Transfer Time Machine backups to new external hard drive

[Mannheim62]

Hello,

I have a new external hard drive. I'd like to know how to transfer all of the existing backups from the old hard drive to the new hard drive. Also, I have formatted the new hard drive to Mac OS Extended Journal encrypted. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Mike

 

[Rod]

Firstly, do you actually need the old backups? You could simply put the old backup HD aside and perform a brand new backup on your new external HD.

 

[Mannheim62]

Firstly, do you actually need the old backups? You could simply put the old backup HD aside and perform a brand new backup on your new external HD.

Thanks for replying. In a word ... yes, I do need the old backups.

 

[MacInWin]

You can use Finder to copy the backups.backupdb folder from one drive to another. Warning, it takes forever to complete. Just select the folder, then Copy and go where your want it and paste. Then go on vacation, it's going to be days, maybe, before it's done.

 

[ferrarr]

Which macOS are you using with Time Machine? Which OS did you start using Time Machine with?

 

[Mannheim62]

Which macOS are you using with Time Machine? Which OS did you start using Time Machine with?

I'm currently using Catalina 10.15.7. I don't remember which OS I started with but my oldest backup is April 12, 2019. Thanks

 

[Mannheim62]

You can use Finder to copy the backups.backupdb folder from one drive to another. Warning, it takes forever to complete. Just select the folder, then Copy and go where your want it and paste. Then go on vacation, it's going to be days, maybe, before it's done.

Thanks Jake, that may be what I end up doing but I was hoping for another time saving option.

 

[MacInWin]

Probably won't find one. The challenge is that TM uses a database to keep the backups. It LOOKS like files, but they are actually special link files to make the backup smaller. Won't go into the technical details, but when you copy from one drive to another, all of those links have to be recalculated and rewritten. That is what takes the time. No way to speed it up that I've been able to find.

 

[Mannheim62]

Probably won't find one. The challenge is that TM uses a database to keep the backups. It LOOKS like files, but they are actually special link files to make the backup smaller. Won't go into the technical details, but when you copy from one drive to another, all of those links have to be recalculated and rewritten. That is what takes the time. No way to speed it up that I've been able to find.

Copy and Paste it is then. Much appreciated Jake. I'll let everyone know how it goes. Mike

 

[IWT]

Hi Mike,

Just one small comment: according to Apple (see below) the preferred format for Time Machine on an External Hard Drive is APFS, not "Mac OS Extended Journal encrypted."

Types of disks you can use with Time Machine on Mac

Use Time Machine on your Mac with a Time Capsule and with USB and Thunderbolt disks.

support.apple.com

Ian

 

[Mannheim62]

Hi Mike,

Just one small comment: according to Apple (see below) the preferred format for Time Machine on an External Hard Drive is APFS, not "Mac OS Extended Journal encrypted."

Types of disks you can use with Time Machine on Mac

Use Time Machine on your Mac with a Time Capsule and with USB and Thunderbolt disks.

support.apple.com

Ian

Hi Ian,

Thanks for the heads up, much appreciated; the change has been made. It's still "preparing to copy" my files and has been doing so for the last 5 hours or so .

Mike

 

[MacInWin]

Hi Ian,

Thanks for the heads up, much appreciated; the change has been made. It's still "preparing to copy" my files and has been doing so for the last 5 hours or so .

Mike

As I said, go on vacation, it's going to be a while.........

 

[chscag]

As I said, go on vacation, it's going to be a while.........

LOL, I tried the Apple Time Machine transfer method one time and after what seemed like an eternity, I gave up and just started a new backup instead.

Frankly, I don't know why some folks insist on keeping their Time Machine backups for such a long period of time.

 

[MacInWin]

LOL, I tried the Apple Time Machine transfer method one time and after what seemed like an eternity, I gave up and just started a new backup instead.

Frankly, I don't know why some folks insist on keeping their Time Machine backups for such a long period of time.

Yep, it is a slow process. I am not sure, but I think it's because TM is a low priority task so as not to interfere with operations when it runs, and then the whole link/database connection means it needs a lot of processing. A deadly slow combination. I think the last time I did it took a couple of days to finish, running 24 hours/day.

 

[Mannheim62]

As I said, go on vacation, it's going to be a while.........

I'm packed and ready to go ....

 

[Mannheim62]

LOL, I tried the Apple Time Machine transfer method one time and after what seemed like an eternity, I gave up and just started a new backup instead.

Frankly, I don't know why some folks insist on keeping their Time Machine backups for such a long period of time.

"Frankly, I don't know why some folks insist on keeping their Time Machine backups for such a long period of time." Believe me ... I'm rethinking it ....

 

[Mannheim62]

Well it official, I give up. I'll run my existing TM backup until it runs out of space then start a new one. You'd think there would be a faster way to do this. I'd like to thank everyone for they're input. As always, it's much appreciated.

Mike

 

[MacInWin]

Well it official, I give up. I'll run my existing TM backup until it runs out of space then start a new one. You'd think there would be a faster way to do this. I'd like to thank everyone for they're input. As always, it's much appreciated.

Mike

Heh! That didn't last long. I would have given it at least 24 hours before throwing in the towel.

Be aware that once the old drive is full, TM will try to delete backups to make space, so you may not see any warning about that until the backup is too large and the space too small for it to be able to figure out what to delete.

 

[Mannheim62]

Heh! That didn't last long. I would have given it at least 24 hours before throwing in the towel.

Be aware that once the old drive is full, TM will try to delete backups to make space, so you may not see any warning about that until the backup is too large and the space too small for it to be able to figure out what to delete.

Thank you, much appreciated !!!

 

[Rod]

As stated back in my post #2 unless you need the old backups you could just put the old backup drive aside and start a new one.
I erase my old TM backups at each major upgrade of macOS so I never have a TM backup older that about a year. What with the changing nature of macOS, the move from the HFS+ to APFS filing system, formatting for external HD's the increased popularity of external SSD's etc there seems no point in maintaining a TM backup for much longer than a year.
If however you regard your TM backup as a sort of archive where unique files (files that are not on your computer) or versions of files can be stored permanently for restoration at any time my experience is you may be disappointed. TM backups can become corrupted and/or the EHD's they are stored on can simply crash. Add to this the unique filing structure of TM backups which are pretty much only readable by the TM app they are pretty much unretrievable if they get damaged.
So I only regard them as short term restore files for which they are very useful but they are not the only form of backup I have and I would not rely solely on TM for this purpose.