Restore with install DVD and Time machine backup that excludes system

Hi, I need restore my PB G4.
I backed up my data using TM but excluding all system files. Is there a possibillity to reinstall the system with the DVD and then rebuild the individual accounts using Time machine?

Yes, you have several options: (In all cases Mac OS 10.5 Leopard is required as previous OS X versions can not work with Time Machine backups.)
*Full Restore Via Migration Assistant & Time Machine*
You can use the installation DVDs that came with your Mac and reinstall Leopard (Mac OS 10.5). During the installation process you will be asked if you would like to Migrate data over from your Time Machine backups. The advantage here is that you start with fresh system software. The disadvantage is that you may lose many of the personal preferences/settings that had been established with the previous system. But this may be only a minor inconvenience to reestablish these. Depending on whether you choose to migrate your applications over as well, you may be required to reinstall any 3rd-party software or standalone Apple programs. Don’t forget to run Software Update once the initial installation is complete to bring your system up to date. Using Disk Utility at this point to repair any permissions issues is advised as well.
*Full Restore Via Time Machine Only*
Alternatively, you can use the installation DVDs to do a full system restore. Insert the installation DVD. When the welcome window appears, go to the Utilities menu and select “Restore System From Backup…” and choose the drive that your Time Machine backups are on. Then select the date of the backup you would like to restore from. This will completely erase your internal drive and restore your system to a relatively same condition it was in on the date of the backup you choose. (See this article for a list of files that TM does not restore, http://shiftedbits.org/2007/10/31/time-machine-exclusions/) The advantage here is that you retain many of the personal preferences/settings that had been established with the previous system. Additionally, no further installation of 3rd-party software is required. The disadvantage is that BECAUSE you retain many of the personal preferences, settings, and system files that had been present with the previous system, you run the risk of reintroducing problems you experienced with the previous installation, including any issues that necessitated the OS reinstall in the first place. Using Disk Utility at this point to repair any permissions issues is advised as well.
*Full Backup After Restore*
Bear in mind that in all cases Time Machine will perform a full backup after a full restore. This is normal. Time Machine will resume incremental backups after the full backup has completed. To view previous backups, Control-click or right-click the Time Machine icon in your Dock or Option-click the Time Machine menu extra and Choose "Browse Other Time Machine Disks," then select your previous backup volume. You will enter Time Machine and be able to browse your previous back ups and restore files. (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1338)
Hope this helps.

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Help with iTunes database and Time Machine after Lion clean install

I did a clean install of OS X Lion and think I've given myself problems with my Snow Leopard Time Machine backup and with my iTunes Library database files.
My iMac (2007) had become very sluggish so I opted for a clean install. Before the install of Lion my Snow Leopard 10.6.8 internal 1TB HD was at about 600GBs. I was using Time Machine to backup to an external 1TB drive. I had my iTunes 10.? library on the same drive.
For the Lion install I partitioned my internal 1TB HD into two partitions - a 250GB Lion boot partition and the rest for Lion data files.
Now I have two problems - 1. I can't work out how to re-connect my Time Machine backups, since they were related to a much bigger original drive, and 2. I can't seem to find my iTunes database files.
I also don't want to restore any application files at this stage, as I'm determined to do a fresh install of only the applications I need as I go along, and hopefully avoid the issues of sluggishness I had with Snow Leopard.
I have all my iTunes files in their pre-Lion external HD folder, but that folder does not seem to have the iTunes Library.XML or iTunes Library files. I didn't delete them so I'm hoping they were in my iTunes folder on my SL boot drive. But that drive was deleted during the install, so I'll be depending on Time Machine to restore the database.
Can anyone suggest a way to deal with Time Machine for my Lion install, and a way to restore my iTunes database? I'd like to keep as much of the Snow Leopard Time Machine data as I can, while continuing to do Time Machine backups from my Lion installation.
Anyone know where iTunes stores those database files, if not in the external drive iTunes folder? Spotlight search doesn't find the files, but is there a way to search my old Time Machine backups without having the Time Machine backups folder re-connected in Lion?
Thanks.

My iTunes folder is organised like this if it helps:
And iTunes uses them from the Prefrences like this:
Regards,
Colin R.

Can I restore my mac from a Time Machine backup once I have used BootCamp to partition and set up Windows (without erasing all of the Windows content)?

A few months ago I partitioned my mac using BootCamp and successfully installed Windows and a few Windows-only programs (games). I never restored my mac from the Time Machine backup and now I would really like all of my files back on my mac. I am wondering if I insert the osx install disc and restore from Time Machine backup, will that get rid of the partition I made for Windows? Will the Windows side of my hard drive stay in tact or will everything on that side get erased when I restore the mac side from the Time Machine backup. It was a HUUUUUUUGE pain to do the BootCamp partition and get everything Windows set up and I would really like to not have to do that all over again. I just want to make sure that if I insert the mac osx install disc and restore from Time Machine backup it will only affect the Mac partition, NOT the Windows partition.

