OS X Mavericks :: Erase Old Time Machine Backup Files
Aug 28, 2014
I inherited an old external hard drive that I would like to use with Time Machine on a computer. However, the drive was used as a backup with Time Machine on another computer that has since been wiped clean and is no longer available. Unfortunately, the external drive still has the old TM backup files from the old computer. I've found that I cannot simply delete the backup files from the external drive.
How can I delete the TM backup files from the external drive? Will erasing via Disk Utility handles this?
I recently did a clean install and to my horror i can see that Time Machine does NOT back up all my files.It seems to be worst in my music library which fortunately is pretty easy to rebuild do to itunes index.
But is there any way to make sure that Time Machine does in fact back up all files?
Or is it just broken and should be avoided?
I have 1,5 year old Macbook Pro Retina 15 inches 500 GB SSD
Info: MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), January 2013 - 15''
I have a MBP, backup to Time Capsule by Time Machine.
I will have a new MBA, I will would like to transfer Photos / Music from MBP to that MBA. MBA will have a different account as MBP has.
I understand it could be as easy as copying whole iPhoto library / Music folder to an external drive or NAS and then copy to MBA. But since I already have everything on Time Capsule, am I able to copy selected files from Time Capsule to MBA directly?
I know Migration Assistant could be able to do that but I also heard Migration Assistant could cause some unexpected issues such as permission conflicts, a new created migration account etc... I cenrtainly don't want to mess up MBA.
So my question, am I able to directly access Time Capsule just like a NAS via Finder from MBA, and drag and drop selected files from MBP's backups? Are MBP's backups visibile to MBA?
Info: MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.3)
Time machine back up files will not delete from my iMac trash as i do not have permissions i have owned the computer from new
The files are on my external hardrive. A virus was detected by bit defender in my back up files on an external hard rive that may of came from my old windows computer.
I moved the time machine back ups to the trash but now can not delete them. Ihave tried holding the option key whilst selecting the empty trash but this did not work. It states i do not have permissions for files
Time machine back up files will not delete from my trash
My cousin was playing games on my macbook and he accidentally turned my Bootcamp Partition into a Time Machine Backup... now I'm running low on memory space ...
I recently did a complete erase of my hard drive and re-installed Mavericks. I chose to start clean rather than use any Time Machine back-ups. I used the same external hard drive for my new Time Machine back-ups. Now I cannot open any back-ups/items prior to the re-install via Time Machine. They are listed along the right hand sidebar in Time Machine (star wars view) but will not open when clicked on.
Some files I can access if I go to the actual backup folder - ex a Pages doc BUT ff I try to open the iPhoto library from the back-up folders stored on the external drive, I get the following error message -
I cannot open the iPhoto "package" to access individual photos from these back-ups.
So - how can I get Time Machine to allow access to the pre-install back-ups??
I'm running OS 10.8.5 Maverick. (On a used Mac)Processor 13 GHz Intel core 2 duomemory is 2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM this is a 2009 machine I purchased a week agoPrevious to this machine, my experience has been, Powerbook G4-OS 10.5.8
I have an iMac with OSX 10.0 and a NAS Drobo 5N which has a Time Machine share. It will backup my local machine fine, but how do I get a backup of the NAS folders and exclude the Time Machine folder?
Today I had the biggest shock of my life, the backup of my iMac is gone from my Time Machine. The hard disk has just been replaced. I had checked before that the backups were there and all was fine. I even recovered a few files from that backup a few days ago. Today the restoring didn't go well, I ran into an error message a few times and tried a few earlier backups. Now I can't see my iMac anymore on Time Machine.
How to get things back? How can I see my iMac again on Time Machine? It would be really bad if I have lost everything.
I'm in the midst of moving from a 2011 imac to a 2014 - I have/had 3 TM backups 1) before the 2011 crashed and was repaired - 2) from the interim 2014 imac that I restored and updated for the new computer and 3) a "carbon copy clone" of my current drive because the apple tech made me wipe the drive and start over and it failed.
My computer will be here next week and I wanted to prepare. However since the restore of the repaired 2011 NO TIME MACHINE will back up on ALL 3 drives the same error happened. It would start fine and say it needed 17-22 hours to "create new" or "inherit" and would start fine and then freeze somewhere around 15-20GB????? I left it more than 6-7 hours and the freeze remained.
Need a TM expert...... this HAS to be a Mavericks OSX issue and I do not want to wipe another drive.
I'm transferring Bacckups.backupdb to a new external hardrive - however, when I copy over the file structure is disrupted
So on the original drive everything is correct file structure... Backups.backupdb/MyMacbookPro/x14 dated folders
After copying to a new drive 3 of the dated folders are in the correct place and the other 11 (including 'Latest' folder) are sitting in the directory above
like this Backups.backupdb/MyMacbookPro + x11 dated folders/x3 dated folders
When opening up Time Machine it only sees those 3 dates and there seems no way of transferring the folders ...
I have a question about notes. I use notes a lot and they are synched between my Mac and iOS devices via iCloud.
I can I restore a note from a previous Time Machine backup? If I open notes and then TM, it automatically opens Finder Window and the Note App is hidden...
Is there a way to have the same result as Mail, for which I can surf my old email in TM?
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?)
I am trying to back my imac up for the first time using Time Machine (10.9 Mavericks) however it keeps freezing at 15.17gb and won't move on from there.
I am backing up to a Western Digital My Passport Ultra drive formatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and it's Partition Map Scheme is GUID Partition Table.
