Time Machine "missing" 2nd HD

I have a new mac mini server - which has 2 1TB drives.
Time machine is dutifully backing up the first drive (the system drive),
but when I go into Time Machine to check on the backup of the 2nd
drive - it's not there.
I checked the Time Machine Preferences - the 2nd drive is not being
excluded.
The backups are being written to an external 3TB firewire drive.
One thing I have done differently is to adjust the mount point of
the 2nd drive; I wanted it mounted on /local to become an NFS
server for our office, so I have this set-up in /etc/fstab:
/dev/disk1s2 "/Volumes/Macintosh HD2" hfs noauto
/dev/disk1s2 /local hfs auto
When I enter Time Machine; the finder shows "/Volumes/Macintosh HD2"
but there are no back-ups associated with it.
The finder does *not* show anything for /local (neither does the normal
finder.)
Is there a way to get Time Machine to specifically "include" (instead of "exclude")
as it seems to have just gone missing...  I've stumbled around on the
various Time Machine web sites without any good answer...
  - Thanks -

I visited the Pondini faq at:
  http://pondini.org/TM/32.html
(topic #32 appears to be the one pertinent here.)
It indicates that I can view back-ups from the second volume by
simply clicking that volume while in Time Machine.
So - I enter Time Machine, the volume is currently connected,
I click on it in the Time Machine finder window... and all it
will give me is a "now" view.  There are no "past" views
for any data from the 2nd volume.
How can I be sure Time Machine is actually backing up my 2nd volume?
How can I restore data from that backup?

Similar Messages

  • Time machine missing files

    Timeline
    1. 11 days ago I buy a new 15" retina haswell macbook pro running mavericks, and a new 2TB time capsule.
    2. Yesterday I returned the macbook pro because it was making creaking noises and had it replaced with a new one.
    3. Now I try and restore my backup.
    Story
    I restored from my latest time machine backup by pressing CMD-R while booting and specifying to restore from the Time Capsule. It took a couple of hours over wifi and finally restored, when I came back to it, the machine had rebooted and I was at my normal login screen.
    So I thought the restore had been successful at this point and I log in, however it asks me for my Apple ID login as if i've never entered it before (I have), and I have some new mavericks icons at the end of my dock that I had previously removed. I open up my terminal (i'm a web developer) and I notice its missing my custom prompt (oh-my-zsh) which I track down to the .zshrc file missing.
    I check my databases and they are all corrupted. The MySQL error file is constantly spamming itself saying the data is corrupt and that it might be missing its binlogs. A number of my apps don't remember that they are licensed. The machine has forgotten most of my preferences such as tap to click, however it has remembered things like my desktop background and my safari preferences (they were not synced from icloud I made sure).
    I dig into this a bit more by mounting the time capsule and having a look around in the terminal.
    cd /Volumes/Time\ Machine\ Backups/Backups.backupdb
    ls -lah 2013*/Macintosh\ HD/Users/jon
    This prints out the contents of what the backup considers my home folder to be like at every backup (there were 23 backups stored over the 10 days). First backup being on the 2nd of November, most recent being on the 12th November.
    I see that from the 7th my .zshrc went missing, it was not in any subsequent backups after that, so I tried restoring back to that date. After restoring my terminal preferences are back, but the databases are still corrupt and I notice other things missing instead.
    I dig into it a bit more and list the files again.
    Then I notice just how bad it is.
    On certain backups it has missed massive numbers of files, including directories such as Downloads Library Desktop etc. Then they come back in the next backup, or go missing forever. I know time machine doesn't backup the entire computer each time, but I know that it should be creating HARD links in the filesystem, so that EVERY backup appears to be a complete system backup. This is not the case.
    I can rebuild this new macbook pro to have everything I need on it again, but I CANNOT trust my £250 Time Capsule to take backups, in which case it becomes an extremely expensive router + hard drive.
    I think this might be a bug in Mavericks, 10 days is not very long for backups to start going astray!
    Is there any way I can repair this somehow? Has anyone else had this kind of problem? I phoned apple support and they just tried to guide me through doing a re-install, when I explained that the backups themselves seemed to be missing files the support agent just didn't seem to understand, not very helpful at all. As a fellow engineer I would prefer to speak to another engineer and I could provide all the diagnostics they could want, short of giving them ssh access.

    Sorry to hear about the same bug on your system, seragan.
    I would suggest the following, if you still can find an older TM backup that has a full data set:
    - Export all your current local ("On my Mac") mailboxes from Mail to a safe place
    - Quit Mail and manually replace the whole folder ~/Library/Mail/V2 with the one from the last good backup
    - Start Mail, and then reimport the mailboxes you exported previously
    - Manually move the appropriate emails inside the "Import" mailbox-hierarchy to the correct mailboxes
    This is an approach that at least would have worked for me, as my faulty local  Mail data seemed to have collected emails correctly since the first day of backup failure. ...meaning that the old, good backup plus the current state of my mailboxes would have resulted in a lossless, complete set.
    (There can be another, more-or-less cosmetic, bug with Mail Import - showing numbered folders with duplicate mail which can be deleted afterwards).
    To re-iterate the TM bug: Same thing also happened on my parents' MacBook. This time the missing data was a a folder inside ~/Documents.
    To break the buggy backups and force TM to do a complete backup, the following worked as a fix:
    - In TM system settings, add the problematic parent folder of the missing data to the list of excluded items
    - Run a backup
    - Remove the excluded folder again from TM system settings
    - The next backup will take longer and TM does a "deep traversal" or such, and in the end all data does show up in the backup
    Theoretically you could exclude/include your whole hard drive (to play safe), but that only works if there is another, secondary drive backed up also. (TM needs something valid to do a backup. If your primary hard drive is the only source for your backup, you would have to exclude/include several folders in two or more steps to cover all existing files).
    In any case, the terminal command "tmutil compare" will serve well to show if anything is missing in the last backup.
    Time to report this to Apple. Can we be sure this is only a bug in 10.9.2/3?

