Time Machine for backups for multiple Macs, disk space?

Hey there,
i have an Time Machine drive with backups of my old MacBook and a brand new MacBook Pro. Now i wanted to connect my new MacBook Pro with my Time Machine harddrive.
The Problem is this: First there were not enough disk space available on the harddrive, so i could not create a new backup of my MacBook Pro. Then i excluded some big folders and i could create my backup. My old Macbook is currently (and the next few month) not physically available at my place, so i could not delete old backups manually with this. But i want to keep this backups.
Now my question: In the future, will Time Machine delete my old MacBook backups or will it fail and my harddisk is full after 2 backups of the MacBook Pro?
Best regards and thanks
Johannes

Alright,
i have a few years of backups in this TM. I thought TM will delete old backups if the harddisk runs out of space, or am i wrong? The question is, if TM will delete old backups of other Macs synced with this TM.
Best regards
Johannes

Similar Messages

HT201250 I have two external hard drives. One is my Time Machine backup drive. The other I use for external storage of files (documents, photos, movies, etc). Can I set Time Machine to backup BOTH my Mac hard drive and my other external hard drive?

I have two external hard drives. One is my Time Machine backup drive. The other I use for external storage of files (documents, photos, movies, etc). Can I set Time Machine to backup BOTH my Mac hard drive and my other external hard drive?

Yes you can make multiple backups on one hard drive, for example if you’ve 1TB hard drive installed in your PC and you’ve two Mac Machines with 500GB drive each then you just make two backup images with size of 500GB each.
http://www.halfspot.com/use-your-pc-hard-drive-for-time-machine-backup/

Time Machine duplicating backups for no apparent reason

Hello all. I am attempting to use Time Machine with a hard drive ("AirDisk") attached to an Airport Extreme Base Station. I am aware that this is not officially supported, and I expect I will just end up having to go back to doing SneakerNet backups. I thought that it was worth trying to find out if anyone knew what might be going wrong before I threw in the towel.
I had been using it without incident for about a week, when suddenly, the day before yesterday, it started wanting to make a whole new backup. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the backup that is already there -- I can go into "Star Wars" and browse it without issue, and I have verified it with DiskUtility. It doesn't do it every time, and sometimes will run a normal incremental backup without incident. In particular, if I stop the huge full backup, delete the extra sparsebundle it's just made, and then run a backup again right afterward, it will run a normal incremental backup.
Here's the log of its most recent full backup, at least up to where it is now (it's currently in the middle of the long, long process of re-backing up every darned thing). Is there anything there that gives anyone an idea why it's doing this? As you can see, it's made a "Polythene Pam 1.sparsebundle" despite there already being a seemingly fine "Polythene Pam.sparsebundle" on the disk.
Thank you very much for any assistance you can provide.
Here's the system log so far:
9/11/10 9:29:05 PM com.apple.backupd[1716] Starting standard backup
9/11/10 9:29:05 PM com.apple.backupd[1716] Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Heather%20Kendrick@Rabbit's%20Rest.afpovertcp.tcp.local/Rabbit%20Hole
9/11/10 9:29:05 PM com.apple.backupd[1716] Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Heather%20Kendrick@Rabbit's%20Rest.afpovertcp.tcp.local/Rabbit%20Hole
9/11/10 9:29:06 PM kernel AFP_VFS afpfs_mount: /Volumes/Rabbit Hole-1, pid 1837
9/11/10 9:29:11 PM com.apple.backupd[1716] Creating disk image /Volumes/Rabbit Hole-1/Polythene Pam 1.sparsebundle
9/11/10 9:29:13 PM hdiejectd[1844] running
9/11/10 9:29:23 PM hdiejectd[1844] quitCheck: calling exit(0)
9/11/10 9:30:05 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.netauth.sysagent[1837]) Exited with exit code: 255
9/11/10 9:30:11 PM kernel hfs: Initializing the journal (joffset 0x73d000 sz 0x1800000)...
9/11/10 9:30:14 PM hdiejectd[1857] running
9/11/10 9:30:15 PM com.apple.backupd[1716] QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
9/11/10 9:30:16 PM fseventsd[41] could not open <</Volumes/Time Machine Backups/.fseventsd/fseventsd-uuid>> (No such file or directory)
9/11/10 9:30:16 PM fseventsd[41] log dir: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/.fseventsd getting new uuid: C103E1D4-7802-4793-9251-FD2D3E6BC542
9/11/10 9:30:17 PM com.apple.backupd[1716] Disk image /Volumes/Rabbit Hole-1/Polythene Pam 1.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
9/11/10 9:30:17 PM com.apple.backupd[1716] Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
9/11/10 9:30:17 PM com.apple.backupd[1716] Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
9/11/10 9:30:34 PM com.apple.backupd[1716] Backup content size: 63.5 GB excluded items size: 13.6 GB for volume Rocky Raccoon
9/11/10 9:30:34 PM com.apple.backupd[1716] No pre-backup thinning needed: 59.83 GB requested (including padding), 182.11 GB available
9/11/10 9:30:34 PM com.apple.backupd[1716] Waiting for index to be ready (101)
9/11/10 9:30:35 PM mds[36] (Normal) DiskStore: Creating index for /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb

