Hard Drive Erase, Clean Install and Time Machine
I am currently running OS X 10.10.3 and I want to do a clean install. All my content is backed up with Time Machine via external drive.
First, how do I erase my hard drive and install a fresh version of OS X 10.10.3?
Second, is it better to use a USB drive for the clean install or just you the Recovery Mode?
Last, once i finally have a clean installation of OS X 10.10.3, am i able to access my external drive via time machine to bring back some of my old files...i have read that the folder in the external drive is not accessible and not accessible through time machine.
I appreciate the response and guidance!
Hello Jacob,
All of these are good questions to have when erasing and installing OS X Yosemite. To answer your first question you would need to boot to either your Recovery HD or through the Recovery USB and follow the steps in the first article below. Either option will get the task accomplished and will install OS X Yosemite. For your final question about restoring from a Time Machine back up, you will see the option to restore when going through the setup process of your Mac. Let me know if the information below is of help or need further assistance.
OS X Yosemite: Erase and reinstall OS X
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18869
OS X: About Recovery Disk Assistant
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202294
OS X Yosemite: Recover your entire system
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18848
Take it easy,
-Norm G.
Similar Messages
-
After an install of Lion, my secondary internal hard drive used for backup and time machine is not showing on the desktop. Cannot be located with Disk Utility either. Contains vital files! please help...
I have a TB internal drive, but this is what it shows for memory slots:
Memory Slots:
ECC: Enabled
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 1:
Size: 2 GB
Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed: 800 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x0000
Part Number: 0x000000463732353642363145353830304600
Serial Number: 0x00000000
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 2:
Size: 2 GB
Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed: 800 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x0000
Part Number: 0x000000463732353642363145353830304600
Serial Number: 0x00000000
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 1:
Size: 1 GB
Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed: 800 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x80AD
Part Number: 0x48594D5035313241373243503844332D5335
Serial Number: 0x42076007
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 2:
Size: 1 GB
Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed: 800 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x80AD
Part Number: 0x48594D5035313241373243503844332D5335
Serial Number: 0x4207631E
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 3:
Size: Empty
Type: Empty
Speed: Empty
Status: Empty
Manufacturer: Empty
Part Number: Empty
Serial Number: Empty
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 4:
Size: Empty
Type: Empty
Speed: Empty
Status: Empty
Manufacturer: Empty
Part Number: Empty
Serial Number: Empty
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 3:
Size: Empty
Type: Empty
Speed: Empty
Status: Empty
Manufacturer: Empty
Part Number: Empty
Serial Number: Empty
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 4:
Size: Empty
Type: Empty
Speed: Empty
Status: Empty
Manufacturer: Empty
Part Number: Empty
Serial Number: Empty -
well as the title says i have a 500gb hard drive with 2 partitions one with time machine and one for files it worked perefectly until yesterday only the time machine partition appeared in finder, i checked disk utility and both partitions appeared but the one for files appeared in grey and when i press mount an error comes up.
The repair shop likely replaced a major circuit board on your MacBook Pro, so Time Machine thinks that you have a "new" computer and it wants to make a new complete backup of your Mac.
You are going to have to make a decision to either add another new Time Capsule....or USB drive to your existing Time Capsule....and in effect start over with a new backup of your Mac and then move forward again.
For "most" users, I think this is probably the best plan because you preserve all your old backups in case you need them at some point, and you start over again with a new Time Capsule so you have plenty of room for years of new backups.
Or, as you have mentioned, you have the option of erasing the Time Capsule drive and starting all over again. The upside is that you start over and have plenty of room for new backups. The downside is that you lose years of backups.
Another option....trying to manually delete old backups individually....is tricky business....and very time consuming. To get an idea of what is involved here, study this FAQ by Pondini, our resident Time Capsule and Time Machine expert on the Community Support area. In particular, study the pink box.
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/12.html
Once you look through this, I think you may agree that this type of surgery is not for the faint of heart. I would suggest that you consider this only if one of the other options just cannot work for you. -
Clean install and time machine
I'd like to reformat my hard drive and do a clean install of leopard. I've backed up my drive with time machine and I'm wondering if it is possible to recover all my third party applications etc etc including passwords and settings without having to reinstall them all from the original discs?
