User profile for user: tafthom
tafthom Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

Move Time Machine Backups from a Case Sensitive HD to a Case Ignorant Drive?

I've done lots of reading that has pointed me to the answer of "this can't be done" but my situation is slightly different... so I'm hoping for help. I'll explain through bullet points to (hopefully) help make the situation more clear to follow.


  1. I have 400GBs of Time Machine Backups that go back over a year.
  2. I want to MOVE all of the backups on this 400GB-partition (of a 1TB External Hard Drive) to a NEW 1TB-partition (of a NEW 4TB External H.D.)
  3. The original 400GB-partition was formatted as "Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)"
  4. I want the 1TB-partition on the NEW H.D. to be Case-ignorant. (e.g. "Case-INsensitive"), as the internal "Macintosh HD" is also case-ignorant.
  5. Following the steps here http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5096?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US does not work because I'm trying to copy case-sensitive backups to an INsensitive destination.

So far I have not been successful at moving the data to the new external HD as case-ignorant.



Other Steps I have done:

  1. I formatted the NEW 1TB-partition as a case-ignorant partition (Mac OS Extended (Journaled))
  2. I then used Disk Utility's "Restore" option, hoping that it would simply copy the data from the old drive to the new drive and maintain the formatting applied to the new drive. However... after the restore finished, the new drive's formatting switched to match that of the old/original drive.


Does anyone else have ANY suggestions!?!? I would be extremely grateful if you can help out!!! 🙂

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on May 9, 2013 1:53 AM

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9 replies
User profile for user: tafthom
tafthom Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

May 9, 2013 10:34 AM in response to AnaMusic

Thanks, but I have already reviewed those discussions and they do not cover my issue.


In the first discussion, "storme" states, "Somone on another thread suggested CCC to me which worked perfectly! 🙂 I just couldn't move the old backups, but that's fine."


With my question... backups are the only thing that I am trying to move, hence my problem. :-/

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User profile for user: Will N too!
Will N too!
User level: Level 1
14 points

Nov 7, 2016 6:41 PM in response to tafthom

This issue has been driving me nuts on and off for a few years. I just bought a new drive, formatted OS X extended. Time Machine backed up all weekend to it. Today I get the Case Sensitive nonsense.

So what do I do? Reformat the drive and look for some case sensitive option? If I still have a problem, I will have lost my latest backup. Why does the case sensitive issue pop up arbitrarily?

The reason I bought the new drive is Time Machine pulled this same nonsense on two other drives, one I've used for 4 years, the other for three months. Suddenly they have this 'case sensitive' issue and Time Machine won't back up.

I also know that this is not a new or unusual issue; people have had this problem for several years. However, when I look for answers mostly what I find are just other frustrated people with the same issue. I don't know what to do. I'm really fed up with having common problems, that have been common problems for years, yet there are no clear answers available.

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Move Time Machine Backups from a Case Sensitive HD to a Case Ignorant Drive?

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