Am I stuck with Mac OS Extended (Case-Sensitive, Journaled)?

[Auður]

I just got a new external hard drive which I am wanting to use for my Time Machine. My old Time Machine hard drive is formatted to Mac OS Extended (Case-Sensitive, Journaled) but I want both my hard drives (the old and the new) to be Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

When I try to drag the backup folder to the new drive I get the error message 'the volume has the wrong case sensitivity for a backup'. I tried doing this: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18161702#18161702 , but it copied the format as well.

Is there anything I can do, or am I stuck with case-sensitive??

 

[Kaveman]

Reformat the Drive

 

[Auður]

My understanding is that if I reformat it, all the data gets erased. Is that correct? I don't want to lose my back up.

 

[Kaveman]

YES!!! you must copy all the data off it before reformatting.

 

[Auður]

That's where I'm stuck - I have nowhere to copy it. If I try to copy from a case-sensitive drive to a non case-sensitive I get the before-mentioned error message. I only have the two external hard drives. The data I need to keep is 500GB, the inbuilt drive on my computer is 250GB. It seems to me that I am stuck with the case-sensitive formatting. I would love to know if there's anything I'm missing here. Surely there's a way around this?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Kaveman]

No, there is no way around this. How a drive is partitioned is baked right into the partitions.
You need to get another external drive move the stuff off to. Sorry.
Formatting a drive as "case-sensitive" was a very bad mistake, and Disk Utility double checks you really want to do that.

 

[Auður]

Ok. Just to make sure I understand; I need to get a third hard drive to put the data on and that third hard drive would have to be formatted to Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) for the transfer to be possible? So basically, for the data I have on the case-sensitive hard drive, I am stuck with case-sensitive? I will never be able to move it to a non case-sensitive format?

Thanks again.

 

[Kaveman]

The problem is that its a TimeMachine backup, not that the other files won't copy.
You are right, there is no way to move a case sensitive TimeMachine backup to a non-case sensitive drive.
You have to make a fresh backup on a non-case sensitive drive.

 

[Auður]

Ok, I understand. Thanks a lot for your help!

 

[claude van osselt]

Well I have the same problem: my backup has been done on a "Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)" mode. I got my macbook stolen, and bought a new one, which is formatted on a normal mode (Mac OS Extended (Journaled)).
NOW: how can I transfer the UNIQUE AND VERY PRECIOUS content of my backup ext. HD back to my new macbook?

Thxs for answering.
Best, Claude

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. You should be able to use the Migration Assistant to migrate your data from the backup. Have you tried that?

It isn't advised to use case-sensitive formatting, unless you have a very specific need for it and are experienced with its use.

C

 

[claude van osselt]

Hi Cory, well I did not "choose" to format the HD in case-sensitive mode, it was the Time Machine mac software that did that. I wonder now how my old (stolen) macbook's internal HD was formatted, I guess also "case-sensitive". Strange isn't it?

How do you use the Migration Assistant? There is one thing that cannot happen, it is to loose the HD content.

Thanks and best regards,
Claude

 

[honestone]

Hi Cory, well I did not "choose" to format the HD in case-sensitive mode, it was the Time Machine mac software that did that. I wonder now how my old (stolen) macbook's internal HD was formatted, I guess also "case-sensitive". Strange isn't it?

How do you use the Migration Assistant? There is one thing that cannot happen, it is to loose the HD content.

Thanks and best regards,
Claude

To use Migration Assistant:

1. In the Utilities folder within your Applications folder, launch the Migration Assistant program.

2. Next, choose the "device"/partition where you want to migrate the data from.

3. The program will then provide a "chart" showing the number of files, and the amount of space it takes up, for various "higher level" folders.

I actually have used Migration Assistant to "migrate"/copy all the non-Apple stuff from my SuperDuper! backup. It works like a charm! In fact, tomorrow, after performing my normal weekly cleanup/disk maintenance/repairs/backup for both of my machines, I will go through the process of installing OS 10.11.1, the latest version of El Capitan, onto each SSD inside each of my Macs. I will then use Migration Assistant to get all my other stuff I need from the SuperDuper! backup for each machine. Once that is done, I will need to complete 3 more tasks:

1. Use the latest version of TechTool Pro (the El Capitan compatible version, V8.0.3, just came out yesterday) to create the eDrive.

2. Install Onyx V3.1.1.

3. Adjust the mouse tracking speed.

I am confident all that will go smoothly. If I have any "hickups"/issues, I can always revert to the OS 10.10.5 SuperDuper! backup to get back in business.

