Tips on Installing a new Time Machine??

I just upgraded to a iMac 27 and also purchased a 2TB Airport Time Capsule. I'm wanting to use this new Time Capsule as my Time Machine device and replace my previous 1TB external drive. Is there a best way to do that? Can I keep my old Time Machine backup and somehow tranfer it to the new Time Machine or do I just start afresh with the the Time Capsule? Please advise the best way to transition my Time Machine backup to the new external drive.

CraigT54 wrote:
- If you want to copy from a local to a network - is that me? My old system was a direct USB line to an external drive used as Time Machine. Now I will start a new Time Capsule which will connect by WIFI to my desk top. Since I'm using WIFI does that mean the new Time Capsule is on a Network?
I THINK so (I am not 100% certain, I use Time Machine with a direct FireWire connection). I am not going to guess and mislead you.
However, I might use an ethernet cable to to speed the initial copying does that make the new Time Capsule a local?
Again I cannot give you a definitive answer, but just do it. A full wireless backup will take a long time.
If you run into problems post back. If need be, I may be able to commandeer assistance.
Ciao.

Similar Messages

Installing a new Time Machine?

I Have had to return a time machine as it was faulty. I have a replacement but before I install it, do I have to uninstall anything on my MacBook Pro to do with the old TM?

You are confusing the Time Capsule which is hardware device.. a router with a hard disk. And Time Machine which is software in your computer.
When you install the new TC.. do not try to use the same names.. that will be confusing.
Give it new names, not the ones recommended by the airport utility.
So for example, airport utility will recommend a name like Claire Rodger's Airport Time Capsule. And some even more complicated wireless name.
These are totally wrong. Apple have advice now that names should be restricted to 27 characters.. but they forgot to change the airport utility.
See OS X Mavericks: Time Machine problems
IMHO it is much better to use short names.. less than 10 characters, no spaces and pure alphanumeric.
So TCgen5 for base station name. TCwifi for wireless name.
Reset TM.. See A4 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Time Machine sadly is not a hugely great part of the new Mavericks software.
I strong recommend to people using Carbon Copy Cloner.. and a USB drive. It will create a bootable clone.. so when you get into trouble.. you can simply recover directly from the clone.. and boot directly from it.

Clean install? Restoring Time Machine backups?

First let me say I'm relatively new to Mac, I've graded my iMac (Late 2013) to the latest OS, Yosemite. To say that they computer is dragging is a major under statement. Applications such as AutoCAD, anything Adobe (Photoshop, InDesign), Word, etc. drag. By "drag" I mean upon launch the icon bounces for a good 3-4 minutes and the program does not load. Switching profiles? Forget it, spinning pin wheel, 10 min. in I just restarted it. Its unbearable. I assume that I will have to do a clean install. Will Time Machine restore applications, or is this for documents only? Most of my software is from online subscriptions not disks which means this going to be a serious endeavor to wipe the computer and start all over. If anyones has a better idea of how to go about this, I'm all ears.

Hey spodonahue,
It seems like you are saying that your Mac is running a little slower than normal. Here is an article for you that will help you address this issue:
OS X Mavericks: If your Mac runs slowly
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13895
Thanks for coming to the Apple Support Communities!
Cheers,
Braden

Does a fresh OS X install wipe out Time Machine history?

I just did a fresh Mac OS X install in a (failed) attempt to correct an elusive WindowServer problem:
Quit all apps.
Start a Time Machine backup and wait for it to finish.
Turn off Time Machine.
Clone the boot HD ("Hobbes") to another drive using SuperDuper!
Boot from the Snow Leopard install DVD.
Use Disk Utility on the DVD to erase the "Hobbes" HD, retaining the name.
Install Mac OS X.
During installation wrap-up, migrate everything (all accounts, settings, additional files) from the backup (step 4).
Run Software Update to get back to 10.6.8.
Resolve minor details to get everything back to normal.
Before turning Time Machine back on, I verified it was still set to use the same backup HD and that my exclusion list had been preserved. As expected, the backup dates were empty.
With Time Machine's Preferences still open, I did a Backup Now from the TM menu. The "Preparing" step almost immediately reported 10's of thousands of files. I thought, "Yikes! This looks like Time Machine is going to start over from scratch!"
So I quickly pushed the "stop backing up" button. Time Machine promptly stopped ... and filled in the Oldest and Latest Backup dates.
When I calmed down, I realized Time Machine was probably using folder update timestamps to find the new & modified files.
Before I kick off an actual Backup Now, I'd like assurance that Time Machine will simply take a long time to discover the relatively few files that actually need to be backed up, preserving more than a year of incremental backups.
-- Ward

