If I relocate a Backups.backupdb file from one Time Machine drive onto another blank drive, will the Mac simply continue backing up to the volume as normal?

oooh, good question, can’t test it at the moment, im not sure if time machine also identifies the volume of the drive, i’d have to get back on that one, currently not at home

i mean, i could relocate it for you on the fly and test, i started fresh so i don’t care if it gets lost

I’m hoping that the association is simply with the Backups.backupdb file. It would make sense, anyway. If you could, that would be fantastic. :)

from my experience those files are really temperamental! I tried to copy some stuff onto my time capsule and it broke time machine, i had to start backing up all again.

Apple fixed many issues with Time Capsule in their 10.5.3 update, which you can download through Software Update. I’m hoping that this process won’t be nearly as temperamental as a transfer to a Time Capsule.

Did you ever try this? About to give it a go…

i tried, but it wouldn’t copy the complete file, so i haven’t been able to test it

Thanks. I’ll probably do it later when I have more time if there’s the potential for screw-ups.

I had the same issue with iTunes. Moving the library folder meant having to import everything again from scratch, messing up all playlist and “added”-tag info in the process. Almost nobody uses iTunes itself to do this. Select a new location for the Music Library in the prefs, then use “Collect Library Content” (or whatever it’s called in English) from the Advanced menu (dito) and iTunes copies everything by itself, preserving all data.
Has anyone tried anything like this with TimeMachine? Is it at all possible?

Just found the answer on macrumors.com. Don’t copy the file yourself, but let Disk Utility do it for you. Then change drives in the TM prefs pane. It picks up where it left off. See the original thread at http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=394180.