 

[mr mike]

Hello, I came across this old thread, but I am currently experiencing the same issue. I am trying to transfer 500gb of an old back up drive (case sensitive, journaled) onto a new 5tb drive (journaled, encrypted) and got the same error message above. The new drive already has other backups on it so I do not want to reformat or erase it. Right now I am just dragging and moving files manually. A bit of a pita, but it is working. The only glitch is when I tried to drag the backup files from TM. I ended up just dragging the "Hard Drive" file form the "Latest" backup. Is the only thing I am really loosing the ability to go back in time through time machine on these files? I really don't see a need with these old files, just making sure I have all my old documents, photos, etc. Or am I missing something? Also, is there any good program that will clean up old outdated software and obsolete files that will no longer work with the newer version of Mac OS? I am using Catalina now. There are so many files to sift through and there are so many I have no idea what they are and want to delete them if they are now useless. We are talking about 25-30 years of crap.Thanks for any help.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

Yes, you are stuck with whatever format the drive has until you erase it. You will lose any data on it if you do. The only real solution is to reformat the drive to match what you are copying from. If you only copy some of the folder structure from the Time Machine part of the drive, then you will lose the ability to navigate the backups using Time Machine.

There really isn't any application that will automatically cleanup non-compatible or old applications. When Catalina is installed over an older version of OS X/macOS, it will create folders and move non-compatible applications into them, albeit not all of the installed parts.

-Is the 500 GB backup drive from an older Mac, or the same one you are using that has been updated to Catalina?
-Is there a reason you setup the new 5 TB as (Journaled, Encrypted)?
-Is the 5 TB going to be used to backup the same Mac?

C

 

[mr mike]

Thanks for the reply. The 500 GB is an old WD My Book which has been used to backup multiple computers over the years. The Catalina is on my early 2015 Macbook Air laptop which is the computer I am still using. The 2 new external hard drives are 5 TB WD Passports which came formatted already. We also have an Ipad and 2 Iphones with many photos and videos to back up and we are trying to back up those, the My Book, and Macbook Air twice onto the 2 new drives. As you know, the amount of storage data on each of these new hard drives is 10x more for about half same price I paid when the 500 GB was all the rage!

I started with backing up the laptop, ipad and Iphones before I started with the older My Book and got the error message. I thought I could not really use the old My Book to backup the Catalina MacBook laptop because it was full. However, If I now understand it right now, TM would auto delete older TM backups to make room, and I would still have file copies just not some of the most old copies that were erased, right? I stopped it because I thought I was going to have important files erased with no copies left available and that's when I got the 2 new drives.

In any case, we want the newer smaller portable drives and we will need more room for photos, videos, etc. and we want at least 2 backups. Many of the older backups have obsolete applications. I don't really think that TM will be useful or really needed as long as I can still use doc files, photos, and videos stored. But, If I want to use TM backups that are not that old and be able to navigate them, I need to re-format the 2 new Passport drives to Case Sensitive, Journaled and backup everything again, right? Can it be Case Sensitive, Journaled AND Encrypted if the MY BOOK is not encrypted? I would like to protect the files and encrypt them now if possible. And, I have to keep case sensitive, journaled format for any future backups but is there any chance they will get rid of the formatting in the future? Thanks for helping me understand! It's a bit of a pita but maybe it would be better to reformat and back up everything again as you suggest.

 

[Kwame Midi]

Did you find a solution? I'm having the same issue. Thank you

 

[TonyAguila]

I can’t see anywhere on the thread any mention of the macOS version you are running. I know that even if you formatted a new drive to be used for Time Machine, Time Machine will convert it to Case Sensitive once you designate it for TM. What I’m trying to say is that the choice of case sensitive wasn’t your doing. And case-sensitive for Time Machine is not a problem, but a necessity.

I’m on Big Sur and I was able to convert a Time Machine drive from extended to APFS in situ. It converted the format without erasing the existing data. I don’t know how it will work if your drive is nearly full.

 

[Pasquanel]

Thanks Tony, I just checked my two external drives one of which is 1 TB and it's partitioned for TM and it's case sensitive the other side is not.

 

[TonyAguila]

Case sensitive for a Time Machine drive is okay, but for data, I strongly advise against case-sensitive. It can cause a lot of problems especially with third-party apps that take for granted that filenames are supposed to be case-insensitive. With Time Machine drives, the only app reading from and writing to it will be the TM app itself, which is aware of it.