Time Machine Has All My Music, Do I Need My CDs Anymore?

Silly question, perhaps. Time Machine has ALL my music from my CDs and that music which I have downloaded. Now, I only use my iTunes for listening to music - my CDs are all packed away. So, do I really need my CDs anymore or can I sell them, give them away? If you house catches fire, the CDs are gone anyway and I'm grabbing the Time Capsule . . .
~ Anna

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Unless you also have at least one set of backups off-site, keep them (in your safe deposit box, workplace, relative's house, or other secure place).
I hate to even suggest the possibility, but just the other day someone posted where his Mac and external HD containing his backups were stolen.
You can also lose both your originals and backups in cases of fire, flood, or direct lightning strike on your power lines.
See #27 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum) for some suggestions.

Similar Messages

  • Time machine has deleted all old backups

    Hi, I'm desperate! time machine has all the old backups deleted on my time capsule, only today's early still a backup available. It was still 1TB space on the hard disk. What did I do wrong? There was no warning!

    Time Machine will not delete your old backups unless it starts to run out of space on the hard drive......or.....your backups have become corrupted and Time Machine cannot repair them.
    In the latter case, a message like this will appear on your screen:
    Do you recall seeing this message recently?

  • Time Machine has lost all backups

    I have a time capsule that was reset on 15th April when I moved the home folder on our iMac to an external disk. It needed to be reset as there was not enough free space to keep the existing backups and continue with the new external. Time machine has been running since and backing up our files.
    Today I noticed that Time Machine was working hard doing a backup and when I check the status in the top bar it shows that time machine is backing up all or our data (approx 250Gb). I opened the time machine application and it only shows a backup from today - there is no history.
    What could have happened? It looks like the time capsule was wiped and time machine has started from scratch again. One other thing, I updated to the latest AirPort utility this morning, coincidence?
    Hope someone can help as I do not want this to happen again.
    All the best
    Andrew Wright.

    Thanks for the link, but the answers there did not really help explain why a full backup was done. None of the reasons in D3 were applicable. I did look at the system log and found the info below. This appears to show a 'normal' backup just before 2pm then the full backup just after 3pm. The question is still 'why would time machine want to backup everything when most files were already backed up'?
    Jun 17 13:55:24 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Starting standard backup
    Jun 17 13:55:24 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
    Jun 17 13:55:33 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
    Jun 17 13:55:37 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
    Jun 17 13:55:40 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule/MyMac.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
    Jun 17 13:55:40 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Jun 17 13:56:02 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 841.0 MB requested (including padding), 149.65 GB available
    Jun 17 13:57:28 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Copied 1601 files (183.8 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    Jun 17 13:57:28 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 592.4 MB requested (including padding), 149.65 GB available
    Jun 17 13:57:31 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Copied 7 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
    Jun 17 13:57:32 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Starting post-backup thinning
    Jun 17 13:58:02 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/MyMac/2011-05-18-162329: 149.65 GB now available
    Jun 17 13:58:02 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
    Jun 17 13:58:02 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Backup completed successfully.
    Jun 17 13:58:06 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
    Jun 17 13:58:06 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Ejected Time Machine network volume.
    Jun 17 15:16:12 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Starting standard backup
    Jun 17 15:16:12 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
    Jun 17 15:16:21 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
    Jun 17 15:16:23 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
    Jun 17 15:16:26 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule/MyMac.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
    Jun 17 15:16:26 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Jun 17 15:16:40 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Node requires deep traversal:/Volumes/Users reason:must scan subdirs|
    Jun 17 15:17:17 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Compacting storage: 297.87 GB requested (including padding), 149.65 GB available before compacting
    Jun 17 15:17:17 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Stopping backup.
    Jun 17 15:17:18 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Backup canceled.
    Jun 17 15:17:19 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
    Jun 17 15:17:19 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Compacting backup disk image to recover free space
    Jun 17 15:18:11 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Completed backup disk image compaction

  • Time machine has deleted/hidden *all* my backups.

