Please explain file structure for Time capsule.

Question

Please explain file structure for Time capsule.

Could one of you experts please explain something with regards to the Time Capsule. I use a 1Tb Time Capsule which backs up the whole of my main Mac HD plus the whole of another 450Mb HD called Image Drive. When I look at the file structure of the Time Capsule everything is contained in a .sparsebundle. If you 'show package contents', inside a folder called 'bands' there are thousands of small files with short names. Now, my wife uses Time Machine but instead of having a TC she uses a smaller external drive. When I check the contents of that which have been created through Time Machine backups it contains the correct and identifiable contents of her hard drive with Applications, Documents etc but also a folder called 'Backups' within which are hundreds of files called Home Folder (date) - incremental backup.

The question is: We are using Time Machine to backup both systems so why is the file structure different? Is it because Time Capsule does it it's own way?

Many thanks in advance for an explanation of this.

Colin Cadle

MacPro - 8Gb RAM, Mac OS X (10.6.4), 2 x 2.66

Posted on Feb 23, 2011 1:22 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Bob Timmons

Community+ 2024

Level 10

159,806 points

Feb 23, 2011 6:08 AM in response to Community User

The Time Capsule is a "network drive" because it is connected to your network using an ethernet cable or wireless. It stores all Time Machine backups in a special file called a sparsebundle. There is a separate sparsebundle file for each computer that backs up to the Time Capsule. So, if 3 Macs were backing up to the Time Capsule, there would be 3 sparsebundle files visible.

It is OK to open the package file to look at it, but never attempt to make any changes to any of the files in this manner. This can corrupt the contents of the sparsebundle. If you ever need to access a file on the Time Capsule, use the Time Machine "Star Wars" interface for this.

The drive that your wife uses is an "external" drive, not a network drive because it is attached directly to the USB or FireWire ports on her computer. Time Machine stores backups on an external drive differently than it does on a network drive.

As you have discovered, all of the Time Machine files on an external drive are stored in a Backups.backupdb folder. You can look at the contents of the folder, but do not make any changes at all to anything there. Use the regular Time Machine interface to access your backups.

Message was edited by: Bob Timmons

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Answer 2

Feb 24, 2011 10:06 AM in response to Bob Timmons

Bob,

Thank you so much for the very helpful description which completely answers my query, it is most kind of you.

Colin

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Answer 3

Feb 24, 2011 1:52 PM in response to Community User

You are most welcome! Please post back if you have any additional questions.

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Answer 4

thohei

Level 1

8 points

Jul 23, 2012 4:23 AM in response to Bob Timmons

Given the different file structures on Time Machine, is it possible to first use Time Machine on an external drive, wired to the Mac, then connect the external drive to another Mac(2) and let Time Machine back-up the Mac2 and the external drive to a NAS disc. So the files on the NAS would be a Time Machine back-up of a Time Machine back-up. Is it possible and how would you regain access to the back-uped files?

The NAS is not a Time Capsule but a Western Digital that works fine with Time Machine.

The reason for this wish is that the back-ups are so much faster with a wired disc and I could then connect the wired disc to an older computer which could then be busy doing the time consuming wireless back-up.

Thanks,

Thomas

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Answer 5

Jul 23, 2012 4:36 AM in response to thohei

No.. you cannot do that..

You could fudge it if the backup device was a TC.. you would have to start the backup with the drive connected to the TC.. to create the sparsebundle.. then connect to the computer and mount the sparsebundle and finish the backup.. do it for each backup.

WD my world or whatever it is will not be able to handle the disk which has to be formatted HFS+.. that is the only format that can be used for the sparsebundles and TM backups.

Read a bit of Pondini for moral uplift and encouragement.

http://pondini.org/TM/Works.html

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Answer 6

thohei

Level 1

8 points

Jul 23, 2012 7:17 AM in response to LaPastenague

Thank you for your prompt answer.

I have an additional question to the part of your post that reads:

WD my world or whatever it is will not be able to handle the disk which has to be formatted HFS+.. that is the only format that can be used for the sparsebundles and TM backups.

As it is now I have a HFS+-formatted disc connected to my Macbook and I feel quite certain that that too is backed-up to my WD My Book during Time Machine back-ups. I have tried with other discs, but Time Machine states that an external disc has to be formatted in HFS+ to be included in the back-up. If I understand you answer correctly I would still not be abel to back that disc up (it contains regular files, no sparsebundles). How can I check if the external drive is included in the back-up?

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Answer 7

Jul 23, 2012 7:24 AM in response to thohei

How can I check if the external drive is included in the back-up?

Open System Preferences (gear icon on the dock)

Open Time Machine

Click on Options

Here you will see a list of devices and files that have been excluded from backups.

In other words, if you want an attached hard drive to be backed up along with your Mac, the name of the drive should not appear here. If it does, it is excluded, and it is not being backed up.

Click to highlight the drive, and then click the - (minus) button at the bottom of the list to remove it from the list of excluded items. The drive will be backed up on the next pass that Time Machine makes.

If a drive is grayed out in this area, you cannot remove it from the list of excluded items since it is not formatted correctly to work with Time Machine.

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