Time machine not performing housekeeping - previous days' & weeks' multiple backups remaining
As you can see from this image, time machine stopped cleaning backups from previous days and weeks.
A bit of background, this is a networked backup for a MacBook Pro. (Thus, the backups only happen when I'm at home on my home network.) The MBP: OS 10.8.4 2.4 GHz, 8 Gb: 750 Gb drive, currently using 125 Gb - 625 Gb free.
The time machine "drive" is a 350 Gb partition on a 1 Tb drive, 75 Gb free; the other parition has the time machine backup for another MBP, also OS X 10.8.4; this problem does not occur on that time machine partition with that computer. The problem started on 5/12 with previous days multiple entries not being deleted. (The timing does not seem to align with a software update: 10.8.3 on 3/25 and 10.8.4 on 6/6.)
One more thing, backups take much longer (around 25 minutes for just a few Mbs) than they do on the other MBP which uses the other partition. The other MBP has many more files and folders and the .sparsebundle is bigger (252 Gb).
I have read through Pondini's wonderfully thorough website on time machine (pondini.org) and looked through discussions here. All seem to focus on ways in which time machine prunes old backups to make space. In my case, space is not (yet) a problem, but I am concerned that these problems indicate time machine is not working properly and that there may be other problems.
I gave it a try last night. For the record it is item A4 at the pondini.org site. The result:
- the back up was 1.43 Gb (rather large considering that the only activity on the MBP since the previous backup had been to read mail).
- no change to the list of previous back up entries and the mulitple backups from the last few days were not pruned (that is, the problem perists).
- I looked at the backups using the Time Machine interface and only the ones snce removing the .plst are visible. (All of the prior backups are still visible using the finder interface looking at the mounted virtual disk.)
Similar Messages
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Time Machine not performing routine backups
Hi all,
I noticed recently that Time Machine has not been completing my scheduled backups. A full backup has not been completed since December of 2011. The backups start but never progress past "Preparing Backup", today I let it sit with no other applications open or processes running for 4 hours and nothing occured.
I have reviewed many discussions here and so far nothing seems to be working. I deleted the preference file and have powered the Time Machine off and on to no avail.
Here is a snippet of the log from my latest attempt at running a backup. I'm sure I need to give more information but I'm not sure what that is. I would appreciate any help.
QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
Disk image /Volumes/Data-1/Jen Bradshaw’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Capsule
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Capsule/Backups.backupdb
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: No space left on device
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: No space left on device
Exception writing exclusions cache. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: No space left on device
Unable to create exclusions cache data.
Failed to write exclusions cache. Continuing anyway.
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: No space left on device
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Waiting for index to be ready (101)volley15 wrote:
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: No space left on device
That's a problem writing to the (hidden) log Time Machine keeps on the Time Capsule, not your internal drive. (As Linc says, you also need free space on your internal).
Do you have other data there, besides Time Machine backups? Usually that's how this condition happens -- Time Machine always leaves a bit of space, so the next backup can get started, see if there's enough room for the backup and if necessary start deleting old backups to make room. But if the very last of the free space gets used, it can't get started.
First, connect via Ethernet cable if at all possible. What you have to do, and the next backup, will take a while, but be 2-3 times faster than via WIFI.
If you have other data there, copy some of it elsewhere and delete it (50 MB should be enough), and copy it back after the next backup completes.
If there isn't any other data there, delete your oldest backup, per Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #12, and "compact" the sparse bundle per the pink box there.
The next backup will take quite a while -- TM has to do a "deep scan" first, to see what needs to be backed-up (since the previous backup failed), then "compact" the sparse bundle, then start deleting backups to make room.
Once you get this sorted out, if you have other data on the TC, see #Q3 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule for some workarounds to keep this from happening again.
Message was edited by: Pondini -
Time Machine not performing automatic backups
Time Machine performs a backup when I select Back Up Now, and the Time Machine preferences shows that a backup is scheduled, but Time Machine is not performing automatic backups. How can I can it to perform automatic backups?
The same thing happened to me a while ago. Doing a full reset solved the problem.
Start with A4 in the 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems -
Manually Deleting Previous Day/Week/Month Backups
Hi,
I use an external drive solely for time machine; however, I have a need to transfer about 20 GBs and want to use the external for such. Time machine currently maxes out the 200 GB hard drive with all its previous (years worth) of backups.
