Q: Copying Time Machine backups to Second Drive
While I've seen some support answers on this question, I'm not sure they pertain to my situation.
My scenario: I have a new iMac on the way to replace my current 24" early-2009 version. I thought I could have my current time machine just pick up on the new computer where the other left off, but my research seems to indicate that is not the case.
My solution then is to do the following:
1) Transfer the backups on the current Time Machine to a second external drive.
Note: I also plan to use this second drive as the primary file storage system for the new computer. The new iMac will have an SSD where I only plan to keep applications and the files I'm using for current big video/photo projects. This is a 4TB drive, so plenty of room for me to hold my current files and the Time Machine backup which is about 1TB.
2) Reformat current Time Machine and set it up again as the Time Machine for new computer.
Here is my issue:
After trying to simply drag and drop the "backups.backup" folder from the Time Machine to my new second drive, I got the error message "the volume has the wrong case sensitivity for backup". It does appear that my Time Machine was formatted as Journaled Case Sensitive, but the new drive was simply Journaled.
I'm currently following these instructions using Disk Utility: time machine transfer of TM files
I'm left with two questions:
First: It says "Copying Blocks. Estimated time: 23 hours" - which seems excessive for just 1 TB of info.
Second: More important. After this process will I be able to use the second drive as a storage drive, or is it simply making it into another Time Machine??
Honestly, I've only ever used TM to find a lost file or two and never for a full restore, so I'm not particularly worried about that. Second, I change out my Time Machine drive every year (holding on to the old drives). I just did that in January, so if I have to lose a a few months of backups, not a huge deal. I'm just hoping to just keep those backups as a just in case.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
iMac (24-inch Early 2009), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)
Posted on Apr 18, 2016 7:13 AM