Can't transfer user via time machine

I had installed leopard on oct 26. everthing ok. So I get a 250gig internal drive and reinstall leopard. After the welcome screen it gives me an option to recover via time machine and I select that option. It gets to "Transferring files to suport applications" & "Less then one minutes remaining" and sits there for hours. I started last night at 9:00pm and went to bed it now 6:30am and its at the same point. So, I rebooted and started again. It moved the current downloaded user info to deleted users folder and started again. Its now 9:21am and it has been sitting at the same point again "Transferring files to suport applications" & "Less then one minutes remaining". Has anyone successfully recoverd user info via time machine? If so, what am I doing wrong? I really need my system back!
Thanks in advance for your input,

just didn't use time machine

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Can you transfer files using Time Machine back-up to a new computer?

I have an early 2006 iMac and would like to get a new one. Would I be able to copy the files that I want moved to the new computer by using my Time Machine back-up? I would only want to transfer a handful of items including my iTunes and iPhoto libraries as well as my iWork files.

You most certainly can. What you want to do is to go to System Preferences>Time Machine>Advanced> and exclude everything except the files you want to bring over. Then, plug the Time Machine Backup into the new machine and use Setup Assistant; It'll walk you through the rest.
Move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support

Can I switch users during time machine backup?

I have a laptop with multiple users.
I am trying to do a Time Machine back-up using a fire-wire connected western digital drive.
Either because I had not backed up in a few weeks, or had updated to 10.7.2, I am not sure, but when I connected the drive to do a backup Time Machine started doing a deep scan.
The preparing phase took several (over 5) hours before the backup would start, but it finally did begin backing up.
It is trying to back up 8 GB of files and is taking a very long time. It backed up 1.5 of 8 GB over the course of the entire day.
Then my kids came home from school and switched to their users.
Looking at the logs, it looks like the backup got canceled when we switched users.
After switching back to the admin user, I am back to the preparing phase again.
I thought you could log out, swtich users etc with Time Machine.
Can someone explain this behavior to me?
Thank you

I just wanted to update all after my experieces:
Time Machine was not the problem. The problem was a defective WD external firewire drive (WD Green drive) which has since been replaced under warantee. Thank you WD for your comiitment.
Whenever I used this drive, I could hear it chugging and chugging away during mount and whenever I was accessing the drive.
I finally checked the drive (WD My Book) with DISK WARRIOR and the thing was toast. Tons of unrepairable hardware errors.
Thankfully the drive was under warantee and after receiving a replacement from WD (no issues with RMA replacement process, kudos to WD) have had ZERO issues with time machine and the replacement drive.
Initial 1st time- time machine backup was ~ 5 hours. (~120 GB of info). (I added the drive to spotlight 'do not index' prefs prior to setting up time machine.)
-This was a HUGE time difference. My prior initial backup with the defective drive was 3 DAYS, yes, DAYS.
If you are having these kind of problems, check you drive with Disk Warrior (Disk Utitlty does not cut it). If Disk Warrior reports problems, it is a hassle, but replace the drive.
Good luck. Karma +1

How to restore particular pictures in iphoto backed up via time machine

cant we open an app like iphoto via time machine for a particular date ??
like i want a pic that i deleted from iphoto , how can i do that without restoring full iphoto library???

As AnaMusic said, iPhoto library can't be opened via Time Machine to restore photos separately, so you will have to restore the whole iPhoto library.
1. If you don't want to lose changes made after your last backup, copy the iPhoto library, that it's on Pictures folder, to another folder.
2. Open Finder, select Pictures in the sidebar and open Time Machine.
3. Navigate through the backups, select the iPhoto library you want to restore and press Restore.
4. Double-click the iPhoto library to open it on iPhoto.
5. Drag the photos you want to transfer to your "existing" iPhoto library to the Desktop. You can select more than one pressing Command key.
6. Delete the "restored" iPhoto library on Pictures folder and copy the "existing" iPhoto library to Pictures folder again.
7. Open iPhoto and drag the photos on the Desktop to iPhoto, so the photos will be on the iPhoto library.
If you have any problem restoring the iPhoto library, see > http://pondini.org/TM/E9.html

My 5 year old iMac's hard drive is at the point of failing. I'm trying to save al files on it, but it wont allow backup via Time Machine to an external hard drive. How can I keep from losing all the files and programs if the hard drive fails?