  • Time machine missing content

    I have an MBA with 256 GB SSD. Updated to Mavericks including iMovie 10 (which filled the disk during conversion of iMovie 9 files).
    Just checked Time Machine for possible restore and found, that the content is missing!
    The only directories are "Users"(!) this happened possibly through thinning of local backups?!
    How can I tell Time Machine to backup the whole boot disk (again)?
    Tried
    Michaels-MBA:tmp michael$ sudo tmutil removeexclusion /Applications
    Michaels-MBA:tmp michael$ tmutil isexcluded /Applications
    [Excluded]          /Applications
    How /Applications (and all the other items) are Excluded and it seems I can't change that?!
    Any help appreciated…

    You've probably found your solution by now, but if not, according to this test it looks like you were affected with a Time Machine bug...
    http://pondini.org/TM/D10.html
    More info regarding the bug on this thread:
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5125969

  • Time machine missing the 'Latest' Symlink

    Hey Gang,
    I have a friend that had a failed Hard drive and when she tried to recover from time machine, it did not recognize as a TM backup at all.
    After looking into it, the 'Latest' shortcut is missing in the backup on the time capsule.
    I looked on mine and it is only a SymLink to point to the most recent backup set.
    Does anyone know a simple way to add a 'Latest' folder back into the backup set so it will be recognized as a full TM backup and allow us to restore?
    Currently i'm using disk utility to restore the data (600GB) to another drive to see if i can then add the SymLink and then repackage it and put it back on the Time capsule. I figured while i wait for that, i would see if anyone has a better options. I couldn't find anything in the tmutil that would be useful.
    tmutil restore didn't see any backups to restore from.

    If you want to restore the entire computer using a backup other than the most recent you'll need to use your computer's restore DVD (the grey one) or your commercial Leapard DVD to boot the computer. Then look under the utilities menu for Restore. Both Migrate and Setup Assistant automatically select the most recent TimeMachine backup.
    Pondini's Time Machine site has everything you've always needed to know about TimeMachine but didn't know you should ask. You might want to take a look before you proceed.

  • Full restore from time machine missing a few iPhoto events - why?

    I installed a new 500 GB HD in my older MBP today and restored it to my current iMac's latest Time Machine backup from a few hours.
    Everything seems ok, except it seems the last 3 iPhoto events just have empty placeholders instead of the photos that were there.
    Any idea why? Anybody see anything like this before?
    Thanks,
    doug

    Duglas,
    Back in January I had a similar incident which was discussed on the forum at length with our mutual friend, Pondini. It was eventually resolved when I downloaded and applied the application 'Easy find' to the new external HD. This threw up ALL the missing files which I was able to copy back into my system. I have to say, Easy find is probably the most useful freeware I have encountered.
    Suggest you try it.http://www.devon-technologies.com/products/freeware/index.html%20

  • Time Machine Error - 2nd Internal HD got unmounted when TM doing backup

    Hi:
    It has been going on for a couple months since and I had to turn TM off cause when TM starts to back up - it will unmount my 2nd internal 500G HD. If I exclude the 2nd HD then TM back up works fine.
    My question is what should I change on the 2nd HD setting to prevent TM unmounting it - error "device removal!" will show up and then the 2nd HD disappear from desktop? I can't reformat the 2nd HD as there are tons of important files in it. Also TM would not let me backup the 2nd HD anyway.
    HELP.

    Hey - here is the error message from TM buddy
    Starting standard backup
    Backing up to: /Volumes/IOMEGA TIME MACHINE HDD/Backups.backupdb
    Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Val G5 HD2
    Node requires deep traversal:/Volumes/Val G5 HD2 reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|
    No pre-backup thinning needed: 149.03 GB requested (including padding), 229.93 GB available
    Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Volumes/Val G5 HD2/iTunes Music/Podcasts/Amanpour (Video)/Human tsunami.m4v to (null)
    Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Volumes/Val G5 HD2/iTunes Music/Podcasts/Amanpour (Video)/Obama's world policy challenges.m4v to (null)
    Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Volumes/Val G5 HD2/iTunes Music/Podcasts/Amanpour (Video)/Reflecting on Nigeria's recent violence.m4v to (null)
    Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying (null) to (null)
    Unable to rebuild path cache for source item. Partial source path:
    Copied 2544 files (18.0 GB) from volume Val G5 HD2.
    Copied 3047 files (18.0 GB) from volume Val G5 HD.
    Error: (-2111) Unable to get a reference to /. Skipping.
    No pre-backup thinning needed: 240.4 MB requested (including padding), 211.98 GB available
    Unable to resolve path to source: Val G5 HD2
    Copied 0 files (0 bytes) from volume Val G5 HD2.
    Copy stage failed with error:2
    Backup failed with error: 2

  • Time Machine missing backups, grayed out dates

    My Time Machine disk is showing blacked out dates for some of my folders and no backups of those folders and files for those dates...There are earlier and later backups for some of the folders, but missing interim dates even though other folders were backed up. This seems to have happened after the Lion upgrade. Note: It's not a disc capacity issue, as my backup disk is 2 tb.....

    Welcome to Apple Support Communities
    To access to older backups through Time Machine, read > http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html When you get a new hard drive and install OS X in it, Time Machine creates a new backup instead of connecting it to the old backups you had, so you cannot access to those backups.

  • Time Machine: Missing Snow Leopard backups after Lion Upgrade.

    I regulary use Time Machine for backups to my WD drive through my network.  After I upgraded to Lion I could not back up to my network drive   I learned through various forums that my WD drive required a firmware update, to work with Lion.  I upgraded the firmware and now  I no longer have my Time Machine backups from Snow Leopard, only backups from Lion, any idea how I can locate my Snow Leopard backups?