1) Wondering if I could manually browse (via finder) the time machine drive and delete my previous (oldest) backups to free up some space... Is this possible or will it ruin my backups?
2) Similarly, in a similar manner what if I wanted to retain only the latest backup of my files, and extinguish ALL the previous ones--to have a clean slate (I don't need any previous files).
I notice when I browse (via finder) I can see all the incremental time periods of backups. Is it as easy as deleting all of these folders except for the "latest" one? I realize the point of time machine is it references files that have not changed, so I'm weary that all my sub folder dates link/reference others, and in destroying one could ruin all of them...
Thanks,
TM{quote:title=T.M. wrote:}{quote
1) Wondering if I could manually browse (via finder) the time machine drive and delete my previous (oldest) backups to free up some space... Is this possible or will it ruin my backups?
Don't use Finder to alter TM backups. You are asking for trouble. You can open the TM interface and try to delete backups from there.
2) Similarly, in a similar manner what if I wanted to retain only the latest backup of my files, and extinguish ALL the previous ones--to have a clean slate (I don't need any previous files).
In that case, erase your backup drive and start over. Seriously. That will clear out your backup drive the best.
I notice when I browse (via finder) I can see all the incremental time periods of backups. Is it as easy as deleting all of these folders except for the "latest" one? I realize the point of time machine is it references files that have not changed, so I'm weary that all my sub folder dates link/reference others, and in destroying one could ruin all of them...
Repeat of answer to question one. Don't mess with TM via Finder. Use the TM interface. Open Finder and click the TM icon on the Dock to open the TM interface. -
Time Machine not backing up iPhoto changes (Events, pictures, etc..)
So I finally decided to buy a external hard drive (WD) and backup some of my data to it using Time Machine. The initial backup went well with no problems but what I noticed is as I added events and pictures they were not appearing in Time Machine.
I could open time machine and view that my iPhoto had the current events when the date selected was "Today (now)", but as I went back in time the events that SHOULD of been there were not.
Browsing the folders on the backups showed the iPhoto database to be 13.5gb when actually the new size on my iMac was 19.5gb.
So why does Time Machine not detect these changes? For my backups I have excluded all folders except for the Users folder which contains the iPhoto library. Time Machine is not detecting the changes and backing it up. How can I fix this?Yeah. At first I thought it was:
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/D5.html
Because I was doing that earlier. But then realized I did repair permissions, not disk. But anyways decided to reboot (because I haven't up to this point).
Once it came back up I tried doing another backup. Didn't see it. Opened iPhoto again and exited it (checked Force Quit to make sure it wasn't open). Told it to do a BACKUP NOW. This time it saw a difference of like 7mb.
After it was done, went to iPhoto -> File -> Browse Backups. Went back a couple minutes when I did the backup and my event now has a place holder within the Events but it is pure black. I double clicked the event and it opened up and saw there were 3 files in there. They had default icons and were not showing as pictures like they were. (even though they display fine in iPhoto).
Time Machine seems very flakey to me. My machine is fully updated also. -
My last Time Machine back-up is 45 days old and only of User Account files (not entire HD) and I must now reinstall Lion (via internet) without performing a new back-up. Will any new User Account files, since my last back-up, be lost when Lion reinstalls ?
Reinstalling OS X doesn't affect user data, provided nothing goes wrong. But it would be very unwise to assume that nothing will go wrong, especially if you're having (unspecified) system issues. You should try to back up all data before you reinstall or do anything else. There are ways to do that, even if you're unable to boot.
If your backups include only user files, you won't be able to access them in Setup Assistant. -
nas on airport extreme not recognized by time machine. same nas was previously used as time machine backup on different airport extreme. are there any configuration files that i can delete to fix this problem ?
Time Machine has been working just fine, but in the last week or two it has given up the ghost. I reset the connections to the drive, and it will basically save a few bytes of data and then hang.
Although Apple originally announced, prior to the release of the first 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Stations (AEBSn), that it would support Time Machine backups to AirPort Disks, they removed that option before they did finally release the base station for sale.
Since then, Apple has posted (as you have noted) that they DO NOT support Time Machine backups to AirPort Disks. As far as I know, they have not changed from that position and those who do these backups find that they become corrupted over time. Sorry, but it sounds like you just confirmed that for yourself.
