Restore Time Machine backup to another Mac

If I use time machine to backup my Macbook Pro to an external hard drive, then lose my Macbook Pro, can I restore my data to another Mac? Does anyone know the answer

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/timemachine.html
But every indication is that simply starting off the Leopard disk will ask you, if the device (backup) is hooked to the computer.

Similar Messages

  • Access my Time Machine backup with another Mac?

    The HD on my 24" iMac just bit the dust and I am using my old eMac to try to get some work done while I wait for another. Fortunately, I have a Time Machine backup. Is it okay to access files off my Time Machine backup with my eMac, as long as I don't change anything? I don't want to mess up my backup before I can restore it to my new Mac.
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    Should be, if the eMac is running 10.5.x be sure to turn off TM backups though.

  • Time Machine backup to another Mac on the network

    Hi, my wife is getting a new iMac. I was wondering if I partitioned the new drive in the iMac, one for the iMac OS X installation & the other for backing up my MacBook Pro over the network. Would this work?
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    Check out this article:
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    hello,
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  • Time machine backup to another mac

    Hi,
    Here's my config : I have a mini that has a drive attached locally for TM use. I use it to back up the mini, but also a MacBook. It works mostly fine. The only problem I have is that it seems that to backup my macbook I have to browse in the finder to the mini, and even to the TM drive, otherwise TM does not see the drive attached to the other mac.
    Is TM so dumb he cannot remember a network location and try to connect to it ? Or maybe he tried when I was away from home (or after a sleep/restart), and decided to give up after a few attempts, awaiting manual mapping of the drive ?
    Is this a bug ?

    I also have a Mac Mini that I use as a "file server" for the house. The Mini uses TM to back up to one of its attached drives. I also have two laptop macs on the same home network and each uses TM to back up to a drive attached to the Mini. (I.e., The mini has three external, attached drives that are dedicated to each of the three Macs in the house.)
    My laptop moves between home and work. At work I configure TM to back up to a portable, attached drive. When I get home, I reconfigure TM to use the remote drive on the Mini. However, to do this, I must first use Finder to reach the Mini and log in, thus getting the mounted drive to appear on the desktop. Then I select the Mini's volume (drive) that is used as the TM backup drive for the laptop. This is the only way I can get that drive to show up in TM's preferences "Change Disk" window in order to redefine the TM backup drive. TM doesn't "remember" that drive, since it can only remember one destination drive at a time.
    HOWEVER, once I've defined the Mini's drive as the destination, I can eject the drive from the laptop's desktop. When TM does its hourly backup, it automatically connects to the sparsebundle file on the Mini's drive that is used as the destination. As long as I don't redefine the destination drive, TM finds the remote drive.

  • Mac Mini late 2012 Failed to Restore Time Machine Backup

    Try to restore time machine backup to my mac mini. I have made backup right after I got the machine from apple. Now due to some reason I am trying to restore it but failing again and again. Error is something like this:
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    Yes same. When I try booting MBP with same usb it goes to recovery menu, (one which comes when you press Cmd+R) I think my MBP is running mavricks thats why it dont go to 10.8 setup. Further when I select same usb in mac mini it shows following screen.
    Content of USB are:

  • Restoring a time machine backup from a Mac mini to a new Mac mini server

    Hi,
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    This is a bit of a guess... But I Imagine you would have to start with the workstation OS install DVD first, and go from there at the appropriate point. Any chance you have or could make a CCC backup instead? I am assuming you could boot a mini server from a backup of mini non-server. Then you could copy it over. This is probably worth a phone call to Apple TAC

