tmutil command to install a new larger Time Machine disk, copying old backups to it My old Time Machine backup drive (external USB) is now almost full. I have purchased a larger drive and want to switch to it for Time Machine, migrating all my old backups to the new drive's archive.
I presume that I start by copying the Time Machine archive from the old backup drive to the new one. Then it seems I need to use tmutil associatedisk but the man terminology is rather confusing. Can someone give me the right parameters? Assume my system drive is called BootDrive, the old TM disk is OldTMDisk, and the new TM disk is NewTMDisk.
The iMac runs OS 10.13 (High Sierra).
First, to migrate the data, the only thing you can use is Finder (in case you are copying using another method). No other application has been able to copy and preserve the folder hard links. Just drag the backups.backupdb folder from the old drive to the new drive.
To associate the disk with your mac, use tmutil setdestination /volumes/NewTMDisk and then tmutil inheritbackup /volumes/NewTMDisk/backups.backupdb/(your mac name). You shouldn't need to use tmutil associatedisk because you have not changed your internal hard disk.