Times Machine backup scheme

I run a small office with three machines:
new Core i5 iMac, just purchased, (refurbished from Apple) running MacOS 10.8 (1 TB HDD)
Macbook, first generation, running MacOS 10.6.8 (160 GB HDD)
G4 iMac, used as a file server, being slowly phased out of use, running MacOS 10.4.11 & 9.2.2 "classic mode" (300 GB HDD)
I also store a common iPhoto library on a LaCie Rugged 300 GB hard disk, which will go back and forth between the new iMac and the MacBook.
My Time Machine questions:
I plan to use LaCie's SilverKeeper backup utility to back up the G4 iMac and the LaCie iPhoto drive, so they are not relevant.
My concern is with the newer iMac and the Macbook. Currently, the greatest capacity I have on an external hard drive is 500 GB. If I plug the new iMac into a 500 GB hard disk and start up Time Machine, will the Time Machine back up process really work? I do not have anywhere near 1 TB of data to back up. In fact, up until recently, the new iMac's predecessor was a (now dead) MacBook Pro and I was able to back up both laptops, the G4 iMac and the iPhoto drive on one 500 GB hard drive.
The other concern I have: I studied Time Machine on both Lynda.com and on my old MacBook Pro before it died. (It ran MacOS 10.6.8) I'm a little confused. Can a single backup drive be used to store Time Machine backups between two or more computers? It looks like Time Machine wants to use an entire hard drive per computer. Can I partition an external drive to have more than one mountable volume available for periodic Time Machine backups? Also: has the Time Machine interface changed significantly from MacOS 10.6 ("Snow Leopard") to today's 10.8 ("Mountain Lion")?
I've been hunting for deals on the internet for new backup hard drives. Does anyone here use cheap, USB-only portable bus-powered hard drives (like LaCie's Rugged drives) for easily carried, easily stowed Time Machine backup drives? If so, what brand and model do you use and how well does your drive-of-choice work? Does anyone here buy empty USB enclosures and laptop drives to assemble their own cheap Time Machine backup drives? If so, what is your preferred scheme?
Thanks in advance!
--WA

Walt_Atwood wrote:
Do I need to partition an external backup hard disk for use with more than one computer?
That's usually a good idea. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #4.
Should I at least put folders on the hard disk for each backup to be separate, or won't that matter?
You can't. Time Machine automatically creates a Backups.backupdb folder at the top level of a directly-connected drive, and will only back up to it. For backups made over a network, it creates a sparse bundle disk image named for the Mac it's backing-up at the top level of the drive, and will only back up to that.
Since you have an iMac and a MacBook, you have a much better alternative than switching the drive from one Mac to the other: Connect the drive directly to the iMac and let the iMac back up to it directly. Then back the MacBook up to that same drive (preferably a separate partition) over your network. That way, both can back up hourly as long as they're awake (and the MacBook is in range of your network) automatically. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #22 for setup instructions.

Similar Messages

Restoring data from a Time machine backup of a potentially corrupted drive

I seem to be the queen of failing hard drives, heh. I'm on my third in a year, and will be addressing the root cause of these failures, of course, but right now, I'm wondering how safe it is to restore from my Time Machine backup. Here's the scenario:
-- Drive started throwing I/O errors, detected via SMARTReporter, about 2-3 months ago. No change in how the machine functioned, all OK.
-- I continued to back up daily to TM & Crashplan
-- While traveling for a month (and not backing up anymore, I left TM home), the machine started acting funny. Finder freezing, etc. I decided to clear some caches (by booting into safe mode) and see what happened.
-- This caused the HD to fail completely. Recovery mode, target disk mode, booting into single user mode and command-lining fixes, and DiskWarrior all failed to rebuild the directory. Failures were in multi-linked files/directories, the catalog file, etc.
-- I ordered a warranty replacment drive (and a new hard drive cable for starters).
When I got home, I borrowed another machine and just did a Verify Disk on the TM backup. It came back totally clean. So, my question is: is it safe to restore the data from my TM backup to the new drive when it arrives?

