Copying Time Machine Backups to a new disk

[kcchome2]

My Time Machine Backups, formatted as Mac OS Extended case-sensitive with journaling, is outgrowing my 1T Seagate Freeagent external hard disk. I would like to replace it with a 1.5T Seagate Freeagent.

I read that Disk Utility could be used to restore my old Time Machine Backups to the new disk, but I have tried this several times in vain. There was probably no problem during the initial phase of block copying, but the process always aborted with an error message that read, "input/ output error". I had formatted my new disk as Mac OS Extended with journaling. I did not forget to erase the new hard disk. I did not allow my iMac to sleep in case this might have caused the problem. As a last resort, I even tried to copy just the backup folder with "cp -Rp" only to learn that this did not work.

It would be much appreciated if anybody could offer a solution. Many thanks in anticipation.

 

[satcomer]

Open System Preferences->Time Capsule and you will see the Time Capsule will delete old backups to save space. Is this not working or have you got a bigger internal drive it is backing up?

 

[kcchome2]

Thanks to Satcomer. I would like to migrate to a larger external hard disk without losing previous backups as far as possible.

Your suggestion made me wonder if it might be possible to SELECTIVELY delete old backups to create more space?

 

[PeggyD]

I've posted this several times. A search might have found it.

Make sure both drives are connected & then launch Disk Utility. Click on one of the drive names in the left column (the main drive icon, not a sub-icon) & click the Restore tab across the top (far right). Then drag the icon of the older/smaller drive to the Source field & the icon of the new drive to the Destination field & click Restore. I found it worked best with Erase Destination checked, which is not a problem with a brand-new drive. When this is done copying & verifying (at least 2-3 hours!), the new drive will have the same name as the old drive.

Then rename the old drive & then open the Time Machine preferences & make sure it knows to use the new drive

 

[kcchome2]

Memory cannot be allocated

Thanks to Peggy for sharing insights. I thought copying might have failed because the sub-icon was clicked. I followed each step carefully. About 15 hours after onset of block copying, a different error message popped up, "Restore failure: memory cannot be allocated."

Yes, 15 hours. My old Time Machine is 1T and the new one is 1.5T.

What else might I have overlooked? Does it matter when the disk is Mac OS extended (journaled) whereas the partition is case-sensitive in addition? What has gone wrong?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[PeggyD]

Believe it or not, 15 hours does sound about right for a 1 TB to 1.5 TB drive. That's what I did the last time.

Did you erase/reformat the new drive first. I have gotten that error before if I don't erase/reformat the destination drive. Again, also select the main drive name.

 

[kcchome2]

Back to Square One

Thanks to Peggy. I followed the instructions again after erasing and reformatting the new disk in Disk Utility. I selected the main icon of the new disk, clicked restore at the far right upper corner, dragged the sub-icon of old disk to source and that of new disk to destination, and clicked the restore button. Everything went smoothly at the beginning. An error message popped up at least 9 hours later, "Could not restore - input/ output error."

Back to Square One

 

[talmy]

I've done this using SuperDuper! Also, make sure TimeMachine is turned off when performing the move.

 

[kcchome2]

SuperDuper just worked

Thanks to talmy. My problem has been solved.