1) Has one of the recent updates either on the AE (firmware) or OSX disabled this function?
No. Again, this feature has never been supported by Apple for every generation of AEBSn released.
2) Are there any changes I can make to get this working again?
If your data backups are critical to you, then you will want to use a different solution for your Time Machine backup destination drive strategy. I would suggest that you connect your WD My Book directly to your Mac in the mean time.
Your other options would be to either use a Time Capsule (which interestingly does support TM backups to AirPort Disks) or a non-Apple solution like the Drobo FS or HP MediaSmart server. -
My backup hard drive does not have enough space for time machine to perform a back up even after erasing entire contents of bu hard drive. The hard drive has been in service for almost two years performing this function with no sign of failure. How do I adjust time machine perameters?
The only way to limit the size of the backup is to exclude data from the backup, which you can do in Time Machine preferences.
If you use multiple browsers, have you tried clearing your browser caches? However, that's just a stop gap if it works. You either need to limit what you backup or get another drive. -
Time Machine - "not enough space to back up" despite large drive
Hi,
I have a 2.7GHz Quad-Core 27" iMac from July 2011. It has a 2TB HD which I back up to an external single partition 2TB HD (WD MyBook) over Time Machine (TM). The iMac HD has about 1.4TB on it.
It was "just working" until about 2 weeks ago, when I got a message that says in essence "not enough space to back up: only 600GB available when 1.4GB is needed". There is one succesful 1.4TB backup. I get the error message hourly as it attempts to back up then fails. Previously there were multiple time stamped (houry, daily etc) backups but when I first got the error message, there was only one left, implying that TM deleted the earlier ones in its quest for more space.
As there is a 2TB drive to back up 1.4TB, there should be loads of space as each backup should just log the changes, not the whole drive.
However, TM is acting as if it needs the full 1.4GB free for each delta backup, rather than just space for the changes. This is new behaviour as it did not need this before.
I have googled the issue extensively, checked FAQs etc and found two potential causes.
The first is that I changed the name of my computer around the time that the problem appeared. This can apparently cause TM to not recognise old backups. I therefore deleted the old one and rebuilt my backup from scratch, hoping that the new name would be used. I was able to do one backup before the same issue appeared again.
The second is that the sparsebundle needs to be resized manually due to a bug, but I can't find the sparse bundle on the external HD, even using Disk Utility (this maty be because I am being very stupid - I am a recent Mac user and do not have much experience of digging into OS X's innards)
I am now at a loss as to what to do.
I would be very grateful indeed if anyone had any thoughts that they could share.
SE.Semper Eadem wrote:
I got a message that says in essence "not enough space to back up: only 600GB available when 1.4GB is needed". There is one succesful 1.4TB backup.
It's trying to do a near-full backup for some reason, and it's already deleted all but the last remaining backup trying to make room. It was probably trying to back up about 1.2 TB, since it adds 20% to the estimated size. That's likely your entire home folder.
The first is that I changed the name of my computer around the time that the problem appeared.
No, that shouldn't cause it. Apparently on some of the very first versions of Leoaprd, it did, but not since.
The second is that the sparsebundle needs to be resized manually due to a bug,
No, there isn't a sparsebundle on backups made to an internal or directly-connected HD. Those are used only for network backups.
What else did you do around the same time you changed your computer name? See #D4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for common causes.
I'd recommend turning TM off, erasing the drive and doing a "full reset" per #A4 in that same link. Then exclude most of the large folders in your home folder, per #10 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. Then run a backup, and immediately run another.
If the second backup is more than a GB, use one of the apps in #A2 of Troubleshooting to see exactly what got backed-up the second time. That may tell us what's going on.
If it wasn't large, start removing the exclusions, one at a time. Run a backup (that should back up the excluded item(s), then run another and see how large it is. That should pinpoint the problem. -
Time Machine NOT backing up all new files
I have 3 internal disks in my Mac Pro: SYSTEM (System and Apps), DATA (all my user data), and TM (Time Machine)
i use TM in manual mode to backup my DATA disk, typically every time i copy new images from my camera to my DATA disk.
i notice that sometime the latest files i copied to my machine are NOT backed bup by TM.
Every time i run TM, it finishes really quick, i.e. seeing nothing new to back up.
