Software :: Time Machine Starts A New Full Backup Automatically
Feb 17, 2009
My external disk which I use for Time Machine was replaced and the time machine files on it put onto the replacement disk. However although my computer(Imac intel using Leopard 10.5.6.) recognizes the disk as the back up disk for Time Machine (including the oldest backup dates and latest backup dates in the time machine preferences), it attempts to perform a complete back up of my HD instead of only a small incremental back up of the new files.
When ever I turn on my Mac it starts up in Utilities and gives me the 4 options to restore from Time Machine, reinstall OS X, contact Apple, or to open Disk Utility. Unfortunately, I had never made any Time Machine backups.
When I try to reinstall the OS it tells me that my hard drive is locked.
Disk Utility tells me that it can't repair Macintosh HD and to back up as many of my files as possible, reformat the disk, and to restore the backed up files.
Since I can't create a Time Machine back up, what can I do to save my files and such if I choose to reformat? Is there possibly a way to unlock my hard drive to reinstall the OS? I guess I'm asking what is the best corse of action in this scenario?
Info: MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9.3)
I have a MacBook Air and a Time Capsule - both from november 2011.Using Time Machine is givning me som problems.It works fine for some days, an is backing up as planned.But at least 5 times since I got the Time Capsule, Time Machine is asking to make a full Backup, and when I look in Time Machine, it says that there is no "old backup". It has been runing since november 2011.When I start a new backup, as it ask for, it takes at least 24 hours to finish - some times even longer.Is this normal? If not, what do I do?
I want to plug in my computer into my USB dock, automatically mount my external HD, have TimeMachine do its thing automatically (so far, so good), but then immediately after the backup finishes, I want the computer to automatically unmount the HD. This will allow me to close the laptop and go somewhere without having to constantly eject the HD everytime I unplug the computer.
So - what I need is a program / script / etc that will tell the computer to eject the drive as soon as TimeMachine is done backing up.
The Apple store sales person told me that I cannot backup my installed applications nor the OS with Time Machine. I have the latest version of Leopard. Lets say my hard disk crashes. Do I have to reinstall all the apps from scratch? Is there a backup program other than Time Machine? Should I be using dd?
I want to download Lion OS and I will call Apple for help, but I know they will ask if I've backed up everything. I'd like for Time Machine to completely back up my hard drive but I can't seem to find out how to make it do that.
I just got a message that my Time Machine external backup disk is full. I have another external drive I can use, but buying drives every few months is going to get expensive.
I was wondering what others are doing in this situation.
Is anybody archiving the Time Machine backup? If so, what software are you using and where are you storing your backup?
What kind of backup plans are you using with Time Machine?
I decided to restore to a Time Machine backup I had done a few days earlier, hoping that I would just "start" fresh. Without realizing it, I had inserted the Leopard install dvd that came with my computer, and restored to my 10.6.6 backup. I got the "You must restart your computer" error, which I found out was a result of using the Leopard disk. So, I redid the restore using a Snow Leopard installer on USB.
After this, everything appeared to be working fairly well. However, today, I've started to get system crashes quite frequently, and at times I haven't been able to properly shut down or restart. I noticed that Spotlight was indexing, and would hang at "3 hours remaining" or "estimating time left." Right now, I have created a second admin account, and I have disabled indexing. It seems to be working, at least temporarily, because I'm using it right now.
or set it up to overwrite the oldest material.it works fine on my laptop, but i added my new imac to the time machine backup and it never works b/c it says backup full, so its yet to do a backup
Back in March my system crashed. I have a vmware external SSD drive that lost its formatting. Any how, I had been using time machine before it crashed. Now it says my drive is full. Its like its not deleting old backup files. I have a 1 Tb external usb drive that I back up too. I am using OS X Mavericks. Not sure what I am supposed to do to fix it. Cant afford another data crash like that.
I've found plenty of articles on how to get Time Machine to backup TO a network drive, however I have the opposite problem; I have a Windows machine on my network, with some shared folders, and I'd like to back-up their contents using Time Machine on my Mac since it has plenty of space, without having to copy their contents somewhere first if possible.