    At the moment I'm using two 1TB external hard drives connected to my mac, one as storage and one just for time machine. Yesterday the storage drive died on me, so I replaced it with another 1TB drive.
    Time machine has been backing up everything on the main computer and the storage drive for several months now so I thought it would be an easy fix, just restore what was lost from the storage drive and I'm set.
    After connecting and formatting the new external hard drive I tried restoring the lost data but couldn't figure out a way to have it restore from time machine directly to the new drive. Instead, I went into the Backups.backupdb folder on the time machine drive, found the most recent backup of the files I needed from Feb 9th and just dragged and dropped it into the new drive.
    It comprised of some 550GB of data, so I left it copying overnight. Checking on it this morning, it seems that a little less than half of the data has been copied across and what's worse - time machine no longer shows any backups made before this morning. Checking in the drive contents, it seems that the backup folders no longer exist either.
    Now, I don't actually think the data has gone missing since the time machine drive is still showing that it has some 700GB of data still on it, it's just not viewable for some reason.
    I've been through Disk Utility to see if the drive needs repairing, but I'm being told that there's no problem with it. I've also checked to see if the data has somehow found its way into the trash can, but it's not there either.
    Does anyone have any suggestions as to what happened and how to recover my lost backups?

    pheadlessg wrote:
    Thanks for that. It's backing up again now but the old backups are still missing.
    I have no idea what went wrong with the drag and drop. It should have copied your data (likely with a zillion permission problems), but shouldn't have affected the TM data. There might be something in your logs, but that probably won't help now.
    Your old backups are probably hosed (pardon the technical term <grin>).
    You might be able to give yourself read rights to the .Trashes folder, and see if there's anything in it, but I doubt you'll see anything.
    To do so, select it, then +Get Info.+
    Click the padlock at the bottom of the pane, then enter your Administrator's password.
    Then click the plus sign at the bottom; you should get a selection screen for yourself. Click it.
    That should give you read rights.
    A very long shot, but worth a try.
    Most likely, you're going to end up erasing the drive/partition and starting over.

  • Time machine has deleted all old backups -  I think

    Dear All,
    Time machine failed tonight. It said there wasn't enough disk space (2TB external drive). I went into time machine and all the backups bar one from this morning are gone. One thing that did happen today was that I ran disk utility on HD1 and it said it needed a repair which I did by restarting and pressing shift.
    So where the flippin heck have my backups gone and why is time machine failing to back up.
    Any help appreciated.
    Thanks
    Josh

