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Chr1st0f3r

Q: Trouble recovering latest TM backup to new SSD

Mission: To change my old 500gb hdd to a 250gb ssd and use Time Machine to restore all data to the new drive.


Main problems I’ve encountered during this (seemingly simple) task:

1) TM not showing the latest backups as a choice when restoring
2) The ‘complete backup’ in my TM seems to differ in size and I’m very confused about it
3) My computer telling me that my new ssd drive doesn’t have enough space to restore from a TM copy although there should be plenty of space left.


So, this is my story:

Before removing my old hdd I performed a last TM backup. When I check to see how big an entire backup is, TM calculates an entire backup to be 152gb altogether. In ‘About this computer’ I can see that all my data on the hdd occupies about 182gb, which is strange since I’ve not excluded anything from the backup in TM. So, why the discrepancy here?

 

I removed my old hdd and installed my new ssd, booted my computer with the opt-key (or cmd+r as you also can do from what I’ve read). I choose ‘Restore from Time Machine’, BUT when I get the screen with the list of available TM backups to choose from (I’m using a Time Capsule by the way), the last backup I can choose is dated April 9 although I just performed a backup a minute ago on May 26. How come TM doesn’t present any backups made after April 9? Also, why is there a text on the screen that says ‘only complete backups of Mac OS X is shown in the list below’? What does that mean?

 

Another strange thing is when I click on the backup from April 9 just to see what the next step would be, I can choose my new ssd drive as a target drive, BUT I also get a message stating that I cannot use this drive since there is not enough storage left, which is not true. The ssd has 232gb storage left after formatting to OSX Extended (GUID), while a ‘complete backup’ from TM is between 152-182gb (depending on which number is actually correct here, which I’m really confused about). So, there should be more than enough space left on the ssd, right?

 

Another thing I tried was to make a complete TM backup to an external usb drive to try to restore from that instead. The backup started and TM stated that the complete backup would be 164gb, yet another number differing from the other numbers although I haven’t installed anything since I started all this. When the backup was completed I checked to see how big the actual backup was and it seemed to be 100gb instead of 164gb. I then checked to see how big the backup was on my Time Capsule and it also seemed to be 100gb. Now I’m more confused than ever.

 

Besides from the fact that the size of a complete TM backup seems to differ so much, I tried to restore from the USB drive, but when the screen with available backups came up it was empty. No backup to be found on the USB drive…!?

 

I would be very grateful for any help in this matter, since I don’t know what to do about all this?

Aperture 3, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on May 28, 2013 4:49 AM

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Q: Trouble recovering latest TM backup to new SSD

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  • by Chr1st0f3r,

    Chr1st0f3r Chr1st0f3r Jun 1, 2013 1:29 PM in response to Chr1st0f3r
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    Jun 1, 2013 1:29 PM in response to Chr1st0f3r

    Wait a minute....found it...finally...I'll get back soon...

  • by Chr1st0f3r,

    Chr1st0f3r Chr1st0f3r Jun 1, 2013 1:34 PM in response to Chr1st0f3r
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 1, 2013 1:34 PM in response to Chr1st0f3r

    Ok, so I will move the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist to my external drive for now, but what about the other TM-file, the 'lockfile', should this be moved to the external drive as well or should I just leave it?

     

    Skärmavbild 2013-06-01 kl. 22.30.58.png

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 1, 2013 1:40 PM in response to Chr1st0f3r
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 1, 2013 1:40 PM in response to Chr1st0f3r

    I always forget about those stupid things (they were used on Lion only, supposedly to protect the actual preference files), then dropped in Mountain Lion.

     

    It does nothing -- just leave it alone.

  • by Chr1st0f3r,

    Chr1st0f3r Chr1st0f3r Jun 1, 2013 1:55 PM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 1, 2013 1:55 PM in response to Pondini

    Pondini wrote:

     

    I always forget about those stupid things (they were used on Lion only, supposedly to protect the actual preference files), then dropped in Mountain Lion.

     

    It does nothing -- just leave it alone.

     

    Ok, I'll leave it then.

     

    But I'm on Mountain Lion, so it cannot have been dropped after Lion.

     

    So, my next step will now be to save the plist-file to my external drive and then I can go on with the next step in the Full Reset.

     

    Hopefully I will not have to get back to you until I have completed the Full Reset sometime tomorrow!

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 1, 2013 2:55 PM in response to Chr1st0f3r
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 1, 2013 2:55 PM in response to Chr1st0f3r

    Chr1st0f3r wrote:

    . . .

    But I'm on Mountain Lion,

    Your profile said Lion, when you first posted, so is at the bottom of that post.  For the situation here it doesn't matter, so I didn't ask if that was correct.

     

    so it cannot have been dropped after Lion.

    Yeah, they were.   The old ones were just left when you upgraded.  A new install doesn't have them; if you delete them, they won't come back.  If you leave them alone, they won't cause a problem.

