Question for Time Machine gurus

Question

Question for Time Machine gurus

Many months ago I was regularly backing up my computer to an external hard drive using Time Machine. Much time has passed, I've moved several times and now I am not sure which of the numerous hard drives it was that I used for the backup. Is there any way to retrieve information that would help to identify the drive (make, model, capacity, etc....) from some file in the OS or by using the command-line (obviously, without having the time machine drive connected)?

I am running 10.5.8 on this Macbook (Macbook 1,1 Build 9L31A)

Posted on Apr 7, 2013 2:08 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

238,997 points

Apr 7, 2013 3:20 PM in response to brianpatrickhummel

Hi, what I'd do is turn off TM, connect the drives & check dates & files on them.

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Answer 2

Apr 7, 2013 4:09 PM in response to BDAqua

I suppose I should mention that I do not have all of the drives with me, the rest are in another state. I could have it shipped to me if I could figure out which one has the TM backups. That's why I was hoping that there would be a data or config file on the computer that could reveal information about the volume that was used for the TM backup. Surely, the filepath to the TM backup directory on the selected volume would be stored in a file somewhere within the OS. That's what I am hoping to find.

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Answer 3

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Apr 7, 2013 5:48 PM in response to brianpatrickhummel

If you connect the external disk to you Mac, and click on the HDD icon, the file structure should look like this:

In addition, the HDD icon should eventually appear like the TM logo:

This should allow you to identify the correct HDD.

Ciao.

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