Using time capsule to restore data to new computer and doing the back-up for the new computer

Hello


My iMac has broken down. Data were saved by Time Machine on a Time Capsule. So the new computer was set-up with things from the Time Capsule. Worked fine. The Time Machine informed me that the backups will no longer be available for the old iMac. That's fine. After everything was set-up on the new one (15" Mac Book pro retina) I wanted to make sure that the backup process for this one was ready to go and as it was done in the past. I have selected the Time Capsule (it's a 500GB that is backing two computers) and as such there is limited space available on it but that's ok since the process is creating space when needed by deleting old backups from 2011 which I don't need any more keeping 1 year history being ok.


The problem I am now facing is that it seems Time Machine consider that the back-up of the New Mac book pro as a new volume - i.e. on top of the one used to set-up the new Mac book (the old iMAc!) and the one for the other computer. Time machine seems to be looking to open a third volume and obviuosly doesn't have the space to perform the back-up.


How can I sort this? Ideally for me after I have restored the data from the old iMac to the Mac Book pro I would like to keep updating the back-ups (originally from the old iMac) with the changes that happened on the Mac Book pro.


I hope I am clear and looking for some tips on that.


Many thanks in advance.


Best


Pierre

Mac Book Pro 17" + iMac 24", Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Jan 30, 2013 8:55 AM

Reply
4 replies

Jan 30, 2013 9:23 AM in response to Pierre-Antonin

You can't do that. This is because the backups are tied to the network adapter's MAC address of the computer you are backing up with. You could "fake" the MAC address but this would make it impossible for you to use the iMac on a network (as it's MAC address would already be being used). Your only option is to delete the old iMac's backups or buy a new TC (best option if you want to keep the backups).

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Using time capsule to restore data to new computer and doing the back-up for the new computer

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