     

    Hopefully I will not have to get back to you until I have completed the Full Reset sometime tomorrow!

    That's quick -- just set up Time Machine again and run a backup.  Since the old plist is out of the way, it should back up everything, including Applications, Library, System and the hidden private.

     

    That will take a fairly long time, and seem pretty slow, as it will be backing-up about a gazillion mostly itty-bitty files.

  • by Chr1st0f3r,

    Chr1st0f3r Chr1st0f3r Jun 2, 2013 12:10 AM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 2, 2013 12:10 AM in response to Pondini

    Your profile said Lion, when you first posted, so is at the bottom of that post.  For the situation here it doesn't matter, so I didn't ask if that was correct.

     

    That's right, I forgot to update my profile when I first posted.

    I wrote a line about it and corrected myself earlier, way back in this post, you might not have noticed from all the other text there

     

    Hopefully I will not have to get back to you until I have completed the Full Reset sometime tomorrow!

    That's quick -- just set up Time Machine again and run a backup.  Since the old plist is out of the way, it should back up everything, including Applications, Library, System and the hidden private.

     

    That will take a fairly long time, and seem pretty slow, as it will be backing-up about a gazillion mostly itty-bitty files.

  • by Chr1st0f3r,

    Chr1st0f3r Chr1st0f3r Jun 2, 2013 12:11 AM in response to Chr1st0f3r
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 2, 2013 12:11 AM in response to Chr1st0f3r


    Hopefully I will not have to get back to you until I have completed the Full Reset sometime tomorrow!

    That's quick -- just set up Time Machine again and run a backup.  Since the old plist is out of the way, it should back up everything, including Applications, Library, System and the hidden private.

     

    That will take a fairly long time, and seem pretty slow, as it will be backing-up about a gazillion mostly itty-bitty files.

     

    Ok, everything seem ok now and my backup now contains the missing folders.

     

    My next step is to try to replace the hard drive to the new ssd drive again (for the forth time...) and hopefully it will work this time.

     

    The only thing I'm still a bit worried about is the fact that besides that I couldn't find my latest TM backup, I also got an error message stating that my ssd didn't have enough space left, which was silly since I calculated that I should have app. 70gb left. With a little luck I won't get that message this time, otherwise I'll have to figure out a way to solve this issue too.

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 2, 2013 1:05 AM in response to Chr1st0f3r
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 2, 2013 1:05 AM in response to Chr1st0f3r

    Chr1st0f3r wrote:

    . . .

    Ok, everything seem ok now and my backup now contains the missing folders.

    Yay! 

     

    I also got an error message stating that my ssd didn't have enough space left, which was silly since I calculated that I should have app. 70gb left. With a little luck I won't get that message this time, otherwise I'll have to figure out a way to solve this issue too.

    Yeah, that is odd.  It does seem to require some extra room, probably for workspace, perhaps to expand compressed stuff, but not a huge amount. 

     

    See what now shows for Estimated size of full backup.  For all we know, the corrupted preference file may be part of this, too.

     

    Good luck! 

     

    - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - -

    While I'm thinking about it, some suggestions for when you get to the bug report:

     

    Be as clear and concise as possible:  the main thing is, while you never excluded anything via the Preferences Window except Downloads, TM did not back up System, Library, and Applications (you posted "Programs" but surely meant Applications).    The diagnostic package doesn't seem to show that, so please include a screenshot of the backups in question via the Finder, something like this:

     

    Screen Shot 2013-06-02 at 3.51.43 AM.png

     

    If you can get one of the old ones and a new one there, it should make it crystal clear.

     

     

    (The really bizarre thing about this is, when you select the System folder for exclusion, you get this prompt:

     

    Screen Shot 2013-06-02 at 3.54.09 AM.png

    If you select All System Files, it excludes System and only the standard built-in apps in Applications.  It still backs up the Applications folder itself and other contents, such as iLife, iWork, Pro, and 3rd-party apps.  But it does not exclude Library at all.  To exclude Applications entirely, or Library, you must add them to the list separately.

     

    They don't need all the steps we went through, but do include a link to this thread.

  • by Chr1st0f3r,Helpful

    Chr1st0f3r Chr1st0f3r Jun 2, 2013 5:21 AM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 2, 2013 5:21 AM in response to Pondini

     

    See what now shows for Estimated size of full backup.  For all we know, the corrupted preference file may be part of this, too.

     

    Good luck!

     

    Right now it says it estimates180gb for a full backup.

     

     

    While I'm thinking about it, some suggestions for when you get to the bug report:

     

    Be as clear and concise as possible:  the main thing is, while you never excluded anything via the Preferences Window except Downloads, TM did not back up System, Library, and Applications (you posted "Programs" but surely meant Applications).    The diagnostic package doesn't seem to show that, so please include a screenshot of the backups in question via the Finder, something like this:

     

    Screen Shot 2013-06-02 at 3.51.43 AM.png

     

    If you can get one of the old ones and a new one there, it should make it crystal clear.