Oddly enough, the size/format of some names can make odd things happen with network Time Machine backups, and at least one of yours may be involved. See #C9 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
Do your self a favor, though. Even if you get this working, do not depend on these backups 100%. There's a reason Apple doesn't support it -- it's not reliable.
There are any number of threads here and in the Airport Extreme forum similar to this one: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2483045
If you still want to do it, see Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Time Machine to Backup two different mac computers on a single firewire 500

I have a new generation MacBook and iMacG5 and a single Maxtor 500 GB external hard drive which has two firewire inputs. I connexted both macs by firewire to this external hard drive. I used Time Machine on both computers which are on at the same time. However I can see Time Machine works well on one mac - where I can see each hourly backup but the other mac backups don't show up. I called Tech support and was told that I cannot have both macs on at the same time accessing the same external hard drive. I see two different files for each computer's backup so why can't both computers be running Time Machine at the same time?
So...I thought I should buy the new Time Capsule 1 TB BUT I worry the same access issues will occur. How does the Time Capsule drive wirelessly operate with two macs simultaneously when I was told that Time Machine would not operate via firewire with multiple computers on a single drive.
Any suggestions...are the Tech Support folks incorrect about using Time Machine with firewire access simultaneously with two different macs?

What you cannot do is connect two computers to a single FW drive enclosure at the same time. You can connect the drive to each computer separately. Time Capsule functions as a network drive thus any machine on the network can access the shared network drive. This is not the same as using an external FW drive.
If you want to use your single FW drive to backup two computers, I suggest you first partition the drive into two equal partitions. Use one partition for the TM backup of one computer, and the other partition as the TM backup for the second computer. However, you will need to physically move the drive from one computer to the other in order to perform backups.
Alternatively, if you have a local network set up you can physically connect the drive to one computer, then set up file sharing so that the other computer can mount the shared drive and use it for backup via the Ethernet network (or wireless if it's a wireless setup.) Unfortunately, I'm not positive this will work because TM is known to have some problems backing up to network devices although it is supposed to be able to backup to network drives.
Nevertheless, you should set up two partitions on the drive for each computer in order to keep the backups separate.

Using Time Machine to backup data FROM external disk to ANOTHER external

i have my itunes library and my iphoto library on an external WD disk connected to my MacBook Pro. So, i have a lot of nice data on that disk that i want protected... but Time Machine is not playing nice with the external hard drive. It's not listed on the list of items "Not to backup", yet when I go into the Time Machine interface, i can't go more than 1 level deep in Finder when selecting the external disk.
has anyone seen this behavior? it's supposed to work.
thanks!

Did you backup your data from that external disk using some other backup software before?
I am also trying to figure out problems with external HD using time machine to back it up. Am not quite sure yet why it is not working right.

Time Machine... out of disk space on day one--what to do?