However, Time Machine only lets you choose what to exclude, it doesn't let you specify special sources to backup. I was thinking a symbolic link from /Volumes, but I've no idea where to point it to. A second relevant question as well would be; how do I get OS X to automatically connect to a Windows share when it's available? The Windows machine isn't always on when I start up my Mac, but I don't want to have to manually connect all the time
How long would it take to backup 900GB of data doing a full back-up using TimeMachine and my MacBook? My MacBook being a 2009 model with 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 4GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM.
I have: 1 x MacBook 160GB drive 1 x Imoega minimax 500GB drive (firewire or USB 2 connection possible) 1 x Seagate 320GB drive (USB 2 only connection)
I have a 400 firewire port in my MacBook in addition to 2 USB sockets, as well as fireWire hub with power supply, should I wish to run 2 or more firewire devices at once, into the 400 firewire port.
My current backup drive is a Samsung USB2 1TB drive but for reasons that will hopefully become obvious below, I will need to purchase a new drive. I think a 1.5TB or 2TB would be fine and I guess a 400 firewire port is still better than USB2, even though it's only 400. However I'm not sure about the time issue.................
After I had a full backup to iomega external hard drive I wanted to see photos in iPhoto library by using Time Machine. I can see the iPhoto Library icon on Time Machine, but when I click on an icon it does not open the folder and I can't see the pictures stored on iomega external hard drive. All other backed up documents I can see and restore if I need it.
Info: iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8), iomega external hard drive 1TB
I excluded for one TM backup a sparse bundle disk image that I have been backing up regularly. I then immediately removed the sparse bundle disk image from the TM exclusions list, and now TM wants to back up the entire sparse bundle disk image, which contains an iPhoto Library (80GB). It seems that TM does not "see" the previous disk image backups.
Info: iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), 21.5-inch, Late 2009
I have a 3rd Party NAS (Iomega Home Media Network Cloud Edition 2TB) and MacBook with OSX 10.6.8. I did run a first TM full backup over Ethernet (around 240GB) because of the extremely slow transfer speed over WiFi via the AirPort. It went Ok (after several tries and reading here in the forum). Then, I disconnected my MacBook from the wired network, so futures frequently backs-up happen wirelessly, however, it seems that it did not recognize the first full back-up, asked for re-doing it again from scratch and erased my first full-backup-over-Ethernet.
I've seen that the MAC address is used as part of the sparse bundle file name; obviously, there will be a conflict here because Ethernet and AiPort do not have the same MAC address (of course !).I will run a brand new full first backup over Ethernet, but I'd like to know what do I have to do for getting it recognizable for futures backups over AirPort?
After some problems with Time Machine backup, I removed a bunch of stuff from my internal hard drive, reformatted my external HD used for backups, and started a new full backup. Time Machine has been running for about 24 hours and gives me a status of Backing up: xx GB of yy GB. Both xx and yy keep growing (apace) so that I don't believe xx will ever equal yy.
To cryptic? Here are real numbers. My internal disk being backed up contains 469.39 GB. Backup status now says Backing up: 685.78GB of 754.42 GB. Both numbers just keep growing. I'm happy to let Time Machine overnight (again) but, really, this can't be normal.
Have made many manual Time machine Back ups that calculated the differnce and adjusted the differnce in what was then saved. The very size of the external HD did not roll over. Yet the calculation states a entire new Back Up. Is this a permission changing issue? Or what?
I have looked into this a lot already. It is to much that Time Machine backs up every single hour! It would be nice to set it to something like 3 or 5 hours. I have tried a 3rd party app to do this, but... If my computer was off or asleep when it was supposed to back up, it would get an error. It would not just do the backup when i turned it on or when it came out of sleep like stock Time Machine does. I have also seen a way to change the time incraments in the Terminal.(I am very good with it, not a noob) I have tried this and it screws up time machine completely. Maybe it does not work with the newest OS X. By the way... I have a 2010 MacBook Pro, got it 2 months ago.
Does anyone know a solid 3rd party app, that will work seamlessly. Or has anyone changed the time in Terminal and are currently using something different than 1 hour. There is a lot of examples online, but I would like the codeing that you literally used.
I am getting the following error from Time Machine when doing my first backup. The startup disk being backed up, and the TM disk are both the same size.