Shouldn't be any problem.
Boot from your SL installer DVD (hold down the C key on startup or hold down Alt/option on start and choose the installer disc).
OK the language page (if present). From the installer screen, go to the menu bar and choose Disk Utility; depending on the OS version it may be in the Utilities menu or Tools menu.
In DU, select your internal drive in the sidebar (the top item with the makers name and serial no.). Run Repair Disk. If that comes up as disk OK, click the partition tab. Select the partiton from the drop-down above the graphic; 1 partiton is all you need. Go to the options button and ensure that the partition scheme is GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for G5 and earlier) and the file system to Mac OS Extended (Journalled). Name the partiton (usually Macintosh HD), click Apply.
When that's finished, select the new volume in the sidebar (indented to the right below the drive) and go to the Erase tab, select Security options and select zero data (one pass is more than sufficient). Click erase. That will take quite some time; probably measured in hours and dependant on the size of the drive.
When that's completed, close DU and continue with the installation.
Shortly into the installation process, you'll be asked if you want to migrate data from another source. Select 'from a Time Machine Backup' and follow the prompts.
See Pondini's FAQs;
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/19.html
http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/SetupAsst.html
That should leave you with the same setup as you had on the previous MB.

TIme Machine backup grows too large during backup process

I have been using Time Machine without a problem for several months, backing up my imac - 500GB drive with 350g used. Recently TM failed because the backups had finally filled the external drive - 500GB USB. Since I did not need the older backups, I reformatted the external drive to start from scratch. Now TM tries to do an initial full backup but the size keeps growing as it is backing up, eventually becoming too large for the external drive and TM fails. It will report, say, 200G to back up, then it reaches that point and the "Backing up XXXGB of XXXGB" just keeps getting larger. I have tried excluding more than 100GB of files to get the backup set very small, but it still grows during the backup process. I have deleted plist and cache files as some discussions have suggested, but the same issue occurs each time. What is going on???

Michael Birtel wrote:
Here is the log for the last failure. As you see it indicates there is enough room 345g needed, 464G available, but then it fails. I can watch the backup progress, it reaches 345G and then keeps growing till it give out of disk space error. I don't know what "Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD" implies, maybe this is a clue?
No. It's sort of a warning, indicating that TM isn't sure what's changed on your internal HD since the previous backup, usually as a result of an abnormal shutdown. But since you just erased your TM disk, it's perfectly normal.
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
2009-07-08 19:37:53.659 FindSystemFiles[254:713] Querying receipt database for system packages
2009-07-08 19:37:55.582 FindSystemFiles[254:713] Using system path cache.
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Backup content size: 309.5 GB excluded items size: 22.3 GB for volume Macintosh HD
No pre-backup thinning needed: 345.01 GB requested (including padding), 464.53 GB available
This is a completely normal start to a backup. Just after that last message is when the actual copying begins. Apparently whatever's happening, no messages are being sent to the log, so this may not be an easy one to figure out.
First, let's use Disk Utility to confirm that the disk really is set up properly.
First, select the second line for your internal HD (usually named "Macintosh HD"). Towards the bottom, the Format should be +Mac OS Extended (Journaled),+ although it might be +Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled).+
Next, select the line for your TM partition (indented, with the name). Towards the bottom, the Format must be the same as your internal HD (above). If it isn't, you must erase the partition (not necessarily the whole drive) and reformat it with Disk Utility.
Sometimes when TM formats a drive for you automatically, it sets it to +Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled).+ Do not use this unless your internal HD is also case-sensitive. All drives being backed-up, and your TM volume, should be the same. TM may do backups this way, but you could be in for major problems trying to restore to a mis-matched drive.
Last, select the top line of the TM drive (with the make and size). Towards the bottom, the *Partition Map Scheme* should be GUID (preferred) or +Apple Partition Map+ for an Intel Mac. It must be +Apple Partition Map+ for a PPC Mac.
If any of this is incorrect, that's likely the source of the problem. See item #5 of the Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of this forum for instructions, then try again.
If it's all correct, perhaps there's something else in your logs.
Use the Console app (in your Applications/Utilities folder).
When it starts, click +Show Log List+ in the toolbar, then navigate in the sidebar that opens up to your system.log and select it. Navigate to the +Starting standard backup+ message that you noted above, then see what follows that might indicate some sort of error, failure, termination, exit, etc. (many of the messages there are info for developers, etc.). If in doubt post (a reasonable amount of) the log here.

Is it possible to use more than one external hard drive for Time Machine backups?

I want to use two hard drives for Time Machine backups.
Bigger one keep at home and be sure it is safe.
Second one (very small pocket size) keep with me for travels.
I want to backup to both drives to be sure I can restore everywhere and to be sure if something bad happened with my small travel disk I can restore from home backup.
Is there any problem with listed schema? Is it normal for Time Machine to handle backups for different drivers and keep everything consistent and smooth?

