How do you let time machine know that a restored drive does not need a brand new backup set and just append to the old one?

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How do you let time machine know that a restored drive does not need a brand new backup set and just append to the old one?

I had an external drive failure and had to buy a brand new drive. I was able to restore my info onto a new drive, about 1.5 TB of data. When I go to launch time machine now with the new drive connected and my backup connected, it treats the new drive as if it had different data and wants to create a whole new backup set when it should just append. How do I get around this?

I could just reformat the backup drive and start fresh again but would rather not do that if I can avoid it, just in case there were errors in copying etc.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Apr 5, 2012 11:48 AM

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Answer 1

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Apr 5, 2012 11:54 AM in response to al395

See Pondini's TM FAQs for starters.

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Answer 2

al395 Author

Level 1

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Apr 5, 2012 1:06 PM in response to baltwo

HI, thanks for that but those FAQ's do not have the information I need.

I have an external HD where I keep all my projects. That HD failed the other day but I have a time machine backup. I bought a new external drive to replace my failed drive and restored it using my time machine backup. Now when I use time machine and my backup drive, it treats this new, restored drive like it has brand new information when in fact it is exactly the same data that already exists. I would like for time machine to only backup new data, not the data that is already there but since this is a new HD it must think it is new data.

Do I just initialize the time machine backup drive now and start it over? Otherwise, it will have 2 sets of the same data.

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Answer 3

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Apr 5, 2012 1:07 PM in response to al395

If I understand your query correctly, your external HDD (with Time Machine backup data) failed and you replaced it.

Did you connect the new HDD and open SYSTEM PREFERENCES>TIME MACHINE>SELECT DISK... and select the new HDD and let Time Machine do an initial backup?

Ciao.

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Answer 4

al395 Author

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Apr 5, 2012 1:27 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

Hi

I should have been more clear, sorry. I work from a laptop. I have 2 external drives - one for my projects which failed but has since been replaced and restored from a backup. My 2nd external drive is the time machine backup drive.

When my project drive crashed, I bought a brand new drive and restored it using my time machine backup drive.

Now the data exists on 2 drives - the time machine backup drive, and the new drive. When I connect the backup drive now, it thinks my new drive has new data, probably since it is a new device/drive, and wants to do a brand new backup, when in fact the data already exists on that very drive. It shouldn't have to back up all 1.5 TB when nothing has changed!

Unless there is a way to tell time machine to simply append to the old backup, I think it will try and do a new backup (1.5 TB). I'm thinking maybe I should just initialize my time machine backup drive now and start over so it is only one backup set of 1.5 TB instead of (2) sets of 1.5 TB!

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Answer 5

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Apr 5, 2012 2:15 PM in response to al395

How did you get the Time Machine data from your TM HDD on to the new HDD? The reason I ask is because several years ago I tried to use Disk Utility>Restore to transfer TM data to a new and larger HDD and it would not let me do it. I tried it again now with the same result. Drag and drop does not do it and I also tried Carbon Copy Cloner.

I know of no way that Time Machine will "simply append to the old backup".

What is not clear in my mind is TM backing up your new HDD or your laptop or both?

TM can backup two Macs as per Pondini:

http://pondini.org/TM/4.html

But in your case the new HDD would have to be a 'bootable' one.

Ciao.

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Answer 6

al395 Author

Level 1

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Apr 6, 2012 12:50 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

Hi Ogelthorpe, thanks for your reply.

I restored my drive by going into the backup drive, opening the backupset and simply dragging the files over. I had 2 errors , both from permissions and easily fixed. It worked great and restored all my data exactly as I needed. The is the 2nd HD that goes out on me in the last 6 months, both restored using time machine succesfully. Since I backup religiosuly, I had no data loss, just some downtime of about 18 hours the first time, and 12 hours this last time.

I guess I have to just wipe my backup drive now that the data has been restored, and just start a brand new backup. I wish I didn't have to but oh well. At least I have my data!! That would have been catostrophic without the backup.

-Al

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