Macintosh HD: 465.44 (total); 393.99 (free); 71.45 (free) Time Machine: 465.44 (total); 465.29 (free)
The Time Machine error is: Quote:
"This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 472.7 GB but only 465.3 GB are available." why would this be? Other disks are excluded from the backup, and Time Machine is telling me that it needs more space than it actually needs. What should I do?
I was a PC user who recently moved to mac. I have a macbook (intel 2.2GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD). When I was using PC, I backed up all my data to a network storage device (Buffalo LinkStation 250 GB connected to a 802.11g netgear router which is supplied by Sky) using a program called SmartSync Pro, which worked very well. Although I can connect to and mount the Share folder on this drive when the macbook is connected to the network, Time Machine will not back up to it. It wouldnt even recognise the disk on the network.
So I went onto the trusty internet, and found that you can get time machine to recognise the Share folder. (This was obtained from: http://blog.imulus.com/george/software/using-leopard-time-machine-to-backup-of-a-network/)See my comment on their page at the bottom, number 66.
It recommended entering the following in to the Terminal: defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1
Before attempting backup I have to go into "Network" and select the Share folder by double clicking on it. This seems to mount the volume. After this, it can be seen in Time Machine as a potential backup destination.
However, this method does not work for me. Time Machine "prepares" for a while, then gives the following message: Time Machine error. The backup disk image could not be created.
More internet searching took me to macosxhints which suggests creating something called a sparsebundle image on my local system. (http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080420211034137) Have not tried this yet as I thought it would be prudent to seek some help first.
Apple have deliberately disabled the ability for Time Machine to back up to network attached storage, (except of course to their proprietory Time Capsule):
Is this because time machine requires a network faster than 802.11g?
Is this because a time machine backup to a network attached storage device is unreliable and the data is corrupted?
I dont want to shell out more cash for a time capsule. I would prefer not to have to hardwire to an external drive (which I will also have to go out and buy). Any thoughts?
I just purchased a Seagate 3 TB USB 2.0/3.0 external drive to use as my time machine backup drive. I have a MacBook Pro that was purchased about 3-4 years ago. The MacBook Pro has a 120 GB hard drive and is currently running MAC OSx 10.6.8. I also have another WD 1 TB FireWire external drive that I use to store all of my media files.
After I followed the instructions for installing the new Seagate drive for use with the MAC OSx, I initiated a time machine backup. It very quickly determined that it needed to back up almost 900,000 files totaling just about 400 GB. It started the backup process at a rate of about 1 GB per minute. In a little less than an hour it reach 53 GB and remained there for an additional two hours before I decided to stop the backup.
Once I got the backup stopped, I deleted the backup and decided to look at my energy saving settings. I noticed that the "Put drives to sleep whenever possible" check box was checked, so I unchecked that option and restarted the MAC. I then initiated the time machine backup again. Like the first time it quickly determined that it needed to backup the same amount of data as before and started the backup process at a rate of about 1 GB per minute. Before going to bed at around 11 PM last night it was at about 60 GB so I thought I was out of the woods (having gotten further than the 53 GB earlier). When I woke up this morning at 5:30 AM it was sitting at 69 GB.
I am really frustrated at this point and don't know why the time machine back up would be failing on a brand new hard drive. PS - I was previously using a Seagate 1.5 TB USB drive as my time machine backup and never had any issues with it. I decided to use the 1.5 TB drive for a different purpose, which is why I have the new 3 TB drive to use as a backup. And I still have the full backup on the 1.5 TB drive just in case anything were to go awry.
I have a external HD which has always worked fine under snow leopard. Since upgrading to lion I keep getting the following message The identity of the backup disk has changed since the previous backup.The disk may have been replaced or erased, or someone may be trying to trick your computer into backing up to the wrong disk. And after this the drive disappears from the desktop appearing agian only after restart. What can I do do rectify this? Delete and re-intialise the drive?
Just wanted to check if he problem was unique to my MBA (Rev B, HDD) or you notice it too ;
My Time Machine backup takes up to 6 hours to do a backup of about 30GB. And each backup size is 31.5GB everytime !!
I have the following Config - 80 GB for OSX (53GB Free) and 40 GB (10GB Free) for Win 7 on Bootcamp. Sometimes I wonder if TM making a backup of Win 7 also everytime. (Does it mean - In a way its good, that means I should be able to restore the entire hard disk from TM including Applications, Win 7 , bootcamp and all the programmes installed in Win 7 in case I have a problem ?)
