Aquatic999

Q: Time Machine - Tansferring backups to a new USB HD

Hi.

as I have run out of space on my external 1 TB HD I thought I would buy a 2 TB USB HD and transfer the files across using the steps given here Time Machine: How to transfer backups from a current backup drive to a new backup drive - Apple Support

 

All proceeded well until 8 hours into the transfer. I got a message saying that I do not have permission to access to transfer all the files and the transfer was terminated. In comparing my 2 USB HD's there is a larger amount of data that has not been transferred. I followed the instructions as given on the weblink but it seems that there are access/permission issues. The old backups are mavericks based while I now use yosemite.

 

I would appreciate any help that you could give.

Posted on Mar 16, 2015 11:12 PM

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Q: Time Machine - Tansferring backups to a new USB HD

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  • by LaPastenague,

    LaPastenague LaPastenague Mar 16, 2015 11:36 PM in response to Aquatic999
    Level 9 (52,596 points)
    Wireless
    Mar 16, 2015 11:36 PM in response to Aquatic999
    All proceeded well until 8 hours into the transfer.

    Yosemite is incredible.. it can decide that 8hours into a transfer your permissions have changed.. how can they have?? It is just a lousy OS.

     

    I strongly recommend you do not bother moving the old backups.. Yosemite is very poor in using old backups anyway.

     

    Simply start a new backup on the new drive.. and keep the old drive locked away for a few months until you have proven you don't need it.

     

    I am not sure what Mac you are using but transfer over USB should be faster than that.. USB3 at least could copy the whole lot in that time.. maybe twice over.

    In comparing my 2 USB HD's there is a larger amount of data that has not been transferred.

    Very poor speed.

     

    I would also recommend not using Time Machine .. at least not as your main backup.. download Carbon Copy Cloner and give it a go.. there is a one month free trial that is fully functional.. you can make a bootable clone.. and also use the same disk for TM backup.

     

    CCC tends to be much more reliable now than TM.. although who knows when Yosemite cannot even figure out permissions on a local disk.

  • by Aquatic999,

    Aquatic999 Aquatic999 Mar 17, 2015 12:36 AM in response to LaPastenague
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 17, 2015 12:36 AM in response to LaPastenague

    Thank you for your reply. This Time Machine issue is just the initial problem that I am facing. Let me explain....

     

    I have decided to retire my old MacBook Pro circa 2012 for a new MacBook Pro Retina just last week. I do not want to use Migration Assistant as there is a lot of junk on the old machine and do not want the headache of migrating and then deleting. The time machine I have is only good for migration as on the new machine the old saved backups are not recognised.

    What I am looking for is a solution or workaround so that I can access my old Time Machine backups on my new laptop and cherry pick what I want to transfer.

    Thank you

  • by LaPastenague,

    LaPastenague LaPastenague Mar 17, 2015 2:09 AM in response to Aquatic999
    Level 9 (52,596 points)
    Wireless
    Mar 17, 2015 2:09 AM in response to Aquatic999

    TM is not exactly flexible..

     

    But you can or should be able to manually access the content and drag over what you want..

     

    Better still if you still have the old laptop copy and paste the content directly.

     

    See Can't access old files on time capsule

  • by Aquatic999,

    Aquatic999 Aquatic999 Mar 18, 2015 1:00 AM in response to Aquatic999
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 18, 2015 1:00 AM in response to Aquatic999

    Thank you for your help but it seems my problem has been resolved. After trying all options to use my old backups from a previous MacBook I thought as a last resort to try the obvious....I just plugged in the USB HD into my new Mac, pointed Time Machine to associate with this old USB HD and opening Time Machine I was miraculously transported back to 2013!!!! Not sure what the **** is going on but i tried restoring individual items and it worked.

    Thank you for your help but apologies for wasting your time.