    hi
    thank you for help. really appreciated.
    here is the text from the log. Should I just give up, reformat the tm drive and start again?
    volume Video.
    Dec 25 20:22:50 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[470]: Copied 497 files (1.8 MB) from volume Macintosh HD 2.
    Dec 25 20:23:41 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[470]: Starting post-backup thinning
    Dec 25 20:23:41 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[470]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
    Dec 25 20:23:41 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[470]: Backup completed successfully.
    Dec 25 21:07:13 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Starting standard backup
    Dec 25 21:07:13 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Dec 25 21:07:15 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 329.8 MB requested (including padding), 155.78 GB available
    Dec 25 21:07:34 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Copied 648 files (4.9 MB) from volume Macintosh HD 1.
    Dec 25 21:07:36 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Copied 654 files (4.9 MB) from volume Video.
    Dec 25 21:07:38 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Copied 660 files (4.9 MB) from volume Macintosh HD 2.
    Dec 25 21:07:39 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Starting post-backup thinning
    Dec 25 21:07:45 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-24-203749: 155.78 GB now available
    Dec 25 21:07:45 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
    Dec 25 21:07:46 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Backup completed successfully.
    Dec 26 09:48:06 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Starting standard backup
    Dec 26 09:48:06 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Dec 26 09:48:07 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Node requires deep traversal:/Volumes/Untitled 1 reason:must scan subdirs|
    Dec 26 09:48:07 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 322.5 MB requested (including padding), 155.78 GB available
    Dec 26 09:48:07 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Copied 1 files (0 bytes) from volume Untitled 1.
    Dec 26 09:48:07 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Indexer unavailable (200)
    Dec 26 09:48:09 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Copied 7 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD 1.
    Dec 26 09:48:09 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Waiting for index to be ready (101)
    Dec 26 09:48:24 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Copied 13 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD 2.
    Dec 26 09:48:34 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Copied 19 files (93 bytes) from volume Video.
    Dec 26 09:48:40 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Starting post-backup thinning
    Dec 26 09:49:02 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup source disk!
    Dec 26 09:49:03 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Backup deletion was canceled by user
    Dec 26 09:49:03 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Backup completed successfully.
    Dec 26 10:19:49 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Starting standard backup
    Dec 26 10:19:49 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Dec 26 10:20:13 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 329.7 MB requested (including padding), 155.78 GB available
    Dec 26 10:21:23 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 947 files (5.8 MB) from volume Macintosh HD 1.
    Dec 26 10:21:25 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 953 files (5.8 MB) from volume Macintosh HD 2.
    Dec 26 10:21:28 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 959 files (5.8 MB) from volume Video S3.
    Dec 26 11:19:51 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 4.4 GB of 4.4 GB, 3373 of 3373 items
    Dec 26 12:19:52 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 8.2 GB of 8.2 GB, 3384 of 3384 items
    Dec 26 13:19:52 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 20.5 GB of 20.5 GB, 3409 of 3409 items
    Dec 26 14:19:54 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 34.7 GB of 34.7 GB, 3442 of 3442 items
    Dec 26 15:19:55 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 54.8 GB of 54.8 GB, 3478 of 3478 items
    Dec 26 15:51:26 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 3496 files (67.5 GB) from volume Macintosh HD 4.
    Dec 26 15:54:17 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 718.12 GB requested (including padding), 88.27 GB available
    Dec 26 15:54:17 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Found partially deleted backup - trying again to delete: 2009-11-26-214614
    Dec 26 15:54:39 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-26-214614: 88.36 GB now available
    Dec 26 15:54:39 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Removed all 1 expired backups, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room
    Dec 26 16:08:32 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-08-31-214215: 102.34 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:09:50 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-09-12-204919: 104.33 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:11:08 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-09-20-200117: 105.00 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:11:57 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-10-04-162511: 105.11 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:13:53 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-10-11-095448: 111.18 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:15:17 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-10-18-194956: 112.30 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:16:36 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-10-25-143128: 112.59 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:18:54 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-01-150819: 113.80 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:19:42 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-08-210648: 114.44 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:25:48 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-15-084242: 125.84 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:28:19 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-23-124658: 125.93 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:29:20 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-27-075219: 125.94 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:31:08 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-28-000354: 125.97 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:32:41 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-29-101726: 126.17 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:33:13 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-30-212802: 126.17 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:34:12 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-02-205548: 126.18 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:36:42 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-04-180748: 126.69 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:37:58 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-06-164628: 126.70 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:40:57 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-07-203807: 126.95 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:42:15 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-12-103818: 127.03 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:43:08 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-14-194223: 127.05 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:43:36 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-15-213301: 127.05 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:46:56 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-17-203032: 128.20 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:48:15 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-18-203635: 128.21 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:49:06 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-21-173338: 128.22 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:49:57 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-24-194134: 128.23 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:50:17 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-25-150955: 128.23 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:50:58 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-25-164942: 129.26 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:51:18 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-25-173957: 129.26 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:51:45 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-25-183843: 129.26 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:52:23 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-25-202250: 129.27 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:52:25 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-25-210738: 129.27 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:52:25 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Error: backup disk is full - all 33 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
    Dec 26 16:52:25 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Backup Failed: unable to free 718.12 GB needed space
    Dec 26 16:52:31 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.
    Dec 26 17:18:45 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Starting standard backup
    Dec 26 17:18:46 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Dec 26 17:19:33 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 878.33 GB requested (including padding), 129.27 GB available
    Dec 26 17:19:33 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
    Dec 26 17:19:33 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
    Dec 26 17:19:33 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Backup Failed: unable to free 878.33 GB needed space
    Dec 26 17:19:38 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.
    Dec 26 18:04:50 simon-jordans-mac-pro [0x0-0x45045].backupd-helper[853]: Not starting Time Machine backup after wake - failed to resolve alias to backup volume
    Dec 26 18:07:02 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Starting standard backup
    Dec 26 18:07:03 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Dec 26 18:07:24 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Node requires deep traversal:/Volumes/Q reason:must scan subdirs|
    Dec 26 18:10:05 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Node requires deep traversal:/Volumes/N2 reason:must scan subdirs|
    Dec 26 18:10:08 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 1.48 TB requested (including padding), 129.27 GB available
    Dec 26 18:10:08 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
    Dec 26 18:10:08 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
    Dec 26 18:10:08 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Backup Failed: unable to free 1.48 TB needed space
    Dec 26 18:10:14 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.
    Dec 26 18:13:18 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Starting standard backup
    Dec 26 18:13:19 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Dec 26 18:13:38 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Node requires deep traversal:/Volumes/Q reason:must scan subdirs|
    Dec 26 18:15:52 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Node requires deep traversal:/Volumes/N2 reason:must scan subdirs|
    Dec 26 18:15:59 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 1.05 TB requested (including padding), 129.27 GB available
    Dec 26 18:15:59 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
    Dec 26 18:15:59 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
    Dec 26 18:15:59 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Backup Failed: unable to free 1.05 TB needed space
    Dec 26 18:16:05 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.
    Dec 26 18:51:41 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Starting standard backup
    Dec 26 18:51:41 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Dec 26 18:52:10 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 877.95 GB requested (including padding), 129.27 GB available
    Dec 26 18:52:10 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
    Dec 26 18:52:10 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
    Dec 26 18:52:10 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Backup Failed: unable to free 877.95 GB needed space
    Dec 26 18:52:15 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.
    Dec 26 18:53:22 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Starting standard backup
    Dec 26 18:53:22 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Dec 26 18:53:36 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 877.95 GB requested (including padding), 129.27 GB available
    Dec 26 18:53:36 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
    Dec 26 18:53:36 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
    Dec 26 18:53:36 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Backup Failed: unable to free 877.95 GB needed space
    Dec 26 18:53:41 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.