  • Restoring time machine on a different mac

    I'm trying to help a friend. Hi macbookpro died. He can't afford a new one right now, but has an old g4 cube. So now he wants to move the data from the dead laptop to the old g4. Fortunately he ran Time Machine backups to an external firewire drive. So I thought it would be easy enough for me to restore this data for him in a format the g4 could read, but so far no luck.
    My first thought was to use migration assistant to copy the accounts from his time machine backup to my mac. But when I select to use Time machine backup or another attached disk, it does not see his time machine backups!
    So then I thought, I'll just use the OS install disks to restore his backup to an extra disk I had hanging around. When I do this it lists his disk as containing a Time Machine backup, but when I select it it tells me that no osx system backups found.
    So now I'm not sure what to do. Perhaps he does not have a proper time machine backup (although apparently when he plugged the disk into his laptop he just selected the default which is to use it for a time machine backup.
    There is a directory on the disk called Backups.backupdb which appears to contain his backups, but most of the stuff there is just links.
    He also used this disk to backup files from his g4 (simple drag and drop),
    could this somehow effect the time machine backups?
    Any idea how to get the data out of his time machine backup - or confirm weather or not it is actually there?
    I'm no familiar with time machine - I usually run 10.4, just installed 10.5 on a spare disk to try and help him out.
    Thanks

    dknightd wrote:
    I'm trying to help a friend. Hi macbookpro died. He can't afford a new one right now, but has an old g4 cube. So now he wants to move the data from the dead laptop to the old g4. Fortunately he ran Time Machine backups to an external firewire drive. So I thought it would be easy enough for me to restore this data for him in a format the g4 could read, but so far no luck.
    My first thought was to use migration assistant to copy the accounts from his time machine backup to my mac. But when I select to use Time machine backup or another attached disk, it does not see his time machine backups!
    So then I thought, I'll just use the OS install disks to restore his backup to an extra disk I had hanging around. When I do this it lists his disk as containing a Time Machine backup, but when I select it it tells me that no osx system backups found.
    It sounds like he may have excluded system files from backups.
    don't use Full system restore to restore backups from one computer to a different one, especially if one computer is intel and another one a PPC. that will not work.
    So now I'm not sure what to do. Perhaps he does not have a proper time machine backup (although apparently when he plugged the disk into his laptop he just selected the default which is to use it for a time machine backup.
    There is a directory on the disk called Backups.backupdb which appears to contain his backups, but most of the stuff there is just links.
    links? do you mean they look like alaises? that means that you are looking at it from a Tiger machine. You shouldn't. whatever migration option you are using you should migrate to a leopard one.
    He also used this disk to backup files from his g4 (simple drag and drop),
    could this somehow effect the time machine backups?
    no, that shouldn't matter.
    Any idea how to get the data out of his time machine backup - or confirm weather or not it is actually there?
    as I mentioned you should look at the drive from a leopard machine. try this control-click on Time Machine in the dock and select "browse other TM disks". see if it lets you brows that TM disk.
    I'm no familiar with time machine - I usually run 10.4, just installed 10.5 on a spare disk to try and help him out.
    Thanks

  • I have a mid2009 MacBook Pro for which I have been using a USB WD HD for Time Machine.  I'd like to get a wireless HD  and start a new Time Machine backup for this Mac and retire the 5  year old WD drive.  Can I start over?

    I have a mid2009 MacBook Pro running Mavericks for which I have been using a USB WD HD for Time Machine.  I'd like to get a wireless HD  and start a new Time Machine backup for this Mac and retire the 5  year old WD drive.  Can I start over?

