Transfer Time Machine files to larger drive

I've searched the forum but can only find references from 2011 and earlier. I'm suspicious that my problem might be Mt. Lion related.
I've outgrown my 3TB external Time Machine drive so have purchased a 4TB one. I had hoped to find a 5TB but I guess I'm ahead of the times for that.
I have the instructions for transferring TM files and followed them to a "t" (formatted new drive, turned off TM, Finder-dragged files from old TM drive to new drive). All went well for the first day; the copying chugged along nicely and in less than 24 hours 1.91 TB (of 2.86 TB) had copied over. That was at about 7pm yesterday. I left it overnight and when I got up this morning it was still sitting at the very same figures, obviously hung. I clicked the "cancel" X in the copy box, went and got breakfast, ate it ... and the Copy box was still thinking about cancelling, so I Force Quit the Finder. I've reformatted the 4TB drive in preparation for starting the copy process again. In the meantime, I figured I'd run the TM backup again so that it's current.
While I'm waiting for that to finish (I had to start it twice, as the first time the icon stopped spinning after a couple of seconds and just sat there, with the menu saying "Preparing". Now that I've stopped it and started it again, it's behaving as expected and the icon is spinning while it's "Preparing Backup") I thought I'd ask if it's even *possible* to copy so much data in Mt. Lion? I've been reading through some pages found via Google and it appears that Mt. Lion doesn't handle copying very well. Is that true? I'd prefer not to spend another day and a half waiting for a copying process that won't ever complete.
Is it possible to copy the TM Backkups.backupdb folder a bit at a time? In other words, create an empty folder with the same name on the new drive, then copy the files over a few at a time? I did try this when I had problems going from the 2TB drive to the 3TB drive, back in Snow Leopard, so I don't want to spend a lot of time trying it now if it is destined to fail.
Any insight into this situation will be appreciated. TIA!

Linc Davis wrote:
if I leave the current backups on the 3TB drive and just start anew on the 4TB drive, what would the likelihood be that I could retrieve a file or files from the old drive if necessary?
100%.
Absolutely correct! Not that I doubted your reply; it's just that weird things seem to happen to my computer(s) which never happen to anyone else, so I'm pleased to report that yes, I can access the files on my old 3TB drive.
Now I have another question. I found an old (2008) post in this forum telling me how to use Terminal to release the backups.backupdb folder from Time Machine so I can delete/move files if I so desire. Unfortunately, Teminal tells me "sudo: fsaclctl: command not found".
The original instructions, posted by Link Dupont in 2008, were:
"First, turn TM off in system preferences. then run the following in terminal.
"sudo fsaclctl -p /Volumes/"Time Machine drive" -d
"put the name of the Time machine drive in the above. keep the quotes. you'll have to enter your admin password (which you won't see). that's normal. the command will turn off the ACLs on the TM drive.
rename the backup folders for the old computers. DO NOT touch the folder with your current backups.
turn the ACLs back on with the following command
"sudo fsaclctl -p /Volumes/"Time Machine drive" -e
Turn Time Machine on."
Is there a new command I can use in Mt. Lion?

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Copying Time Machine files to external drive for use with PC

Hello! Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
My MacBook Pro recently died. I have it backed up by Time Machine on an external drive. Now I'd like to copy my files from the backup to another external drive so that I can access them later from a PC computer running Windows (7 or 8). Is that possible? The Time Machine drive, I believe, is formatted specifically for Mac, but the external drive I'm trying to copy to is FAT32. Can I connect both to a friend's Mac, look for the files I need, and then copy them from the backup drive to the other external drive? Will a PC computer be able to read them?
Thanks!

Usually that error indicates a drive malfunction; specifically, the drive is spinning down and not responding to bus signals. Some "Eco" or "green" drives are known for this behavior. The following steps may help:
Select  ▹ System Preferences ▹ Energy Saver ▹ Power Adapter and uncheck the box labeled Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible, if it's checked.
If the drive is connected to a hub, connect it to a built-in port on the computer.
If a firmware update is available for the drive, apply it.
Contact the drive manufacturer to see whether there's a firmware setting you can change.
If you installed vendor software for the drive, uninstall it.
If none of the above steps resolves the issue, try another drive.

Transferring Time Machine File to larger hard drive

I have a time machine backup on a 250 G hard drive and would like to transfer that file to a 1 T hard drive. When I connect both hard drives to the MacBook Pro and try to transfer the very large file from one drive to the other it stops part way and hangs up. I think it tries to put the whole file on the MacBook Pro and there isn't enough space. Is there a special copy program that can handle a file this large?

see if this user tip helps: http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/18.html.
JGG

Move Time Machine files from hard drive to Time Capsule

I got a new Time Capsule with 2TB drive. I currently have a 1TB external Firewire drive that I use for Time Machine. It's nearly full. I'd like to move all of my current backups to the Time Capsule, but doing that wirelessly will take forever. Can I have the Time Capsule be wireless for my internet connection AND mount the internal drive via ethernet to do the file transfer?