Info: iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), 21.5 inch, 2.7GHz mid 2011 version
I deleted an important stickie. I tried and failed to restore stickies from Time Machine. Called Apple and even when the call got bumped up to a higher level person, we could not locate stickie back ups in Time Machine.
My wife deleted some of her Mail mailboxes. I couldn't figure out how to recover them. So I decided to a complete restore of her system from her Time Machine backups. I restarted with the option key down and choose the options to allow a restore from Time Machine. I choose her most recent "good" backup". The process began, indicating that it would take 11 hours to complete. I left the computer when it showed about 5% complete. When I next checked the computer about 8 hours later I found the startup screen with the spinning wheel on the screen. I waited about 4 hrs. and then shutdown the computer. It will not boot. It simply shows the startup screen with the spinning wheel. So I repeated the entire process, this time selecting an older TM backup to restore from. Unfortunately I experienced the same result.
Her computer is a 2012 Macbook Pro running 10.9.4. Her TM backups are stored on a Time Capsule.
My dad's iMac was stolen this weekend and am now trying to restore his iPhoto Library from Time Machine backup.
The Mavericks iMac was dutifully backed up over the network to a Mavericks OSX Server Mac Pro Time Machine Server's Drobo for months. I am now attempting to restore the iPhoto library at the Finder level to a Mavericks Macbook Pro.
I have connected to the server's backup disk via Finder and see his "Alan's iMac" listed there without the red minus circle. I then click on the Time Machine icon in the Menu bar and hold down the option key and select "browse other backup disks". I then select "Alan's iMac" and then Time Machine starts up, but it is not showing his files prior to Tuesday, the day I setup the Macbook Pro.
I need to be able to access iPhoto Library from August 30th which came from his now stolen iMac in order to restore to the Macbook Pro.
Info: MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9), 8,1, 16gb ram, 2.3 I5, Intel HD3000
How do you change the name of the Time Machine backup drive? I'm backing up to an external hard drive with name "untitled." I'd like to change name of the drive, but if I physically change the name on the desktop, Time Machine tells me that it cannot find the backup drive.
My son was downloading some math worksheets and ended up with InstallMac and something else that was scanning my system. Should I restore from a time machine back up or is there a better way?
I want to upgrade my macbook pro to Yosemite (I have mavericks installed). The Apple guy recommended me to backup. So If I backup through time machine ON my Mavericks macbook, Will I be able to restore it on Yosemite after installing it ?I am asking this because time machine captures the "look" of Mavericks and Yosemite looks different. Will the (Mavericks)backup be compatible to Yosemite ?
Info: MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)
I have a MBP that is around 3yo; I'm running 10.9.5.
Over the past eight years or so I've gone through several desktops and laptops and have used disk images (via Time Machine) to move info and programs from one machine to another dozens of times. . .main unit to backup unit and back again, main unit to new unit, etc.
There is all sorts of "stuff" - programs and who knows what - that I probably don't need anymore and I feel like I'm perpetuating some of my computer issues by having all this junk on my hard drive. I'm at the point where I'd like to totally wipe my computer clean and reinstall everything from scratch - but only install the stuff I want/need. I would manually reinstall the Adobe Suite and Microsoft Office suite, for example, and then upload my documents, photos, music, browser bookmarks, etc.
My stumbling block is the bloody Mac Mail program. I use this extensively for work and NEED the folders to be in place with all the emails they contain (including deleted email). This is hugely important and has to go right. I can't seem to figure out how to cherry pick this one from Time Machine, though. It seems that the only option is take the ENTIRE Time Machine disk image and transfer it to my computer (which I don't want).
When I used Entourage years ago it was possible to just export everything and then reimport it onto the new machine. Is this not possible with Mail? Is there a way to "cherry pick" Mac Mail from Time Machine and pull ONLY that over onto my reformatted machine?
An iBook purchased text book no longer displays diagrams so I have tried to restore a previous backup but when I open my iBook library and then enter Time Machine it opens a Finder window for the Desktop, if I then navigate to iBooks app I just get info on the app no access to content. I am using a late 2012 iMac running OSX Mavericks 10.9.4.
I want to upgrade my macbook pro to Yosemite (I have mavericks installed). The Apple guy recommended me to backup. So If I backup through time machine ON my Mavericks macbook, Will I be able to restore it on Yosemite after installing it ?
I am asking this because time machine captures the "look" of Mavericks and Yosemite looks different. Will the (Mavericks)backup be compatible to Yosemite ?
Info: MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)
I might be going mad but I have bought a new portable hard drive today & I erased it using disk utility as it was a Windows one and then added it as a new disk in Time Machine.
I expected to find a check box to encrypt the data but its not there.
I encrypted the other portable HDD's I have but can't see from the description now if they are or not. I am certain that they are however.
The new disk is 1.55 TB free of 2 Tb's, the previous one is 1.43 free of 2 Tb and my oldest is only 253Gb free of 1Tb. I guess that the difference is the amount of old data and backups I have done with Time Machine already or hasn't it backed up properly?
One last thing, on the Time machine prefs there is an option button & when I click it it says "excludes these items from backups" and it lists the new portable HDD and the size of the backup which is 447.09Gb. It estimates the size of the full backup as 492.65 Gb. What this means & whether its set up correctly?
I am using Mavericks 10.9.4 & an iMac 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 machine
Info: iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5
I'm having problems with Time Machine. First, I get the message that I need more space even though there is 1TB available on each and only 500GB on the boot disk being backed up. I've started fresh.
Second, both backup disks are shown on the "Exclude" list and are grayed out, so I can't take them off it. Nor can I add a disk I do want to exclude.
Info: Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), (early 2008), 22 GB RAM, 1 TB HD -- 500 GB free