    Pondini wrote:
    I'd be the first to agree that keeping two sets of backups, one a "clone," is prudent.
    But if you have a Snow Leopard clone, then upgrade to Lion, the next time you update the clone you'll lose the Snow Leopard version entirely.
    Yes, I was caught out early, so I have a selection of backup drives now to keep everything backed up as safely as possible. Although at the moment, I'm not seeing any reason to go back to Snow Leopard, and all my media is safe. Hopefully in the near future my SL backups can go and I can get ready for the next OS when it comes along.
    Thanks

  • Time Machine missing full backups - Need help.

    I was going to restore my Imac from Time Machine, and when I went to restore, its last full backup was from December 25, 2009 and nothing from 2010. I had checked it recently and saw backups images from January. Is there anything i can do? If i restore from the 25th, will my images from January February still be there?

    Are you doing a full system restore, booting from your Leopard Install disc?
    If not, please explain just what you're doing.
    If so, there are two possibilities:
    Did you rename or replace your internal HD after 12/25? If so, those are treated as two separate disks; thus there may be two drives in the "pop-up menu" above the list of dates. See item (f) in question #14 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
    Have you excluded any System files from Time Machine backups? If so, you cannot do a full system restore (since you didn't back up the entire system).
    Where are your backups, and why are you restoring? If your Mac is still functional, try looking at your backups with the Browse option, per #17 of the FAQ Tip, to see just what's there.

  • Time Machine Missing Backups

    Recently my mac crashed and would not boot, so I had to restore from the time machine.
    This all went fine but the software was telling me tha the last backupo was on the 10th Jan (the restore was the 13th Jan).
    If the time machine backs up every hour then why can I not access any data after the backup of the 10th Jan?
    I have lost a significnat amount of data because of this and I have relied on the time machine to prevent this. Is there a way to access the backups after the 10th Jan or do I need to use a backup other than time machine (which makes time machine redundant).
    I have that much trouble with OS X over the last week that I am tempted to erase all and go back to windows (crap OS but stuff works).
    `Thanks in advance
    Paul

    Welcome to Apple Support Communities
    To access to older backups through Time Machine, read > http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html When you get a new hard drive and install OS X in it, Time Machine creates a new backup instead of connecting it to the old backups you had, so you cannot access to those backups.

  • RAID or time machine for 2nd drive?

    II use an external drive for my iMovie library and projects. I would like to create a back up on a second external drive that would update itself when I get home and plug it in....
    Ideas?
    Thanks,
    Eric

    The nice thing about Time Machine is it does it's thing automatically. Though it is important to understand what Time Machine does and does not do in terms of backup versus archiveing.
    Outside of backup purposes, RAIDs can have other benefits in the vidoe editin envronment in terms of speed.
    Matt

  • How do I Access purple backups from external hard drive for Time Machine

    My hard drive crashed and I installed a new one.
    Did internet recovery and upgraded to my previous OS.
    I am trying to get my data but the backup is purple that I need and I cannot access it.
    How do I do this.
    Also if I did something wrong, how do I setup Time machine to restore my whole system and set it up so the backups are accessible instead of purple.
    Thanks in advance.
    I am using Mavericks
    External hd connected with USB