I have spent hours identifying items to exclude on my Mac Pro... then I got one good backup of say 800 or so GB... then I replaced all of my HDs with larger drives but with the same data and drive name and now Time Machine wants a lot more disk space to do the next update (backup).... apparently, although TM seemed to be doing other backups (before the HD upgrade) it seems that it cannot automatically delete what it needs...
How can I start fresh? Is there a way to tell TM to recycle the backup?
Can Time Machine write to a second disk... as an overflow backup drive?
I need like a 2 or 3TB Time Capsule.... what to do?
Thanks,
Robert

Robert Broussard wrote:
I have spent hours identifying items to exclude on my Mac Pro... then I got one good backup of say 800 or so GB... then I replaced all of my HDs with larger drives but with the same data and drive name and now Time Machine wants a lot more disk space to do the next update (backup).... apparently, although TM seemed to be doing other backups (before the HD upgrade) it seems that it cannot automatically delete what it needs...
If you want it to backup new drives, it's going to backup everything on them (unless you re-entered them, the previous exclusions apply to the previous drives.) Just because they contain copies of the same files, to TM, it's all new. You don't say how big your TM drive is, but if it's 1 tb with 800 gb already used, there isn't much space left.
How can I start fresh? Is there a way to tell TM to recycle the backup?
Don't know what you mean by "recycle", but most likely you need to erase your TM drive (with Disk Utility) and let TM do a new, full backup.
Can Time Machine write to a second disk... as an overflow backup drive?
I think so. You need to set them up as a single RAID volume. Browse or search this forum, as there was a post about this in the last few days, with specific instructions.

Time Machine drive reporting more and more disk space available

OK, so I've been using Time Machine since 28-OCT-2007 and all my backups are present. I have watched my TMDrive (Buffalo 500GB Fire Wire) report as little as 20GB available and slowly over the past 30 or so days report 205.42 GB now available. Any sizable downloading I do is pointed at another external HDD and that is listed in the Do NOt Backup list. I understand how hourly and daily works, but to see such drastic swing in available disk space seems a bit odd. Has anyone else seen this?
Message was edited by: brenodo

Brenodo,
As backups are thinned, you will see a reduction in the amount of space used on the TM drive. This is entirely normal. Keep in mind that TM is designed to maintain a "restorable" copy of your system, and all of your user files, past and present. This represents a discreet amount of data which is only added to in small increments, really... as you say, any large downloads are going to a dedicated external.
While TM might temporarily use much more disk space to manage its backups, the thinning process will eventually weed out everything that is unnecessary, as you are now seeing. I wouldn't be surprised if you begin to see the free space being used again, at some point, and the cycle will begin anew.
Scott

Time machine latest backup

I have a problem with time machine. I have just got a new computer and installed a backup, which was done some weeks ago. This backup was older than some backups on the hard drive. I did not want to backup the latest backup. The problem is there is not enough disk space to do a new latest backup. I thought that when there is not enough disk space it starts going over the oldest backups. But it is not doing this, is there away to tell it to erase the oldest backup. I can not see anything in the preferences that might tell it to do this.
Please could some one help.