    no archive/ backup is perfect, HD clones can be set to make incremental additions, same as time machine however, though they are more time involved in doing so.
    See the + and - of all data backup/ archives below and "spread it around".... or the "dont put your eggs all in one basket" philosophy.
    Peace
    Data Storage Platforms; their Drawbacks & Advantages
    #1. Time Machine / Time Capsule
    Drawbacks:
    1. Time Machine is not bootable, if your internal drive fails, you cannot access files or boot from TM directly from the dead computer.
    2. Time machine is controlled by complex software, and while you can delve into the TM backup database for specific file(s) extraction, this is not ideal or desirable.
    3. Time machine can and does have the potential for many error codes in which data corruption can occur and your important backup files may not be saved correctly, at all, or even damaged. This extra link of failure in placing software between your data and its recovery is a point of risk and failure. A HD clone is not subject to these errors.
    4. Time machine mirrors your internal HD, in which cases of data corruption, this corruption can immediately spread to the backup as the two are linked. TM is perpetually connected (or often) to your computer, and corruption spread to corruption, without isolation, which TM lacks (usually), migrating errors or corruption is either automatic or extremely easy to unwittingly do.
    5. Time Machine does not keep endless copies of changed or deleted data, and you are often not notified when it deletes them; likewise you may accidently delete files off your computer and this accident is mirrored on TM.
    6. Restoring from TM is quite time intensive.
    7. TM is a backup and not a data archive, and therefore by definition a low-level security of vital/important data.
    8. TM working premise is a “black box” backup of OS, APPS, settings, and vital data that nearly 100% of users never verify until an emergency hits or their computers internal SSD or HD that is corrupt or dead and this is an extremely bad working premise on vital data.
    9. Given that data created and stored is growing exponentially, the fact that TM operates as a “store-it-all” backup nexus makes TM inherently incapable to easily backup massive amounts of data, nor is doing so a good idea.
    10. TM working premise is a backup of a users system and active working data, and NOT massive amounts of static data, yet most users never take this into consideration, making TM a high-risk locus of data “bloat”.
    11. In the case of Time Capsule, wifi data storage is a less than ideal premise given possible wireless data corruption.
    12. TM like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
    13. *Level-1 security of your vital data.
    Advantages:
    1. TM is very easy to use either in automatic mode or in 1-click backups.
    2. TM is a perfect novice level simplex backup single-layer security save against internal HD failure or corruption.
    3. TM can easily provide a seamless no-gap policy of active data that is often not easily capable in HD clones or HD archives (only if the user is lazy is making data saves).
    #2. HD archives
    Drawbacks:
    1. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
    2. Unless the user ritually copies working active data to HD external archives, then there is a time-gap of potential missing data; as such users must be proactive in archiving data that is being worked on or recently saved or created.
    Advantages:
    1. Fills the gap left in a week or 2-week-old HD clone, as an example.
    2. Simplex no-software data storage that is isolated and autonomous from the computer (in most cases).
    3. HD archives are the best idealized storage source for storing huge and multi-terabytes of data.
    4. Best-idealized 1st platform redundancy for data protection.
    5. *Perfect primary tier and level-2 security of your vital data.
    #3. HD clones (see below for full advantages / drawbacks)
    Drawbacks:
    1. HD clones can be incrementally updated to hourly or daily, however this is time consuming and HD clones are, often, a week or more old, in which case data between today and the most fresh HD clone can and would be lost (however this gap is filled by use of HD archives listed above or by a TM backup).
    2. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
    Advantages:
    1. HD clones are the best, quickest way to get back to 100% full operation in mere seconds.
    2. Once a HD clone is created, the creation software (Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper) is no longer needed whatsoever, and unlike TM, which requires complex software for its operational transference of data, a HD clone is its own bootable entity.
    3. HD clones are unconnected and isolated from recent corruption.
    4. HD clones allow a “portable copy” of your computer that you can likewise connect to another same Mac and have all your APPS and data at hand, which is extremely useful.
    5. Rather than, as many users do, thinking of a HD clone as a “complimentary backup” to the use of TM, a HD clone is superior to TM both in ease of returning to 100% quickly, and its autonomous nature; while each has its place, TM can and does fill the gap in, say, a 2 week old clone. As an analogy, the HD clone itself is the brick wall of protection, whereas TM can be thought of as the mortar, which will fill any cracks in data on a week, 2-week, or 1-month old HD clone.
    6. Best-idealized 2nd platform redundancy for data protection, and 1st level for system restore of your computers internal HD. (Time machine being 2nd level for system restore of the computer’s internal HD).
    7. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
    HD cloning software options:
    1. SuperDuper HD cloning software APP (free)
    2. Carbon Copy Cloner APP (will copy the recovery partition as well)
    3. Disk utility HD bootable clone.
    #4. Online archives
    Drawbacks:
    1. Subject to server failure or due to non-payment of your hosting account, it can be suspended.
    2. Subject, due to lack of security on your part, to being attacked and hacked/erased.
    Advantages:
    1. In case of house fire, etc. your data is safe.
    2. In travels, and propagating files to friends and likewise, a mere link by email is all that is needed and no large media needs to be sent across the net.
    3. Online archives are the perfect and best-idealized 3rd platform redundancy for data protection.
    4. Supremely useful in data isolation from backups and local archives in being online and offsite for long-distance security in isolation.
    5. *Level-1.5 security of your vital data.
    #5. DVD professional archival media
    Drawbacks:
    1. DVD single-layer disks are limited to 4.7Gigabytes of data.
    2. DVD media are, given rough handling, prone to scratches and light-degradation if not stored correctly.
    Advantages:
    1. Archival DVD professional blank media is rated for in excess of 100+ years.
    2. DVD is not subject to mechanical breakdown.
    3. DVD archival media is not subject to ferromagnetic degradation.
    4. DVD archival media correctly sleeved and stored is currently a supreme storage method of archiving vital data.
    5. DVD media is once written and therefore free of data corruption if the write is correct.
    6. DVD media is the perfect ideal for “freezing” and isolating old copies of data for reference in case newer generations of data become corrupted and an older copy is needed to revert to.
    7. Best-idealized 4th platform redundancy for data protection.
    8. *Level-3 (highest) security of your vital data. 
    [*Level-4 data security under development as once-written metallic plates and synthetic sapphire and likewise ultra-long-term data storage]
    #6. Cloud based storage
    Drawbacks:
    1. Cloud storage can only be quasi-possessed.
    2. No genuine true security and privacy of data.
    3. Should never be considered for vital data storage or especially long-term.
    4. *Level-0 security of your vital data. 
    Advantages:
    1. Quick, easy and cheap storage location for simplex files for transfer to keep on hand and yet off the computer.
    2. Easy source for small-file data sharing.