    donavonknight 
    Very impressive that it is that easy but trying to get my data is a pain.
    Time Machine is a  backup of your computer SYSTEM,  not idealized as a data archive.
    Consider other options for the future  >
    Data Storage Platforms; their Drawbacks & Advantages
    #1. Time Machine / Time Capsule
    Drawbacks:
    1. Time Machine is not bootable, if your internal drive fails, you cannot access files or boot from TM directly from the dead computer.
    2. Time machine is controlled by complex software, and while you can delve into the TM backup database for specific file(s) extraction, this is not ideal or desirable.
    3. Time machine can and does have the potential for many error codes in which data corruption can occur and your important backup files may not be saved correctly, at all, or even damaged. This extra link of failure in placing software between your data and its recovery is a point of risk and failure. A HD clone is not subject to these errors.
    4. Time machine mirrors your internal HD, in which cases of data corruption, this corruption can immediately spread to the backup as the two are linked. TM is perpetually connected (or often) to your computer, and corruption spread to corruption, without isolation, which TM lacks (usually), migrating errors or corruption is either automatic or extremely easy to unwittingly do.
    5. Time Machine does not keep endless copies of changed or deleted data, and you are often not notified when it deletes them; likewise you may accidently delete files off your computer and this accident is mirrored on TM.
    6. Restoring from TM is quite time intensive.
    7. TM is a backup and not a data archive, and therefore by definition a low-level security of vital/important data.
    8. TM working premise is a “black box” backup of OS, APPS, settings, and vital data that nearly 100% of users never verify until an emergency hits or their computers internal SSD or HD that is corrupt or dead and this is an extremely bad working premise on vital data.
    9. Given that data created and stored is growing exponentially, the fact that TM operates as a “store-it-all” backup nexus makes TM inherently incapable to easily backup massive amounts of data, nor is doing so a good idea.
    10. TM working premise is a backup of a users system and active working data, and NOT massive amounts of static data, yet most users never take this into consideration, making TM a high-risk locus of data “bloat”.
    11. TM like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
    12. *Level-1 security of your vital data.
    Advantages:
    1. TM is very easy to use either in automatic mode or in 1-click backups.
    2. TM is a perfect novice level simplex backup single-layer security save against internal HD failure or corruption.
    3. TM can easily provide a seamless no-gap policy of active data that is often not easily capable in HD clones or HD archives (only if the user is lazy is making data saves).
    #2. HD archives
    Drawbacks:
    1. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
    2. Unless the user ritually copies working active data to HD external archives, then there is a time-gap of potential missing data; as such users must be proactive in archiving data that is being worked on or recently saved or created.
    Advantages:
    1. Fills the gap left in a week or 2-week-old HD clone, as an example.
    2. Simplex no-software data storage that is isolated and autonomous from the computer (in most cases).
    3. HD archives are the best idealized storage source for storing huge and multi-terabytes of data.
    4. Best-idealized 1st platform redundancy for data protection.
    5. *Perfect primary tier and level-2 security of your vital data.
    #3. HD clones (see below for full advantages / drawbacks)
    Drawbacks:
    1. HD clones can be incrementally updated to hourly or daily, however this is time consuming and HD clones are, often, a week or more old, in which case data between today and the most fresh HD clone can and would be lost (however this gap is filled by use of HD archives listed above or by a TM backup).
    2. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
    Advantages:
    1. HD clones are the best, quickest way to get back to 100% full operation in mere seconds.
    2. Once a HD clone is created, the creation software (Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper) is no longer needed whatsoever, and unlike TM, which requires complex software for its operational transference of data, a HD clone is its own bootable entity.
    3. HD clones are unconnected and isolated from recent corruption.
    4. HD clones allow a “portable copy” of your computer that you can likewise connect to another same Mac and have all your APPS and data at hand, which is extremely useful.
    5. Rather than, as many users do, thinking of a HD clone as a “complimentary backup” to the use of TM, a HD clone is superior to TM both in ease of returning to 100% quickly, and its autonomous nature; while each has its place, TM can and does fill the gap in, say, a 2 week old clone. As an analogy, the HD clone itself is the brick wall of protection, whereas TM can be thought of as the mortar, which will fill any cracks in data on a week, 2-week, or 1-month old HD clone.
    6. Best-idealized 2nd platform redundancy for data protection, and 1st level for system restore of your computers internal HD. (Time machine being 2nd level for system restore of the computer’s internal HD).
    7. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
    #4. Online archives
    Drawbacks:
    1. Subject to server failure or due to non-payment of your hosting account, it can be suspended.
    2. Subject, due to lack of security on your part, to being attacked and hacked/erased.
    Advantages:
    1. In case of house fire, etc. your data is safe.
    2. In travels, and propagating files to friends and likewise, a mere link by email is all that is needed and no large media needs to be sent across the net.
    3. Online archives are the perfect and best-idealized 3rd platform redundancy for data protection.
    4. Supremely useful in data isolation from backups and local archives in being online and offsite for long-distance security in isolation.
    5. *Level-1.5 security of your vital data.
    #5. DVD professional archival media
    Drawbacks:
    1. DVD single-layer disks are limited to 4.7Gigabytes of data.
    2. DVD media are, given rough handling, prone to scratches and light-degradation if not stored correctly.
    Advantages:
    1. Archival DVD professional blank media is rated for in excess of 100+ years.
    2. DVD is not subject to mechanical breakdown.
    3. DVD archival media is not subject to ferromagnetic degradation.
    4. DVD archival media correctly sleeved and stored is currently a supreme storage method of archiving vital data.
    5. DVD media is once written and therefore free of data corruption if the write is correct.
    6. DVD media is the perfect ideal for “freezing” and isolating old copies of data for reference in case newer generations of data become corrupted and an older copy is needed to revert to.
    7. Best-idealized 4th platform redundancy for data protection.
    8. *Level-3 (highest) security of your vital data. 
    [*Level-4 data security under development as once-written metallic plates and synthetic sapphire and likewise ultra-long-term data storage]

  • How do I save files from my HD onto Time Machine?

    If I delete files on my hard drive to free up space (i.e., movie files that I want to save in an external harddrive), time machine will not keep these files for me on my external harddrive, since time machine just backs up what is in Macintosh HD. Right? How do I make it so Time Machine does NOT delete these files from it's archive?