I'm concerned that my iMac, purchased 5 years ago, is about the crash and I can't back up my files and programs to an external hard drive via Time Machine because the computer freezes after only a couple hundred MB and gets nowhere near the required amount.
How can I save these files and programs if the computer hard drive fails or has to be replaced without the backup being able to be done? I need to do something quickly, but I'm not sure what I can or should be doing.

Get an external hard drive, some good ones that I like are the OWC, http://www.macsales.com Mercury Elite Pro drives...they are very good and reasonably priced.
Get the drive, connect via USB or FireWire, then use Disk Utility to format the new drive as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), and then use Disk Utility to Restore the current drive to the new drive. Restore actually clones the drive so you will have a bootable backup on the external drive.
After you have formatted and named the external drive, click Restore in the main Disk Utility window, drag the name of the old hard drive to the Source box, and drag the name of the new external drive to the Destination box. DU will make an exact clone of the internal drive on the external drive.
That clone will be a complete backup of the operating system and all of your data.
You can test it by restarting the iMac and hold the Option key. That will give you a grey screen showing all bootable drives. Just click the external drive, then click the upward pointing arrow under it and the iMac will boot from that drive.

Unable to back up external hard drive via Time Machine. Says no room but has back ups from two previous Mac notebooks on it. Tried deleting them and now can't do anything. Any ideas?

Unable to back up external hard drive via Time Machine. Says no room but has back ups from two previous Mac notebooks on it. Tried deleting them and now can't do anything. Any ideas?

As john noted, eventually that external is probably not going to be big enough, but it certainly is for now. The HD just needs enough capacity to cover the amount of data on your internal HD, not the internal HD's total capacity.
Format/partition the external as follows and you should be set to go:
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4. Click on the Erase tab.
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NOTE: if you want to zero the HD (which I always think is a good idea, but does take time), click on Security Options, click the button for Zero Out Data, click OK. The larger the HD, the longer this will take, in some cases several hours.
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8. Click on Volume Scheme: and choose the number of partitions (just one in this situation).
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11. Quit Disk Utility.
Backup your internal to the external. What application are you using to backup with? I highly recommend both SuperDuper! and CarbonCopyCloner.

Blurb Book in Lightroom 5 on my Mac disappeared after 3 days of work. Where can I find a backed up copy via Time Machine or anywhere else?

Blurb Book in Lightroom 5 on my Mac disappeared after 3 days of work. Where can I find a backed up copy via Time Machine or anywhere else?

Welcome to the WD Community.
1) I assume I can just hook the unit up via USB to my Mac and use iPartiion to reformat the drives, assuming each of the 4T drives will be seen by iPartition as a separate drive. That much seems straighforward.
Yes, and in case you ipartition dont see the unit properly, you can use the disk utilities on your Mac and you will be able to reformat the unit to make it compatible with your system.
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3) What about the firmware update for Mac - when should I run that??
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That procedure is for the network units, not for your drive.

Can you stop a transfer from a Time Machine backup?

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Yes, but the transfer is likely to be corrupted and should not be relied upon. I recommend erasing what was transferred.

Just got new macbook pro (13inch) and restored all data from old mac via time machine. Now whenAudio drop out for 3-4 secs every 10 - 15 secs!! What is going on and what can I do?

Just got brand new macbook pro (13inch) and restored all data from old mac via time machine. Now when I p/back a track in logic I get audio drop out for 3-4 secs every 10 - 15 secs!! What is going on and what can I do? Its the same version of logic and all other functions seem fine!

