I just purchased the 2 TB time capsule for backing up my 3 Macbooks. So far it works great and updates all 3 wirelessly throughout the day. However, I cannot seem to figure out how to access all of the backups on the capsule. In other words, I want to be able to get on one computer and access the time capsule where I can see all 3 backups drives or partitions. Also when I did an initial backup for each machine it did not allow me to name them. i.e. Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, etc. So I am not sure how I would differentiate them if they were listed. Am I just missing something or are these things not currently possible to do? Thanks in advance for the help.
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Time Capsule with Multiple Devices
- Thread starter garvatron
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You can use the finder to see the backups. Connect to the TC drive (listed under shared) and you should either see three folders or three sparse images that contain the name of the computer backed up.
From within TM I don't think you can see any other computer's TM backup, especially if they have different users.
From within TM I don't think you can see any other computer's TM backup, especially if they have different users.
As mentioned above you can use Finder to "see" that the backups exist for other machines, but you can't easily browse contents of those backups. If you want to restore data from one machine to a different one, you'll use Migration Assistant - it can find the data on the TC and transfer it over.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
There will be a sparse bundle file for each machine and it will be named the same as the computer name shown in the Sharing pane in System Prefs.
If you option click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar you can select "browse other backup disks" to see the backups for the other machines.
Those sparsebundles are mountable disk images. So you can mount the sparsebundle in Finder and inside you'll find a folder per Machine containing a folder per volume containing timestamped folders per every backup run.
Those folders can be navigated as every other folder tree.
Those folders can be navigated as every other folder tree.
Thanks, guys. Very helpful. Anyone know a way I can rename the sparsebundle files? Right now they are named macintosh.sparsebundle, macintosh(1).sparsebundle and macintosh(2).sparsebundle. Kind of confusing. Would rather name it Macbook Pro Old, Macbook Pro New, Macbook Air. Something like that.