I really need some help! I have been using an Iomega NAS 1TB HD for the past year. And I received an error message. I believe I have ran out of memory on this drive.
Then recently in the last couple of months I got a ReadyNAS Duo 2TB with 2TB RAID. Should I switch my back ups to this one and delete the other back up file or keep the old back up image file on the Iomega?
Can I transfer the old image back up to this new ReadyNAS? How do I do this?
I appreciate any help.

External Hard Drive ejects during Time Machine Backup

I've read through all the troubleshooting pages that I thought had anything to do with this problem, but none of my error messages seemed to match. This is my first backup with Time Machine onto my external hard drive, and it never gets past about 60GB before deciding that the drive has improperly ejected itself and aborting the backup. The error message from my Time Machine Buddy is below:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb
Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
Backup content size: 147.2 GB excluded items size: 5.1 GB for volume Macintosh HD
No pre-backup thinning needed: 170.49 GB requested (including padding), 930.54 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Copied 56.0 GB of 142.1 GB, 112101 of 886988 items
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Error: (-50) SrcErr:NO Copying /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ge ms/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy/errors.rb to /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb/Eugenio Vargas Computer/2011-05-17-161101.inProgress/E6F5C3CB-75B8-41C4-B52E-138235EB4B34/Maci ntosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ gems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Error: (-50) SrcErr:NO Copying /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ge ms/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy/http.rb to /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb/Eugenio Vargas Computer/2011-05-17-161101.inProgress/E6F5C3CB-75B8-41C4-B52E-138235EB4B34/Maci ntosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ gems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Error: (-50) SrcErr:NO Copying /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ge ms/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy/socks4.rb to /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb/Eugenio Vargas Computer/2011-05-17-161101.inProgress/E6F5C3CB-75B8-41C4-B52E-138235EB4B34/Maci ntosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ gems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Error: (-50) SrcErr:NO Copying /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ge ms/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy/socks5.rb to /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb/Eugenio Vargas Computer/2011-05-17-161101.inProgress/E6F5C3CB-75B8-41C4-B52E-138235EB4B34/Maci ntosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ gems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy
Indexing a file failed. Returned 200 for: /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ge ms/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy, /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb/Eugenio Vargas Computer/2011-05-17-161101.inProgress/E6F5C3CB-75B8-41C4-B52E-138235EB4B34/Maci ntosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ gems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy
Aborting backup because indexing of file failed.
Other details:
My external drive is a WD 1TB drive. The partition for the Time Machine Backup is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), as is my Macintosh HD. The Partition Map Scheme on the external drive is GUID Partition Table.
I have tried reformatting the external drive for good measure, but this doesn't seem to solve any problems. I also tried searching for the file that the error message says NO Copying for (/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/g ems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy/...) but I'm unable to find the files. I can get as far as /System/Library/Frameworks, but can find no folder in Frameworks titled Ruby.
Please help.

The Ruby folder is probably hidden. That is why you don't see it.
You may want to add System/Library/Frameworks to the exempted sync list until you can figure out which file is causing this. You can do this by opening Time Machine Preferences ( > System Preferences > Time Machine) and clicking on Options…
After that click the small + key and browse to the folder you want to exempt from the sync. In your case: Macintosh HD > System > Library > Frameworks
Next hit the exclude button with the Frameworks folder highlighted.
Try your backup again and see if it fails.

Encrypted Time Machine Backups on a shared drive

Hello community,
the following situation:
I have an iMac and a MacBook Air, both running Mountain Lion.
Both use FileVault 2 encryption of the whole MacOS partition.
The iMac is connected to an external USB hard drive, which I use as Time Machine volume. I've set up Time Machine to encrypt the backups on the external volume (it took abou 2 days until the whole drive was encrypted).
So far no problems. No let's get to the tricky part.
I want to the MacBook to use the same USB drive for its Time Machine backups. However I don't want to connect the volume directly via USB. Instead I have shared the USB volume on the iMac. And now I want to use this shared drive as my backup drive in the MacBook. (Hint: I want to use the same partition both for the iMac backups as well as for the MacBook backups.)
I can mount and select the drive on the MacBook. However Time Machine on the MacBook asks me, if I want to envrypt the backups. Which of course I want to do. But the USB drive and therefore the entire mounted volume is already encrypted (from the iMac).
Now I'm scared to opt in for encryption on the MacBook because I'm afraid the MacBook will again encypt the whole volume. Will that be the case? If so, what will happen on the iMac afterwards? Or will Time Machine recognize, that the volume is already encrypted (encryption passwords are the same of course)?
Or is it not necessary to activate backup encryption on the MacBook since the drive is already encryted? Or will the MacBook somehow manage to write unencrypted backups on an encrypted volume?
I would really appreciate any help to get the backups up and running. In short: I want both Macs to backup to the same drive. And I want both to encrypt the backups (with the same password).
Regards

