How to copy TimeMachine backups.backupdb folder between USB drives
I am trying to enhance my backup system. For years, i used Time Machine to a 2TB time capsule. Is that considered NAS? Then the HD in that time capsule became unreliable, in several cases telling me that years of backups were lost and i need to start over. Genius Bar and Apple care could not help. So i connected a USB2 drive to the time capsule and that still works for our 13" MacBookPro, but was slow and filling up so I began backing up my 15" MacBook Pro (Mid 2014, with 10.14.3 OS). to an external 4TB USB3 drive.
Now that 4TB USB3 drive is acting up sometimes, so I would like to replace it with a new 5TB USB3 drive.
Mac Time Machine backup files (sparse bundles in a backups.backupsdb folder seem to be problematic.) Just trying to copy from one USB3 HD to another USB3 HD via Finder ran very slowly. After 3 days, it got within 5 seconds of completion, but never did. Others have reported this issue and recommended using Disk Utility to do the copy. I tried that today to a new 5TB HD formatted for Mac (see screenshot), but it immediately failed because the 4TB is "not formatted for restoring" . Any insight will be much appreciated.
Time Capsule