John,
*_Full Backup After Hardware Change / Mac OS Reinstall_*
Actually, this is normal. Anytime your hardware has been repaired, replaced, Time Machine will perform a new full backup and you will not be able to resume backing up with the same history as the previous backups. Time Machine will resume incremental backups after the full backup has completed.
To view previous backups, Control-click or right-click the Time Machine icon in your Dock or Option-click the Time Machine menu and choose "Browse Other Time Machine Disks," then select your previous backup volume. You will enter Time Machine and be able to browse your previous back ups and restore files.
While there may be ways to fool/hack Time Machine into recognizing previous backups without performing another full backup, they are rather elaborate, and for the average user are simply not worth it. Ultimately, in a couple of months, all the effort to preserve old backups may seem pointless. After all, Time Machine will eventually purge away that data anyways as it replaces it with new files.
It may simply be easier to begin a fresh series of backups while saving the previous backups until your satisfied that you have enough history built up. Then delete the old backups.
*Why Can’t I Resume Backups?*
You see, Time Machine was designed to restore your Macs’ immediate environment in case of system crashes or accidental deletion of user files. As a result, reinstalling your Mac OS system software or changing your hardware requires a fresh set of backups since older backups would not accurately represent the current state of your Mac.
Additionally, if a user has had to reinstall the system software, then resuming backups to the same set could later reintroduce the very issues that lead to the reinstall in the first place. Furthermore, maintaining backups that were started with an older Mac, introduces the possibility of restoring system files that were never intended for the new Mac.
Finally, if backups were NOT linked to a specific Mac, imagine the confusion for Time Machine in households with multiple Macs backing up to the same Time Machine device. Backups from one Mac could unintentionally be added to the backup set of another Mac. In that event, any attempt at ‘restoring’ files/folders specific to that Mac would be impossible. As a result, each backup set must be unique for each Mac.
Fortunately, it appears that new full backups are not required after a user performs an “Archive and Install”, a “Restore System From Backup...”, or an “Erase and Install” with their Mac OS Leopard install DVD. At least this appears to be the case since the Mac OS 10.5.5 update.
If you require long-term archival storage of files, then you need another backup strategy.
Hope this clarifies some things.
Cheers!
Message was edited by: Glenn Carter
Message was edited by: Glenn Carter

Time Machine - Preparing backup - It's endless

My C2D Mac Mini is hanging on Time Machine - Preparing Backup for the second time since "Upgrading" to 10.5.2
I had to re-format my backup disk last time and start all the backups again.
Here is an extract from the console log:
29/04/2008 23:50:13 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1094] Starting standard backup
29/04/2008 23:50:13 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1094] Backing up to: /Volumes/LaCie Disk/Backups.backupdb
29/04/2008 23:50:15 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1094] Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
29/04/2008 23:50:15 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[1094] Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
Does anyone recognise this? I'm a Mac novice so I don't understand what it all means. I hope I don't have to reformat and start again as I was converted to Mac from PC on the advice that "A Mac Works!"
My backup drive is a 500GB Lacie Mini if that is of any relevance. Spotlight is told not to index the drive and also the Lacie drive is told not to back itself up.
Can anyone help as it's driving me nuts!

Are Lacie really that bad? I thought that the main reason they are mentioned in these forums is that Lacie are one of the only brands of external storage that apple actively promote through their own web stores so there a good chance that quite a few Mac users will buy one. Anyway I can't afford to buy another Hard Drive at the moment and the lacie works perfectly apart from Time Machine.
The problem seems to be with Mac OS the more I delve into these forums and more importantly the 10.5.2. update which is where Time Machine appears to be providing users with a lot of troubles.
The Apple support self service on the website is far from comprehensive as I guess they want you to purchase Apple Care for ongoing support after the 90 days initial period but come on apple give us a break and sort it out or provide a support email address for specific problems!

Time Machine after migration to new Mac

So, I just got a new Mac, and used the option to copy settings and files from a Time Machine volume to the new machine. Now that everything's run, though, I can't use Time Machine to backup the new Mac -- it says "Volume not found". I've Googled a bit, but most of the troubleshooting seems to assume that the drive is missing or won't mount -- the drive is there, but the Time Machine software won't use it.
What are my options here?

Hi VK
A supplementray question:
I have one i-mac happily backing up with Time Machine to an external hard drive.
I have just bought a second i-mac (stops the fighting!) and propose to use migration assistant to move my [admin] account from the old to the new i-mac leaving two other accounts on the old one. I see from your posts that it seems as if Time Machine will start a new back up series for the new i-mac's back ups. But what about the old i-mac? Will that continue to extend the existing Time Machine back up files, albeit without my transferred account and its files? If so, should I partition the external drive and start the new back ups from the new i-mac on this new partition. I'd like to end up with the old i-mac continuing to build its Time Machine back ups (less my account and its files) and have a new back up series from the new i-mac building to a separate partition on the external drive.
Does this make sense? I can't see an answer in the forum to what must be a reasonably common issue in this expandin mac world.
MVBW
Mervyn