    beccasanchezmartin
    How do I make it so Time Machine does NOT delete these files from it's archive?
    You need to seriously consider options OTHER than time machine for important data.  TM premise is storing a copy of your machine, its design and purpose is not for archiving important data youve spent years working on, despite countless people who in fact, and in error, use it that way.
    since time machine just backs up what is in Macintosh HD. Right?
    Correct, time machine is an entry level backup methodology, you need to consider something other than time machine for that.   You NEVER want to work off the premise of needing to delete things.
    Buy an external HD and store vital files on there, .....Time Machine is a sytem backup, NOT a data archive, nor a primary redundancy.
    Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
    #1. Time Machine / Time Capsule
    Drawbacks:
    1. Time Machine is not bootable, if your internal drive fails, you cannot access files or boot from TM directly from the dead computer.
    2. Time machine is controlled by complex software, and while you can delve into the TM backup database for specific file(s) extraction, this is not ideal or desirable.
    3. Time machine can and does have the potential for many error codes in which data corruption can occur and your important backup files may not be saved correctly, at all, or even damaged. This extra link of failure in placing software between your data and its recovery is a point of risk and failure. A HD clone is not subject to these errors.
    4. Time machine mirrors your internal HD, in which cases of data corruption, this corruption can immediately spread to the backup as the two are linked. TM is perpetually connected (or often) to your computer, and corruption spread to corruption, without isolation, which TM lacks (usually), migrating errors or corruption is either automatic or extremely easy to unwittingly do.
    5. Time Machine does not keep endless copies of changed or deleted data, and you are often not notified when it deletes them; likewise you may accidently delete files off your computer and this accident is mirrored on TM.
    6. Restoring from TM is quite time intensive.
    7. TM is a backup and not a data archive, and therefore by definition a low-level security of vital/important data.
    8. TM working premise is a “black box” backup of OS, APPS, settings, and vital data that nearly 100% of users never verify until an emergency hits or their computers internal SSD or HD that is corrupt or dead and this is an extremely bad working premise on vital data.
    9. Given that data created and stored is growing exponentially, the fact that TM operates as a “store-it-all” backup nexus makes TM inherently incapable to easily backup massive amounts of data, nor is doing so a good idea.
    10. TM working premise is a backup of a users system and active working data, and NOT massive amounts of static data, yet most users never take this into consideration, making TM a high-risk locus of data “bloat”.
    11. In the case of Time Capsule, wifi data storage is a less than ideal premise given possible wireless data corruption.
    12. TM like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
    13. *Level-1 security of your vital data.
    Advantages:
    1. TM is very easy to use either in automatic mode or in 1-click backups.
    2. TM is a perfect novice level simplex backup single-layer security save against internal HD failure or corruption.
    3. TM can easily provide a seamless no-gap policy of active data that is often not easily capable in HD clones or HD archives (only if the user is lazy is making data saves).
    #2. HD archives
    Drawbacks:
    1. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
    2. Unless the user ritually copies working active data to HD external archives, then there is a time-gap of potential missing data; as such users must be proactive in archiving data that is being worked on or recently saved or created.
    Advantages:
    1. Fills the gap left in a week or 2-week-old HD clone, as an example.
    2. Simplex no-software data storage that is isolated and autonomous from the computer (in most cases).
    3. HD archives are the best idealized storage source for storing huge and multi-terabytes of data.
    4. Best-idealized 1st platform redundancy for data protection.
    5. *Perfect primary tier and level-2 security of your vital data.
    #3. HD clones (see below for full advantages / drawbacks)
    Drawbacks:
    1. HD clones can be incrementally updated to hourly or daily, however this is time consuming and HD clones are, often, a week or more old, in which case data between today and the most fresh HD clone can and would be lost (however this gap is filled by use of HD archives listed above or by a TM backup).
    2. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
    Advantages:
    1. HD clones are the best, quickest way to get back to 100% full operation in mere seconds.
    2. Once a HD clone is created, the creation software (Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper) is no longer needed whatsoever, and unlike TM, which requires complex software for its operational transference of data, a HD clone is its own bootable entity.
    3. HD clones are unconnected and isolated from recent corruption.
    4. HD clones allow a “portable copy” of your computer that you can likewise connect to another same Mac and have all your APPS and data at hand, which is extremely useful.
    5. Rather than, as many users do, thinking of a HD clone as a “complimentary backup” to the use of TM, a HD clone is superior to TM both in ease of returning to 100% quickly, and its autonomous nature; while each has its place, TM can and does fill the gap in, say, a 2 week old clone. As an analogy, the HD clone itself is the brick wall of protection, whereas TM can be thought of as the mortar, which will fill any cracks in data on a week, 2-week, or 1-month old HD clone.
    6. Best-idealized 2nd platform redundancy for data protection, and 1st level for system restore of your computers internal HD. (Time machine being 2nd level for system restore of the computer’s internal HD).
    7. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
    HD cloning software options:
    1. SuperDuper HD cloning software APP (free)
    2. Carbon Copy Cloner APP (will copy the recovery partition as well)
    3. Disk utility HD bootable clone.
    #4. Online archives
    Drawbacks:
    1. Subject to server failure or due to non-payment of your hosting account, it can be suspended.
    2. Subject, due to lack of security on your part, to being attacked and hacked/erased.
    Advantages:
    1. In case of house fire, etc. your data is safe.
    2. In travels, and propagating files to friends and likewise, a mere link by email is all that is needed and no large media needs to be sent across the net.
    3. Online archives are the perfect and best-idealized 3rd platform redundancy for data protection.
    4. Supremely useful in data isolation from backups and local archives in being online and offsite for long-distance security in isolation.
    5. *Level-1.5 security of your vital data.
    #5. DVD professional archival media
    Drawbacks:
    1. DVD single-layer disks are limited to 4.7Gigabytes of data.
    2. DVD media are, given rough handling, prone to scratches and light-degradation if not stored correctly.
    Advantages:
    1. Archival DVD professional blank media is rated for in excess of 100+ years.
    2. DVD is not subject to mechanical breakdown.
    3. DVD archival media is not subject to ferromagnetic degradation.
    4. DVD archival media correctly sleeved and stored is currently a supreme storage method of archiving vital data.
    5. DVD media is once written and therefore free of data corruption if the write is correct.
    6. DVD media is the perfect ideal for “freezing” and isolating old copies of data for reference in case newer generations of data become corrupted and an older copy is needed to revert to.
    7. Best-idealized 4th platform redundancy for data protection.
    8. *Level-3 (highest) security of your vital data. 
    [*Level-4 data security under development as once-written metallic plates and synthetic sapphire and likewise ultra-long-term data storage]
    #6. Cloud based storage
    Drawbacks:
    1. Cloud storage can only be quasi-possessed.
    2. No genuine true security and privacy of data.
    3. Should never be considered for vital data storage or especially long-term.
    4. *Level-0 security of your vital data. 
    Advantages:
    1. Quick, easy and cheap storage location for simplex files for transfer to keep on hand and yet off the computer.
    2. Easy source for small-file data sharing.
    Make a (some) Redundancy of data
    Secondary data on a single external HD or RAID array is not a redundancy, but a PRIMARY data copy.          First Redundancy takes place on a Secondary storage medium/locus. (both of these external of course)
    2nd level protection in any redundancy necessitates it "be unconnected".           Data ON the actual computer is not considered, ergo a single copy OFF a computer is just that, a backup / copy.  Redunancy begins as secondary to a FIRST COPY

  • Backups without Time Machine?

