Time machine wont copy to new drive

I purchased a new external hard drive to use as a Time Machine backup. I've since reformatted said drive to OSX Extended (journaled) and have followed the Apple Support instructions for moving it over (Time Machine: How to transfer backups from a current backup drive to a new backup drive - Apple Support). However despite these instructions, an error message pops up saying "The operation cant be completed because backup items cant be modified."
I'm sure this is not an unique problem on these forums (though I cannot find a relevant article). Can anyone please recommend me a solution?

Although Apple documentation says you can copy Time Machine backups in the Finder, it's very slow and sometimes doesn't work at all.
This technique will only work if the volume you're copying to is the same size, or larger than, the one you're copying from.
First, open the Time Machine preference pane and click the Select Disk... button. You may have to unlock the settings first by clicking the padlock icon in the lower left corner of the window. Authenticate as an administrator.
Delete the volume you're going to copy from the list of backup destinations. Then turn Time Machine OFF.
Launch Disk Utility, open the built-in help, and search for the term "Duplicate." Follow the instructions. All existing data on the destination volume will be erased. That shouldn't be a problem, because you don't want to mix backup and non-backup data on the same drive anyway.
If the volume you're copying was encrypted by Time Machine, you may have to unlock it first. Click the Unlock button in the toolbar of the Disk Utility window.
Turn Time Machine back ON and select the new volume as a backup destination. You can also continue to use the old volume, if you wish. The two will be alternated when both are available.
CAUTION: If the volume you're copying is corrupt, as shown by Repair Disk or Verify Disk in Disk Utility, then that corruption will be copied to the new drive. Don't copy data from a corrupt volume on a malfunctioning drive. Put the drive aside and don't use it until you're sure you'll no longer need the data. Then securely erase it and take it to a recycling center. Do the same if the Restore operation fails with "disk errors."

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Time machine not copying to new drive

running 10.6.8. I have two new hard drives and have them connected one at a time via USB cable to my MBP intel core i5.
I am using time machine to Backup my system drive. Time machine stopped the back up and displays an error. Here is the eventual error "The backup was not performed because an erorr occurred while copying files to the backup disk. The probem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. If the problem persists, use Disk Utility to repair your backup disk."
I used disk utility repair drive and the drive passes. I am not able to continue forward with time machine and receive the same error again.
Both drives experience this same behavior. Are both drives just bad and need to be replaced? Open to any suggestions on how to cure this issu.
Here is the log from disk utility:
--- snip ---
Verify and Repair volume “Untitled 1”
Verify and Repair volume “Untitled 1”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
Checking multi-linked directories.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume Untitled 1 appears to be OK.
Volume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
--- snip ----

Did you verify your MBP's HD, or the external HD's?
IMHO, Time Machine is great when it works, but it's not the most reliable backup. You may want to consider CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper instead.

Transfer Time Machine backups to a new drive

Is there an automated or an easy way to transfer my current Time Machine back ups to the new Time Capsule (I am sure I will inevitably buy it]. Looks like a great system for notebook users but I wouldn't like to start again with time Machine I like having the security of back ups I have already accrued. My current drive is certainly not full and won't be for a while.

So far not very many people have had much success in copying their Time Machine backups to a new drive although the Restore option in Disk Utility ought to be able to do this. However, SuperDuper will support that capability when their new Leopard compatible version is released which should be in a week or so.
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/blog/

Why isn't my time machine backup updating a new drive correctly?

I bought a new larger hard drive and I am trying to use time machine (lion) to restore the new one and copy all my files. I made a Lion startup disk and use the disk utility to erase the new drive and then choose restore from time machine backup. The process runs great and then after about 3 hours it finishes and restarts the computer. Then the white screen with the grey apple and little spinner below it pop up and the spinner just spins forever.
Does anybody know what I am doing wrong? Thanks

It looks like it tries to start loading safe mode and the loading bar appears under the spinning lines under the apple but then the bar gets almost half full and just dissapears. I'm left with just that grey apple screen and the spinning lines again.
The only other startup option that seemed to get me somewhere other than the grey screen is when I hold the "option" key and choose from the hard drive or the dvd drive to boot. I can run from the dvd OS X disk that I made. Is there anything I can do there?

HT5096 I need to transfer a time machine backup to a new drive. It keeps failing.