To start with moving the Time Machine backup as you have requested is not a case of simple copy and paste.. TM does not backup on network drives in the same way as it does on local drives. You can much more easily move the Network backup to the local drive than visa versa as you are wanting to do.. IMHO don't bother.. keep the 1TB drive for a few months until you build up a complete backup history on the TC.. from that point you are unlikely to need earlier backups and you can wipe them.
If you wish to try the details are here.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
See Q18.
Apparently this does not even work anymore with Mavericks and especially Yosemite.. so do not be surprised if after spending a day or two copying the TM backup to the TC it then refuses to connect.. and you have to scrub it and start a new clean backup anyway.
Can I have the Time Capsule be wireless for my internet connection AND mount the internal drive via ethernet to do the file transfer?
You can do this and we recommend it for first backup to the TC.. which is very large and should be the best as this first backup is then the basis for every increment thereafter.. TM never completely wipes this first backup.
It is easy.. plug the computer into the TC by ethernet.. and turn off the wireless.. then do the backup.. once completed.. disconnect the ethernet and turn the wireless back on.

Accessing Time Machine files on external drive

I'm going to be selling my iMac G5 soon and won't be replacing it for some months. I regularly back up the entire HD to an external drive using Time Machine.
I would like to be able to access my iMac files on the external drive, as and when required, using my MacBook.
Could you let me know whether this is possible as there seems to be a permissions issue when I attempt to do this?

Thank you, I've tried your suggestion and so far so good.
I'm having some issues opening my Lightroom Catalogue because of permissions issues, and also with they iPhoto library on the external drive, so I'll need to work out a way of resolving these problems.
I would like to be able to access these libraries 'as is' on the MacBook and use them just as I would on the iMac but the Time Machine backups are throwing up permissions errors. My user name is the same on both the MacBook and the iMac, so I don't think that is the issue.
Otherwise, I will have to think of another system and not bother with having a Time Machine backup. I think I'll need to copy/clone the iMac HD or at least the Documents folder but that would probably create some security issues as anyone will be able to access the files—which I don't want either.

Overly large time machine files

Hi There,
my disk that I use for Time machine (120GB Lacie USB) has recently become corrupted, so that it is currently 'read only' So I decided to copy my Time machine files to another drive, so I could format my main one, and then put them back. But this is proving harder that it looks. My temporary drive is a Lacie NAS (250GB), connected via a switch to my iMac, but I can't drag and drop the files as it wont let me.
So I used another backup program to make a copy, but when I got home from work it had copied 2 of the 49 folders, amounting to 150GB of data, but my main drive is only 120GB!!! How can Time Machine have created 49 (nearly) identical folders containing 90GB of data in each one on a 120GB drive?
And perhaps more importantly, how can I make a backup of my Time Machine files, so that once I have reformatted (or maybe replaced) my main drive I can copy them back and pick up where I left off.

Time Machine backup files cannot be copied in the normal way. TM uses hard links and what they call "multi-links" so as to keep only one copy of each unique version of each file.
For example, if you have a file called "MyFile", if you navigate to it in the backupdb in the Finder you will see it in every timed/dated TM backup folder, and "Get Info" will report the file's true size if restored, but you are really only seeing a hard link; the actual file data is stored invisibly in the backupdb, and the file data is retained as long as there is at least one (hard) link to it.
Apple has taken this technology one step further, and does the same with entire directories (folders).
Thus, the total amount of space used for a TM backupdb directory will be far less than the total of the "Get Info" reported size of all its dated folders.
SuperDuper! can clone a TM backupdb directory and maintain all these special links. There may now be other utilities which can do this, such as CCC, but I'm not sure which.
I'd suggest first using SuperDuper! to clone your corrupted read-only TM backup to a disk image stored elsewhere for safekeeping. If you want to be able to continue building upon your TM backup it will need to be retained with all its links intact.
Another consideration is that TM creates a backup on a NAS drive as a sparsebundle, essentially a "size-adjustable" disk image.
Once you have that clone of your TM backup disk as a SuperDuper! disk image you can then restore that disk image to your new TM backupdrive. If you then need to restore to a new or reformatted main drive you should then be able to do so from the restored TM backup.
Make sense?

I have a power pc (g5) computer that I will soon be replacing with a current i5 or i7 mini. How do I transfer the Time Machine files from the internal hard drive on the G5 to an external drive that I will later use with the Mini?

I have a Power PC G5 computer that I will soon be replacing with a current i5 or i7 Mini. How do I transfer the Time Machine files from the internal hard drive on the G5 to an external drive that I will later use with the Mini?