  • Restoring Time Machine backup to a drive in a "Voyager Dock"

    Restoring Time Machine backup to a drive in a "Voyager Dock"
    I would like to restore a Time Machine volume to a hard drive not installed in the computer it has backed up.
    I have an iMac 24” with a failing drive. It will eventually need to be replaced.
    I have my Time Machine back up for this computer in a Voyager Docking station.
    I would like to have Time Machine “restore” the iMac’s data to a drive in another Voyager Dock running from a computer other than the iMac involved.
    What I hope to do is bring the “restored” drive and the iMac to my Mac service provider and just have them swap the old drive for the new.
    How do I get Time Machine to do this?

    So, You're saying I can do this from a different computer with its own Time Machine?
    In other words, I have my Time Machinedrive  from the dead iMac and a fresh, formatted drive both hooked up to an unrelated computer with its own Time Machine.
    If I enter Time Machine on that computer won't it show me the data it backs up for that computer only?
    Will Time Machine know that there are two Time Machine backups (the one from the iMac and the one from the new host machine), and allow me to select the one from the iMac?

  • Can i transfer my time machine backup to another drive?

    can i transfer my time machine backup to another drive?

    Did you prep the new drive?
    Drive Preparation
    1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
    2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
    4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
    5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
    6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
    New drives usually are pre-formatted for Windows, not Macs. WD is generally well known for their poor level of Mac support.

  • When I get to the select disk page it says that the HD is uesd as time machine drive. How can I remove time machine backup from my Mac.

    I am tring to installe OS X Mavericks. When I get to the select disk page it says that the HD is uesd as time machine drive. How can I remove time machine backup from my Mac.

    Open up your Finder and click on Go on the top menu bar. Select Computer and then double click Macintosh HD. In here delete the backup folder. Might be called backups.backupdb.

  • HT201250 Can I copy a time machine backup from one mac to another?

    I have two Mac Book Pros that I use for work - I have one at home and one at work. I'd like to copy the contents and setup from my work Mac to my home Mac using a time machine backup, and then continue to use the time machine backup back at work. I.e. the time machine would only be used with the home Mac to copy over the contents and setup of my work Mac.
    Can I just do a straight time machine back up in my 2nd (home) mac, or will this override the back up I have from the 1st (work) machine?
    Thanks!