I then created a simple text file, and invoked TM again - and this very latest file was backed up - but my images from the past few days are STILL not backed up (and likely never to be, it seems).
Other things i;ve tried (w/ no success):
- ran Disk Utility verify on all disks
- rebuilt Directories w/ Disk Warrior
- tried (in vain) to force a TM Deep Traversal by:
a- restarting,
b- starting up using my install CD
c- restarting in Safe Mode
ps: here is an archived thread i found about this, but no solution mentioned
https://discussions.apple.com/message/11359191#11359191
help!
thanks!G'day
Xcode is an IDE, too. It automatically excludes its "build" folders.
It's still worthwhile to take a few moments to check, via the yellow box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #11, just to rule that out.
Sorry, lack of clarity on my part. I did make the check first time around. The files are not excluded.
Yes, that's a possibility. Try making/copying a different folder.
Because this morming TM decided to copy the folders it was ignoring yesterday it is now up to date. I need to re-establish the errant behaviour i.e. wait until TM ignores a new version or two. Then I'll make a new folder and copy the contents of the IDE development folder into it. If folder damage is the issue then from then on new versions made will be copied by TM. I predict in fact this won't make a difference because I don't reckon folder damage is the issue. (But of course now that it is being watched TM will behave faultlessly and won't re-estabish the errant behaviour.)
True, but the folders should appear on subsequent backups (unless the originals were moved or deleted in the meantime). In other words, anything backed-up on Monday will still appear on the first Tuesday backup, even after all the Monday backups are deleted. You just can't tell which backup first backed them up.
Indeed. I can do a bit more analysis there. I will schedule that for tonight too.
How are you determining what's backed-up? Are you using TimeTracker or BackupLoupe,per #A2 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting?
No. I simply open the Product Versions folder (that contains the copies of the developmet folder) on the desktop and then go into TM. There I step backwards through the backups. TM shows me what folders it has in in the Product Versions folder of each backup.
Without knowing the dates & timing, I agree it doesn't seem consistent. If you're getting different results at nearly the same time on the two drives, that may not be the problem. But it may be worth making some new ones to determine what's actually happening.
Not that I know I have to keep an eye on this I will be watching much more closely as I make versions during the day. To push the process along I will make versions, and associated TM backups, more frequently than normal and check each TM backup.
You might want to repair both TM drives, just to be sure, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. While you're at it, you might as well verify your internal HD, just to be sure there's not some sort of odd directory problem there.
Understood. I'll start by re-establishing the errant behaviour which I'll do via the accelerated process of development and versioning described above. You must be coming up to quitting time for the week. By the time you come in Monday morning I should have more to report. (I'm in Australia and I presume you are in the US.) -
Time Machine Doesn't Show Previous Back-Ups
Hi,
Just reconnected a TC after a 2 year hiatus. I can connect as a shared disk and see the the contents of the TC which includes a sparsebundle - so I know content is there. But when I launch Time Machine I dont see any previous content. I haven't performed a Time Machine back-up yet.
What would be the best way to proceed? I dont want previous back ups to get wiped. Also, I take it connecting via wired Ethernet would speed up what initial back-up I might perform as much on my computer has changed in two years.mrhifi wrote:
Hi,
Just reconnected a TC after a 2 year hiatus. I can connect as a shared disk and see the the contents of the TC which includes a sparsebundle - so I know content is there. But when I launch Time Machine I dont see any previous content. I haven't performed a Time Machine back-up yet.
What would be the best way to proceed?
What's changed in those 2 years? Any hardware repairs, especially a new logic board?
If not, try Repairing the backups, per #A5 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum).
If that doesn't help, try the Browse... option, per #E2 there.
I dont want previous back ups to get wiped.
2 year old backups? That makes me wonder if you deleted things from your Mac, counting on Time Machine to keep the backups indefinitely. If so, see #20 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum).
After that long, Time Machine will almost certainly do a new, full backup. That, of course, will take a lot of space, so if there isn't enough room on your TC, it will have to delete old backups, perhaps a LOT of them, to make room. Depending on the sizes, it may delete all but the most recent one, then fail because there still isn't enough room.
See how much space is available on the TC. If that's less than 120% of the amount of data on your Mac (or the estimated size of a full backup under the exclusions box in +Time Machine Preferences > Options,+ backups will have to be deleted. How many is impossible to predict.