Hi, likely the easiest is to just poll the drive & get something like this...
Get MacScan...
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/macscan.html
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/U3NVSPATA/
But if you have a good external drive already, just clone it.
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Or SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/

Best way to transfer time machine back up files between external drives

I have to move my time machine backup files from one external drive to another. I was planning to simply move it through finder, but it has been "preparing files" for 2 days straight. The number of items sowing in the status bar with the status of "preparing to copy XYZ items" has continued to stadily grow. Is there a better route or should I let it run till it is complete?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
That's exactly the way to transfer Time Machine backups to an external drive, so let the Finder do its job. See > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5096
Note that the destination's external drive must be formatted in "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"

Cannot delete Time Machine file from external hard drive

Hello,
I'd like to delete my original Time machine file from an external hard drive ( Lacie mini ). I move the file into the trash bin and it constantly "deletes". At one time I left it deleting overnight and the file still wasn't trashed.
I am going to hook up Time Machine to a different, dedicated external hard drive, but I'd like to gain space on the drive that Time Machine is currently on.
I currently have Time Machine turned off ( I do have everything backed up with my home folder on another external HD ). Should Time Machine be turned on for me to trash the file? Is there a better way to delete the file?
Much thanks in advance.

V.K. wrote:
... the best and the quickest way to delete it is to erase the TM hard drive....
But what if a person doesn't want to erase the TM drive? My MacPro came with tiger installed, but since tiger-intel-retail discs don't exist, my copy of tiger is what i have. I was all manner of foolish directing TM to that drive, but damage is done. What can someone in my position do?

How do I move time machine files from one external drive to another?

My original external drive isn't big enough. So I've bought a second larger one. How do I move the earlier Time Machine backups from Ext Drive #1 to Ext Drive #2 so I can access my full history, and leave Drive #1 for other backup items?
Ext Drive #1= SimpleTech 120 GB
Ext Drive #2= WEstern 500 GB

When you are ready to pass the 320GB drive on, I would format it. That will make the entire drive available to him to use as his TM. I would be sure that each drive has a unique name so that there will be no confusion for TM as to which computer goes with which drive. If you want to start fresh with the 500GB drive, I'd format it as mac-extended-journaled. When you connect it the first time to your computer, you will be asked if you want to use it as your TM. If you are not prompted to select it as your TM, you can configure TM by opening system preferences, click on TM, click on "change drive" and choose your new drive.
Another choice is to follow the steps in my previous response for restoring your current TM to the new drive by booting from a Leopard start up disk and accessing Disk Utilities from there so you can restore the drive. It is essential that the new hard drive is the exact name as the old TM hard drive. In this last scenario you would continue adding to your current set of backups.

Can I transfer Time Machine Backup from WD Hard Drive to Time Capsule?

I have a Western Digital 500 Gb. Hard drive and recently purchased a 500 Gb.Time Capsule which, at the moment, am using only for the AirPort feature. I would like to use Time Capsule for my Time Machine backups and use the Western Digital drive as my Aperture Vault. Is there a way to move the Time Machine file from the WD drive to the Time Capsule drive so that I don't lose the old files? My Time Capsule is connected to my iMac via an Ethernet cable.

Unfortunately, no. Time Machine will backup to a local drive (e.g. via USB or FW HDD) using a folder structure. When backing up to a NAS (e.g. Time Capsule or USB HDD connected to a TC or Extreme), TM utilizes a sparsebundle. You cannot easily convert a folder structure to a sparsebundle. The best plan is to start a NEW backup to TC. Connecting via ethernet is highly recommended for the initial backup.
P.S. You can still access the old TM backups until such time that you want to reclaim the use of the HDD.

How to transfer time machine back up to new hard drive

How to transfer time machine back up to new hard drive?

You may like to take a look at this thread... https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4207670?start=0&tstart=0

How to completely delete all backed-up time machine files but not other files in my external hard drive?

I use a 500G WD as my external.. I have documents and movies there that i do not want to delete. Simply i just want to delete my time machine files completely and for my mac to not recognised it as a time machine HD.. TY guys p.s. A video would be nice

If you have the external HD setup as one partition, you cannot delete only the TM files as a unit. You will have to use the brute force method of deleting directory by directory.
If you have the drive partitioned into a TM backup partition and another partition for your other work, you can simply reformat the TM backup partition.
So, the first question is, how is your drive setup, as one or as two partitions?

Can i transfer my time machine backup to another drive?

can i transfer my time machine backup to another drive?

Did you prep the new drive?
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
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. 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.
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.
New drives usually are pre-formatted for Windows, not Macs. WD is generally well known for their poor level of Mac support.

Transfer Time Machine Data to New Hard Drive

I recently purchased a Seagate 250GB FreeAgent External Hard Drive ($75 at Buy.com, with shipping and a five year warranty!) and decided that when it arrives it would be my dedicated Time Machine drive, though I am currently using a 75GB hard drive that I had laying around the apartment.
What I am wondering is that if I can, when the new drive arrives, drag the Time Machine files that are on the old drive to the new one, then designate the new drive for Time Machine backups.
The reason I want to do this is to create a relatively seamless backup from when I first got Leopard, as opposed to starting over again (which I can do, but defeats my purpose to some degree).

Hi,
Yes, you can do this. I have recently done the exact same thing. See this thread for details:-
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1218415
Regards

Transfer Time Machine files to larger drive

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