Can't clone Time Machine.

Question

Level 1

21 points

Can't clone Time Machine.

My Time Machine backup disk is starting to make strange noises and I'm afraid it might be on its last legs. I went out and bought an EXACT duplicate, same size, same brand, same everything.

I can't copy my backups to the new disk.

I've tried Disk Utility using the RESTORE feature, but it says the destination drive doesn't have enough room. I tried copying the data just using the drag-and-drap COPY in the Finder but got the same error that the destination drive doesn't have enough room.

These are 500 GB drives. The Time Machine drive has 22 GB available, so I'm only trying to copy 478 GB to a brand new, clean, erased 500 GB drive but I can't.

I want to back up this data before my Time Machine fails.

Help?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5), iPad, iPhone 4, BlackBook, iPod

Posted on Jan 9, 2013 6:24 PM

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Answer 1

guruuno

Level 1

8 points

Jul 22, 2017 10:40 AM in response to TonyInSF

I have a 4TB Time Machine drive (on a dedicated Drobo partition, which should not matter) that I've tried for 4 weeks to copy with multiple application without success.

Hours, days, weeks go by and churning of drives, burned one drive out, etc.

I can in the "Windows" world use programs to clone TB's of data, yet even with similar apps like SuperDuper! and CarbonCopyCloner, and a slew of other programs that spend days "building lists" before even starting to copy.

If I have years and years and years of Time Machine Backups, why is it Apple OS, (?) makes this a difficult thing to do, and what is the solution?

A 3-4TB disk should take hours, not weeks or months to copy.

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Answer 2

Jan 10, 2013 4:00 AM in response to TonyInSF

I would suggest you look in this Time Machine Reference article for a solution. It is very useful:

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

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Answer 3

TonyInSF Author

Level 1

21 points

Jan 10, 2013 2:51 PM in response to Radiation Mac

I figured it out. I used Disk Utility to erase/format the new disk, but it only created a 500 MB, not 500 GB partition. I reinitialize the disk several times before I noticed this. I finally got a 500 GB partition and am using SuperDuper! to copy the data from one to the other...and it's working.

Sorry for the false alarm.

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