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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Operating System
Why can't I copy my Time Machine Backup to an External (Case-Sensitive) drive?
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<blockquote data-quote="MacInWin" data-source="post: 1928661" data-attributes="member: 396914"><p>Can you help with some clarity? You said this, which addressed copying a backup from APFS to HFS+.</p><p></p><p>Then you said</p><p></p><p>And then</p><p></p><p>and finally</p><p></p><p>So, are we talking about trying to copy a TM backup or not? There are many other factors in trying to copy a TM backup, beyond just case sensitivity. APFS, by default, compresses files into sparse files to economize on disk usage, but then when you copy from that source to a non-APFS destination, that compression has to be undone, for example. And TM backups of more modern systems are now snapshot format, which adds further compression. But when trying to copy that snapshot from an APFS drive to one that doesn't support compression (HFS+), then all of the compression needs to be undone. </p><p></p><p>Generally, it is not a good idea to attempt to copy a TM backup snapshot from APFS to anything else. </p><p></p><p>Finally, it is best not to mix backups on the same drive, as you say you are doing on the 8TB drive. TM now takes over the drive totally, restricting what can be done to the drive, to protect the integrity of the snapshots and sparsebundle files it creates. So, although in the past it may have been acceptable, with more modern versions of macOS it is NOT recommended to mix things on the backup drive. It is far better to get a smaller drive and dedicate it to the TM backups and let TM manage the drive totally.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MacInWin, post: 1928661, member: 396914"] Can you help with some clarity? You said this, which addressed copying a backup from APFS to HFS+. Then you said And then and finally So, are we talking about trying to copy a TM backup or not? There are many other factors in trying to copy a TM backup, beyond just case sensitivity. APFS, by default, compresses files into sparse files to economize on disk usage, but then when you copy from that source to a non-APFS destination, that compression has to be undone, for example. And TM backups of more modern systems are now snapshot format, which adds further compression. But when trying to copy that snapshot from an APFS drive to one that doesn't support compression (HFS+), then all of the compression needs to be undone. Generally, it is not a good idea to attempt to copy a TM backup snapshot from APFS to anything else. Finally, it is best not to mix backups on the same drive, as you say you are doing on the 8TB drive. TM now takes over the drive totally, restricting what can be done to the drive, to protect the integrity of the snapshots and sparsebundle files it creates. So, although in the past it may have been acceptable, with more modern versions of macOS it is NOT recommended to mix things on the backup drive. It is far better to get a smaller drive and dedicate it to the TM backups and let TM manage the drive totally. [/QUOTE]
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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Operating System
Why can't I copy my Time Machine Backup to an External (Case-Sensitive) drive?
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