New Time Machine Drive

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Level 1

8 points

New Time Machine Drive

My old Time Machine drive, 1 TB, is full. I got a new 2 TB drive, and went to transfer the old files to the new one for use as my Time Machine. After about 24 hours, it was still "preparing to transfer" files, and nothing had actually transferred. Should it really take days to transfer the files? If so, can I use my computer for other things while the transfer is ongoing?

My computer is an iMac, running Mojave. I started by dragging the "backups.backupdb" folder from the old drive icon to the new drive icon. Then I waited, and waited.

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Dec 16, 2018 10:55 AM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

207,439 points

Dec 16, 2018 11:13 AM in response to diveguy46

Use a cloning app to copy the old TM files to the new TM drive, either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner.

There are lots of hard links in a TM backup so that would take the Finder a while to unravel. The best bet is a cloning tool as I've mentioned.

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Answer 2

diveguy46 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 16, 2018 3:48 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks for the advice. I dowloaded and installer Super Duper. I started it, and after 2 1/2hours, it had transferred about 1% if the 1 TB old hard drive. I simply can't give up my computer for long enough for this to work. Somehow, I don't think it should be this hard. I don't mind having the computer working on this overnight or even longer. But, a couple of days seems excessive.

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