Copy over Time Machine backup?

[Intelligent]

How can i copy over a time machine backup? (single folder)
I tried sudo cp but it just stays at "preparing to copy". It's from febrauary and i dont want it to be deleted automatically, i need to keep it for some things but i can't move it or copy it, Please help. mad:

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Tried CarbonCopyCloner (version 3.4.7 is still free and available for download here and works with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion) or SuperDuper! yet to clone/copy that folder onto another HDD, if that is what you want?

 

[Intelligent]

Tried CarbonCopyCloner (version 3.4.7 is still free and available for download here and works with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion) or SuperDuper! yet to clone/copy that folder onto another HDD, if that is what you want?

This is the mavericks section, i dont want to clone a whole HD just a single folder from it.
I want to keep it on the same drive just move it out of backups.backupd so that it doesn't get deleted automatically.

 

[Alrescha]

This is the mavericks section, i dont want to clone a whole HD just a single folder from it.

You should be able to start up the Time Machine interface, choose the folder in question, right-click and tell it where you would like it restored.

A.

 

[Bruno09]

How can i copy over a time machine backup? (single folder)

Why do you not use Time Machine interface ??

Enter Time Machine, select the folder, right-click, "restore to"... Desktop for example.

Sorry if I am missing something.

 

[nebo1ss]

This is the mavericks section, i dont want to clone a whole HD just a single folder from it.
I want to keep it on the same drive just move it out of backups.backupd so that it doesn't get deleted automatically.

You can use Carbon Copy Cloner to do what you are trying to do. It is not restricted to cloning a complete disk you can just copy a Single folder.

 

[Intelligent]

Why do you not use Time Machine interface ??

Enter Time Machine, select the folder, right-click, "restore to"... Desktop for example.

Sorry if I am missing something.

You are missing something, its in the /myharddriveforbackups/backups.backupd/mycomputername/dateforbackup
Thats the one i want to move out, why use the time machine interface for that?

 

[Bruno09]

Sorry, don't understand what you problem is. Good luck.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

You are missing something, its in the /myharddriveforbackups/backups.backupd/mycomputername/dateforbackup
Thats the one i want to move out, why use the time machine interface for that?

You want to copy that specific folder and then delete it from the Time Machine folder? If so CCC and SD! can do that, just deselect the disk and select the specific folder. Copying via Finder sometimes gets you permission troubles, CCC and SD! can circumvent that.

 

[Intelligent]

You want to copy that specific folder and then delete it from the Time Machine folder? If so CCC and SD! can do that, just deselect the disk and select the specific folder. Copying via Finder sometimes gets you permission troubles, CCC and SD! can circumvent that.

Im doing that right now, thanks for the tip. But I'm still a bit skeptical since you couldn't even do that with sudo..

 

[Alrescha]

its in the /myharddriveforbackups/backups.backupd/mycomputername/dateforbackup

I am partial to rsync, e.g.:

rsync -av sourcedirectory destinationdirectory

Will make a copy of the source directory in the specified location. It is incremental, so if it fails or you need to kill it, you can restart it later and it will continue where it left off. If some of the files do not belong to your userid, you can use sudo.

A.

Addendum: you do not want to ever manually delete stuff in the Time Machine directories. You stand a good change of confusing Time Machine. If you feel you must delete something, read the tmutil man page.

 

[Intelligent]

I am partial to rsync, e.g.:

rsync -av sourcedirectory destinationdirectory

Will make a copy of the source directory in the specified location. It is incremental, so if it fails or you need to kill it, you can restart it later and it will continue where it left off. If some of the files do not belong to your userid, you can use sudo.

A.

Addendum: you do not want to ever manually delete stuff in the Time Machine directories. You stand a good change of confusing Time Machine. If you feel you must delete something, read the tmutil man page.

I really dont care about deleting it, i just want to copy it.

 

[whsbuss]

I really dont care about deleting it, i just want to copy it.

Yep and as mentioned, rsync will do exactly that. Give it a try.

 

[Bruno09]

I really dont care about deleting it, i just want to copy it.

I would like to know why you can't use this way :

"Enter Time Machine interface, select the folder, right-click, "restore to"... Desktop for example."

This will copy the folder you select to the destination you choose.

Isn't it what you are looking for ?

 

[Weaselboy]

I would like to know why you can't use this way :

"Enter Time Machine interface, select the folder, right-click, "restore to"... Desktop for example."

This will copy the folder you select to the destination you choose.

Isn't it what you are looking for ?

OP>> Your best option is to do what Bruno has suggested here, except before you restore the folder, just scroll back in time in the TM interface to the date you want then do the right click and restore to business.

The reason doing this outside the TM interface can be troublesome is the files you see in Finder in the backups.backupd folder may not be actual files and folders, but rather hard links to those folders, so copying them with utilities like rsync and others may not always work.

 

[Alrescha]

I believe the OP wants to make a copy of a day's backup, not a backed-up folder.

n.b.: A hard link is not an alias, it is another pointer to the file or folder data, just like the original name is a pointer. It is in every way the actual file or folder, it just has a different name. It is true that Apple is unique in that it allows hard links to folders, and not all software works appropriately with that.

A.

 

[Intelligent]

I believe the OP wants to make a copy of a day's backup, not a backed-up folder.

n.b.: A hard link is not an alias, it is another pointer to the file or folder data, just like the original name is a pointer. It is in every way the actual file or folder, it just has a different name. It is true that Apple is unique in that it allows hard links to folders, and not all software works appropriately with that.

A.

Thanks exactly what i meant, A special days backup!