meistermilchreis wrote:
(Hint: I want to use the same partition both for the iMac backups as well as for the MacBook backups.)
That's usually not a good idea; for best results, they should be in separate partitions. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #4 for an explanation, and #22 for setup instructions.
I can mount and select the drive on the MacBook. However Time Machine on the MacBook asks me, if I want to envrypt the backups. Which of course I want to do. But the USB drive and therefore the entire mounted volume is already encrypted (from the iMac).
Backups made over a network are placed in a sparse bundle disk image, separate from the backups made directly. The disk image is like a disk-within-a-disk; it has it's own partition map scheme and format. So it will not be encrypted unless you tell TM to do so.
In short: I want both Macs to backup to the same drive. And I want both to encrypt the backups (with the same password).
Since the backups are separate, they must be encrypted separately. You may use the same password for both if you want.

Can you restore from Time Machine backup to a smaller drive?

My 2008 Air's original hard-drive just died. I have a recent Time Machine backup. Since the laptop isn't under warranty, I am looking at buying a replacement hard-drive on my own (either SSD or 'standard'). My question is, if I was using ~70Gigs (and had a Time Machine backup to that effect) and place a 64G hard-drive into the laptop and attempt to do a Time Machine restore... what will happen? Will I be able to pick and choose what to leave out? Or will the entire restore fail? Thank you.

As long as there is sufficient space on a drive you can restore to any drive. However, be sure the drive is properly partitioned and formatted. In your case you can not fully restore 70 GBs to a 64 GB SSD, but you can restore the operating system and some of your data. That means you cannot do a full restore but will need to pick and choose after you install OS X.
Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

Corrupted time machine backup on external hd connected to Airport extreme?

I have an Airport extreme 11n (not gigabit) and a Lacie external hard disk connected to the usb port. Time machine is set up to make backups wirelessly from my laptop to this external disk. It used to work fine, but no I have the following problem all the time: Time machine complains that it cannot perform the backup. When this happens, I cannot access the drive from the finder (normally I can). I check the drive physically and I notice that it's LED show that it is constantly reading/writing (is yellow instead of red). The solution is (as also suggested by Apple support) to use disk utility and perform a repair on the drive. This solves the problem, but... only temporarily. After one or two successful backups, the same problem: no backup possible, drive not accessible in finder, disk utility finds problems. What can i do?

Somehow I thought that with OS X 10.6 Time Machine did support disks connected to Airport devices, but I guess I'm wrong.
The LaCie disk has indeed its own external power supply brick. Is this relevant?
I found this article http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1550
which is not about airport disks, but I checked my LaCie disk and it has a Master Boot Record Partition Scheme. Should I change that?
It is also formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I thought that this was the recommended format, but checking in the Help of OS X 10.6, I found an article "Disks that can be used with Time Machine" which says: "The most common format for a Time Machine backup disk is Mac OS Extended format, but Time Machine also supports Mac OS Extended (Case sensitive, Journaled) and XSan formats"
implying that the Extended format is more preferable than the Journaled format, right?
I don't think the disk drive is defective: I after "repairing" it with disk utility, I could back up again, at least one time, before the problem reappears.

Lion won't install can't select hard drive that is used for time machine backups

I installed Lion, agreed to the eula but both drives are greyed out. My Macintosh HD - ( this dirve is used for time machine backups) and my external drive (this drive does not use the GUID Partition Table scheme...). Though I don't use time machine, I tried turning it on and selecting the external drive with no luck. I'm stuck - any ideas?

"Backups.backupdb" if the file in Time Machine. As the discussion says, you have to find that file and trash it. Try spotlight to locate it. If that does not work, down load OmniDiskSweeper from the Internet (free) and go through an organized search to find "Backups.backupdb". If that takes too long or is too tedious, then if you have everything backed up, erase the HDD and start from square one.
Ciao.