  • Time Machine has locked my external drive. HELP

    Time Machine hosed me again. After several unsuccessful attempts to backup on my PowerMac G5 dual 2.33 Ghz, I was able to complete my first full backup to an external 2 gig DROBO (USB 2.0 interface). It took 20 hours to do 180 gigs.
    Now I have just discovered that Time Machine has made that external drive READ-ONLY! I cannot write to the drive and neither can Time Machine.
    Does anybody know what is up and how to fix this short of using root UNIX shell which terrifies me. I just want to take it off and cut my losses, but the drive also has a ton of music on it that iTunes uses.

    Okay Jeffery, I think I've found the solution, especially if you are seeing the "Unknown" user in your Get Info window's Sharing & Permissions setting for your drobo.
    I had written earlier about my work-around for getting my drobo to work right after getting the "read-only" error from Time Machine. But unfortunately it was a temporary and temperamental fix. There were times then I had to eject the disk and launch Disk Utility to run a repair on the disk which would take more than half an hour on my drobo. But all the while my permissions had this "Unknown" user. Well I decided to "Go UNIX" and see if I could fix this problem once and for all.
    I opened up Terminal and typed "*ls -la /Volumes*". This gives me a directory listing of my mounted drive volumes. I noticed that all of my drives, internal, external, USB and FireWire, all had "root" as the user and "admin" as the group, _EXCEPT for my drobo!_ So I forced it to conform by changing it manually by typing "*sudo chown root:admin /Volumes/Drobo\ Backup\ HD/*".
    sudo = temporarily enables root mode by asking for your password before executing.
    chown = changes ownership to...
    root:admin = "root" is the user and "admin" is the group.
    */Volumes/Drobo\ Backup\ HD/* = My drobo drive is named "*Drobo Backup HD*", but UNIX sees spaces as command separators, so you have to use the "\ " to signify spaces within a name.
    After doing this over a week ago, _I have not had any other problems_ with using my drobo as a backup drive. It has never come up with the "read-only" error in Time Machine, the Sharing & Permissions setting do not have any "Unknown" users or groups, I don't even need to wait for my drobo before logging in like I did in the past. I just boot my Mac and everything with my drobo and Time Machine just works... No problems!
    It seems to be permanently fixed for me, so if you are willing to try this solution, I'm sure it would work for you. If UNIX terrifies you too much, and you do not trust yourself editing the commands above, let me know the name of your drobo drive on your desktop and I will post a message with the EXACT UNIX commands customized for just for you, so all you have to do is copy and paste them into your Terminal window to do it. But like I said, I've done this over a week ago and I not had one single problem.

