What does Time Machine and Time Capsule actually do with data?
Recently got a new iMac and Time Capsule. Working fine, AFAIK, but it's a bit disconcerting not being able to see real files on the TC.
All I've got on the TC is a big sparse disk file, which I assume is a compressed image of my HDD. Reading up on various backup programs, it seems that this is the way network backups tend to work - create an image file, and append any changes. Presumably it's done this way, rather than with real files, to keep network traffic to a minimum, at the expense of local CPU overhead.
A couple of questions:
If I'm right that this sparse image contains all my data (and there aren't some hidden files somewhere), why doesn't the "modified" date change each time TM does a backup? It stays the same as the "created" date.
Can I do anything with this file, outside of TM, or is it best to leave it alone?
Yes, that is the way TM works for network backups. Data are stored in a sparse image file. The sparse image file's modification date would only change when the image file is expanded. Adding data into the image will not change the image's modification date (but the file's in the image file will be properly dated.)
Leave the file alone. There is nothing you can do with it that will be any good.
Similar Messages
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When Does Time Capsule Actually Stop Backing Up?
I have tried backing up my system using Time Machine and my Time Capsule a number of times without success.
I have 144GB of data to be backed up - I guess that should equal about 172.78GB in a Time Machine backup (with a 20% buffer).
But, I am now at 191.81GB... And counting! It never ends!
Help!Ditto.
Been a now month of multiple failures to do an initial back-up with same symptoms. After 36 hours, I am currently backing up 231 GB of 231 GB even though the hard drive is only 185 GB to begin with -- and only has 150 GB used.
It's now backing up 232 GB of 232 GB... 233 GB of 233 GB... Well, you get the idea. I have no idea why.
All updates installed. Using ethernet rather than wireless. Does not compute.
Anyone have other tips? -
Does Time Capsule play well with older Airport devices?
Hello. Today I am likely coming home with a Time Capsule and intend to rebuild my home wireless network.
I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on the value/worth of attempting to connect older airport devices to the new network? I have a VERY old (1st gen?) Express, a 2nd or 3rd Express, and an Airport Extreme which, here on my lunch break away from home, I'm frankly not sure which age it is. I have been using the Extreme as the Base Station and intend to wipe it and set up the TC as the Base Station.
There are a few areas of our house that don't get good signals currently. If they STILL don't, should I try to connect any of these older devices as extenders? Or will they not play well with the TC because of their different letters (g/n/etc.?)
Thanks in advance. We'd been planning on getting a TC for a long while but found out this week that our Extreme is somehow getting in the way of our network connection... So I'm hoping that a brand new set-up will improve our speed and entire system. We have a household of many devices--one iMac and more than four iOS devices (potentially depending on who's awake) running on a 60Mbp/4 upload system. For a long time we've had internet but at 23-26 Mbp tops.
Any of your thoughts or ideas would be welcome.
ROld G wireless express should be retired.. it will not work well in the current network. Although people do use them just for audio use.. the later OS have ceased to be able to set them up. G extreme is of no use.
You can use anything that is N wireless.. but you need to be sane and rational about using a router that is 3-6years old.. as it might cause as much problems as it fixes. Certainly there is nothing wrong with having a go.. as long as you are not too hopeful.
The best way to get wireless in a dark corner is to run ethernet over to that area.. and run a wireless AP there. Your N apple airport can function as AP. Even using EOP (ethernet over power) can sometimes work.
If you try to extend wireless wireless to the dark zone.. you cannot place the AP in the dark zone.. as it will get no signal to extend.. it needs to be able to pick up good signal and still have sufficient range to reach the end of your zone. That suggests if it doesn't work now.. it won't work in this new role either.. but no skin off having a try. -
What does Little Endian and Floating Point actually do?
Exporting audio to video using Linear PCM format brings along two mysterios options called "Little Endian" and "Floating Point". I did my research but all I could dig out was that the first one, Little Endian, has to do with addressing subcomponents of a file etc.
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Thanks...Big Endian is most significant byte (bit) first, Little Endian is most significant byte (bit) last. When we write down a number, we use big endian: one million threehundred and twentyfivethousand ninehundred and fiftyfour we'd write as 1 325 954. in little endian notation that would be 459 523 1.