    I'm wondering what the options are for backups without Time Machine. I'm a tech support guy from a way back who's primarily worked with *nix and Windows machines, and I'm no stranger to setting up networks, NAS devices and filers, etc.
    This is an all-Apple setup - MacBook Pros, iMacs, iPads, iPhones, etc. There were 2 Time Capsules in the mix, but they both began to fail so we replaced them with a single Seagate 4-bay NAS attached to 2 LAN ports. This is a 10/100/100 network with N-wireless and Gigabit switches.
    Both before and after swapping out the Time Capsules for the NAS, we received the "
    Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.
    message on the MacBooks, less often on the iMac. Post-NAS implementation, we are still seeing on the MacBooks. I've tried relaxing the backup settings to every 3-4 hours since all machines were set to backup every hour as default and I believe they were stepping on each other.
    I'm not ruling out the network, or anything at this point, but it seems odd that Time Machine will complete a backup, then at some point in the future find that it's not valid and need to go again from scratch. It's not ideal to use Time Machine if it needs a new full backup every ~2 days or more.
    So I'm simultaneously looking for any advice on how to resolve the Time Machine error, and/or how to perform routine backups to the NAS without Time Machine.
    Thanks in advance.
    MM

    I'm wondering what the options are for backups without Time Machine
    Time machine is NOT a data backup, its a system (/emergency) backup.  (whats the difference? the system is data?!,  Yes, however the difference is huge).
    ....and most pros (nearly all) are absolutely NOT using Time machine as a source,    and never as a single source to archive important data.
    Time machine by definition is absolutely not a data archive, nor a storage nexus for vital data, which is secure by definition.
    here you go:
    Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
    Data Storage Platforms; their Drawbacks & Advantages
    #1. Time Machine / Time Capsule
    Drawbacks:
    1. Time Machine is not bootable, if your internal drive fails, you cannot access files or boot from TM directly from the dead computer.
    OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks include OS X Recovery. This feature includes all of the tools you need to reinstall OS X, repair your disk, and even restore from a Time Machine
    "you can't boot directly from your Time Machine backups"
    2. Time machine is controlled by complex software, and while you can delve into the TM backup database for specific file(s) extraction, this is not ideal or desirable.
    3. Time machine can and does have the potential for many error codes in which data corruption can occur and your important backup files may not be saved correctly, at all, or even damaged. This extra link of failure in placing software between your data and its recovery is a point of risk and failure. A HD clone is not subject to these errors.
    4. Time machine mirrors your internal HD, in which cases of data corruption, this corruption can immediately spread to the backup as the two are linked. TM is perpetually connected (or often) to your computer, and corruption spread to corruption, without isolation, which TM lacks (usually), migrating errors or corruption is either automatic or extremely easy to unwittingly do.
    5. Time Machine does not keep endless copies of changed or deleted data, and you are often not notified when it deletes them; likewise you may accidently delete files off your computer and this accident is mirrored on TM.
    6. Restoring from TM is quite time intensive.
    7. TM is a backup and not a data archive, and therefore by definition a low-level security of vital/important data.
    8. TM working premise is a “black box” backup of OS, APPS, settings, and vital data that nearly 100% of users never verify until an emergency hits or their computers internal SSD or HD that is corrupt or dead and this is an extremely bad working premise on vital data.
    9. Given that data created and stored is growing exponentially, the fact that TM operates as a “store-it-all” backup nexus makes TM inherently incapable to easily backup massive amounts of data, nor is doing so a good idea.
    10. TM working premise is a backup of a users system and active working data, and NOT massive amounts of static data, yet most users never take this into consideration, making TM a high-risk locus of data “bloat”.
    11. In the case of Time Capsule, wifi data storage is a less than ideal premise given possible wireless data corruption.
    12. TM like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
    13. *Level-1 security of your vital data.
    Advantages:
    1. TM is very easy to use either in automatic mode or in 1-click backups.
    2. TM is a perfect novice level simplex backup single-layer security save against internal HD failure or corruption.
    3. TM can easily provide a seamless no-gap policy of active data that is often not easily capable in HD clones or HD archives (only if the user is lazy is making data saves).
    #2. HD archives
    Drawbacks:
    1. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
    2. Unless the user ritually copies working active data to HD external archives, then there is a time-gap of potential missing data; as such users must be proactive in archiving data that is being worked on or recently saved or created.
    Advantages:
    1. Fills the gap left in a week or 2-week-old HD clone, as an example.
    2. Simplex no-software data storage that is isolated and autonomous from the computer (in most cases).
    3. HD archives are the best idealized storage source for storing huge and multi-terabytes of data.
    4. Best-idealized 1st platform redundancy for data protection.
    5. *Perfect primary tier and level-2 security of your vital data.
    #3. HD clones (see below for full advantages / drawbacks)
    Drawbacks:
    1. HD clones can be incrementally updated to hourly or daily, however this is time consuming and HD clones are, often, a week or more old, in which case data between today and the most fresh HD clone can and would be lost (however this gap is filled by use of HD archives listed above or by a TM backup).