First of all, why did you say yes to Nero Back up before researching what it does with files already on the HDD? When I install Nero, the Back Up is the first thing I disable, it is a nagging pain, there are much better backup programs available. There are several file recovery programs out there to recover deleted files, that is, if that is what happened. Also, if you haven't overwritten the files, so you should be able to find them.

How can I restore my iTunes library via Time Machine after an erase/install and upgrade to Snow Leopard?

Actual problem:
I reinstalled all my programs that I need without a hitch. Meanwhile, I've been trying to recover the few files (mostly music) I actually store on my computer's hard drive as opposed to on my external HDs. I use one external HD for my graphic files and the other is strictly for Time Machine backups. I tried to recover my iTunes music, but I got a message that says: "The file: "iTunes Library.itl" cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes." I restored (I thought) my iTunes library Username/Music/iTunes." Additionally, I was going to upgrade to Mountain Lion, but I have seen that there were issues with Lion and iTunes libraries so I'm a little wary of this.
Excuse the long explanation, but I figure the problem may possibly be in the details of the weeks prior this problem:
I have recently been having issues with my iMac. I brought it in to see a Genius twice within the past month and they couldn't seem to find the problem. (It would restart Finder of it's own accord while I was using Adobe CS programs) I figured it was worth backing everything up via Time Machine and doing a complete erase/install/factory reset. I did so and had a problem again, and brought it in again, third time. The Genius did another diagnostics tests and found nothing and said my erase/install probably did the trick, but time will tell. I am, after the erase/rewrite and upgrade running Mac OS X 10.6.3 and previous to this was still running Tiger.

So, I didn't update iTunes and the rest of it after installing Snow Leopard. My stupidity, I figured that the OS was more up to date than the one I had previously so that all the programs that come with it probably were more current than the ones I was using. However, now that I have updated all my software, I am still getting the same message from iTunes that I was previously. I cannot open iTunes at all, same "The file: "iTunes Library.itl" cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes." message. I'm confused again. Checked a few other threads and whatnot and cannot seem to figure this out.

Can I upload from my MacBook to an eMac via Time Machine?

Can I upload my MacBook Time Machine to a (newly acquired) eMac... and if so how? (my Time Machine is on a USB 2.0)
My MacBook runs 10.5.8 Leopard and the
eMac specs:
Mac OS X version Tiger. Power PC G4 1.42GHz processor, minimum of 256 mb DDR PC 3200 memory(ram), 80 GB hard drive, CD-RW/DVD ROM combination drive, 64 mb ATI Raedon 9600 video card, 3 usb 2.0 ports, 2 firewire ports, built-in modem, built-in ethernet port for high speed internet, headphone jack, audio line-in jack, video output port.
Now I already know that I have to max out my RAM prior to running Leopard 10.5 and I know that the eMac cannot run Snow Leopard. While I am not totally new to Mac, I am new to upgrading an older Mac.
Please help me...
Thanx in advance,
L

Yes, you need to purchase a retail copy of Leopard, on a disc. It's not available in stores anymore; but AppleCare still has it, for the original price of $129.
You may find some on eBay or other places; most are charging more, but if you find one for less, be sure it's a Retail (black) disc; the gray ones that came with Macs are specific to that model and build period; they won't work on your eMac.

Can't fully restore my Time Machine/Time Capsule Backup to my newly-wiped SSD/HDD