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Lately my time machine backups have been failing because "...the sparsebundle is already in use." What does this mean, and how can I fix it?
What does this mean
It means that there are bugs in the Time Machine software
how can I fix it?
A rather complex procedure....
Pull the power cord from the back of the Time Capsule
Count to ten
Plug the power cord back into the the back of the Time Capsule -
When I try to set up my time capsule it says that the PPPoE Server is not found... What does this mean and how do I fix it? Thanks !
You are using PPPoE but there is no server to authenticate against.. or the modem is already connected and nothing else can join.
Is this ADSL?
Do you have the modem in bridge?
How does it work with the modem working as router? ie what type of connection does your ISP supply.. eg PPPoE is only one.. PPPoA is another.. IPoA or ETHoA.. and sever other more specialised.. PPPoE can only work where it is supported. -
Why does time capsule go missing from the network. The green light is lit at all times. I am unable to use the software the only thing I can do is power cycle time capsule, by unplugging and plugging the mains back in.
My time capsule is only a few weeks old, any ideas?
I am new to apple products very impressed with iPhone 5, I pad, iMac. Really not sure about time capsule!
ThanksAn external drive is much more reliable.. the issue has to do with network connection and loss of something.. although I am sorry I cannot tell you exactly what. The computer is still connected, still works on internet but has actually lost the hard disk.. lost and cannot find it without a restart.
If you want to try a few changes it can help.
1. If you are connected by ethernet make sure wireless is off in the imac.. having only one network connection is better than two.
2. Redo the TC setup with all short names.. no spaces.. pure alphanumeric. Apple has these long names with spaces and characters like apostrophe by default but they are not a help.
3. If the TC is the main router then reduce the dhcp lease time.. make it 20min.. that keeps everything refreshed and up to date.
None of those fix it but they may help stretch out the interval. -
Does time capsule give wifi to my ps3 and wii
I just got a macbook air and need a new router, so the time capsule seems like a good fit. We already have ipads, and iphones in my household, but my kids also have dell laptops, a ps3 and a wii. OK, I know that the time capsule can work with the non apple laptops if they are configured (I think) but what I'm totally not sure of is can my ps3 and wii use it for wifi? and please correct if I'm misunderstanding whether or not the dell's are compatible. Thanks for all help
There is no issue in getting wifi generally.. although some devices have issues.. it is the nature of wireless that not everything works together.. the technology is still in voodoo phase.
But the TC use NAT-PMP which is the Apple auto port opening protocol.. whereas the rest of the known world uses the Microsoft Upnp method. That means playing online games will be an issue if it requires ports opened.. you will need to do it manually.. which is a pain. Some people have little problem .. others cannot get things to work.. it seems to be a pity we are not yet past the vhs vs betamix realm of technology. Surely apple could include upnp.. that they don't is more informative of their view of whole problem.
As far as getting internet.. there is nothing out there that should fail to get basic internet connection.
Use SMB type names.. for everything.. TC name, wireless name, hard disk name. That means short, no spaces and pure alphanumeric.
There a few other tricks but starting right helps.
There is nothing wrong with using your current router.. (if it works properly) and a TC in bridge.. This does not create a different network.. merely a different WAP.. which will match the apple standard better.. you can also do it in reverse and use the TC as the main router and another wireless router in WAP setup.. all wireless routers can work as a pure WAP.. but the upnp issue will still be there in this setup. That is a router protocol not related to wireless. -
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-Noel -
when connecting my iphone 4 to itunes for the first time i get the following message "cannot connect to this device because Apple Mobile Service is not started" what does this mean and how do I solve it?
I'd start with the following document with that one:
iPhone, iPad, iPod touch: How to restart the Apple Mobile Device Service (AMDS) on Windows -
I have set up Time Capsule to use with Time Machine but when I open Time Machine it 'cannot find' the Time Capsule and I have to 'Select the Disk' each time. In the Next Backup tab it always says "When disk is connected" even though the disk is already connected.
Your pro doesn't matter.. I presume it is happily working.
Your imac setup has got messed up because you changed from a local (my book being USB type I presume) to network drive. Did you do a clean install of Lion?
Did you use the backup from the Pro on the imac? Otherwise I don't see how the Pro shows up in use previous disk. Where is Pondini when you need him??
