How do I move my Time Machine data to another hard drive?

Question

Level 3

646 points

How do I move my Time Machine data to another hard drive?

I have a WD Passport 250 external that I want to move my current TM data out of, and put in my new WD My Book 1TB. I tried moving over the Backups.backupdb file directly to a new whatever partition on my 1TB drive (I have two partitions, one for TM and one for whatever). Every time I do a copy and paste, it doesn't do anything. I can't even rename the Backups.backupdb folder. Is it locked? I want to move it over to my 1TB drive so I can format this Passport and use it for something else.

17" FP iMac 1.25GHz G4, 1.25GB ram, SuperDrive, Mac OS X (10.5.2), 15" Macbook Pro, 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo, 3GB ram, SuperDrive - 8GB iPhone

Posted on Feb 19, 2008 4:11 PM

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Answer 1

Gabizou

Level 1

119 points

Feb 19, 2008 5:02 PM in response to Jorge G.

You can't do that... The problem is that there are hidden files in the folder of the Backups.backupdb folder and just doing a copy and paste will only confuse Time Machine, you would need to just restart the backups all over again onto the new drive... Time Machine connects the drives to the computer and it stores the ids in a file and if the ids don't match, it will preform a deep traversal (read all of the data on the external and the internal drives and compare them completely(takes hours depending on how much data you have)).

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Answer 2

adamb529

Level 4

1,163 points

Feb 19, 2008 5:05 PM in response to Jorge G.

I'm assuming that the new My Book is formatted to Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) and to the GUID Partition Table (Intel) or Apple Partition Map (PowerPC). If not, format the drive using Disk Utility. Make sure Time Machine is turned off. Next, open Disk Utility (if not open) and select the Passport volume. Go to the Restore tab. Drag the Passport partition to "source" and the My Book partition to "destination." It won't hurt to erase the drive first. Click Restore and let Disk Utility do it's magic. Once finished, rename one, or both drives. (I haven't tested this, but have read that the destination drive is renamed.) Set Time Machine to back up to the My Book and make sure everything still works. Create a new backup to double check. You can now erase your Passport and use it for something else. Hope this helps!

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Answer 3

Jorge G. Author

Level 3

646 points

Feb 19, 2008 5:18 PM in response to Jorge G.

Ok, let me make this clearer. The current time machine backup on my Passport was before I formatted my MBP because it went in for repair. Once I reinstalled Leopard, I didn't use the Passport. Instead I got a 1TB drive, and configured that as to do my time machine backups. The passport has all my data from before I formatted.

I created two partitions on the 1TB drive, one for time machine which I'm using now, and the other to put in whatever documents/files I want. I want to move my previous time machine backup from before I formatted my laptop, to my new 1TB drive to keep it, like an archive or whatever. I want to move this backup into the whatever partition, not my main time machine partition. Then I want to format my passport.

Both drives, the 1TB and the Passport are currently formatted for extended journal. Make sense? The did put a check for Intel GUID on the 1TB when I formatted and created the two partitions.

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Answer 4

Jeremy P

Level 3

740 points

Feb 19, 2008 5:26 PM in response to Jorge G.

I doubt that there's a reason to do what you are talking about if you are using Time Machine for what it is designed for. It is a backup solution, not an archive. The only stuff which will always be there is stuff which is still on your main drive. Anything which goes from your main drive will one day be deleted by Time Machine. If you need to permanently archive files in Time Machine on the old external drive you should restore them to your main drive and archive them separately elsewhere (ie not in Time Machine). With Time Machine only used for recovery of recently lost files (its true purpose) there will soon come a time when you will feel free to reformat the old external and rely on your new backup.

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Answer 5

adamb529

Level 4

1,163 points

Feb 19, 2008 5:27 PM in response to Jorge G.

Thanks for clearing this up. I would create a third partition, the same size as the used space on the Passport. Do the procedure I described in my previous post (just the cloning part, using Disk Utility, with the Passport as source and the new partition as destination). Rename the new partition to Time Machine Archive or something like that. If you right click the Time Machine dock icon, you can select Browse Other Time Machine Disks. The new partition should appear here with the old backups if you needed them.

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Answer 6

adamb529

Level 4

1,163 points

Feb 19, 2008 5:28 PM in response to Jeremy P

Time Machine will never delete old weekly backups unless you run out of space and you tell it to. See my last post for an easy way to archive the old Time Machine backups.

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Answer 7

Jorge G. Author

Level 3

646 points

Feb 19, 2008 6:18 PM in response to adamb529

Thank you for your help. I'll try this when I get home from class tonight.

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Answer 8

Feb 19, 2008 6:30 PM in response to Jorge G.

Use SuperDuper! 2.5 for cloning your TM date/volume to the new disk/volume/partition. When you're satisfied the clone is working correctly you can delete the old TM data.

The TM data has some very special permissions and meta data that stops the average user from messing with it. 😉 Apple is simply trying to protect you. 😀

SuperDuper! is smart and knows the TM innards and can deal with read it the TM data and can preserve/copy it to another place for you.

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Answer 9

adamb529

Level 4

1,163 points

Feb 19, 2008 6:36 PM in response to BarryXSharp

SuperDuper costs money...why spend it (or use the trial) when you have an excellent cloning program provided by Apple, that obviously knows the ins and outs of its own OS! I don't see what's wrong with Disk Utility. The method works (http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071128055047339&query=move%2Btime %2Bmachine). The poster even says not to use SuperDuper (might have been fixed from version 2.3 to 2.5).

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Answer 10

Feb 19, 2008 6:57 PM in response to adamb529

Fine - if you wish to use Apple's DU feel free to do so. However, you might ask yourself why Apple does not expose the DU's feature in its Time Machine Help docs for restoring a TM volume to another volume. 😉 😉 😉

SuperDuper! version 2.5 was a long time coming because dealing with the Time Machine 'innards' was a non trivial task. It now works perfectly.

Do not assume that DU and the TM innards will always be in sync. 😉

SD! is dedicated to ensure its customer base has a robust, reliable and up-to-date facility for cloning a TM volume which by the way can be on the same Volume as a cloned boot disk/volume.

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Answer 11

Jorge G. Author

Level 3

646 points

Feb 20, 2008 4:24 PM in response to adamb529

Alright, I tried using your method described to move my data from my passport to my 1TB drive using Disk Utility and I get an error that says:

"Restore Failure - Could not restore - Operation not permitted"

ARGH!!! Why in the hek does Apple make it so darn difficult? Jesus.

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Answer 12

adamb529

Level 4

1,163 points

Feb 20, 2008 4:58 PM in response to Jorge G.

Check http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071128055047339&query=move%2Btime %2Bmachine. I was just copying their method. I have to means of testing it, unfortunately. Barry says that newer versions of SuperDuper work. You could always try that.

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