[drdocument]

I would like to be able to move my Time Machine backups to a new drive so as to maintain one-click Time Machine access to all those older backups and free up the previous drive for other uses. Any ideas how to do this?

Simply copying with Finder will not maintain the links. Right now the only way to keep those older backups is to keep the older backup drive.

This would be very helpful for those needing to move to a larger drive or change drives for other reasons.

[kestevens]

I just did this so I know it works. I used SuperDuper by Shirt Pocket Software to clone the
Time Machine data to the new drive. Works fine.

[drdocument]

Thanks very much!

Any particular limitations or cautionary advice? Particular settings to be used?

For example, do the old and new drives have to have the same name?

Can SuperDuper clone only the backupdb directory and not the entire drive?

Would you be willing to share step-by-step how you did it?

[kestevens]

My time machine drive had failed, luckily I had a backup titled Time Machine Backup.
I bought a new drive simply told Super Duper to copy the Time Machine Backup to my
new drive which I named Time Machine (Real original). Both were USB2 drives so it took awhile,
4+ hours for 90G of data. My computer recognized the new drive as a Time Machine disk
right away. If it doesn't you might have to use the Change Disk in Time Machine
Preferences.

I think Super Duper only works to clone the disk and doesn't copy just the backup
directory, at least not easily.

Ken

[rayene]

Hello,
Does anyone know how to migrate time machine backups from OldDrive to NewDrive when OldDrive's size is greater than NewDrive's ?


I just bought a new drive to use it just for time machine and it would be great if I don't lose my "History" :)
Rayene