Also, I take it connecting via wired Ethernet would speed up what initial back-up I might perform as much on my computer has changed in two years.
Yes, absolutely!
If old backups have to be deleted, that can be an excruciatingly slow process, even via Ethernet. Because of the way sparse bundles work, TM must mount it, delete the oldest backup, dismount it, compact it, then mount it again to see if that made enough space. If not, repeat, repeat, repeat . . .
So, if it looks like a lot of old backups will have to go, and you really don't want that to happen, your best bet is to connect a USB or FireWire disk directly to your iMac and start backing-up to it. That's much faster and more reliable anyway. You should still be able to see and restore from the old backups via the Browse... option.
By the way, please click +My Settings+ at the right of this page, and update your Mac and OSX specs. I'm assuming you're still on the iMac, but clearly not 10.4.5 ) -
Force Time Machine to perform a deep traversal?
How do I force Time Machine to perform a deep traversal? I've had this happen when I needed to once before, when it took about 120 minutes to go through 500 GB and Time Machine found about 10 GB worth of data that changed, which was exactly what I wanted at the time.
Now however, I'd like to do this again, but I can't seem to do it. I've tried resetting TM by trashing com.apple.timemachine.plist, booting from my Snow Leopard startup disk (even though I'm running Mountain Lion), and probably other things that I can't think of right now (I've been spending hours on this problem so far).
When I try to perform a backup, TM wants to backup my entire drive, which is about 500 GB, when I know that not everything has changed. I can even use TM to explore folders and go backwards in time and see that many folders have not changed in a while. So, I'd like to force TM to re-index my entire drive so that it picks up only the small changes rather than decides to back up everything.
Perhaps, is there a way to purge the File System Event Store, where Time Machine goes to see what has changed recently? I assume that currently it probably lists that everything has changed, perhaps due to something I did while trying to fix this problem over the past few days.Time Machine uses the modification times of folders to determine whether their contents need to be scanned for changes made since the time of the last snapshot. For some reason, that criterion occasionally fails, and TM doesn’t scan folders with contents that have changed. You may be able to get backups to resume by updating the modification times of all your folders.
Important: This procedure will change the modification times of all folders on the startup volume. It won’t affect anything that’s not a folder, and it won’t change your existing backups at all. If you have a reason to want to keep the modification times of folders as they are, STOP.
Before proceeding, you must have a current backup of all data. Since your existing Time Machine backups may not be current, you’ll have to back up in some other way; for example, by starting a new TM backup set on another external drive. It’s a good idea to do this anyway, as you always need more than one backup, even if everything is working perfectly.
Launch the Terminal 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 Terminal in the icon grid.
Triple-click the line below to select it, then drag or copy it — do not type — into the Terminal window:
sudo find / -xdev -type d -exec touch {} \;
Press return. You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up.
The command may take several minutes to run. When a line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) appears below what you entered, quit Terminal.
The next snapshot will take longer than usual, because all folders will be scanned for changes. When it’s complete, check the results to see how much data has been backed up.
This procedure will only affect the backups of your startup volume. If you back up other source volumes with Time Machine and are having the same problem with those, you’ll need to take additional steps. -
Why is my time machine back-up is taking days?
I have recently had a problem with y time machine. Below is the story in short:
- Never had a problem with time machine backup
- Left for a few weeks as I was moving home
- Plugged in time machine. Error message saying 265Gb to back up but only 253gb worth of space
- Apple took me through variuos proceudre but in the end resulted in me wiping all backup's and re-formatting hard drive
- The time-machine has been running for days.
- I only have a 250gb harddrive. Its backed up 270gb.
- As i am writing this message it seems to be stuck on 26.3mb of 46mb and has been for the past hour
- What is going on???? Someone help!!! I need to upgrade my hard drive. I really cant be bothered to sit on the phone to an advisor for another hour!!!Start Section D with in the 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems -
Time Machine not backing up music added to iTunes since the original backup
My girlfriend has a Macbook and I decided it was time for her to back up. I used Time Machine with my Lacie external HD. The original back up got all the music, documents, etc.
This morning was the first time I had hooked up the external HD since the original back up. I manually ran it and wanted to check if it added the new music and documents. My resume, which I updated last night, was there. But when I looked in the iTunes folder the new music I had added was missing.
