[MacAndre]

I am going to get a Time Capsule for my Time Machine backups. Until now I have used an external hard drive connected via USB to my iMac for these backups.

My question is whether it is possible to transfer these backups from the external hard drive to the Time Capsule and continue with my backups on the Time Capsule without starting a complete new backup series.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[rab777hp]

Connect your old drive to your time capsule as a NAS.

[MacAndre]

Thanks for the reply!

However, connecting my old drive as NAS is not really an option since I need the drive for other purposes. I need to transfer the backups to the Time Capsule somehow (if possible).

[rab777hp]

move the sparse bundle image from the drive to the time capsule

[MacAndre]

Thanks again.

But, as someone who does not really know a lot about file systems etc., I am not sure what the "sparse bundle image" is and how to create and then move it.

Also, will this ensure that next time time machine runs, it just adds the next hourly backup to the list of backups?

[rab777hp]

If you go into your external HD in the finder, you will find a file that is a Sparse Disk Image Bundle, ending in .sparsebundle, if you move this file to your TC and change you TM drive in System Preferences to the TC, then you should have all your previous backups in there.

[MacAndre]

I just looked all over my external HD and there is NO file with the ending ".sparsebundle". The main folder on this HD is named "Backups.backupdb"

Just to clarify, my external HD (which is used for Time Machine backups) is attached to my iMac directly via USB.

[rab777hp]

I guess it's automatically mounted then, in which case you can just move the Backups.backupdb folder to the TC.