    2. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
    Advantages:
    1. HD clones are the best, quickest way to get back to 100% full operation in mere seconds.
    2. Once a HD clone is created, the creation software (Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper) is no longer needed whatsoever, and unlike TM, which requires complex software for its operational transference of data, a HD clone is its own bootable entity.
    3. HD clones are unconnected and isolated from recent corruption.
    4. HD clones allow a “portable copy” of your computer that you can likewise connect to another same Mac and have all your APPS and data at hand, which is extremely useful.
    5. Rather than, as many users do, thinking of a HD clone as a “complimentary backup” to the use of TM, a HD clone is superior to TM both in ease of returning to 100% quickly, and its autonomous nature; while each has its place, TM can and does fill the gap in, say, a 2 week old clone. As an analogy, the HD clone itself is the brick wall of protection, whereas TM can be thought of as the mortar, which will fill any cracks in data on a week, 2-week, or 1-month old HD clone.
    6. Best-idealized 2nd platform redundancy for data protection, and 1st level for system restore of your computers internal HD. (Time machine being 2nd level for system restore of the computer’s internal HD).
    7. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
    HD cloning software options:
    1. SuperDuper HD cloning software APP (free)
    2. Carbon Copy Cloner APP (will copy the recovery partition as well)
    3. Disk utility HD bootable clone.
    #4. Online archives
    Drawbacks:
    1. Subject to server failure or due to non-payment of your hosting account, it can be suspended.
    2. Subject, due to lack of security on your part, to being attacked and hacked/erased.
    Advantages:
    1. In case of house fire, etc. your data is safe.
    2. In travels, and propagating files to friends and likewise, a mere link by email is all that is needed and no large media needs to be sent across the net.
    3. Online archives are the perfect and best-idealized 3rd platform redundancy for data protection.
    4. Supremely useful in data isolation from backups and local archives in being online and offsite for long-distance security in isolation.
    5. *Level-1.5 security of your vital data.
    #5. DVD professional archival media
    Drawbacks:
    1. DVD single-layer disks are limited to 4.7Gigabytes of data.
    2. DVD media are, given rough handling, prone to scratches and light-degradation if not stored correctly.
    Advantages:
    1. Archival DVD professional blank media is rated for in excess of 100+ years.
    2. DVD is not subject to mechanical breakdown.
    3. DVD archival media is not subject to ferromagnetic degradation.
    4. DVD archival media correctly sleeved and stored is currently a supreme storage method of archiving vital data.
    5. DVD media is once written and therefore free of data corruption if the write is correct.
    6. DVD media is the perfect ideal for “freezing” and isolating old copies of data for reference in case newer generations of data become corrupted and an older copy is needed to revert to.
    7. Best-idealized 4th platform redundancy for data protection.
    8. *Level-3 (highest) security of your vital data. 
    [*Level-4 data security under development as once-written metallic plates and synthetic sapphire and likewise ultra-long-term data storage]
    #6. Cloud based storage
    Drawbacks:
    1. Cloud storage can only be quasi-possessed.
    2. No genuine true security and privacy of data.
    3. Should never be considered for vital data storage or especially long-term.
    4. *Level-0 security of your vital data. 
    Advantages:
    1. Quick, easy and cheap storage location for simplex files for transfer to keep on hand and yet off the computer.
    2. Easy source for small-file data sharing.
    #7. Network attached storage (NAS) and JBOD storage
    Drawbacks:
    1. Subject to RAID failure and mass data corruption.
    2. Expensive to set up initially.
    3. Can be slower than USB, especially over WiFi.
    4. Mechanically identical to USB HD backup in failure potential, higher failure however due to RAID and proprietary NAS enclosure failure.
    Advantages:
    1. Multiple computer access.
    2. Always on and available.
    3. Often has extensive media and application server functionality.
    4. Massive capacity (also its drawback) with multi-bay NAS, perfect for full system backups on a larger scale.
    5. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
    JBOD (just a bunch of disks / drives) storage
    Identical to NAS in form factor except drives are not networked or in any RAID array, rather best thought of as a single USB feed to multiple independent drives in a single powered large enclosure. Generally meaning a non-RAID architecture.
    Drawbacks:
    1. Subject to HD failure but not RAID failure and mass data corruption.
    Advantages:
    1. Simplex multi-drive independent setup for mass data storage.
    2. Very inexpensive dual purpose HD storage / access point.
    3. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
    Time Machine is a system hub backup, not a data hub backup
    Important data you “don’t dare lose” should not be considered ultimately safe, or ideally stored (at the very least not as sole copy of same) on your Time Machine backup. Hourly and daily fluctuations of your system OS, applications, and software updates is the perfect focus for the simple user to conduct ‘click it and forget it’ backups of the entire system and files on the Macbook HD.
    Bootable clones are the choice of professionals and others in that Time Machine cannot be booted from and requires a working HD to retrieve data from (meaning another computer). Your vital data needs to be and should be ‘frozen’ on some form of media storage, either in a clone, as an archived HD containing important files, or on DVD blank archival media.
    A file that is backed up to Time Machine is unsafe in that if that file is deleted off the computer by accident or lost otherwise, that file will likewise vanish from Time Machine as it reflects changes on the internal computer HD/SSD.

