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Problem copying TM backups to new drive

MacBookPro OS 10.6.8

I have borrowed a new and larger external HD to copy off my TM backups so I can repartition my backup drive and then copy them back. I did the recommended prep, though since it was new I didn't zero it out. The initial copying process is taking a long time and showing no results! a) the "copying" status window shows the rippling bar with "Copying 8,799,534 items" and "Zero KB of 141.11 GB Estimated time remaining…" — seemingly no progress; b) the in operation light on the destination external drive is flickering, indicating action inside; c) the Info on the destination drive shows increasing GB used, though the date modified doesn't change; d) the finder view of the destination drive does show that more structure is being built, though the size of each new folder is 0 bytes. This is a USB 2.0 drive, so it isn't as fast as my usual FW. Question: Are these symptoms consistent with a copying process that will ultimately be successful?

Second problem, perhaps, is that I left it on all night and nothing happened (lid open) — is it possible that the copying process stops when the computer is not otherwise in use?

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Jun 6, 2013 6:36 AM

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1 reply

Jun 8, 2013 6:45 PM in response to EleanorB

Update on these issues, for those interested: the drag and drop copy process did eventually complete, about 30 hours! Then I started another TM backup, and it seems to have processed an amazing number of items (but this could have been because of an incomplete prior backup in the copy), and eventually completed after 22 hours. Then I proceeded to reformat my original backup disk (to remove partitioning that was limiting the backup size) and copy the "new" backup to the original disk. This time, I did it by a "block copy" ("restore") process using Disk Utility, and it only took 2 hours (150 GB). Much better! It also copied the name of the disk, but this was easily fixed by a "normal" name change procedure in the Info box.


I then did a SW update and fix permissions, and am trying another TM backup. I'll report when this finishes. At the moment, it is "preparing" and is up to 32,000 items!

Problem copying TM backups to new drive

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