Time Machine after Logic Board Rplacement

TM is supposed to do that, but not, I believe, after a motherboard change. In this event TM assumes there is a new and different computer so it will create a new backup.

You can look here for more help: User Tips for Time Machine.

Yes, you should have gotten that prompt, when the next backup started, per #B5 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

Once started, there doesn't seem to be any way to reconsider. Let the backup complete, then look at your backups and see what's there. If you see both old and new backups when entering Time Machine's "Star Wars" display, then it has done the "re-use" method, and you should be fine.

If, however, you only see the new backup, then it's done the "create new backup" method. You should be able to see the old backups via the (badly named) +*Browse Other Time Machine Disks+* option, in #E2 of the Troubleshooting Tip. And TM probably won't be deleting old backups from the old set; you'll have to do that manually, per #12 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

FunkyLB wrote:
So, this doesn't seem to be working. I did the backups over the air

Ah, that's a different animal. Backups done over a network (whether via WIFI or Ethernet) are stored in a +sparse bundle;+ those done directly are not.

but now my computer doesn't seem to recognize the old backup as a Time Machine backup. I clicked 'Browse Other Time Machine Disks' and it shows nothing. Any thoughts?

Is the disk now connected directly to your Mac? If so, open it via the Finder and double-click the sparse bundle to mount it. Then it should appear in the +*Browse . . .+* window.

Time Machine may continue to back up to the sparse bundle on the locally-connected Mac. It shouldn't, but it may. But to view those backups, you'll have to manually mount the sparse bundle first.

If not, what is it connected to? Follow the appropriate instructions in #22 or #23 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

FunkyLB wrote:
I connected the drive the computer and used "hdiutil mount LB_00000000(Mac Address).sparsebundle" and it came back with "hdiutil: mount failed - no mountable file systems" Any ideas?

The backups are corrupted. Try Repairing them, per #A5 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

If Disk Utility can't fix them, it's possible +Disk Warrior+ or a similar app can, but there's no guarantee.

If not, they're unusable; all you can do is erase/reformat the drive and start fresh.

But I didunt get a new logic board or a new anything and TM is asking what I find to be the Fatal Three Questions: Create new backup, or Reuse Backup (ok, it's only 2 questions that are scary to me.) I don't want to lose my previous backups and i need to be able to access them. OK, i need to be punished because I haven't backed up since Dec. 09. Any ideas? If i Create New Backup, will i be able to access the old one? help!

Weatherwax wrote:
. . .
OK, i need to be punished because I haven't backed up since Dec. 09.

That might be the reason you're seeing this. I've not seen it reported, but it's pretty rare to go that long without backing up, and Time Machine will do a new, full backup after that long.

Any ideas? If i Create New Backup, will i be able to access the old one? help!

You probably want to "re-use" the backups. See #B5 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

But you cannot avoid the new, full backup, and that's going to take a lot of space. Time Machine may have to delete a lot of old backups to make room for it.

If you're not going to back up regularly, then Time Machine is not the backup app for you. For alternatives, see Kappy's post on Basic Backup, complete with links to the web sites of each product.

Hi all
I read through tons of threads but nothing seems to fix my issue. I had the logic board replaced and want to continue using Time Machine. I have a backup USB disk connected to an Airport Extreme and I have been wirelessly backing up for a year using Time Machine. After the logic board replacement I can't backup unless I connect the disk directly to the computer via USB or FireWire. When only using the wifi I can still mount the disk and the sparsebundle and see all previously backed up files. I just can't make Time Machine do a new backup. Error message is: "Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk is not available." Any ideas?
I tried some of the scripts that are supposed to have Time Machine recognize the new MAC address but it didn't work and I'm not much of an expert in that field. I also selected to "Re-use" the disk when I completed a backup using FireWire but that didn't change anything either.
Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.

Jakobjv75 wrote:
Hi all
I read through tons of threads but nothing seems to fix my issue. I had the logic board replaced and want to continue using Time Machine. I have a backup USB disk connected to an Airport Extreme and I have been wirelessly backing up for a year using Time Machine.

Hi, and welcome to the forums.

First, you need to know, that's "iffy" and +*not supported by Apple.+* See Using Time Machine with a USB drive connected to an Airport Extreme *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

Error message is: "Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk is not available." Any ideas?
I tried some of the scripts that are supposed to have Time Machine recognize the new MAC address but it didn't work and I'm not much of an expert in that field.

If done wrong, that may have made any recovery impossible. 😟 That's for Leopard only, before the re-use backup option came along in Snow Leopard.

I also selected to "Re-use" the disk when I completed a backup using FireWire but that didn't change anything either.

You've got at least two problems here.

• When you were backing-up via your Airport, Time Machine put your backups in a special container called a +sparse bundle.+ When you did backups with the drive directly-attached, they went into a "normal" folder named Backups.backupddb, separate from the sparse bundle. You cannot start one way and continue with the other.
  
• Most likely, the problem with the original backups not being "available" is, they're corrupted. Try to repair them, per #A5 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum. Note that, in this case, you need to repair both the partition and the sparse bundle.
  If Disk Utility can't repair the sparse bundle containing your network backups, see the pink box in #A5.
  If you can't repair the sparse bundle, your only option is to delete it, via the Finder.
  Then, if you want to continue backing-up via your Airport, erase the partition, connect it to your Ariport, and start fresh.
  If you want to continue backing-up directly, re-select the drive and try another backup. TM should continue backing-up to the Backups.backupdb folder.

Pondini, thanks for the quick response! Still no dice though.
Re-using the backup disk didn't separate the sparsebundle and the backups.backupdb. The backups.backupdb is still a file under the sparsebundle. It looks like this:
The backup disk called "Time Machine", only has one folder on it named "Desktop" which is empty and then the 800 GB sparsebundle. The sparsebundle itself has one folder named backups.backupdb and in that a folder with my computer name and tons of dated folders insider.
When trying to repair the disk with Disk Utility wirelessly the program crashes. When doing it over firewire it repairs fine - both the disk called Time Machine and the sparsebundle was repaired with no errors found.
I can enter the app time machine but only see the one backup I just did with FireWire. No going back in time although I can see and manually access old dated folders in the sparsebundle.
Is this a death sentence to my backup?

UPDATE: I can now enter time machine wirelessly after the repair. But I still can't access my old backups although I can see them in all the dated folders in Finder. Any way to work around this so the old folders will be part of the time machine I am accessing?
Cheers

Sorry for the spam updates. Just to clearify. I can ENTER time machine both directly and wirelessly. I still can't backup wirelessly but it works connected via FireWire.