  • Time Machine has simply stopped backing up any new files. No items set to be excluded, No error messages.

    I have a Macbook with OS X 10.6.8 and a 500GB external hard drive, which still has 208.5GB available. For some reason, Time Machine has simply stopped backing up any new files (documents, music, movies--anything). No items are set to be excluded from backups in Time Machine options except for the external hard drive itself. Also, no error messages appear, Time Machine seems to run just fine, but when I enter Time Machine, or look through the files on the hard drive, new files just aren't there. I am not very tech savvy, so I was not able to understand some of the answers people gave to similar questions on here. I did go to Pondini's website and followed as many troubleshooting instructions as I could understand (for example I did manage to do a full reset of Time Machine) but nothing changed. Do I just need to erase the entire backup drive and sart all over? If so, what will prevent this from happening again later on? Please help.

    Your TM drive liekly stopped backing up because it hit a series of bad sectors on the drive, to eliminate this all new drives should be Disk Utility > Zero Erased (one step below 7x in Lion) before use.
    Reducing bad sectors effect on hard drives
    Diversify your backups with bootable clones and archives on DVD's etc so your prepared for anything, including using a PC.
    only if you have too of course, but it happens, people just can't afford a Mac anymore.
    Most commonly used backup methods explained
    So make other backups, then Zero Erase teh TM drive and set it back up again and your problem should be resolved.
    If not, then it's data corruption on your boot drive!
    You'll know if it's data corruption on your boot drive, when you go to make the clone, it will hang too.

  • I was trying to back up my mac by using my external hard drive.  Without realizing it, time machine erased all my backups from my other computers.  Is there any way to recover these files?  I can't even get the external hard  drive to work on my pc.

    I was trying to use my external hard drive to back up my mac computer.  It had files on it from my pc computer.  Time machine erased all my existing files. (I thought it was only going to erase the duplicate files and rewrite them).  Is there anyway to recover these files from my external hard drive.  My mac has renamed the hard drive time maching and it will no longer show up on my pc.  What can I do?

    Yes, the Old Master file has a folder for each year where I find all photos from that specific year. I am attaching a screen shot of the file.
    In the meantime i have managed to download all photos (it did not download any video files though in mpg, avi, 3gp, m4v,mp4 and mov format) to a new iphoto library. Unfortunately the photos are quite mixed and often doubled up. I ma considering to purchase iphoto library which checks all duplicates in iphoto. this will save me a lot of time. What do you think?

  • Time machine has stopped backing up to my Western Digital Network Drive

    I have a WD 1TB World Edition drive which pretty much worked plug 'n' play when I bought it in early Jan backing up with with Time Machine instead of the bundled software. I've had a few troubles backing up, but largely due to router problems. Time machine has worked great with the drive, as promised.
    Until a few days ago, when it stopped backing up altogether. The usual backup icon stopped appearing on the desktop and it came up with error message saying the backup file cannot mount or something like that. Strangely, the shared folders on the drive still show up and I can access all the mp3 files, etc I have loaded up. So, I checked the router, cabling to the drive, rebooted the drive, resetted the drive and checked the settings using MyBookWorld. This stopped the error message showing when I tried to backup and the backup icon now shows on the desktop again. But it won't backup !!! It just stalls and in Time Machine says its configuring without doing anything. I have tried hooking up to the drive directly, still no joy.
    I'm now at the end of my tether. Does anyone have any ideas? I have asked WD support and they were next to useless. Thanks !

