I want to transfer a Time Machine backup

[dbates]

Hi all,

I've got an external drive that currently contains both a SuperDuper and a Time Machine backup on the same partition. The Time Machine backup is nearly filling up the drive, so I want to move that Time Machine backup to its own external hard drive, and leave the current external hard drive for the SuperDuper clone only.

The only way I could think of to do this was to perform a SuperDuper clone of the original external hard drive to the new hard drive, then go into that new hard drive and delete the folders that belong to SuperDuper (Applications, System, Users, etc.). That would in theory leave only the files that belong to Time Machine. Then I would go into the original hard drive, format it to completely wipe it and do a new full SuperDuper clone.

Is this the right method, or is there a more elegant way?

[dnanian]

Well, what I'd do is make the full copy to the new disk ("Backup - all files"). Then, use a blank source (like an empty image) and repeat the copy to the new destination with Smart Update. That'll preserve the Time Machine backup, and get rid of everything else.

[dbates]

Well, what I'd do is make the full copy to the new disk ("Backup - all files"). Then, use a blank source (like an empty image) and repeat the copy to the new destination with Smart Update. That'll preserve the Time Machine backup, and get rid of everything else.

That's what I did, and it seemed to work very well.

Thanks for the tip.

For the record, SuperDuper seems to handle Time Machine well; and it seems a complicated beast.

Darryl

(continuing to be glad he bought, uses and recommends SuperDuper)

[dnanian]

Yeah, copying Time Machine file-by-file is definitely not easy...