Hello Jacob,
All of these are good questions to have when erasing and installing OS X Yosemite. To answer your first question you would need to boot to either your Recovery HD or through the Recovery USB and follow the steps in the first article below. Either option will get the task accomplished and will install OS X Yosemite. For your final question about restoring from a Time Machine back up, you will see the option to restore when going through the setup process of your Mac. Let me know if the information below is of help or need further assistance.
OS X Yosemite: Erase and reinstall OS X
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18869
OS X: About Recovery Disk Assistant
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202294
OS X Yosemite: Recover your entire system
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18848
Take it easy,
-Norm G. -
Backup hard drives in two locations and Time Machine
Can I have an external hardrive at work and one at home and have them both be separate locations for Time Machine to backup my laptop? How does Time Machine handle that and what is the procedure to set this up?
Yes, but you must tell Time Machine each time you "swap" drives, via +Time Machine Preferences > Select Disk.+
All you have to do is make sure each is formatted properly. See #5 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum) for instructions.
In this case, it will be a good idea to give them clearly different names, such as "Work Backups" and "Home Backups," so you're sure at any time which one is which.
The first backup to each one will be a full one, so they'll take a while. Thereafter, Time Machine's next backup will include all the changes made since the last backup +*to that disk,+* so each one will be complete. -
Hard drive packed up, but had Time Machine backup. I installed new ssd and upgraded to Mountain Lion, but I can't find iPhoto library and photos or iTunes songs? Is there an answer to this? A backup run did not install either photos or songs. Graham
Thanks so much but none of that helped. It was driving me crazy because it would back up another external drive. I just changed the name of the drive from iPhoto/iTunes Library to Media Libraries and IT WORKED!! I guess for some reason it didn't like the drive being called iPhoto or iTunes ???? I don't understand but I have tried so many solutions and exchanging things out but the name change did it????!!!
Thank you for your help and replying to this. Guess I made my own issue! -
I have two external hard drives. One is my Time Machine backup drive. The other I use for external storage of files (documents, photos, movies, etc). Can I set Time Machine to backup BOTH my Mac hard drive and my other external hard drive?
Yes you can make multiple backups on one hard drive, for example if you’ve 1TB hard drive installed in your PC and you’ve two Mac Machines with 500GB drive each then you just make two backup images with size of 500GB each.
http://www.halfspot.com/use-your-pc-hard-drive-for-time-machine-backup/ -
I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down menu with the gear box symbol to eliminate
I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots. Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
See Pondini's page for more explanation: What are Local Snapshots? http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.
The local TimeMachine snapshot probably now contains a backup of the moved library. Try, if connecting your Time Machine drive will reduce the size of your local Time Machine snapshots. -
I have an IMac with an external hard drive set up as a Time Machine for automatic backups. I want to add a second external hard drive and load my Aperture Photo Library on to it so that the library can be shared by both me and my wife. Is there a way to automatically backup the photo library that will be on the second hard drive to the Time Machine hard drive?
Open System Preference > Time Machine
Click Options....
Ckick on external disk in list and hit the - button below the list to remove from the Exclusion list
Allan -
Can I encrypt a USB hard drive that's not for time machine?
can I encrypt a USB hard drive that's not for time machine?
Yes, if it has the GUID Partition Map Scheme, but only by erasing it and choosing a new format.
See #2 in Using Disk Utility. -
working in adobe illustrator - computer crashed - will not soft boot or reset PRAM - should i reinstall from CD snow leopard 10.6.3? I have an extra hard drive in my MAC with time machine on it set to do auto back ups. How do i recover ?
Well first you have to figure out what is wrong with the machine and solve that problem first.
Your post is very vague on what occured, and there are many types of "crashes" it really depends upon what see on the screen and what the hardware does, we can't see it to tell you, so you have to tell us.
I suggest you run through these user tips and provide more information about your hardware.
Disconnect the TimeMachine drive for now
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
Help us to help you on these forums
Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
If this is going way over your head, there are local PC/Mac techs that will assist you for a fee, Apple only does hardware repairs and is advised to use them if you discover it is, especially if under warranty/AppleCare.
Hard drive and RAM upgrades can be handled yourself or by a outside tech in many older models of Mac, but don't expect Apple to cover the new parts.