I have a 2TB Time Capsule that I was using for Time Machine for both a MacBook and an iMac. The iMac sparse bundle became corrupted earlier this spring and I was unable to delete it, so I need to reformat the TC. First, however, I need to move the TM sparse bundle for the MacBook to a new drive that I have set up just for TM for the MacBook. After reformatting, I plan to only use the TC for the iMac. I tried moving the sparse bundle tonight to the new drive, following directions listed in several places on this site and on Pondini's site. However, it failed. I am going to guess that it failed b/c I was not hooked up to the TC via ethernet. (I was on WIFI). The new backup drive is a 2TB external that was plugged directly to the MacBook. So, now I have connected them via ethernet. I am again reparing the TC volume using Disk Utility, just to make sure all permissions, etc, are ok before moving. Will I be able to move this file to the new drive easily, or should I plug the new drive directly to the Time Capsule and move it that way (while MacBook is connected via Ethernet).
Alternativey, is there a way to just archive that sparse bundle for the MacBook before I erase the drive?
FYI I am still running Snow Leopard on these machines, but trying to clean up the time machine backups today before installing Lion and moving to iCloud, so time is of the utmost importance here.
Thanks so much!
Kat

OK, this has now failed twice. I repaired the drive using DU and there were no problems (even though it took 2 hours to go thru everything to verify). Right now, the MacBook is connected via Ethernet to the TC. The new TM drive (WD 3TB external, USB 3.0/2.0) is attached to the MacBook via USB. I really need to keep this TM backup for the MacBook and also need to erase the TC. How can I accmplish both? I thought that there was a way to archive a TM sparse bundle?

Want to get SOME data from Time Machine to restore to NEW Drive.

1) System: Leopard.
2) HD configuration: 1TB Time Machine drive backs up internal 500GB AND an external 500GB (called "iMac Annex").
3) The 500GB iMac Annex died.
4) How can I get the iMac Annex Data on Time Machine to restore to a NEW external 500GB drive ("iMax Annex 2").
Migration assistant only seems to ask about the "System to Transfer," and only my internal drive shows up.
Question: Can I drag and drop the folders on Time Machine (from the latest backup set) to iMac Annex 2, then reconfigure Time Machine?

hebron,
I have done this little routine in the past, and Time Machine has carried on without the "hiccup" you seem to have had. Also, I was not asked for a destination folder.
However, Time Machine may have changed a bit in this regard in one of the intervening updates, or it could be that I named my "replacement" volume during a format, and the UNIX disk name and the OS X Finder disk name were reproduced exactly as they were prior to the erasure/replacement; in other words, our mileages may have varied.
Nevertheless, I see no real problem for you either way. I suspect that Time Machine is simply performing a "deep traversal" in preparation of a normal backup of what you have, and an entirely new backup will not be created. Let it run its course, and you tell us the outcome. Even if a new backup is made (and not just a large, but normal backup), you have all of your old files, and you have a backup of same. At some point, you can delete any old backup folders, if you end up starting a new one.
Scott

Time machine transfer to a new drive.

When I try to drag and drop my time machine back up folder from the old drive to the new drive (formatted for Mac), a window pops up that says "the volume has the wrong case sensitivity for a back up". What does this mean?

Time Machine: How to transfer backups from a current backup drive to a new backup drive - Apple Support

Moving 1 of 3 Time Machine backups to a new drive?

I have an unpartitioned external hard drive that is the destination for time machine backups for 3 separte computers. I would like to issolate one of these and move it to its own separate hard drive but the only instructions I've been able to uncover for moving backups involves cloning the disk. Is there a way to move only one of these?

Clone the disk and then delete the backups you don't want. Any other method is going to take many times longer and may fail.

Transfer Time Machine Backup To A New Drive

Can I transfer my TM backup from one external drive to another external drive, both drives wired, or do I need to start over with the new drive? I own SuperDuper.

just clone the old TM drive to the new one using Superduper.

I am attempting to restore a time machine backup to a new drive.

I seem to have restored all the files, but the settings arent restore (ie desktop, software settings, where pictures are etc.) how do I restore the settings

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for details.

My Fantom backup drive is failing. I want to copy the time machine contents to a new backup drive and continue on as if nothing has happened. Can I do this and if so how? I have intel iMac running Mountain Lion. Fantom Drive via Firewire 800.

My Fantom backup drive is failing and I have to send it in for warranty repair. Before I do that I want to copy the time machine contents to a new drive and then use it for the backup, continuing on as if nothing had gone wrong with the first drive. Can I do this? Is it as simple as duplicating the first drive and replacing it with the second? New drive arrives Tuesday PM and both drives have dual firewire 800 ports.

I have used the Disk Utility to verify the contents of the backup drive so I don't think I have any corrupt files. The drive just takes a minute or so to spin up to speed. If I turn it off and then back on, it beeps at me for a few seconds and then starts it's slow process of trying to spin. I think it's a power problem not a data problem. I have my fingers crossed that it holds on until Tuesday PM when the new drive arrives. I'm thinking that my two options are to duplicate the bad drive or partition the new drive and put the old backups on one partition and start afresh on the second partition. Any input?
And thanks to both of you for the valuable information so far!

HT201250 How do you let time machine know that a restored drive does not need a brand new backup set and just append to the old one?

I had an external drive failure and had to buy a brand new drive. I was able to restore my info onto a new drive, about 1.5 TB of data. When I go to launch time machine now with the new drive connected and my backup connected, it treats the new drive as if it had different data and wants to create a whole new backup set when it should just append. How do I get around this?
I could just reformat the backup drive and start fresh again but would rather not do that if I can avoid it, just in case there were errors in copying etc.