How to restore just Mavericks from a Time Machine backup

Macbook Pro 15", (early 2011) 2.0 GHz, 8GB memory
After having my WD 750GB HD crash, I decided that I would opt for a smaller (256GB) SSD drive and just put Mavericks and my apps on the new drive and keep my user files on an external drive. I've installed and formatted the new drive but I can't figure out how to install just OSX from Time Machine since the entire backup is too big for my new drive. Before the drive failed, I had installed the latest update for Mavericks (10.9.3?) Thoughts?

I think you should do the following:
Install Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion Using Internet Recovery
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
Partition and Format the hard drive:
Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
After DU loads select your newly installed hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion. Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
You can find more about restoring from a Time Machine backup at Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
You

How do I reinstall Mavericks from a time machine backup? (Hard drive failure)

Ok, so I have a mid-2007 iMac and the hard drive finally died. It originally shipped with Leopard or something, but I had it upgraded to Mavericks. I have an external hard drive with a current Time Machine backup on it. I am about to replace the internal hard drive with a brand new (unformatted) hard drive. So here is the question: Is there a way to boot from my Time Machine backup and then reformat the drive and do a Time Machine recovery?
I have the old OS X install disks, but I don't want to have to upgrade through all of the old OS Xs. I also have a Macbook that I could create a bootable USB from--something like this (http://lifehacker.com/how-to-create-an-os-x-mavericks-usb-installation-drive-145 0280026)--and then I could reformat the drive and recover from Time Machine. But is there an easier way? Can I just boot straight from my external hard drive that has the backup on it?
Thanks for your help everyone, I'm hoping to be able to take care of all of this tonight.

You can try this. OPTION boot the computer.
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 labeled Recovery HD.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
This should boot the Mavericks Utilities Menu.
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
When the formatting is done quit Disk Utility and return to the Main Menu. Now select the option to restore/reinstall OS X from a Time Machine backup. Follow the directions.

Time Machine Backups of Pages file cannot be opened by Pages

I just restird a backup of a Pages file from my Time Machine backup volume. It's not a Pages file! Finder jusy says it's a document and if I double click it, a folder is created with the same name as the file with a number appended. There are sevarla files in the folder - none of them can be opened by Pages.
I'm aware of the Preference to save a backup copy but that saves just one copy, not a tru backup.
Is there some way round this? I'm not inclined to use a product if I can't back up it's files safely.
Pete

It's what I assumed.
An iWork document created with the format introduced by iWork '09 is in fact a folder packed with a specific tool.
If we remove the name extension, the system can't guess that it's an iWork document.
According to the structure of the file, it recognize it as an archive and it unpack it.
It's a variant of what I do when I want to study the contents of the index.xml file describing a document.
In my scheme, I rename wxyz.pages as wxyz.pages.zip
When I unpack it, I get a document wxyz.pages which is a Pages document in the old structure.
When Time Machine give you a document entitled wxyz, it's important to add the extension name by yourself.
If you forget and expand the beast as a folder, nothing is lost. Just rename the folder waxy as waxy.pages and Pages will open it.
From my point of view, the fact that Time Machine return a document without its name extension is a bug in Time Machine.
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) lundi 2 mai 2011 22:30:54
Please :
Search for questions similar to your own before submitting them to the community
To be the AW6 successor, iWork MUST integrate a TRUE DB, not a list organizer !

Trying to upgrade to Maverick but my disk has Time Machine backup so it cant and will not intall. How do I get around this problem?

I have a 13-inch MacBook Mid-2009 running on IOS X Lion and am trying to upgrade to Mavericks but after the download and starting installation the point where you choose which disk to use it says my hard drive is being used for Time Machine backups so it can not be used. I have turned off the Time Machine but do not know how to remove the backups from the hard drive. What do I do to get rid of the Time Machine backups I no longer actually need and install Mavericks? I have moved all my files to a separate terabyte hard drive but that drive does not have the GUID partition scheme to be used for installation. So I am stuck with one internal hard drive I cant use due to Time Machine and an external hard drive I cant use due to this GUID partition problem. How can I work around this and finally upgrade to Mavericks?