You cannot download Time Machine as an App and replace the current version. It is built into the OS.. the only way to do it is a clean install. Unfortunately that might be the only way around the issue.
There is a number of issues that Pondini has covered in the setup issues of troubleshooting.
This is the most relevant I think. http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html
But look at the whole section B setup problems.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
If it was me, I would store all the info you need.. not using TM but using a straight copy of files.
Then clean install Lion. I doubt any of these issues would exist if you had not installed Lion over existing setup or used a different backup.
See if you can get Pondini to respond.. !! -
My 2 TB Time Capsule’s memory is full because it will notautomatically delete old files as it is supposed to, so it is giving me zerobackup of my two computers now. How can this be fixed so my Time Capsule deletes the old data and savesthe new?
Neither my local computer consultant nor I have been ableto change any of the settings in Time Machine to correct this problem. Working with the choices in the TimeMachine, there does not appear that there is any way to change the frequency ofthe backups either, so, after a year has elapsed, the time capsule is full, andmy only choice appears to be to erase all the current data on the Time Capsuleand start over, something that I do not want to at all let alone repeat on anannual basis. My questions are:
What can be done to have my Time Capsule delete old filesas it is supposed to do, so it has memory available to allow my computers toback up?
Is this a software problem that can be fixed online or isdoes this require a mechanical fix of defective hardware?How much data is being backed-up from each Mac? (see what's shown for Estimated size of full backup under the exclusions box in Time Machine Prefs > Options).
Is there any other data on your Time Capsule, besides the backups?
Most likely, there just isn't room. Time Machine may be trying to do a very large (or full) backup of one or both Macs, and can't. Since it won't ever delete the most recent backup, there has to be enough room for one full backup plus whatever it's trying to back up now, plus 20% (for workspace).
Also see #C4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for more details. -
Does time capsule back-up files which I am currently working on in a program?
Hey everybody,
If I am working on a file in a program, does time capsule back this file up? So if the program(third party) crashes after half an hour for example, can I still get the file back or would it be incomplete because it was open during back-up?
Thanks in advance.
JelleMost apps don't work with the actual file on disk; they copy it into memory and make the changes there.
Like most backup apps, Time Machine doesn't (can't) back up anything in memory, only things on disk.
When you Save a file you're working on, or done with, it goes to disk and will be included on the next backup.
Similarly, if the app has an "autosave" facitity, that will copy the "working" version to disk. Many apps do that to a separate file (often named the same as the original, but with something like "autosaved" appended). Lion apps that support Lion's AutoSave facility save it to the original file. -
The time capsule was used with my prior Mac Pro laptop that unfortunately had the home vault active on it.
My new Mac Book Pro does not have home vault open. But I am unable to back up my new MAC pro laptop because it says there is not enough storage space available. Therefore, t there any way to just completely delete all the old backup data out of my Time Capsule from my prior Mac Laptop?
When I go into the time capsule - it shows me NOTHING as being in the backup datas. So, I don't know where to begin to delete all the old data off the
time Capsule and start with a completely empty machine.Therefore, t there any way to just completely delete all the old backup data out of my Time Capsule from my prior Mac Laptop?
Here is how to do this:
Open Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility
Click Manual Setup
Click the Disks icon at the top of the AirPort Utility window
Click the Disks tab below the icons
Click Erase
The "Quick Erase" option will only take a moment or two
Now you can backup your MacBook Pro. If you connect an Ethernet cable from the MBP to one of the LAN <-> ports on the TC, the first backup will go 3-5 times faster than wireless.
Once you have the first backup done, you can use wireless for subsequent backups since they will only take a few minutes -
How does Time Capsule handle the same files on multiple computers?
I'm a writer who works on my MacBook Pro, the family's desktop PC and soon hope to have my own Apple desktop.
Is it possible to have the most current document(s) available no matter which machine I'm on?
Does Time Capsule go to each computer, find the most recent version and back it up?
Does it even work with PCs?Is it possible to have the most current document(s) available no matter which machine I'm on?
Sorry, but no.
Does Time Capsule go to each computer, find the most recent version and back it up?
Time Machine will backup any changes to each Mac hourly
Does it even work with PCs?
Only if you manually drag/drop or copy/paste PC files to the Time Capsule drive
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