Install/upgrade RAM or storage drive in Mac's -
LaCie d2 500GB Quadra Hard Drive Not Being Seen By Time Machine
Hello all,
I have a LaCie d2 500GB Quadra Hard Drive Not being seen by Time Machine hooked up to my iMac via firewire 800. My iMac is running latest updates etc. Have raised a support ticket and was given the following instructions by LaCie:
Posted: 08 November 2007 @ 00:00
Thank you for contacting LaCie Technical Support. Make sure the drive is mounting and you can assess files on it on your 10.5 system. If you can then you will need to reformat the drive to make it compatible with time machine.
Warning! All data on the external drive will be destroyed in this process.
Step 1: Run Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
Step 2: Click on the LaCie hard drive's 'physical' entry, usually the third entry in the list
Step 3: Click on the Partition tab
Step 4: Change 'Current Scheme' to '1 Partition'
Step 5: Change the name of the drive back to what you would like it to be
Step 6: The format needs to be Mac OS Extended, with or without journaling
Step 7: Click on the Options... button
Use "Apple Partition Map" partition scheme on a PowerPC-based Mac.
Use "GUID" partition scheme on an Intel-based Mac.
Step 8: Click on OK
Step 9: Click on Apply
Step 10: click on Erase at the bottom of the screen, then confirm the erase.
The drive should start to be reformatted which should take only a few seconds and show up on the desktop with a new icon. Once it has you can then use it with time machine.
I have done all of the above and it is still not being seen. Anyone had a similar issue or got the above to actually work?
Thanks in advance!!!!Ryan,
Check drive volume name and also the Computer name. Apple released a tech note recommending that both be limited to only the characters A-Za-z0-9 (no dashes, hyphens, or other special characters.
If you can, send the Apple System Profiler report to me at the addres in my profile. Imay be able to see something there. I have helped another user with similar problems, but with a LaCie USB drive. He got things working by repeating the recommended steps, and double checking everything.
As others have rported, this should work, so there may be something else preventing proper operation.
If the drive is usable from Finder, but Time Machine cannot use it, there is something related in how Time Machine is viewing the drive.
Mike -
On imac 10.6.8 using current version of Aperture. How can I access the Aperture Library on my external hard drive that I use with time machine for backup? I can only access the application but not the library..
Go into Time Machine (the program not the bundle on the extrnal disk) and using Time Machine's browser go to the Folder where the library lives. You could look in the library bundle in Time Machine but that won't really tell you much,
If you want to make sure it truely has backed up your library you will need to restore it and open the restored library with Aperture.
If all this still has you confused you need to read up on Time Machine in order to get a feel for how it works, for what it is doing and for how to restore files from it. -
I want to know about time machine if i can use the hard drive that i use for time machine back up as a normal hard drive too or if it's only for time machine
and if it yes i want to know if i have 1TB hard disk to use the 500gb for time machine and the other 500gb for normal usethank you very much because i am considering to buy the porsche design hard disk 1TB and i want to have it for normal use and for time machine is a pitty to give 1TB for back up only again thanks and i know seperate the back and the working jobs are better but the i have to have 2 hardisks and i want only 1
-
Can you unplug the external hard drive you are using for time machine
can you unplug the external hard drive you are using for time machine and then plug it back in and it work normals because i have a mac book and don't want to always be carrieing the external hard drive every where i go so can you ?
Yes, that will work fine. It will back up normally once you plug it in again. I do this with my MacBook.
Maybe you are looking for
-
Possible to set it so you can't delete a specific folder and contents...
Hello. I'm wondering if anyone knows a way I can set a folder so that a user can't delete the folder (and thus, the contents by deleting that folder). But, at the same time, I want them to be able to manage the items within the folder (ie. can delete
-
I bought a game on one Ipad, I added another I pad tried to sinc it with the other, all was good until I tried to play one game on the snd I pad and after the second level was asked tp buy the full version that I have on the other Ipad... can somebod
-
Hi All, While configuring Router we are facing an issue attached. please help me where to recity this dump. Thanks in advance... Regards, Krishna.M
-
How do I uninstall iTunes beta?
I have iTunes beta on my iPad and it's really bad. How can I return to normal itunes?
-
HELP WHY can't i change the civility in itunes store always said that there is an error, WHY can't i change the civility in itunes store always said that there is an error