Mac – faster way to copy time machine files from one disk to another

copy/pastetime-machine

I'm trying to move my time machine backup files all under Backups.backupdb to another drive. I initiated a file copy overnight (b/c I saw that it took OSX forever to prepare for the copy…it basically was counting the files for hours). In the morning I saw that only certain backups(folders with dates) got copied over. I then tried to copy over the ones that didn't get copied…but the OS wouldn't allow me to do that. I got and error that "The operation can’t be completed because backup items can’t be modified." So my plan is to delete the incomplete copy on the new drive and then try to copy over the Backups.backupdb folder again.

Pretty frustrating. Is there a faster way to copy these files via a terminal command so that it doesn't perform all of that file counting prep?

I probably can tar up the entire folder and then do a copy, but will that interfere with any of the file permissions, etc.? The one thing with this approach is that I don't have any more space on my source volume for the tar.

UPDATE

I've tried some of the methods that people have suggested below, specifically using Disk Utility's restore function and it's giving me some error messages and unexpected results (at least to me).
I've tried to do the restore two ways:

  • With "Erase Destination" checked : Each time (I've tried twice), when the restore has finished I see a message "Could not restore – Invalid Operation" and "Could not restore – Invalid Argument". However, my destination disk does get a copy of my TM files. The weird thing is that my destination disk is EXACTLY like my source disk…even the size. My destination disk is actually 1 TB but after the restore, it shows as 200 GB when I get info from the finder. But in Disk Utility, it shows a 1 TB partition!

I then tried to verify/repair the disk and got:

    Invalid B-tree node size
    Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
    Invalid B-tree node size
    Volume repair complete.
    Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
    Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.

Don't know if I'm even suppose to verify/repair a TM disk…

  • With "Erase Destination" UNchecked : The restore never starts and I get:
    Could not restore - Operation not permitted

Best Answer

A normal copy (or copy via rsync or ditto) will not replicate a Time Machine fully as it will convert two directories linked together (as occurs in successive TM backups with no change between) into two separate directories.

The best way is to copy the whole the disk using Disk Utility or the block copy part of Carbon Copy Cloner and probably similar on SuperDuper.

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