I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and i can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help

I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and I can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help? I can find the mail folder in my libraries, but the Restore Button is grayed out

OSX treats the reformatted drive as a different one; it's the same as replacing it, and the old one is no longer connected.
See #E3 in  Time Machine - Troubleshooting to see and restore from the "old" drive.
And, you may not want to restore via the Finder; see the blue box in #15 of  Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Similar Messages

  • I am setting up a time machine backup to a external Hard drive.  I want to backup by Mac book Pro running OSX 10.8.5. I would like to Partition the disk and use one partition for Time machine backups and the other for my Lightroom backups. How to do this?

    I want to create a two partition disk. One partition for time machine, the other for Lightroom backup. Currently Time Machine is using the entire drive and it is doing the intial encryption and is about 29% complete after two days.  I've decided that I want to turn encryption off and partition the disk. So I do I start over?

    With the external drive attached, open Finder>Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility.  Select the external drive from the list in the left side panel of the DU window.  In the main window panel, click Partition in the buttons top center of that panel.
    Select the number of partitions you want and adjust their sizes.
    For the first partition, click to highlight the partition, then select the format, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and then the partition table as GUID [both of those are the defaults].  Click Apply and it will ask to confirm and erase and format that partion...oh, give the partition a name, like Backup. 
    Then repeat those steps for the second partition..and remember to name it...something like Lightroom.
    Close Disk Utilitty and you are ready to send TM to the one partition, and do your backup of Lightroom to the second partition.

  • How do I restore all of my itunes content onto my newly installed computer drive? All my purchase are no longer in my account but I did back up the files onto an external hard drive. Now how do I get them back? Please

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    Ummals wrote:
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    Did you follow all the steps as detailed here...
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751

  • Re Time Machine I have an external  hard drive with files I backed up manually over the past 2 years 1TB of memory. I am finally taking the leap to use Time machine to back everything.   will I have to reformat that drive, thus wiping my previous bac

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    With the cost of backup drives under US$100, it might be a better idea in the long run to get another drive. Best results from Time Machine is a drive about 3 times larger than the drive(s) you are backing up.

  • I have an older macbook pro and the hard drive is starting to go (making loud noises). i tried to back up to an external hard drive (my passport essential se) using time machine and the computer keeps shutting down. suggestions to complete backup please?

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    Sounds like you'll need to access that drive while it is not booted. You need to replace it anyway, so do that, then one way or another (ext enclusure, et), access it and copy files.
    If you keep trying to boot it, you might kill it for good and not get your files, so just swap it out first.

  • Time Machine appears to be doing back-ups, but they do not appear on the external hard drive. The last one I can find is June 30.  I did a utility scan of the hard drive disk and it is fine.

    Time Machine appears to be doing back-ups, but they do not appear on the external hard drive. The last one I can find is June 30.  I did a utility scan of the hard drive disk and it is fine. What do I do?

    Click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar. The time of the last backup is shown in the drop down.

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    i got a macbook pro 2008 and can not back up using time machine. it eject my external hard drive everytime. does anybody has a fix???

    Does your external hard drive have it's own power supply?  It should.
    Is your external hard drive formatted with the NTFS file system?  It won't work.
    It needs to be formatted either with Mac OS Extended or FAT32.
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  • Time machine will not backup to empty external hard drive after replacing Mac's internal hard drive and restoring

    First - I live in a tiny fishing village in Belize, so getting support here is virtually non-existent. There is no one else in my village who even uses a Mac. Recently, my hard drive in my 2012 Macbook Pro 13" went bad (said it suffered a "shock"?) and I was traveling to Cozumel, Mexico, so had it replaced there. We used an external hard drive backup to restore the data to it's last time machine backup (October of 2014). Everything was working fine, until I returned home, added some pictures, and wanted to do a fresh backup. Now, time machine will start the backup, but gets about 113,000 of 181,000 done, and it locks up. I can do nothing - everything freezes, and I have to eventually power down the computer. I even tried deleting the old backup from the external hard drive, erasing it completely, and reformatting the external hard drive using disk utility. Still locking up. It is a 5 GB external hard drive, so space shouldn't be an issue, and it was backed up to the same external hard drive previously with no issues. I'm still running Mavericks, and don't want to try to upgrade to Yosemite until I can be sure I have a backup of my old data and pictures. I am a writer, and use that to make my meager living LOL
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    SMH5206 - I tried letting it sit and crank overnight twice. First time I thought it was my error causing it to lock up. Now I know better. I haven't changed any of my time machine settings - and actually never used time machine regularly. Only reason I had a fresh backup from last Oct was because I did one before I upgraded to mavericks. Everything worked fine then - and we used that to restore when the hard drive crashed and was replaced. I have actually deleted hundreds of pictures off my hard drive and one entire user, so it should actually be a much smaller backup - so if it did it before on the same external hard disk, I don't understand why it won't now.  I'm really confused.
    Kahjot - the external hard drive is the same one I backed up to previously - and I have completely erased it and reformatted, and the information I'm backing up now is less, so there should be no reason why it doesn't have enough room now, when there is actually less information on my current hard drive (see my reply to SMH5206). When I plug it in, it says it is a 500.07 GB WD "My Passport"
    I've even tried to have time machine only backup certain files, and not the whole thing. Still locking up.
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  • External Hard Drive isn't being found in Time Machine. Cant back up my mac.

