How to copy TimeMachine backups.backupdb folder between USB drives

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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

Posted on Feb 10, 2020 4:42 PM

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Answer 1

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D.I. Johnson

Level 7

22,367 points

Feb 10, 2020 5:07 PM in response to tonyjag

Hello, tonyjag.

Sorry to hear you're having this issue with your Mac and Time Machine.

Here is a link to an Apple Support document specific to your issue. I hope you will find the answers you are looking for. Pay particular attention to the requirements for drive formatting and setting permissions.

Transferring Time Machine backups from one backup disk to another - Apple Support

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Answer 2

tonyjag Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 11, 2020 5:12 AM in response to D.I. Johnson

Thanks. That is the first thing I tried, including setting the proper formats and permissions, but selecting the whole ~3TB of data on the 4TB HD, which did not end well, with a perpetual 5 seconds to go, as described in my initial post. So I tried it again last night on just the backups.backupsdb folder (~1.4TB). This morning, It failed again, as you can see in the attached screen shot.

What next? Perhaps i should check the 4TB HD using Disk Utility? I have read that takes many tens of hours because of the sparse bundles. I might also try it using our newer 13" MacBookPro, which i think is still covered by AppleCare. Or could i take the USB drives somewhere, like Geek Squad, to have it done?

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How to copy TimeMachine backups.backupdb folder between USB drives

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