After installing and initializing the new Time Machine 3 TB hard drive, I made a couple of attempts with SuperDuper! to clone my 1.5 TB drive (nearly full) onto the new drive. The progress bar on the first attempt got to about 90% in 24 hours and appeared to stall. So I restarted (for good measure) and attempted to complete the clone, which ran for many hours and stalled.
Thinking that the original TM drive might be corrupted, I used Disk Utility to Repair the drive, which ran for many hours and stalled. When I canceled the Repair, the drive had lost its volume name and would not mount. Yikes! A repair using TechTool Pro 6 ran for hours and hung. Fortunately, it did repair the drive sufficiently so that it would again mount. Whew!
Disk Utility Restore managed to do a block-level copy onto the new drive, taking about 8 hours.
When I pointed Time Machine at the new drive, it immediately warned me that something might be amiss. I clicked the button to proceed with backup set on the new drive.
Backup Now started TM's "Preparing items..." phase, which took about 30 minutes to prepare nearly 3 million items. Next came an "Indexing backup..." phase. That gave me hope Time Machine would eventually "bless" the new drive and pick up where it left off last week. But my hope faded after 24 hours of indexing. The only "backupd" messages in the Console log were periodic reports of waiting for indexing to complete. So I pushed the stop button.
I'm at a fork in the road:
1. Erase the new drive and give Time Machine a fresh start, keeping the old drive around for while in case I need to restore an old file.
2. Give Time Machine another chance to "bless" the old backups on the new drive.

Due to NAS issues, when I started a new time machine backup it did not have the old backups available. My question is do I need to delete them or will time machine automatically reclaim the space? Only one Sparse Bundle, same name.

Due to NAS issues, when I started a new time machine backup it did not have the old backups available. My question is do I need to delete them or will time machine automatically reclaim the space? There is only one sparse bundle but when I enter time machine I don't see my historic backups. I use a synology DS212 for my time machine. Started a new backup which is 218gb but it says 618 gb is occupied therefore it looks like 2 or 3 backups are still on the disk. Before my NAS issues the last backup was in 2014. As you can see there is a second sparse bundle from 2012. Not sure what that is.

This is an old message now, but what happened to me similarly was:
I had a major computer crash and through complicated pathways ended up reinstalling (Mavericks) as a new user (long story).
At least I had good Time Machine backups on an NAS drive (Synology DS212j), or so I thought - when I started Time Machine up again, the old backup file was gone, replaced by a new one using my "new computer" name. The old file was gone both by directly mounting the NAS drive and by clicking "Enter Time Machine".
It's like I had {OldShareName}.sparsebundle and then it was replaced by {NewShareName}.sparsebundle, all of the old info vanished.
(I have spent a week finding old files elsewhere and have completed a satisfactory self-restore. It pays to "archive" [my own variation of] as well as "back-up".)
My belief is that if this were a wired-netword-drive, e.g. plugged right into my iMac with a USB cable, then the old file would have remained.
But this is an NAS drive, connected directly to my Airport wireless router, and I don't know the significance of the fact that it stores its Time Machine backups as "sparsebundle" files rather than simply as plain(er) files.
As usual when things get complicated with computers (not just Apple computers) there was never a warning message. Something like "YOU'RE ABOUT TO DELETE A TIME MACHINE BACK-UP FILE!!!" would have made my life a lot simpler.
BTW, I did try a "restore from Time Machine" option the first thing I had my "new computer" (old hardware, 2009 iMac) up and running, using Migration Assistant, and it ran for many hours and then failed in the wee hours - what that has to do with anything I'm not sure.
I'm not sure that I have a question about this other than "why do these things happen to me?", but it's a warning. Apart from that I've been very happy with the stability and reliability (but not the cost or set-up complexity) of NAS vs. directly-cabled external drives.
Charles

New Time Machine keeps forgetting Wi-Fi Password

I have reset the brand new Time Machine about 10 times. I reset it to factory, put in passwords, and it might work for a day, but then will not take the password I set. Sometimes, it quits working as fast as a few minutes after I set it up. I've even returned it to get a new one and the same problem. I'm using AT&T U-Verse. Is that a problem? This is really frustrating. I'm only trying to hook up an iPad and iPhone to it. Everything else uses Ethernet.

It should work fine with the uverse..
The TC should be in bridge mode.. you create a wireless network.. with either the same name (ssid) as the uverse and same security.. or a different name.. make sure your devices link to it.. no luck..
Try fixing the wireless name differently for 5ghz and use fixed wireless channels..
There is lots of complaints about iphone 5 in particular having issues with the new AC version TC and AEBS.
Just do a search.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/22994041#22994041
https://discussions.apple.com/message/22994273#22994273
https://discussions.apple.com/message/22955741#22955741
https://discussions.apple.com/message/22929157#22929157
https://discussions.apple.com/message/22907334#22907334
https://discussions.apple.com/message/22883758#22883758
That is posts directly related for sept.. not all will be relevant.. but enough to show you are suffering with others.

New time machine WDS frustration

I bought a new time machine (dual channel) and planned on using my old APExtreme downstairs to pick up the speed to n. I also have an old g APExpress that my printer is hooked up to. Plugged in the TM and set up no problem, grabbed the express and did the setup no problem. The Extreme on the other hand will not set-up. If I try to put the TM in WDS mode which is the only way I can get the AE to connect, the TM sits green with the amber blink every minute or so until it finally quits and says WDS fail no other apple devices available. The correct MAC addresses are put in all three, Main(TM) and both the remote addresses in the Main.
I've tried to do everything the Apple way and the extreme will not connect at all, when I manually set up a WDS everything connects for about 10 minutes until the TM fails and restarts in normal mode.
HELP!!