  • I have a mid2009 MacBook Pro for which I have been using a USB WD HD for Time Machine.  I'd like to get a wireless HD  and start a new Time Machine backup for this Mac and retire the 5  year old WD drive.  Can I start over?

    I have a mid2009 MacBook Pro running Mavericks for which I have been using a USB WD HD for Time Machine.  I'd like to get a wireless HD  and start a new Time Machine backup for this Mac and retire the 5  year old WD drive.  Can I start over?

    no archive/ backup is perfect, HD clones can be set to make incremental additions, same as time machine however, though they are more time involved in doing so.
    See the + and - of all data backup/ archives below and "spread it around".... or the "dont put your eggs all in one basket" philosophy.
    Peace
    Data Storage Platforms; their Drawbacks & Advantages
    #1. Time Machine / Time Capsule
    Drawbacks:
    1. Time Machine is not bootable, if your internal drive fails, you cannot access files or boot from TM directly from the dead computer.
    2. Time machine is controlled by complex software, and while you can delve into the TM backup database for specific file(s) extraction, this is not ideal or desirable.
    3. Time machine can and does have the potential for many error codes in which data corruption can occur and your important backup files may not be saved correctly, at all, or even damaged. This extra link of failure in placing software between your data and its recovery is a point of risk and failure. A HD clone is not subject to these errors.
    4. Time machine mirrors your internal HD, in which cases of data corruption, this corruption can immediately spread to the backup as the two are linked. TM is perpetually connected (or often) to your computer, and corruption spread to corruption, without isolation, which TM lacks (usually), migrating errors or corruption is either automatic or extremely easy to unwittingly do.
    5. Time Machine does not keep endless copies of changed or deleted data, and you are often not notified when it deletes them; likewise you may accidently delete files off your computer and this accident is mirrored on TM.
    6. Restoring from TM is quite time intensive.
    7. TM is a backup and not a data archive, and therefore by definition a low-level security of vital/important data.
    8. TM working premise is a “black box” backup of OS, APPS, settings, and vital data that nearly 100% of users never verify until an emergency hits or their computers internal SSD or HD that is corrupt or dead and this is an extremely bad working premise on vital data.
    9. Given that data created and stored is growing exponentially, the fact that TM operates as a “store-it-all” backup nexus makes TM inherently incapable to easily backup massive amounts of data, nor is doing so a good idea.
    10. TM working premise is a backup of a users system and active working data, and NOT massive amounts of static data, yet most users never take this into consideration, making TM a high-risk locus of data “bloat”.
    11. In the case of Time Capsule, wifi data storage is a less than ideal premise given possible wireless data corruption.
    12. TM like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
    13. *Level-1 security of your vital data.
    Advantages:
    1. TM is very easy to use either in automatic mode or in 1-click backups.
    2. TM is a perfect novice level simplex backup single-layer security save against internal HD failure or corruption.
    3. TM can easily provide a seamless no-gap policy of active data that is often not easily capable in HD clones or HD archives (only if the user is lazy is making data saves).
    #2. HD archives
    Drawbacks:
    1. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
    2. Unless the user ritually copies working active data to HD external archives, then there is a time-gap of potential missing data; as such users must be proactive in archiving data that is being worked on or recently saved or created.
    Advantages:
    1. Fills the gap left in a week or 2-week-old HD clone, as an example.
    2. Simplex no-software data storage that is isolated and autonomous from the computer (in most cases).
    3. HD archives are the best idealized storage source for storing huge and multi-terabytes of data.
    4. Best-idealized 1st platform redundancy for data protection.
    5. *Perfect primary tier and level-2 security of your vital data.
    #3. HD clones (see below for full advantages / drawbacks)
    Drawbacks:
    1. HD clones can be incrementally updated to hourly or daily, however this is time consuming and HD clones are, often, a week or more old, in which case data between today and the most fresh HD clone can and would be lost (however this gap is filled by use of HD archives listed above or by a TM backup).
    2. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
    Advantages:
    1. HD clones are the best, quickest way to get back to 100% full operation in mere seconds.
    2. Once a HD clone is created, the creation software (Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper) is no longer needed whatsoever, and unlike TM, which requires complex software for its operational transference of data, a HD clone is its own bootable entity.
    3. HD clones are unconnected and isolated from recent corruption.
    4. HD clones allow a “portable copy” of your computer that you can likewise connect to another same Mac and have all your APPS and data at hand, which is extremely useful.
    5. Rather than, as many users do, thinking of a HD clone as a “complimentary backup” to the use of TM, a HD clone is superior to TM both in ease of returning to 100% quickly, and its autonomous nature; while each has its place, TM can and does fill the gap in, say, a 2 week old clone. As an analogy, the HD clone itself is the brick wall of protection, whereas TM can be thought of as the mortar, which will fill any cracks in data on a week, 2-week, or 1-month old HD clone.
    6. Best-idealized 2nd platform redundancy for data protection, and 1st level for system restore of your computers internal HD. (Time machine being 2nd level for system restore of the computer’s internal HD).
    7. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
    HD cloning software options:
    1. SuperDuper HD cloning software APP (free)
    2. Carbon Copy Cloner APP (will copy the recovery partition as well)
    3. Disk utility HD bootable clone.
    #4. Online archives
    Drawbacks:
    1. Subject to server failure or due to non-payment of your hosting account, it can be suspended.
    2. Subject, due to lack of security on your part, to being attacked and hacked/erased.
    Advantages:
    1. In case of house fire, etc. your data is safe.
    2. In travels, and propagating files to friends and likewise, a mere link by email is all that is needed and no large media needs to be sent across the net.
    3. Online archives are the perfect and best-idealized 3rd platform redundancy for data protection.
    4. Supremely useful in data isolation from backups and local archives in being online and offsite for long-distance security in isolation.
    5. *Level-1.5 security of your vital data.
    #5. DVD professional archival media
    Drawbacks:
    1. DVD single-layer disks are limited to 4.7Gigabytes of data.
    2. DVD media are, given rough handling, prone to scratches and light-degradation if not stored correctly.
    Advantages:
    1. Archival DVD professional blank media is rated for in excess of 100+ years.
    2. DVD is not subject to mechanical breakdown.
    3. DVD archival media is not subject to ferromagnetic degradation.
    4. DVD archival media correctly sleeved and stored is currently a supreme storage method of archiving vital data.
    5. DVD media is once written and therefore free of data corruption if the write is correct.
    6. DVD media is the perfect ideal for “freezing” and isolating old copies of data for reference in case newer generations of data become corrupted and an older copy is needed to revert to.
    7. Best-idealized 4th platform redundancy for data protection.
    8. *Level-3 (highest) security of your vital data. 
    [*Level-4 data security under development as once-written metallic plates and synthetic sapphire and likewise ultra-long-term data storage]
    #6. Cloud based storage
    Drawbacks:
    1. Cloud storage can only be quasi-possessed.
    2. No genuine true security and privacy of data.
    3. Should never be considered for vital data storage or especially long-term.
    4. *Level-0 security of your vital data. 
    Advantages:
    1. Quick, easy and cheap storage location for simplex files for transfer to keep on hand and yet off the computer.
    2. Easy source for small-file data sharing.

Maybe you are looking for