Click here and follow the instructions.
(116122)

Time Machine Backup EXTREMELY SLOW

I've recently noticed that my Time Machine backups from my Mid 2009 iMac 3.06 to a WD 1tb MYBook take an incredibly long time. For example, an hourly backup where nothing has really changed (350k according to a TM log) takes over 30 minutes. I've been working with applecare and they can't pin it down. I've tried the following and nothing has changed-
- creating a back to a brand new drive
- disabling or deleting every startup program and launch agent
- Created another new user and backed up from there
- Reinstalled OSX to repair Time Machine
- Created a new boot partition on my HD and installed OSX
- I used the same backup disc on my laptop and it worked fine
The strange thing is hat everything seems to work fine. I ran a verify on my disks. I Boot my original OS disc in and ran the hardware test. NOthing finds a problem. I tried writing large files to and from my HD to see if that could be the problem. MY HD reads and writes quickly (2.5gb copies to/from an external drive in less than 2 minutes).
The only thing that has changed in the past 6 month s is that I updated my ram from 4 to 8GB with Kingston ram. Could it be a bad piece of RAM or my logic board? Everything else seems to be working fine.
Anybody experience anything likes this???

kieranroy wrote:
Hey - apologize if this has been covered, but despite much searching, I haven't found a solution to my problem...
After a hard drive crash, I restored using a Time Machine backup. I figured it would be a good idea to start a fresh Time Machine backup going forward.
Does that mean you erased or reformatted the drive?
If you deleted some or all of the backups via the Finder, cancel the backup, reformat the drive, and start over.
Using a LaCie 500GB Firewire 800 drive (formatted MacOS Extended Journaled), after one hour, only 5GB has been backed up. As my MacBook Pro has 165GB of data, at this rate, it will take almost two days.
Does that hour include the "Preparing" phase? If so, nothing at all was backed-up during that time, so the actual rate is probably much faster.
Also note that the first items backed-up contain a very large number of mostly small files; there are things that must be done for each item, so that sort of backup will be longer than saving a few large files that total the same amount of space. The speed of the backup will increase and decrease during the backup; initial estimates are almost always quite high.
I've removed the Time Machine drive from Spotlight indexing. I have ensured Norton AntiVirus is not running. What else can I do to speed this up? It seems extremely slow by all comparisons I've read.
First, be sure the *Partition Map Scheme* of the LaCie is correct. Use the procedure in item #C1 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
Also see item #D2 of the same post (you've already done the first two things). Don't try the +*Repair Disk+* while the backup is running, or if you erased or reformatted it before starting this backup.

Set up new external drive-clone startup drive alongside Time Machine backup

I want to clone the boot drive to a 1 TB WD MyBook external (via firewire), using SuperDuper, with the rest of the 1TB drive used for Time Machine backups. I am currently formatting the drive to Mac OS Extended (journaled), and plan to set two partitions. I was planning on setting the first partition to 320 GB, and the remainder to a partition for Time Machine.
*Do I need to set the first partition to the specified drive size (320 GB), or can I set it to the available capacity (just below 300 MB)?*
I've read that SuperDuper and Time Machine work nicely side by side - e.g., creating boot clone image, and Time Machine backups. Will Time Machine and SuperDuper work without any issues once the formatting and partitions are completed, or is there some other setup required.
*Is this accurate?*

NibblesNBits wrote:
Thanks for the quick response - I hadn't looked at the FAQ, but the first thing I did after selecting the drive was the same things outlined in step B. This was where the failure was detected. I see in step B, the words "This may not work if the drive is already set up with a non-Apple Partition Map Scheme, such as is used on Windows". *Does "May not work...." mean the "Format Failure" message will be displayed?*
Yes.
Anyway, after failing step B, I did set two GUID partitions, which was what steps C and D listed.
No, that's two different things. The *Partition Map Scheme* applies to the entire drive. If your drive came set up for Windoze, it's probably MBR (Master Boot Record), which will not work with Time Machine.
And, last night I repeated step B - this morning repeated step C, D, E, F. Again, the only thing that indicated there was a problem was step B.
Excerpt from FAQ
B. Select the Erase tab, then confirm. This will erase the entire disk. (If you want, you can select Security Options, then Zero-Out Data to physically erase the entire disk by writing over everything. This will take quite a while, and shouldn't be necessary, especially on a new disk.) This may not work if the drive is already set up with a non-Apple Partition Map Scheme, such as is used on Windows. If that happens, just continue with item C.
Correct. But you must select GUID in step D, before you get to the Format(s) in step E.
So, try making only one partition in step C, with GUID, and format it +Mac OS Extended+ in step E. After that completes, you can split that single partition into two (which should be very quick).

Times Machine backup scheme

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