for my massive iTunes library.
    When I use a non-apple hard drive for Time Machine backups, I am able to browse the file system of the backup via Finder.
    I cannot access the data on the Time machine other than looking at the backup itself.
    See pix:
    What the heck?!

    What the heck?!
    The heck is that you are trying to compare two completely different types of drives......a USB or FireWire type of drive that is connected directly to your computer, called a "local drive"....and....the Time Capsule drive, which is a "network drive".....since it connects to the network and shares data with network devices.
    Time Machine stores backups differently on a local drive than it does a network drive.
    On a local drive, all of the Time Machine backups are stored in a normal folder called Backups.backupdb.
    All of the Time Machine backups on a Time Capsule are stored in a special type of container called a sparsebundle file, with the name of your Mac associated with the file. Apple does not really want you trying to get into your Time Machine backup files on the Time Capsule using the Finder, so they make it difficult to do so.
    It is also very easy to corrupt a file when you go into the sparsebundle, which may damage all your Time Machine backups and render them useless. For that reason, it is not recommended that you try to access your Time Machine files this way.
    We can tell you how to access the files if you want, but we cannot accept responsibility for any difficulties that you might have if you do this, or help if the files are damaged.
    It's up to you.

  • Time machine was not working.  I bought a new time machine and migrated time machine files to new time capsule; not recognized by yosemite

    Time machine was not working after yosemite upgrade on new and old MacBooks in my house.  I bought a new time machine and migrated time machine files to new time capsule. I changed the names of the older sparse bundles to the default values.  Yosemite still does not recognize them. 

    I presume the bought a time machine means a time capsule.
    How did you migrate the Time Machine files?
    From where? A Time Capsule or external drive?
    It is difficult to get TM working with Yosemite.. since it doesn't work after the upgrade on the old TM backup.. it will not work on the migrated files either.
    You simply start a new backup and store the old backups for a few months until you are ready to dump them.
    The instructions for inheriting old backups is B5 and B6 here.
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
    However it is just unlikely to work.. TM in Yosemite is very different. Broken even.
    I also strongly recommend people to use Carbon Copy Cloner or some other 3rd party backup until Apple get the bugs fixed. And after several months.. they are still rampant.

  • Overly large time machine files

    Hi There,
    my disk that I use for Time machine (120GB Lacie USB) has recently become corrupted, so that it is currently 'read only' So I decided to copy my Time machine files to another drive, so I could format my main one, and then put them back. But this is proving harder that it looks. My temporary drive is a Lacie NAS (250GB), connected via a switch to my iMac, but I can't drag and drop the files as it wont let me.
    So I used another backup program to make a copy, but when I got home from work it had copied 2 of the 49 folders, amounting to 150GB of data, but my main drive is only 120GB!!! How can Time Machine have created 49 (nearly) identical folders containing 90GB of data in each one on a 120GB drive?
    And perhaps more importantly, how can I make a backup of my Time Machine files, so that once I have reformatted (or maybe replaced) my main drive I can copy them back and pick up where I left off.

    Time Machine backup files cannot be copied in the normal way. TM uses hard links and what they call "multi-links" so as to keep only one copy of each unique version of each file.
    For example, if you have a file called "MyFile", if you navigate to it in the backupdb in the Finder you will see it in every timed/dated TM backup folder, and "Get Info" will report the file's true size if restored, but you are really only seeing a hard link; the actual file data is stored invisibly in the backupdb, and the file data is retained as long as there is at least one (hard) link to it.
    Apple has taken this technology one step further, and does the same with entire directories (folders).
    Thus, the total amount of space used for a TM backupdb directory will be far less than the total of the "Get Info" reported size of all its dated folders.
    SuperDuper! can clone a TM backupdb directory and maintain all these special links. There may now be other utilities which can do this, such as CCC, but I'm not sure which.
    I'd suggest first using SuperDuper! to clone your corrupted read-only TM backup to a disk image stored elsewhere for safekeeping. If you want to be able to continue building upon your TM backup it will need to be retained with all its links intact.
    Another consideration is that TM creates a backup on a NAS drive as a sparsebundle, essentially a "size-adjustable" disk image.
    Once you have that clone of your TM backup disk as a SuperDuper! disk image you can then restore that disk image to your new TM backupdrive. If you then need to restore to a new or reformatted main drive you should then be able to do so from the restored TM backup.
    Make sense?

  • Fresh install and save time machine files

    Is it possible to do a fresh install of the os (i have a new SSD on the way) and get the OS to somehow recognize the time machine files - ie. not delete them and start anew?
    I have 2TB drive of backups for the last 5 months.
    I'm thinking the best way would be to just clone the last 2 months sans OS files (or whatever fits) to another drive (via my eSata drive dock).
    Any thoughts?

    If you're going to install OSX on the SSD, and leave everything on the internal HD, Time Machine will just back up the SSD, and continue to do "incremental" backups of both the SSD and the internal HD.
    But if you also move your data to the SSD, TM will back it up completely, since it's a different drive.
    If there isn't enough space on your TM drive, it will start deleting old backups trying to make room; if it gets to the last remaining one and still hasn't enough room, it will fail (leaving the last backup).
    You can delete all backups of things from the internal HD, if you want, per #12 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

  • Time Machine files not listed?

    I just backed up with Time Machine for the first time onto an external hard drive. Because I'm paranoid, I wanted to go through the Time Machine files and make sure everything backed up properly but when I looked through them for individual songs, photos or documents, they weren't listed on the external drive (just on my hard drive in their original location). Am I doing something incorrectly or is this the way TM is supposed to work? Thanks.

    Thanks - I went into Finder and looked through the Time Machine backup files, and while I saw certain applications, etc. when I searched for specific files they were not there.
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  • How do I copy by time machine files to another external HD?

    I would like to copy the data I have in my time machine to another external HD so that I have two backups; one I can store offsight and one I can have connected to my computer.  Can this be done and if so, how does one do it?

    My time machine has files going back to May 2011 and contains over 500GB; my computer has only 320GB capacity. I would like to set up another external HD with the time Machine files on it so that I can use both backups alternately storing one off site and one connected to my computer.  After a couple weeks then alternate them so I always a backup offsite; thus having two HD containing my time machine files.

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