    Just bought a samsung 500gb external hard drive because I need to backup my mac to do a full system reboot because it is completely messed up after downloading the new yosemite update.
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    Select the icon of the drive you want to partition—not any of the volume icons below it—in the Disk Utility window. Select the Partition tab.
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    I am running my first backup on Time Machine using a Seagate external hard drive with a thunderbolt adapter and cable.  I have a MacBook Pro 2011. It is backing up 11GB, and is telling me it will take approx two days. Is this normal?

    Download the supplemental fix to 10.7.5 
    http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1599

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    When using Time Machine, if I delete items from my computer, will they still be backed up to access later on my external hard drive? 
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  • I tried to back-up my music files to an external hard drive when I purchased a new pc. Now  there are no actual files just the folder when I go to move them to the new PC. itunes doesn't bring them up either, just a read-me file listing the songs. What ca

    I think I lost all of my music when I tried to back-up to an external hard drive. I purchased a new PC and when I tried to transfer from the external hard drive to the new PC, the folders where there, but the music files were "empty". I have an itunes library file that lists all the music that I cannot find, but it is a read-me file and will not repopulate the music into itunes. I seriously lost like 70 gigs af music. Does anyone know if there is a way to salvage these files?

    I think I lost all of my music when I tried to back-up to an external hard drive. I purchased a new PC and when I tried to transfer from the external hard drive to the new PC, the folders where there, but the music files were "empty". I have an itunes library file that lists all the music that I cannot find, but it is a read-me file and will not repopulate the music into itunes. I seriously lost like 70 gigs af music. Does anyone know if there is a way to salvage these files?

  • Time machine doesn't see external hard drive on network

    I have a pair of external hard drives connected to my iMac, which is connected to my 2WIRE modem/router via Ethernet. I'm using one of them as a Time Machine drive. For the past couple years, I've been backing up the laptops in the house to that Time Machine drive without fail.
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    I was having a problem with the Time Machine drive and had to wipe and reformat it, but I don't understand why Time Machine won't see the other external drive either, even if there is a problem with the TM drive. I recall Time Machine picking up all available hard drives as possible backup destinations, as long as they're also seen in the Finder.
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    Also, the iMac backs up to the Time Machine drive just fine. Of course, the TM drive is connected to it locally, whereas the laptops have to get to that drive via wireless file sharing.
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    That should say "Now none of the laptops (a MacBook and an iBook) will see either external drive..."  I hate typos.
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  • Time Machine is causing my external hard drive not to be recognized or read

    I have been using Time Machine on my MAC. I don't like it. I now have gone into preferences and stopped it from further backups. Now, I want to restore my Toshiba External Hard Drive and have it backup. When I look into my Macintosh HD, it does not "see" the drive. It doesn't appear in Finder. I am assuming that Time Machine configured it or reformatted it? So, how do I get it "back" from Time Machine? One person commented that this is an issue of formatting my hard drive, but the problem started with Time Machine. Where should I post this question, if not here?
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    I'm guessing that Time Machine hides it from Finder as most users aren't going to want to be mucking around in it. Try opening up Disk Utility and see if you can see it. You can reformat it from there as well.

  • I have downloaded mavericks to my external hard drive, what do I do next to go back to using Mavericks?

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      3. Select the Destination volume from the right side dropdown menu.
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    Because the newly installed drive will most likely have OS X installed you can skip Steps 5-7. You can now continue to use your external backup drive by setting up scheduled backups with CCC. No need to use Time Machine.

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