
The next backup may take a while as Time Machine compares the new drive to the backup but only the files that differ will be copied. Eject the Time Machine Backups disk image if you’re using a network backup.For example, the internal drive might be called Macintosh HD or something similar. Drag the folder for the old hard drive to the terminal window.
BACK UP DRIVE FOR MAC MAC
For example, if the backup was called Time Machine Backups and the Mac was called iMac, you would open Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/iMac/Latest. Navigate to the latest backup of your computer. Open the Time Machine set (drive or disk image).You may click the Finder and choose Go – Computer to find the icon. Drag the new hard drive icon to the terminal window.Open Terminal and type or copy & paste the following command: sudo tmutil associatedisk -a and a space.If your computer backs up to a network drive (server or Time Capsule), mount the backup volume and double-click your Mac’s Time Machine backup disk image inside. Mount both the new drive and the Time Machine set.The less your new drive differs from the original the less Time Machine will have to recopy when you back up. This utility makes a clean copy and preserves file ownership & permissions. Use a tool like Carbon Copy Cloner when you replace a drive.Turn off Time Machine backups – preferably just before you transfer files to the new drive.Thankfully, there’s a betterĪssociating a new drive with a Time Machine backup Inįact, Time Machine may delete a good part of your backup history (maybeĪll of it) to make room for the new drive.

Time Machine this will undoubtedly take a lot of time and space. Although the original drive may also show in Machine it’s usually considered an entirely new volume. When you replace a hard drive in a Mac that was backed up with Time Replacing a drive and continuing the same backup

Old backup set intact and starts a new set. Instead, if you create a new backup Time Machine leaves the Up, Time Machine will seamlessly remove the old Mac’s backups to make Inheriting a backup allows the user to easily restore filesįrom the previous computer’s backup even if they weren’t on the computer It always copies everything from the new Mac to the backup. Note that even if you choose to inherit theīackup, Time Machine cannot pick up where it left off and copy only new files.

The first backup Time Machine may ask if you want to inherit the backup If you used Migration Assistant to set up the new Mac, at Time Machine, you can set it to use the same backup drive as the old MacĪs long as there’s enough room for both computers’ backups. When you replace a Mac that was previously backed up with Inheriting a backup versus creating a new backup These advanced techniques that put you in charge of what happens behind Time Machine works so well it doesn’t always get much attention.īut if you need to replace computers or hard drives, you’ll appreciate
BACK UP DRIVE FOR MAC FULL
When the backup drive is full it automatically deletes the oldest backups. It keeps older revisions and deleted documents so it can restore them or an entire computer to any point in the past. Time Machine makes hourly snapshots of files and copies them to a backup drive. Time Machine is Apple’s built-in, set-it-and-forget-it backup system.