Welcome to the discussions!
Can you clarify if your old AirPort Extreme is capable of wireless "n" speeds?
If it is, would you consider a setup using your Time Capsule and Extreme that would "extend a wireless network" rather than create a WDS?
The reason I ask is that with a WDS setup using the Time Capsule, Airport Extreme and your "g" Express, you may not be aware that this would cut the bandwidth of your wireless network by 75%. That is a tremendous loss in performance.
The "extend a wireless network" setup would utilize only your Time Capsule and the Extreme (providing that it is "n" capable). This would provide faster speeds and far better performance than the WDS arrangement. Post back if you are interested.

Time machine was not working. I bought a new time machine and migrated time machine files to new time capsule; not recognized by yosemite

Time machine was not working after yosemite upgrade on new and old MacBooks in my house. I bought a new time machine and migrated time machine files to new time capsule. I changed the names of the older sparse bundles to the default values. Yosemite still does not recognize them.

I presume the bought a time machine means a time capsule.
How did you migrate the Time Machine files?
From where? A Time Capsule or external drive?
It is difficult to get TM working with Yosemite.. since it doesn't work after the upgrade on the old TM backup.. it will not work on the migrated files either.
You simply start a new backup and store the old backups for a few months until you are ready to dump them.
The instructions for inheriting old backups is B5 and B6 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
However it is just unlikely to work.. TM in Yosemite is very different. Broken even.
I also strongly recommend people to use Carbon Copy Cloner or some other 3rd party backup until Apple get the bugs fixed. And after several months.. they are still rampant.

HT1338 Can I do a clean install after using time machine backup?

Can I do a clean install after using time machine backup?

Hi, if I understand correctly yes, but may I ask the purpose of doing so?

Trying to start a new Time Machine

I have erased my Time Capsule in order to restart my Time Machine backup. When I open Time Machine it is showing a previous backup time. But seeing this is a brand new Time Machine why would it show the previous backup time? There should be no backup time.
Is there a something else I need to reset in order for Time Machine to think it has never made a backup?

In addition: To clarify a point:
TM backs up every hour unless you manually turn it on and off. If the hour elapses since your last backup and you didn't reselect the backup disk and set your options in TM preferences, you will get an error that it can find your backup disk since you erased it.
Resetting everything as I said will point it the the new backup disk destination. It will do a full backup and take some time. After that, the next backup will be incremental and only take a few minutes.

New Time Machine can't wifi iPad, iPhone etc

Just purchased a new time machine. I have an internet connection but for some reason no Wifi. My iPad, iPhone and other items sees it and will accept my password but doesn't connect.

The wifi is definitely problematic on some iOS devices..
Set wireless names to short, no spaces.. pure alphanumeric.. and different for both 2.4ghz and 5ghz.
Fix and lock the wieless channels.. most important is 2.4ghz where you need to pick between, 1, 6, 11 (13 ETSI) and try each of those in turn.. but I suggest you start 11.

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.

HT3275 My new Time Machine isn't backing up. I now get this message ..."Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to 'Marks Time Capsule'. The backup disc image "/volumes/Data/Mark's Mac Book Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use. *** does that mean?

Hey, my new Time Machine worked a treat for the first couple of days, but now I get a "sparsebundle is already in use" message. Also, the original 153gb backup seems to have disappeared! Any clues with how I can deal with this?

Just reboot the whole network.. restart modem .. router/TC.. clients with 2min gap.
This is the most common problem reported here with Mountain Lion.. although you didn't fill in the profile. ML??
Check also the ML discussion are for Time Machine problems.
Apple made a dog's breakfast of it.

HT201514 I keep getting this message "Unable to complete back up an error has occurred while creating back up folder" Why is this happening and is it time to purchase a new tim machine?

I keep getting this message “Unable to complete back up an error has occurred while creating back up folder” Why is this happening and is it time to purchase a new tim machine?

Check out the Apple Support Communities Time Machine expert Pondini's troubleshooting article on this exact topic. Hopefully, it will help.

Just installed a new time capsule and i want to use my airport express to extend my wireless range....time capsule working with existing devices at this time...but i am not able to get airport utility to recognize the airport express.....????

just installed a new time capsule and i want to use my airport express to extend my wireless range....time capsule working with existing devices at this time...but i am not able to get airport utility to recognize the airport express.....????

Temporarily connecting your AirPort Express to one of the Time Capsule's Etherent LAN <-> ports...as LaPastenagure suggests....is always a good way to setup and configure other network devices.
If you want to configure the Express using wireless, remember that the Express broadcasts a default wireless signal with a name like Apple Network xxxxxx. You must log on to this network first....no password is required....then open AirPort Utility to "see" the AirPort Express.

Tips on Installing a new Time Machine??

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