     

     

    (The really bizarre thing about this is, when you select the System folder for exclusion, you get this prompt:

     

    Screen Shot 2013-06-02 at 3.54.09 AM.png

    If you select All System Files, it excludes System and only the standard built-in apps in Applications.  It still backs up the Applications folder itself and other contents, such as iLife, iWork, Pro, and 3rd-party apps.  But it does not exclude Library at all.  To exclude Applications entirely, or Library, you must add them to the list separately.

     

    They don't need all the steps we went through, but do include a link to this thread.

     

    Ok, I'll have this in mind for the bug report later on.

     

    I guess all that is left right now is to go ahead and insert the new drive once again and hope that I won't get that 'out of space' error message.

    *Crossing my fingers as hard as I possibly can*

     

    Over and out!

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 2, 2013 5:26 AM in response to Chr1st0f3r
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 2, 2013 5:26 AM in response to Chr1st0f3r

    Chr1st0f3r wrote:

     

     

    See what now shows for Estimated size of full backup.  For all we know, the corrupted preference file may be part of this, too.

     

    Good luck!

     

    Right now it says it estimates180gb for a full backup.

    Sure ought to fit on a 256 GB SSD. 

     

     

    Ok, I'll have this in mind for the bug report later on.

    Great!  We've seen this very nasty one a few times, and have no clue what the ##%*$% causes it.   Hope it helps Apple find it!

     

     

    Over and out!

    Keep us posted

  • by Chr1st0f3r,Helpful

    Chr1st0f3r Chr1st0f3r Jun 2, 2013 5:26 AM in response to Chr1st0f3r
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 2, 2013 5:26 AM in response to Chr1st0f3r

    Oh, I forgot to add something that I discovered this morning:

     

    Right after the full reset, the next time TM wanted to perform a backup, I got this error message below:

     

    Skärmavbild 2013-06-01 kl. 23.15.50.png

     

    Apparently it says something about the Sparsebundle already being in use...?

     

    What I did was to restart my computer, then the backup seemed to work properly again.

     

    However, I got the same message once again later this morning during the next automated backup.

    Any idea?

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 2, 2013 5:30 AM in response to Chr1st0f3r
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 2, 2013 5:30 AM in response to Chr1st0f3r

    Yeah, another occasional recurring bug, seems worse in ML.  See #C12 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

     

    Sometimes, I think, either a backup or use of the TM browser doesn't dismount the sparse bundle . . or not properly, anyhow.

     

    Sigh . . . .

  • by Chr1st0f3r,Solvedanswer

    Chr1st0f3r Chr1st0f3r Jun 2, 2013 9:06 AM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 2, 2013 9:06 AM in response to Pondini

    Pondini wrote:

     

    Yeah, another occasional recurring bug, seems worse in ML.  See #C12 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

     

    Sometimes, I think, either a backup or use of the TM browser doesn't dismount the sparse bundle . . or not properly, anyhow.

     

    Sigh . . . .

     

    YES!

     

    Everything seems to work like a charm now as far as I can tell!

    I thought I had another 1h 52min to restoring the system, but all of a sudden it was done and the computer started up fast as a fired bullet

     

    Haven't tried to make any backup yet, but I'm sure it will work from now on.

     

    I'll have a look at the bug report shortly, first I just have to enjoy my new, fast drive

     

    Thanks alot for all your help, I'm really grateful. I will check the green box 'solved my question' now to add to your points.

     

    I'll get back to you if I run into any questions about the bug report, otherwise I'm hoping that everything will be ok as far as the TM & hard drive issue goes.

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 2, 2013 9:12 AM in response to Chr1st0f3r
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 2, 2013 9:12 AM in response to Chr1st0f3r

    Chr1st0f3r wrote:

    . . .

    YES!

     

    Everything seems to work like a charm now as far as I can tell!

    Yay!      What an ordeal!

     

     

     

     

    I thought I had another 1h 52min to restoring the system, but all of a sudden it was done and the computer started up fast as a fired bullet

    I don't have an SSD, but have heard startup is amazing.  Other stuff, too.

     

     

    Haven't tried to make any backup yet, but I'm sure it will work from now on.

    Yup.  You might want to check it now and then, though.  We still have no clue what caused it.

     

    As long as you've got a good recent CCC or SD clone, you should be covered even if it throws up again.

     

    I'll have a look at the bug report shortly, first I just have to enjoy my new, fast drive

    Absolutely.  You have my permisson to take the rest of the day OFF. 

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Jun 3, 2013 5:33 PM in response to Chr1st0f3r
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Jun 3, 2013 5:33 PM in response to Chr1st0f3r

    P.S.:  when you file the Bug Report, please send me the number.

     


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