    Hi, and welcome to the forums.
    Time Machine does not back up reliably, if at all, to most network drives, except Time Capsules or a shared drive on another Mac running Leopard or Snow Leopard on the same local network.
    Here's the criteria they must meet: Disks that can be used with Time Machine. And be careful here: just because some 3rd-party hardware claims to support Time Machine doesn't necessarily mean that Apple supports it, or that it will work in all circumstances.
    We've seen a number of problems reported with that drive. Have you downloaded the firmware update that's supposed to make it work?
    with error message saying the backup file cannot mount or something like that.
    The exact message might help.
    Time Machine says its configuring
    Is the word "configuring" or is it "Calculating changes"? "Configuring" sounds more like a message from WD, or perhaps your router, than one coming from Time Machine.
    Click here to download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window. Navigate to the backup in question, then copy and post all the messages for that run here.
    You might also try to Repair the backups. I don't know exactly how you'd get to them on a NAS, but try the procedure for a Time Capsule in #A5 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

  • Time Machine has left me in the past!

    I recently had a mac genius re-install my OS due to poor performance and too many glitches to name them all. I was confident in my time machine back-ups since I could see the clock moving everyday on my tool bar. After my OS was re-installed, I connected to my external hard drive and can only see files from November. Nothing else. Am I just ******** or is there something I'm doing wrong? I have only had a few hiccups in my 10+ years using a mac but they have been huge ones. Does anyone out there have a solution to this or has it happened to anyone else? Time machine has left me in the past, November 07 to be exact and I need to be in May 08! Someone please help!!!!

    Double-click the drive icon, then double click the "Backups.backupdb" folder. Double-click your old computer's name, and scroll down to the bottom, and look at the most recent date. That most recent date is the most recent TM has.
    Good luck!
    P.S. Welcome to Discussions!

  • My Time machine has stopped backing up saying there are some read only files.

    My Time machine has stopped backing up and says that ther are some read only files preventing this. What steps do I need to take to fix it?

    If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
    Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
    ☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
    ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
    Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.
    Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Post the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear.
    Post the log text, please, not a screenshot. If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
    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 a message.
    Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — edit that out, too, but don’t remove the context.

  • Time Machine deleted all the back up files on my TimeCapsule

    My computer required an erase and install. I was using 10.5.8. I reinstalled the OS but I did not do a restore from my Time Machine when I first booted it up. However, I wanted to continue to use my time machine back up (basically continue to add files to the existing backup), but it would not allow me to point to the existing Time Machine back up.
    As a result, Time Machine tried to create a new backup folder. I thought this would be fine, and that I would worry about why I could not use the current back up file on my Time Capsule later on. Well, Time Machine has deleted my old Time Capsule and all the information that was inside it and now I have only a back up of one day.
    What happened? How could Time Machine over write a backup that I had previously?

    I updated to 10.5.8 and then I got a blue screen. I tried to do an erase and install and then I could not get beyond the grey screen. I took it in to the genius bar and had to get them to start things working again. They used their external drive to boot me up from 10.5.8.
    I did not use my time machine backups to put my information back on my computer. I used the files for documents movies and photos which I had dragged and dropped on to a USB external HD (A Western Digital Passport).
    I did not want to lose all the incremental past back ups on my Time Capsule (the white 1 TB box with the apple logo - definitely a time capsule). I wanted to keep using the old time machine back ups in case I ever needed to restore an odd file here and there.
    Well, that day has come and I can not restore from my Time Capsule. I actually deleted this entry (albeit too late) and I have realized I do have 700 GB backed up.
    You were right, if I do #17 I can access the old "sequence" of back ups, I suppose that TM thinks that I have a new computer after my erase and install.
    So when I click and hold on TM in the dock I can browse other time machine disks. However, whenever I try do do a restore, computer hangs and I can't actually use the back up.
    How can I get my MBP to go back to the old sequence TM files? If I go to system preferences, it says that my oldest back up is January 8, 2009. That would make me think TM machine knows those files are there. BUT! When I click on TM in the dock and I start TM, when I get to the Star Wars style screen where you can see the windows go back in time, it only has backups as far as yesterday.
    So ultimately, my question is, how do I permanently get back to that old sequence of back ups and why does it always hang on the restore?
    Thanks so much for your help - my lost files depend on it!