Time machine network backup really ***** (truly)

Ok I've said it..
Ok I've had enough..
Come on Guy's. Apple really has to take some flack here. No more excuses. You advertised timemachine backup to a network share would work easily. You advertise apple software works without a hitch (unlike MS windows)...but I've had nothing but hastles setting up time machine to backup to a mac server attached usb drive. I've BEEN a windows user before and I tell you this is just like going back to the dark side!
And another thing
No I'm not trying to use an airport extreme mount
No I'm not trying to use a NAS
No I'm not trying to back up a linux or PC volume
I'm being a good little customer. It's all using mac to mac. Yes, it's Leopard to Leopard...
Hastle one:
The drive mount. I've successfully done this for 3 networked macs. It took a while, was working a few days, but the mount is unreliable. If one of the macs goes down, time machine doesn't work anymore. I get the error "backup disc image could not be mounted". Apparently the problem is with the "sparseimage". One solution I've read is to delete the sparseimage then try again. Fine
Hastle two:
I can't work out how to delete the sparseimage! I get an error cannot do - "the item token is in use"
Apple needs to take a cold shower on time machine.
Where is the help on this? Where is the customer apologies? Where are the solutions?
Obviously there was not pre release testing. Wait a minute WE are the pre-release testing!
It is just plain unreliable as a backup solution for macs on a home ethernet network..even when all the gear is actually mac!
I give it a rating of 1 out of 10 on this.
Come on guys lift you game!
Message was edited by: sfsfsfs
Message was edited by: sfsfsfs

I have had nothing but problems with Time Machine. We are wasting our valuable time with a product that SIMPLY DOES NOT WORK. Apple needs to weigh in here. We are wasting our "TIME" on our "MACHINES" Now I see why Apple calls it TIME MACHINE!

I have 2 auxillary disk drives for my MacBokk Pro. Time Machine uses one for backup and I use the other for storage, but I am unable to create a new folder or drag and drop files or folders to the aux drive.

I am unable to create a new folder on either of my auxillary disk drives. I can access the files and folders that were there when I transferred one of the drives from a PC. Time machine uses one for backup and I want to use the other to store photos which are large files. An help would be appreciated.

Thanks for the reply. If I reformat the drive will I be able to access the files on it from the MAC. I do not share the drive with a PC. The files were originally created on a PC which I no longer use. I do want to continue to access the files put there by the PC. I would like to not have to copy them over to the MAC hard drive just to use them. The second aux drive is new and works fine because it was formatted by the MAC. I can drag and drop files there and work with just as if they were on the internal drive.

Use external drive for both Time Machine and storage for Back to My Mac

Hi all,
I have been "a Mac" now for over a year and just keep finding cool new things that make me happy I switched. The latest thing is Back to My Mac offered with my Mobile Me account. With a rather convoluted mix of PC/Mac/iOS devices to manage - best $99 I ever spent btw...
I also have a 1TB Time Capsule that I have been using with Time Machine to back up all four of my Mac computers at home. Needless to say, the 1TB is really struggling to handle the amount of data being backed up and certainly leaves no room for anything else.
What I wanted to do was to attach a larger external hard drive via a powered hub to the USB port on the Time Capsule and use it for Time Machine backups while using the internal 1TB drive with Back to My Mac so that I can have remote access to all my data from anywhere without having to leave my computer running at home all the time in order for my laptop to "see" it when I'm away. And, yes, the amount of that data far exceeds what any level of Mobile Me subscription can offer! I should also mention that the hard drive is the only USB device connected through the hub to the Time Capsule at the moment. There are no other devices that might be "getting in the way".
I'm thinking maybe all this is asking too much without the addition of a dedicated file server (Mac Mini, perhaps - not a purchase my budget wants to make).
I understand that the Time Capsule doesn't support partitions, so I bought a Western Digital 2TB Elements drive, connected it to my Macbook Pro and used Disk Utility to reformat the drive from the incompatible NTFS it shipped in to a single, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition. I then made two folders on the drive, one for Time Machine backups and one for Back to My Mac remote storage/access. Great.
However, when I connected the 2TB drive to my Time Capsule I could not see it at all. Time Capsule was reporting problems in the way of a disk error. From within my Airport Utility, I could see the trouble was the external drive. The utility suggested connecting the drive to a Mac and using it's Disk Utility to troubleshoot.
I followed through, checking the disk, etc. and ended up reformatted the drive on my Macbook Pro yet again with the same specifications as before but without the folders and reconnected it to the Time Capsule. Same deal. But now, I can't even remotely connect to the Time Capsule at all. I can see the Time Capsule in the shared area of my Macbook's Finder but can not connect. The connection tries and fails even before it gets to asking me for username and password credentials.
Long story short, first of all, I suppose I would like to know if I'm asking for the impossible?
Second, if what I want to do *is* possible, what steps do I need to take to make it so?
Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions you might have.