    Welcome to Apple Support Communities
    Of course. Note that you can restore a Time Machine backup on all the Macs you want, always that the Mac uses the same or a newer OS X version than the one that had the Mac you used to make this backup.
    Also, you can back up different computers to the same Time Machine drive. In this case, Time Machine will create different folders in your Time Machine drive for each computer, so one Mac backup won't conflict with the other computer backup.
    To restore a backup, use Migration Assistant. Just connect the Time Machine drive, open Migration Assistant (it's in /Applications/Utilities) and follow the steps to restore the backup onto the computer

  • Alum Mac Mini SLOW after restore from Time Machine backup of 09 Mac Mini

    Hi,
    I bought a 2010 Alum Mac Mini (2.4Ghz/2GB/320GB/OS10.6.4) a couple months ago, and I restored it from a time machine backup from my old '08 Mac Mini (1.83ghz/2GB/OS10.6.4). All data moved successfully, but this machine seems 2x slower than my old Mac Mini.
    Issues I'm encountering include:
    iDisk sync extremely slow
    launching Apps slow
    Trouble handling more than 3 or 4 open apps (Chrome, iTunes, Pages, Numbers)
    Is it possible that this is an issue because of restoring from the backup?
    Thanks in advance!
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    Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
    If you still have the TM backup, I would suggest erasing the new Mac mini's HDD and doing a fresh install from its Install DVD and then do a migration of the TM backup rather than a clone. There is something in that clone that the new mini does not like.
    You could also, as an alternative, try installing Mac OS X from the Install DVD over the top of the clone and see if it fills in the gap or corrects whatever the new mini does not like. This should not touch your data, just install Mac OS X Snow Leopard over the version already there. But you should always make a backup of anything that is not backed up.
    Dah•veed

  • Restore Time machine backup from a stolen computer to a different Mac Pro

    *My Mac Book Pro was stolen.* It had some Time Machine backups, but Time Machine had stopped working about 6 months before it was stolen. I had stopped using the USB drive since TM would never complete. (2 issues)
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    2. It looks like the old problem with Time Machine not backing up the stolen laptop shows up as a file called "2008-09-22.204132.inProgress". I am hoping that the backups previous to that one are okay. So far, browsing the files appears to me that my data is intact but perhaps spread across 40 folders.
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    B. Use Time Machine with this disk and somehow ask TM to restore to a different machine? (Is that even possible?) (Will it merge the files into my user folders?)
    C. Use Migration Assistant?
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    *End result: I want my external hard disk wiped ASAP, and in the meantime I want my data files preserved.*
    The old MacBook Pro definitely did not have Snow Leopard but the MacPro does to which I want to copy the data. It probably had Leopard. But honestly my user data is not necessary, just primarily the data, pictures, DVD projects, etc.
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    lhbilly wrote:
    *My Mac Book Pro was stolen.* It had some Time Machine backups, but Time Machine had stopped working about 6 months before it was stolen. I had stopped using the USB drive since TM would never complete. (2 issues)
    1. When I plugged in this USB backup disk to the Mac Pro just now, it asked me whether to use Time Machine with it. It told it no, ask me later so I could browse it first.
    2. It looks like the old problem with Time Machine not backing up the stolen laptop shows up as a file called "2008-09-22.204132.inProgress". I am hoping that the backups previous to that one are okay. So far, browsing the files appears to me that my data is intact but perhaps spread across 40 folders.
    So now, what should I do to retrieve the data I want?
    start Migration Assistant located in /Application/Utilies. it has an option to migrate your data and applications from a TM backup. migrate what you want. note that users will be migrated to new users so to access your old home directory you'll have to log out and log in as the migrated user.
    A. Copy the data files and pictures manually without Time Machine? How do I know I will get the latest versions?
    B. Use Time Machine with this disk and somehow ask TM to restore to a different machine? (Is that even possible?) (Will it merge the files into my user folders?)
    C. Use Migration Assistant?
    D. Copy and paste the entire file structure to a directory someplace and pull off the data as I need it?
    *End result: I want my external hard disk wiped ASAP, and in the meantime I want my data files preserved.*
    The old MacBook Pro definitely did not have Snow Leopard but the MacPro does to which I want to copy the data. It probably had Leopard. But honestly my user data is not necessary, just primarily the data, pictures, DVD projects, etc.
    As a side note: My old laptop and my MacPro used the same username and password.

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