geabnnea

Q: Has anyone actually successfully managed to move your TimeMachine backups to a new, bigger drive?

Over the years, TimeMachine has been an endless source of frustration.  In short - my goal is to retain my backup history by copying my TimeMachine backups to a new, larger hard drive that will then become my TM backup moving forward.

 

I have tried every approach recommended by Apple...namely:

 

1. The official runbook for this process (located here: Time Machine: How to transfer backups from a current backup drive to a new backup drive - Apple Support) which literally never works.  The error I get all the time is something about being unable to convert and needing a new version of iWork?!!!  Whatever.

 

2. Disk Utility > Restore to a new destination (block by block copy)...here I run into 2 errors (both totally useless and unhelpful).  Either I get "Could not restore - Input/output error" or I get "/sbin/newfs_hfs failed with error 256" and "Could not restore - Device not configured".

 

I have literally tried this on and off for years with various hardware, drives etc.  I have never once gotten a successful TM backup (that wasn't trivial in size) to be copied over to a new drive.  I always end up tossing my backup history and starting from scratch with a new drive and that, of course, completely defeats the purpose.

 

Can anyone else from the community let me know if you've had more success and, if so, exactly how you did it?  This would seem to be 1 of the MOST obvious and common things someone would want to do - it's incredibly to me that it's this frustrating just to move a set of backups.

TimeMachine, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), TimeMachine

Posted on May 16, 2015 5:55 PM

Close

Q: Has anyone actually successfully managed to move your TimeMachine backups to a new, bigger drive?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis May 16, 2015 6:06 PM in response to geabnnea
    Level 10 (208,022 points)
    Applications
    May 16, 2015 6:06 PM in response to geabnnea

    Although Apple documentation says you can copy Time Machine backups in the Finder, it's very slow and sometimes doesn't work at all.

    This technique will only work if the volume you're copying to is the same size, or larger than, the one you're copying from.

    First, open the Time Machine preference pane and click the Select Disk... button. You may have to unlock the settings first by clicking the padlock icon in the lower left corner of the window. Authenticate as an administrator.

    Delete the volume you're going to copy from the list of backup destinations. Then turn Time Machine OFF.

    Launch Disk Utility, open the built-in help, and search for the term "Duplicate." Follow the instructions. All existing data on the destination volume will be erased. That shouldn't be a problem, because you don't want to mix backup and non-backup data on the same drive anyway.

    If the volume you're copying was encrypted by Time Machine, you may have to unlock it first. Click the Unlock button in the toolbar of the Disk Utility window.

    Turn Time Machine back ON and select the new volume as a backup destination. You can also continue to use the old volume, if you wish. The two will be alternated when both are available.

    CAUTION: If the volume you're copying is corrupt, as shown by Repair Disk or Verify Disk in Disk Utility, then that corruption will be copied to the new drive. Don't copy data from a corrupt volume on a malfunctioning drive. Put the drive aside and don't use it until you're sure you'll no longer need the data. Then securely erase it and take it to a recycling center. Do the same if the Restore operation fails with "disk errors."

  • by geabnnea,

    geabnnea geabnnea May 17, 2015 3:38 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (1 points)
    May 17, 2015 3:38 AM in response to Linc Davis

    I'm currently trying again with SuperDuper! using the 'Smart Update' feature.   This is making some better progress but you need to try many many MANY times since the entire operation seems very unreliable.  The most common error is "error 5: Input/output error" - I doubt this is due to a drive issue (bit rot etc.) since it happens on a different file each time.

     

    The entire structure of this Time Machine backup seems very unstable in fact.  Built entirely on hard links which we all know are not the best part of Mac OS to begin with...I'm losing a lot of faith in Time Machine as a whole.  It hardly seems like something I can rely upon.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis May 17, 2015 5:30 AM in response to geabnnea
    Level 10 (208,022 points)
    Applications
    May 17, 2015 5:30 AM in response to geabnnea

    That's not what I suggested, and it won't work.

  • by geabnnea,

    geabnnea geabnnea May 17, 2015 5:59 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (1 points)
    May 17, 2015 5:59 AM in response to Linc Davis

    Yeah unfortunately, what you suggested is (2) from my original list.  It also fails in various ways.

    Why do you think the SuperDuper clone won't work?  A quick google search shows that at least a few people have had success this way.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis May 17, 2015 6:29 AM in response to geabnnea
    Level 10 (208,022 points)
    Applications
    May 17, 2015 6:29 AM in response to geabnnea

    It doesn't preserve multi-linked directories, which Time Machine uses. If you get I/O errors when trying to do a block copy, then either the source drive or the destination drive is malfunctioning.

  • by geabnnea,

    geabnnea geabnnea May 17, 2015 7:47 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (1 points)
    May 17, 2015 7:47 AM in response to Linc Davis

    Ah OK - I'll have to take your word for it (on the SuperDuper!) - too bad cuz I really like that app.

    Thanks for the heads-up...I guess my Time Machine history will need to restart again.  Long term, I've got to find something more stable I guess!

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis May 17, 2015 8:54 AM in response to geabnnea
    Level 10 (208,022 points)
    Applications
    May 17, 2015 8:54 AM in response to geabnnea

    Nothing is wrong with "SuperDuper" or with Time Machine. You have a bad drive.

  • by norman.chonacky,

    norman.chonacky norman.chonacky Oct 2, 2016 12:22 PM in response to geabnnea
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 2, 2016 12:22 PM in response to geabnnea

    I have had the same exact experience. If you try a simple drag and drop copy of the entire backup folder, to a properly formatted disk, things similar to what has been reported might happen. To whit:

    1. Try copying the entire [Backups.backupdb] folder to a host computer via USB connection to an external drive. It is not only painfully slow but after a long partial transfer get an error message something like: "you need a newer version of iWork"!
    2. Try a block copy of the same source file to the same device in order to gain speed and immunize the transfer from content-based checking and get an error message something like: "this file format does not allow for block copy."

    This should not be rocket science, but moreover (I speak for myself) some of us know a lot about base level computer processes and cannot understand either why our attempts failed from these error messages or what is indicated about the reasons by these cryptic messages. Give us a break! We are not dumb, but just want to be given feedback information that will allow us to figure out the solutions to these problems on our own.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Oct 3, 2016 10:32 AM in response to norman.chonacky
    Level 9 (73,376 points)
    iTunes
    Oct 3, 2016 10:32 AM in response to norman.chonacky

    Did you try using Disk Utility Restore?