Well, I have now reformatted/partitioned my poor WD Elements 2TB drive about a dozen times as well as restarted my 1TB Time Capsule so many times it's no wonder it's as confused as I am! <G>
Last night, at your suggestion, William, and in respect for your continued support, I tried creating two 1TB Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partitions on the WD external USB drive, both with GUID partition tables. Both volumes mounted to my laptop's desktop flawlessly and without issue.
Once the external drive was connected to the Time Capsule, however, it was a crap shoot as to whether or not the drive was recognized at all, reporting a problem with the disk, or, even at one point, mounting one of the two volumes but not both. <sigh>
I read somewhere on the Internet that you need to restart the Time Capsule for volumes on an external USB drive to be recognized.
So I tried that. I connected the freshly partitioned/formatted disk to the Time Capsule and restarted it. This succeed in removing the issue of reporting a nameless drive with a capacity of 0MB. It then reported the drive with its correct name but would not recognize whatever volumes in whatever partitions that particular crack at it contained with the exception of the once, as I mentioned above, when only one of two volumes mounted correctly and was listed with the right name and capacity on the Time Capusule's Setup's Disk tab.
At this point I have given up on my goal to use the external drive with Time Machine to back up my Macs or to hope I will ever be able to see its contents remotely via Back to My Mac. All I would like to do now is simply find a reason why I can't get it successfully connected and playing nice with my Time Capsule in the first place!
Any further suggestions or advice as to what steps I might take next would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you all.

After upgrade to mavericks: time machine keeps asking for my back up disk and won't open unless i plug in the disk. any solutions?

after upgrade to mavericks: time machine keeps asking for my back up disk and won't open unless i plug in the disk. any solutions?
before the upgrade, i could open time machine without the need for having the back up disk plugged in.

Ok. I got it to work, sort of....
As I mentioned before I tried the "disk password" and the "Time capsule Password" options to see if I can start the back up again or start a new backup. Neither worked. So I tried the firmware down grade, but like you said that did not work. I then decided to try the "Account password" option and I have never used this option before becasue it states that if there is data on the drive it would not be acessable after creating an account. Since I wiped out the disk that was nno problem. When I created the new account and choose the drive it asked for the user name and password. I entered the info for the new account I just created(FYI this has nothing to do with your login username and password), bingo! It worked!
Now I have two partitions on the TC disk. The old one and now the new account. I am guessing this is to be used if I have multiple computers, which I don't.
I any case, I am going to wipe out everything again and try again to do a backup the way I had it before.

Where did this backup window come from on my desktop. I have always used time machine to backup to an external disc and within the last 2 weeks, this backup window keeps appearing. Where did it come from? Thanks for any help

where did this backup window come from on my desktop. It specifies personal data & settings and tells me when the next backup is scheduled [which I never set up]. I have always used time machine to backup to an external disc and within the last 2 weeks, this backup window keeps appearing. Where did it come from? Thanks for any help

To check your S.M.A.R.T status open disk utility and click on your drive and then click on the info icon.

Time Machine for backups for multiple Macs, disk space?

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