On receiving my leased, Bootcamp-enabled MacBook Pro, I saw that there were no installation discs for Windows or OSX, and that there were 2 partitions (or so I thought) for Mac and Windows: 375GB each. As I produce music using software in both OSs, I wanted to create a 185GB FAT-32 partition to store my sound samples, projects etc. I attempted to create this partition by resizing (halving) my Bootcamp partition in OSX Disc Utility. The first time I attempted it, resizing was possible, but after the new partition was created, I had problems booting and so had to edit my GPT in order to boot again. Once ‘fixed,’ (by deleting the new partition) I couldn’t resize the Bootcamp partition to fill the 185GB gap, and that 185GB was ‘lost.’ The Bootcamp partition was 375GB but its used space + free space added up to 190GB
So the other day, I tried to follow what I thought was a more logical approach, which I was *sure* would work. My plan was to:
Use Windows Backup (and/or Clonezilla, or Disk Utility) to store an image of my Windows partition.
Uninstall/wipe the Windows partition using BootCamp Assistant, creating 1 big OSX partition
Use BootCamp Assistant to re-partition the HDD for Windows, OSX and ‘shared,’ and then re-install Windows, leaving 175GB for shared music production files
Restore the image/backups (approx 70GB) and carry on as before.
During the process, I deemed that this wasn't possible on my system for a variety of reasons: My laptop already had 4 partitions (Windows Recovery, Bootcamp/Windows, Mac Recovery HD, and Mac) and my understanding is that the MBR of my SSD only supports 4 partitions in its Bootcamp + OSX-compatible state. I have never got this '5 partition' strategy working.
I was unable to restore my Windows partition after re-installing Windows via Bootcamp. As a solution, I then decided to wipe the OSX partition (at that point the only 'visible' partition on the disk) and in-place re-install Mac OS X, with a view to installing Windows after OSX.
Once I wiped my hard drive, however, restoring my files and settings, didn't work as expected. Time Machine backups etc were inaccessible after a normal re-install. Re-installing with file transfer at setup froze at the 10% mark, with an estimated 200 hrs to go. The option to try a full-system restore via Time Machine is greyed-out. Even the Migration Assistant failed at a similar point. On the occasions where it claimed to complete successful (most recent situation) it seemed to neglect files, etc., and I'm now stuck at this stage.
I can view files/backups in Time Machine but I can't completely restore my computer to the state it was on 18th May...and 11 days without a fully-functioning laptop is really annoying. I wasn't able to ‘clean’ *or* ‘in-place’ re-install OSX using my existing settings and so I'm frustrated that Time Machine isn't a flawless backup & restore process. Migration Assistant didn’t transfer everything. Can I get things back to the way they were?
Things that haven’t restored correctly:
None of my icon customisations at the top of the screen were there (DropBox, Evernote, Google Drive, Kuvva, the way battery icon was displayed
Safari: Top Sites, History, Plugins
Logic Pro: Downloaded sounds, presets (10+GB), recent items, plugin settings/AU manager
Mail: Settings (and I’m assuming, the downloaded/cached mail: 7GB)
Trash can: Empty
All recent item lists apart from cloud-based services like Evernote, Notes, contacts
iTunes library
Dock view and settings
Settings for most programs
And I'm sure there are more!

Thanks Pondini; I'd hoped you'd reply. I'm still getting used to this tech, no can't even quote here.
Pondini wrote:
AkaraE wrote:
Time Machine backups etc were inaccessible after a normal re-install.
If you mean you installed OSX and created a user account, then couldn't find the backups, that's because they're treated as being from a different disk, until you either transfer your data or do a manual "associatedisk". See the blue box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #19 for details.
Yet to try the associatedisk...didn't realise this was possible until reading your guides. The explanation makes sense now. On installing OSX it said transfers were possible after installation, so I put off transferring as the first 'restore' had frozen on 10%, thinking I'd do it afterwards.
Re-installing with file transfer at setup froze at the 10% mark, with an estimated 200 hrs to go
That sounds like damaged/corrupted backups. Try to Repair them, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
Yet to try...didn't realise this was possible until reading your guides
The option to try a full-system restore via Time Machine is greyed-out.
You mean, on the Mac OS X Utilities menu on the Recovery HD? I've never heard of that. That should always be selectable, so you can specify where the backups you want are located. Nothing happens when you click it? Can you click the other options there?
Even the Migration Assistant failed at a similar point. On the occasions where it claimed to complete successful (most recent situation) it seemed to neglect files, etc., and I'm now stuck at this stage.
Also sounds like directory or file problems on the backups.
This is just when I go into Time Machine/Star Wars. I can't just go to the latest backup and click "Restore" (which I assume would just restore my whole computer/HDD, although I have no experience in this). I can only select files and restore them individually.
Time Machine isn't a flawless backup & restore process.
There has never been any such thing.
I bought into the Time Machine 'hype' and thought it was an easy and reliable tool, but was a lot more difficult to do a full restore than I thought.
Trash can: Empty
Correct. Time Machine (like most backup apps) don't back up trash.
All the rest should have been backed-up and restored. Do you see them in the backups? What, if anything, was excluded from being backed-up?
As a non-native Mac user, I'm not sure where all these things are stored...perhaps in Library? I think that not having the full hard-drive just restore annoyed me...I felt that backing up my whole hard drive every hour should've allowed me to restore everything to as it was without a hitch, and when it didn't work I just tried a few things before posting on here.
If repairing the backups finds and fixes things, you might want to try again.
Gonna try now
If not, and if you can see the missing items via the Time Machine browser (the "Star Wars" display), you should be able to restore them selectively.