Will the daily or weekly back up get the new music files? Is there something I did wrong with set up? Of course I could start over but I'd rather fix the issue and make sure everything is being backed up.
Your suggestions or comments are appreciated.Erik Griffin wrote:
My girlfriend has a Macbook and I decided it was time for her to back up. I used Time Machine with my Lacie external HD. The original back up got all the music, documents, etc.
How long ago was this?
This morning was the first time I had hooked up the external HD since the original back up. I manually ran it and wanted to check if it added the new music and documents. My resume, which I updated last night, was there. But when I looked in the iTunes folder the new music I had added was missing.
How are you verifying whether they were backed-up? Use +Enter Time Machine,+ not the Finder.
Will the daily or weekly back up get the new music files?
The labels of hourly, daily, and weekly backups are just labels. The process is the same with each. The only thing that's different is how long TM will keep them. A TM backup is a TM Backup.
Is there something I did wrong with set up? Of course I could start over but I'd rather fix the issue and make sure everything is being backed up.
First, check TM Preferences > Options. Be sure nothing is listed there that would prevent any iTunes data from being backed-up.
If you still don't see them, download the TimeTracker app, from www.charlessoft.com.
It shows most of the files saved by TM for each backup (excluding some hidden/system files, etc.). That should show what was actually backed-up. -
Time Machine is only keeping one day. Im missing ALL other BU, please help
TM has been telling me that there is not enough space to complete a back up. However, when I enter time machine there is only 1 day of back ups. When I go to TM Preferences and select disk there are now 2 Data Disks, where there only used to be one. When I click on Data under "Backup Disks it asks me if I want to remove the disk. I have cancled this action and clicked on Data under Available Disks and I am still getting a not enough memory error. (26.6G 999MB left) .
I have searched the web and found http://pondini.org I followed a few options there. One, I have done a complete reset of the TM by removing the .plist file.
When that didnt work I tried to remove the .sparebundle file under Disk Utility. The TM wouldnt mount therefore I was unable to finsd the .sparsebundle
If anyone could help that would be fantastic. I have several years of BU on this TM and pics of my kids to loose those would be devistating.pinkberrykay wrote:
When I open up my data file there is a pic of my HD called Sparse Bundle. There are 3 different sparse bundles listed under the center column. iMac, my Macbook and a Macbook Pro.
Right. Those are the containers for the backups of each Mac.
I posted a screen shot of what I was referring to above. I am unable to click on the Back Up Destination
You don't need to, but if you select Data under Available Disks, that will re-select it -- re-establish the info TM needs to locate it.
As far as my iMac, I am not sure what happend but I had to delete the entire HD and reinstall the operrating system.
Ah, that's part of the problem. Exactly how did you put your data back? When your Mac started up after installing OSX, you saw this window:
Which option did you take? It sounds like you selected Not Now and created a user account. If so, what have you done since then?
According to my TC I have not backed up in 63 days and but there is nothing there.
Depending on what you did, Time Machine is treating the erased disk as being a different one from your backups. It will do a full backup of the "new" drive, space permitting.
My TC is 4 years old and is 1 TB. TC shows 23.5 of 998 GB available. My TC shows it has stuff on there I just cant gett to it.
If the new drive is being treated as a different one, you should be able to see the old backups via the procedure in the green box of #E3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. Don't try to restore anything from there just yet, though.
TC is now showing the latest BU as of June 30, 2013, before it would say none. It is not showing an estimated BU becuse it is "preparing backup"
If you can see the older backups as above, cancel the current backup. That will save some space.
Post back with details of what you did after the reinstall, and your results.
Maybe you are looking for
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Help please, anyone?
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I have a new MacBook pro with Retina display and I want to use the migration utility to tranfer my files from my late 2011 MacBook Pro. I bought the Thunderbolt to firewire adapter and connected it all up, but it's going very slow. There is about 10
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I bought my iPhone (3 gs) forty-eight hours ago. My battery drains super fast and I don't know why. 80% of the day, it is on my desk doing nothing. I check email about once every 30-45 minutes, and I have yet to make a phone call on it. Yet the batte
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Safari 7 not displaying graphics
I loaded Mavericks a few days ago and have nothing but problems with Safari; it won't display graphics, and as another problem (probably unrelated) won't download help files.
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Can somebody explain the differences between forms 6i and forms 9i? Thanks