  • Time Machine Combines all Backups?

    Hey,
    Why did my time machine combine all my old backups? I can no longer go past my last backup. It's like it merged them all into the most recent. This is the second time it has done this. Does anyone know why or how to stop it from doing it?
    I already checked out this page http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306928
    and I have an apostrophe in my name but it hasn't ever been a problem. It's like when I reach a certain number of backups it consolidates them into one and starts over?
    Message was edited by: amsgator

    This is normal time machine behavior. After 24 hours, the backups collapse into 1 day. After 37 days or so, the first seven days collapse into 1 week. At some point you will have the last 24 hours, the last 30 days and weekly backups going back in time until your disk is full. If you think about it, it is very unlikely you will need a file from a certain hour 1 week or 30 days ago. It makes sense to collapse the backups into snapshots as time goes on. The more recent backups are more important. I hope I understood your question...
    Message was edited by: Myron Jones

  • HT3275 My Time Machine deletes ALL previous backups

    Every so often, Time Machine deletes ALL previous backups and starts over from scratch. It has done this several times in the last year.  I have not changed any hardware or the name of the computer. Why is this happening?  Makes me very concerned that I now have NO backups while it chugs away rebuilding a 210 GB backup. 
    Just got an error message:
    Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup. Time machine could not delete the backup disk image "/Volumes/Joe's iMac.purgeable"
    HELP!
    iMac 27: 8GB, 2.9 GHz Intel Core I5
    OS X Yosemite 10.10.1
    Backup volume is Western Digital MyBookLiveDuo with 2TB and 1.8TB available

    Hi Joe,
    Have you Repaired both drives first, then Repaired Permissions on both?
    Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
    http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
    Can't imagine something not being covered there.

  • Time Machine has stopped making backups

    Time Machine has worked fine for me fore many months, the backup disk being a 1 TB external firewire drive.
    But now Time Machine will not make a backup. I keep getting the same error message: "Time Machine Error. This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 88.7 GB but only 58.5 are available."
    I thought Time Machine just deleted the oldest files on the drive to make the room it needs for continued backups. So why isn't it doing that now? How do I get it to go back to doing that?
    Thanks for any help!
    Tom

    Tom Baker1 wrote:
    My Time Machine backup disk is an external 1 TB firewire drive with only one partition, dedicated entirely to TM, and it backs up the two internal drives in my G5. One of these two internal drives has about 600 GB of data on it and the other about 400, so together they would be enough to fill the external Time Machine backup drive.
    Yes, that's too small. Our "rule of thumb" is, TM needs 2-3 times the space of the data it's backing up. See #1 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
    Now I have discovered that there is something wrong with the Time Machine backups as well. I decided to go into TM to see just how far back in time the backups go, but it will only allow me to go back as far as yesterday. It acts as though there are no backups older than yesterday afternoon.
    That's probably correct; your TM disk is too small, and there's just not room for more. Here's the situation: A full backup has nearly filled the disk; something fairly large has been added or changed, and there just isn't room for it, in addition to the full backup.
    The 88.7 GB it's requesting means it's trying to back up about 74 GB (it adds 20% for workspace, etc., on the TM disk).
    This is getting stranger all the time. At this point should I just give up trying to fix the situation, erase the backup drive, and start all over again?
    That probably won't help much, if at all. To confirm what's going on, Click here to download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window. Navigate to the last backup attempt, then copy and post all the messages for that run here.
    You need to do one of the following:
    Get a larger drive, at least 2 TB.
    Get an additional drive; use one for TM backups of one of your internal HDs, the other for a different app to back-up the other internal HD.
    Exclude a lot of stuff from Time Machine (at least 300 GB).
    Use a different app, such as CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper, to back up your internals to separate partitions on the 1 TB drive. These will be exact copies only; no previous copies of things you've changed or deleted.

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