How can I delete all the Time Machine backups to make room for more? And how do I force the trash to empty?

I moved a bunch of my husband's files from his Macbook (which is dieing) to my iMac. I created a user for him on my iMac so he'd be able to keep his stuff separate from mine. All is working great except my Time Machine is now unable to backup. The total of used space on my hard drive (including the recently added user's files) is about 420 GB. The amount of capacity of my external hard drive is 999GB. I think Time Machine failed because there was all of a sudden so much more data and a new full backup would be more than the unused capacity of the HD? Regardless I don't need any old backups. I have all my files and all his files. So I moved all the backups from the external HD to the trash. Apparently that's a no no. I can't fully empty the trash now and that is making my iMac crazy slow.
1) Can anyone tell me how to force the trash to empty?
2) Is there a way to delete the whole external HD and start over with a new full backup via Time Machine? In Disk Utility I try to erase the partition and get an error "Volume Erase failed with the error: Couldn't unmount disk." Then I try to Unmount it and get another "Unmount failed. The disk Backup iOmega could not be unmounted. Make sure that all applications and files are closed on this disk." I turned off Time Machine and tried again but with the same errors.
The external HD is called iOmega. It only connects to the iMac with USB. Any help is much appreciated!!!!

Try this instead:
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. Select the backup volume from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
4. Click on the Erase button.
You will need to reconfigure Time Machine preferences for the backup.
FYI: Never remove Time Machine backup data except through the Time Machine application. If you aren't sure about using Time Machine then visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things related to Time Machine.

HT201250 old data transferred to new computer via time machine, is external hard drive still usable

I set up my new macbook from an old macbook via time machine and an external WD Harddrive.
The setup partitioned my macbook to two user id's, now I need to back up.
The old user id is backing up everything again and the new user id wants to create a new backup to my WD Harddrive like it is not used.
I don't believe that my WD was partitioned.
Help! How can I continue using my WD and backup both user id information without losing anything?

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
When you turn on the new iMac for the first time, Setup Assistant will ask you to restore a backup, so connect the external disk and follow steps to restore all your files to your new iMac. Your new Mac will have the same settings and programs as your old computer.
In other cases, I would recommend to restore the whole backup without using Migration Assistant or Setup Assistant, but a Late 2012 iMac uses a special OS X build, so the OS X version that you're using on your old Mac won't work on the new one. For more information, see > http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

HT4889 Transferred files via time machine and not log in password will not allow me to log in

I have a new MacBook pro, I transferred files via time machine and a removable hard drive. Now new MacBook does not recognize the log in password. What can I do to reset the password?

Did you migrate when you first booted up in Setup Assistant or did you migrate later? When you migrate later it can create a second account, check in Mac HD/Users to see if this is the situation.

Can't transfer user via time machine

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