unable to copy time machine to a new external drive

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unable to copy time machine to a new external drive

I have a Mac Pro circa 2010 2x 2.4 quad core intel. I have been running time machine on one of the internal drives. I am trying to move to a new external LaCie 3TB drive. I have reformatted the La Cie as suggested a couple of times to get time machine to work at all on it at all, got that to work. Now I have wiped the drive again to allow me to move my history over and pick up where I left off from the internal drive. I have gotten two error messages, first I don't have permission to copy some of the files, of which I am the admin and no one else uses this computer. I have fixed permissions and gone in and looked for read-only files, but there are just too many files, tried to batch apply permissions to all as well. Still get the permissions error. I also get a -8003 error if I click out of the "can't copy all ... no permissions". Running 10.9.5 because the last time I tried to install Yosemite, It took over 24 hrs and I had to restore from Time Machine, which didn't actually get all my files restored. Luckily I had a second backup of work files. The ones that were not restored through time machine were the ones I suspected of having bad permissions, and have tried to fix those, but can't be sure just due to the number of files.

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Aug 31, 2015 10:40 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 31, 2015 11:19 AM in response to svkr9

see the list under "Time Machine keeps:"

Time machine is NOT an archive program, and it will, by design, throw away your very old History. If any files from those older Backups are no longer on your Hard drive, they will be lost. If you need Archiving, Time Machine may not be the application you need.

On the other hand, you may be being extreme about saving your old stuff.

I suggest you ADD the new drive as a selected backup Disk, and once it has made a complete Backup of this moment, remove the old drive from the Backup Drive list. Then wait (how long is up to you.) then wipe the old drive.

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the late James Pond wrote an article on that subject (as well as dozens of other Time machine articles), and these are still available online:

Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions: 18. How can I copy my TM backups to a different location?

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Answer 2

svkr9 Author

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Aug 31, 2015 11:25 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

thanks grant, that is where I started with this project, but I guess I tried to get too fancy. appreciate the help.

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Answer 3

Aug 31, 2015 11:39 AM in response to svkr9

Do take a look at Pondini's illustrated and approachable article on the subject, if you have not already.

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Answer 4

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Aug 31, 2015 4:22 PM in response to svkr9

Although Apple documentation says you can copy Time Machine backups in the Finder, it's very slow and sometimes doesn't work at all.

This technique will only work if the volume you're copying to is the same size, or larger than, the one you're copying from.

First, open the Time Machine preference pane and click the Select Disk... button. You may have to unlock the settings first by clicking the padlock icon in the lower left corner of the window. Authenticate as an administrator.

Delete the volume you're going to copy from the list of backup destinations. Then turn Time Machine OFF.

Launch Disk Utility, open the built-in help, and search for the term "Duplicate." Follow the instructions. All existing data on the destination volume will be erased. That shouldn't be a problem, because you don't want to mix backup and non-backup data on the same drive anyway.

If the volume you're copying was encrypted by Time Machine, you may have to unlock it first. Click the Unlock button in the toolbar of the Disk Utility window.

Turn Time Machine back ON and select the new volume as a backup destination. You can also continue to use the old volume, if you wish. The two will be alternated when both are available.

CAUTION: If the volume you're copying is corrupt, as shown by Repair Disk or Verify Disk in Disk Utility, then that corruption will be copied to the new drive. Don't copy data from a corrupt volume on a malfunctioning drive. Put the drive aside and don't use it until you're sure you'll no longer need the data. Then securely erase it and take it to a recycling center. Do the same if the Restore operation fails with "disk errors."

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