Hi
I should have been more clear, sorry. I work from a laptop. I have 2 external drives - one for my projects which failed but has since been replaced and restored from a backup. My 2nd external drive is the time machine backup drive.
When my project drive crashed, I bought a brand new drive and restored it using my time machine backup drive.
Now the data exists on 2 drives - the time machine backup drive, and the new drive. When I connect the backup drive now, it thinks my new drive has new data, probably since it is a new device/drive, and wants to do a brand new backup, when in fact the data already exists on that very drive. It shouldn't have to back up all 1.5 TB when nothing has changed!
Unless there is a way to tell time machine to simply append to the old backup, I think it will try and do a new backup (1.5 TB). I'm thinking maybe I should just initialize my time machine backup drive now and start over so it is only one backup set of 1.5 TB instead of (2) sets of 1.5 TB!

I had a repair done at the apple store where the replaced my hard drive and copied my other hard drive over to the new one. Everything is fine except the time machine wont reconnect to my old file and is trying create a new file but not enough space?

I had a repair done at the apple store where the replaced my hard drive and copied my other hard drive over to the new one. Everything is fine except the time machine wont reconnect to my old file and is trying create a new file but not there is not enough space for both files files? Do I need to do something to have it continue to update my old file instead of recreating a new one?

Depending on what version of OSX you're running, and how the data was transferred, you may be out of luck.
If you're running Lion, and your backups were made to a directly-connected external HD (ie, not a Time Capsule or other network location), you may be able to get Time Machine to "associate" the new disk with the old backups. See #B6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting, especially the pink box there.
If you're running Snow Leopard, you might be able to do a full system restore of your backups to the new HD. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14 for detailed instructions. That should leave a "trail" that Time Machine can follow to "associate" the new drive with the old backups. Unfortunately, that doesn't always work, and there's no way to do it manually, as there is with Lion.

Is there a way to copy a time machine backup to a second drive?

I'm in a foreign country and someone wants to buy my laptop, for a price where I can upgrade to the newest model, and have some $$ left over. I have an external drive at home with a time machine backup I did right before I left, but that's it. What if I have someone at home buy a new drive? If they copy all the data on my existing backup drive, will the time machine backups copy and be useable to set up a new laptop? If not, could they use the disk utility on another mac to duplicate my current time machine backup, and would that second mac need to be running 10.5 Leopard? Would also appreciate any advice about how to create another back up using dvd's. I probably can't get another external drive to make another backup to bring with me. I have internet so I can send the latest data from my trip to my idisk. My goal is to have two, independent backups, so if something happens to one, I can still set up a new machine. Also, how can I securely erase my data and programs? Thanks!

SeannX wrote:
If not, could they use the disk utility on another mac to duplicate my current time machine backup, and would that second mac need to be running 10.5 Leopard?
Yes, but only if it's done using the procedure in item #18 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum, or SuperDuper!. Otherwise they won't be copied properly and won't work.
Would also appreciate any advice about how to create another back up using dvd's. I probably can't get another external drive to make another backup to bring with me.
If you have much data, DVDs aren't going to work well. But if the main things in your home folder aren't too large, just copy them to DVDs. If there's more than will fit a single DVD, divide it up so you can put, say, documents on one and photos on another.
Can you get a portable external? They tend not to be lighting fast, but for your purposes, might be sufficient.

Unable to restore time machine backup onto a new hard drive

I recently bought a new hard drive for my mid-2010 white Macbook. I have kept this computer regularly backed up with time machine, but just to be sure I made sure I hooked up my external hard drive prior to changing the hard drive and made sure it was fully backed up. I checked my exceptions and saw that my system files and applications were listed, so I removed them from the exceptions list and let it back up again (it only backed up a further 60MB though, so that made me a little uneasy).
I successfully switched over the hard drive and then plugged in my external hard drive so I could do a restore from Time Machine. My external hard drive has 3 partitions: 2 time machine backups for each of my computers, and one partition for storing files that also has an old copy of 10.6 on it.
When I booted the computer, I held option, then selected Macbook TM. When it came to the window with 4 options, including disk utility and restore from time machine backup, I selected restore from Time Machine backup. When I did so it said "No OS X Backups Were Found." Why wouldn't it have backups listed if I have been consistently backing it up? How else do I do a full system backup?
Also, how can I be sure that I'm restoring this backup onto the new hard drive? It didn't prompt me to select that drive at any point, and I want to make sure I'm not overwriting the middle partition on the backup drive (or anything else).

Please visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
You will find that Mountain Lion stores an invisible copy of the Recovery HD. You can boot from your Time Machine backup drive by restarting with OPTION boot:
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the disk icon for your Time Machine backup drive.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
Your computer should boot into the Recovery HD. You will be presented with a main window of options. Select the option to restore from a Time Machine backup then click on the Continue button.

Time machine wont copy to new drive

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