Hi Peter, Re: So I hope I have cleared up the understanding of my question from the original post. If I were to loose the external drive, then if I bought a new drive, plugged it in and the did a Restore from the TM back up of the ENTIRE external drive onto the NEW drive, will that restore the contents in exactly the same folder structure that it was? Would subsequent backups duplicate the now new external drive contents and bloat the Sparesebundle into an enormous thing?
First - Take Note: Don't try to Restore the backup of your OS X System to a External Drive... You can't do that!!! To Restore from the Time Machine Backup of the External Drive that holds just Media/Data (iPhoto Library & iTunes Library) First you need to be able to SEE the backups of a volume that's no longer connected. To see the backups of a volume that’s no longer connected: As this is a Data-Only Drive (with iTunes & Photos Libraries) but not OS X For these instructions I’ll call the backup disc MyMedia (don't change the name of whatever you had) 1. Open a Finder window and select your computer name in the Finder Sidebar (or press Shift+Cmd+C). 2. Then Enter Time Machine (Star Wars interface from the Time Machine icon) On the first Finder window in the "cascade," labelled Today (Now), you'll see all the volumes currently connected to your Mac. Disk MyMedia, which was backed-up previously, but has failed /stolen / or disconnected, does not appear. Do not select anything in the Today (Now) Finder window Instead, select the TimeLine entry or Finder window for a previous backup, and you'll see a folder for each volume that was backed-up then or previously, including any that are not currently available. The folder for MyMedia does appear in the center only, but not in the sidebar. Double-click the folder for MyMedia; then you can navigate to whatever you're looking for. Once you find the backup you want, select all the top-level folders (not the one representing the disk itself). Control-Click, choose the Restore <items> to... option, then the New External Drive. Note: that other things in the Finder sidebar that are now connected, but were not included in the backup being displayed are shown in gray, not black, and of course you can’t select them. Hopefully that would work... Might be worth getting a New External Drive - format it correctly GUID Partition map scheme & Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as you have the current external drive formatted and do a TEST Cheers, Ronni 13-inch MacBook Air (April 2014) 1.7GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost to 3.3GHz 8GB 1600MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM 512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 > On 3 Jun 2015, at 7:46 pm, Peter Crisp <[email protected]> wrote: > > Comments inserted. > > >> On 2 Jun 2015, at 1:43 pm, Ronni Brown <[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >> >> Hi Peter, >> >> Comments in Situ >> >>> On 1 Jun 2015, at 7:17 pm, Peter Crisp <[email protected] >>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >>> >>> Ok, my apologies for not making it clear then. A pity we can’t use diagrams >>> on this forum. I use a Time Capsule for wireless backup for all 5 MBP’s in >>> my house. >>> >>> For my MBP 13” retina, I use a portable external drive (attached to the >>> MBP) to hold the iTunes and Photos libraries as the 250GB on board MBP hard >>> drive is too small. When I set up Time Machine to do my backups of the MBP >>> hard drive (inc attached portable external drive), >> >>> I selected ‘Options’ and then added the external drive (the one attached to >>> my MBP) to be included in the backup to the Time Capsule. >> Huh? When you select ‘Options’ in System Preferences > Time Machine - Data >> (Peter’s Time Capsule?) the Options window would show the attached external >> drive under “Exclude these items from backups”. Yes, you’re right, my >> mistake - I didn’t exclude, by default the externally attached drive is >> included. So the External drive is included within the full back up - >> evidenced by the fact that my MBP has 70GB in use (180GB Free of 250GB) and >> my 2TB external drive makes up the balance of the 650GB backup Sparesebundle. >> >>> So the Sparesebundle backup file on the Time Capsule therefore holds a copy >>> of the data on the external drive attached to the MBP. >> >> Are you sure? Have you checked by going to the Time Machine icon > ‘Enter >> Time Machine’? >> Are you sure this external drive which holds your iTunes Library & Photos >> Library has been backed up to your Time Capsule? Yes, the backup file is >> ~650GB which is the sum of what is on the MBP + what is on the external >> drive. >> >> Either I’m overworked and not thinking straight, but I’m certainly not on >> the same page as you :( >> With Time Machine, you can go "back in time" to Restore files, versions of >> files, or your entire system. >> To open a Photo Library that has been backed up with Time Machine the >> Library must be first Restored from the TM Hard Drive to your Boot Drive. I >> will do a trial by trying a Restore on one of the simple files say a PDF >> which I have on the external drive to test the process. >>> >>> So notwithstanding a triplicate backup strategy being the right thing to do >>> to provide robust data security, ideally I use the Time Machine backup as >>> the first port of call in the event of needing to recover a specific file >>> (or the entire portable external drive content if it were to fail or get >>> stolen). >>> >>> I hope that makes my configuration clear and therefore the original >>> question now understandable. >> >> Sorry, probably me, but I’m still confused. > > So I hope I have cleared up the understanding of my question from the > original post. If I were to loose the external drive, then if I bought a new > drive, plugged it in and the did a Restore from the TM back up of the ENTIRE > external drive onto the NEW drive, will that restore the contents in exactly > the same folder structure that it was? Would subsequent backups duplicate the > now new external drive contents and bloat the Sparesebundle into an enormous > thing? >> >> Cheers, >> Ronni >> >>> >>> Regards >>> >>> Pete. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>>> On 1 Jun 2015, at 4:52 pm, Ronda Brown <[email protected] >>>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >>>> >>>> Hi Peter, >>>> >>>>>> I dont actually have a problem currently but if my external drive were >>>>>> to fail or get lost or stolen, how would I reinstate the contents within >>>>>> the backup file of the external drive to a NEW external drive and >>>>>> restore the status quo? >>>> >>>> I'm not sure if I'm understanding you exactly. >>>> If any of the above issues happen - The 'External Drive fails, or gets >>>> lost, or stolen'... You would not be able to Restore anything from the >>>> Time Machine backup as there is no Time Machine Backup - The External >>>> Drive is no longer accessible! >>>> >>>> This is why we must have a good three parts backup strategy (similar to my >>>> backup strategy I've posted numerous times on WAMUG) to help cover drive >>>> failures, stolen, or lost computers or backup drives. >>>> >>>> Also it's best to have iTunes & Photos quit when Time Machine is backing >>>> up. >>>> >>>> Cheers, >>>> Ronni >>>> >>>> Sent from Ronni's iPad4 >>>> >>>> >>>> On 30 May 2015, at 6:48 am, [email protected] >>>> <mailto:[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Good morning, I use an external drive to hold my iTunes and Photos >>>>> library. I have explicitly selected in 'Options' to include the external >>>>> drive in the hourly backup process with Time Machine so the backup file >>>>> first time around was quite large (~650GB) and took a long while. >>>>> >>>>> I dont actually have a problem currently but if my external drive were to >>>>> fail or get lost or stolen, how would I reinstate the contents within the >>>>> backup file of the external drive to a NEW external drive and restore the >>>>> status quo? >>>>> >>>>> I've never once restored a file from TM (though I am well practiced at >>>>> deleting the Sparsebundle backup file!!) so not familiar with the process >>>>> anyway but I am keen to understand how I would restore the external drive >>>>> associated files (either singly (say my Photos library file) or the drive >>>>> in total). >>>>> >>>>> Regards >>>>> >>>>> Pete.
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