But the speed should still be fast... 6 hours to do a 32GB backup is torturous specially because then I have to leave the machine alone and cannot use it.
Is there a way to make a backup of your Time Machine backup on a 2nd hard drive? I want to be doubly sure that my data is backed up!Right now I get an error saying that the second hard drive isn't authorized to copy my Time Machine data from the original hard drive I have set up as my Time Machine.
I just replaced my HD on my 15"MBP. The install went well until restoring my data from Time Machine. The apps came over fine but none of my data did. Yes, I checked all the boxes on the "restore from backup" menu.
Of course now when I start up time machine the backup isn't there. How do I get Time Machine to recognize the backup? I have it on two places - a time capsule and a separate external HD.
I just replaced the stock 160GB HD in my unibody macbook with a WD Blue Scorpio 640GB HD. I used Super Duper to clone the old drive to the new one, approximately 115 GB.
Now Time Machine wants to backup the full 115GB to my Time Capsule, which kinda sucks because it's going to be a redundent backup that's gonna take up over a 10th of my TC's space. Is there any way to avoid this and still use Time Machine?
I have a 1tb external for time machine back up and have about 750 gb of stuff to back up. I was under the impression that when time machine backs up my stuff it will automatically delete the oldest backup to create room for the newer backup.
My problem is that i did a back up a couple weeks ago and then today i go to back up and it tells me back up failed only 718gb available for 740gb of stuff to back up
Well TM is acting up. I get an error that reads: "This backup is too large for the backup volume."
Both the internal boot disk and the external baclup drive are 1TB. The internal one has a two partitions, the OSX one that is 900GBs and a 32GB NTFS one for Boot Camp. The external drive is a single OSX Extended part. that is 932GBs.
Both the Time Machine disk, and the Boot Camp disk are excluded from the backup along with a "Crap" folder for temporary large files.
Time Machine says it needs 938GBs to backup only the OSX disk, which has 806GBs in use with the rest free. WTFFF?
This happened after moving a large folder (128GB in total) from the root of the OSX disk over to my Home Folder.
I have reformated the Time Machine drive and have no backups at all of my data and it refuses to backup!!
Why would it need 938GBs of space to backup if the disk has "only" 806 GBs in use??? Is there anyway to reset Time Machine completely???
my TM wil not back up! It states that this backup is too large for the backup disk. The back up disk requires 573.50 GB but only 225.23 GB are available. The TM needs work space on the backup disk, in addition to the space required to store backups. Upen TM perferences to select a LARGER backup disk or make the backup smaller by excluding file.
Okay I;m sorry but obvioulsy I dont get this. I've never called Apple for help! I have every product they sell practically including Protection Plans I never used and no one will help me with this. My MAC is starting to have black or white screens and i can hear it running but it will not do anything so i have to reboot it, it screws up Enturage and then I have to rebuild that ( 5 times this year) anyway... I would like to back everything up- can I delete everything on the Time Capsule or Time Machine; god I dont even know what it is called Im so MAD... help if you can please. I'm going to have to take this to the genius people at the store and probably buy another computer but like before they will not save my files.
A: an old macbook (the white one) B: a modern macbook pro (retina) C: another modern macbook pro (TBD)
I am giving away B now; I expect to get C in 2 months time; I keep A with me all the time.
The goal is to migrate all of the data from B to C. I have Time Machine backups of B.
Since the transition is a long time (2 months), I need to keep working on my data during this period. For this I will use A. This will generate new files, modify old ones, ...
Since A's HDD is much smaller than B's backup, I can move only part of them.
By the way, I have totally erased A and used migration assistant to restore part of my old data from B. So, when I use A now, I do it with my same account as in B (and the same I will use in C).
How do I manage my backups in such a way that, when I will get C, I can safely move all of the data I had in B plus all of the changes and modifications that I have done during the 2 month transition?
Can I just continue to use Time Machine (on A) to update the old backups? I am afraid that some mess could be created because the computers are different (before the backups were taken on B, while now on A), even the present data are different (because now A only contains a subset of the original B data, which I do NOT want to lose), the good point is that the user is the same.
