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psammey

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 12, 2014
6
0
Oxford, UK
How can I persuade Time Machine to continue incremental back-ups when it wants to start from scratch?
I have been running Time Machine, backing-up to a Seagate GoFlex Desk (2TB) via a Firewire 800 connection successfully for a while. I want to use the Firewire connector elsewhere and so swapped the base to usb, reasoning that the usb2 connection would be fast enough for incremental back-ups. Problem was the disk was not recognised as the Time Machine disc and when selected to be the back-up disc Time Machine wanted to start from scratch - which would take too long over usb2. I can see and open the previous back-ups, can anyone tell me how to persuade Time Machine to continue incrementally backing-up and not start again?
iMac C2D 3.06 4GB running 10.9.2.
Thanks, psammey
 

Brian33

macrumors 65816
Apr 30, 2008
1,419
352
USA (Virginia)
I believe there is a way to do what you want, but unfortunately I don't have time at the moment to research/explain fully.

I think you want Time Machine to "inherit" the backup. It involves using a Terminal command. This page might help:
http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html
 

psammey

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 12, 2014
6
0
Oxford, UK
Success - mostly!

Back-ups have been inherited ok, seamlessly open those before and after changed connection. The first back-up after was larger than usual, ~6.5GB, but that's a lot better than ~300GB! and now back to usual size. During that first back-up the disc was not being displayed as a Time Machine disc on screen (brown compared to turquoise) and the Time Machine symbol in the menu bar didn't rotate to indicate backing-up in progress, now, having restarted the iMac, the disc symbol is ok (turquoise) but the Time Machine symbol in the menu bar still does nothing during backing-up; I can live happily with that.

Thanks again Brian33!

psammey
 

Brian33

macrumors 65816
Apr 30, 2008
1,419
352
USA (Virginia)
I'm glad to hear it worked to inherit the backup!

The fact that the indicator isn't rotating is odd -- I've never seen anyone report that. Although under 10.8.5 it rotates less often than it did under 10.6.8, I noticed. It no longer rotates during "cleaning up" or "looking for backup disk", I believe. Not sure about 10.9 -- I haven't gotten there yet!

You might try opening System Preferences-->Time Machine during a backup and see if the status messages are displayed there (they should be).

Good luck!
 

psammey

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 12, 2014
6
0
Oxford, UK
Status messages are being displayed ok during back-up.
It took me a few attempts to get the instructions right in Terminal (rushing, never a good idea!) so maybe one of my false attempts messed things up.
Next I will restart without symbol being displayed in menu bar and then re-select it.
psammey
 

psammey

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 12, 2014
6
0
Oxford, UK
I partitioned the disk to use for Time Machine back-ups for my MBP as well as my iMac.
Now doing first TM back-up from MBP (also running 10.9.2) via usb2 interface (slow, ~25 GB/hr) menu bar TM icon is not rotating, progress info is being displayed.
Wondering if menu bar icon doesn't rotate during TM backing-up via USB under Mavericks?, I've always used firewire connections in the past.

psammey
 

matrix07

macrumors G3
Jun 24, 2010
8,226
4,891
Wondering if menu bar icon doesn't rotate during TM backing-up via USB under Mavericks?, I've always used firewire connections in the past.

psammey

In Maverick, menu bar icon will not be rotated.
 

reksgwee

macrumors newbie
Mar 30, 2014
1
0
Hey guys, I did an 'inherit' backup with my time machine and now it seems that the back up amount of TM is double of what is required. I suspect that TM did not delete my old back up or continue from last back up. Is there any way to resolve this? It's a total waste of a good 500GB plus of space!
 
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