Hi,
Time Machine does not touch your BootCamp Windows.
It simply said ignores it completely.
Nonetheless, I am curious as to why you wanna restore a Time Machine backup.
Usually during partitioning with the BootCamp Assistant in OSX to make the Windows partition your OSX stays intact.
Regards
Stefan

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.

Restore using Time Machine to new hard drive, but last "full" backup was 2012. how do I restore the rest of the Time Machine backups, particularily IPHOTO libraries for each user?

Restore using Time Machine to new hard drive, but last "full" backup was in 2012. How do I restore the rest of the Time Machine backups, particularily IPHOTO libraries for each user?
I entered Iphoto for my user and only photo up until 2012 were in the library. I thought the restore would do the incremental Time Machine backups too.....
Running 10.8.2

It usually means you are running Mavericks but have an earlier version of iPhoto. Open the App Store and upgrade your version of iPhoto to the Mavericks version.
The iWork apps are free with a new iOS device since 1 SEP 2013. They are free with a new Mac since 1 OCT 2013. They are also free with the upgrade to OS X Mavericks 10.9 if you had the previous version installed when you upgraded.The iWork apps are free with a new iOS device since 1 SEP 2013. They are free with a new Mac since 1 OCT 2013. They are also free with the upgrade to OS X Mavericks 10.9 if you had the previous version installed when you upgraded.
iWork and iLife for Mac come free with every new Mac purchase. Existing users running Mavericks can update their apps for free from the Mac App Store℠. iWork and iLife for iOS are available for free from the App Store℠ for any new device running iOS 7, and are also available as free updates for existing users. GarageBand for Mac and iOS are free for all OS X Mavericks and iOS 7 users. Additional GarageBand instruments and sounds are available for a one-time in-app purchase of $4.99 for each platform.

Restore one hard disk from Time Machine backup

Is it possible to restore only one disk from Time machine backup? I have a SSD with OSX 10.8.5 on it while user folders are on a separate 4TB hard drive. I also have a Time Machine volume for backups. Yesterday the user drive failed beyond repair, but fortunatly I do have a recent backup. When I tried to resotre following insructions provided in the Time Machine manual, it does not give me an option to resore a specific disk from the backup, and tries to resotre only the System disk backup, in this case the SSD. Is there a way to restore a disk on which no system is installed?

Time Machine - Troubleshooting E3. I can't see backups for a disk/partition that's no longer connected

Can i restore from a time machine backup that is not the latest one?

I am trying to restore from a May 7th time machine backup. At that time my username was michaelhood. I had a system crash and when my computer was returned to me I inadvertently set it up under a different username, thinking I would do the restore later. Between May 13 and today, Time machine did backups under the name mhoo4494. Changing the name didn't let me access my May 7 backup, nor did creating a different user account. I have erased the hard drive and am reinstalling from the Install CD. I have set up a third user name. I now want to restore my data from the Time Machine May 7 backup. How do I do that? Migration assistant saw two users -- mhoo and mhoo4494 (michaelhood was not an option). I selected them both, but got no data for either -- no docs, no music, no pictures. This procedure should not be this hard~!!

Hi uclamikey90,
It is possible, using Migration Assistant, to restore the contents of your hard drive selectively. See this article -
Mac OS X v10.6: How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from a Time Machine backup - Apple Support
In particular -
To migrate data from a Time Machine backup
In Finder, press Command-Shift-U.
Double-click Migration Assistant.
Click "Continue" and enter an administrator name and password when prompted.
Select the "From a Time Machine backup or other disk" option, then click "Continue".
Select your Time Machine backup disk or Time Capsule (enter the user name and or password if prompted), then click "Continue".
Select the Time Machine backup you would like to restore (such the most current one you just made), then click "Continue".
Select Items to Migrate, then click "Continue". Note: The "Continue" button will be dimmed until the "Calculating…" stage is complete.
A user account sheet may appear if you have a user name on your Mac that is the same user name in your Time Machine backup. You will have to give the username in your Time Machine backup a new username to avoid conflicts. Note: This will create a new user account on your Mac to hold the data from the Time Machine backup. After migration, you can use the /Users/Shared folder to transfer data files the accounts.
Migration Assistant will begin the process of transferring the items you selected to migrate. When it is finished, click "Quit" to exit.
When you reach step 7, deselect items that you do not wish to migrate. Videos, photos and music are likely candidates for this as they take up a lot of disk space. You can later put items on an external hard drive.
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

I'm trying a full restore in Lion, but it won't. States that there isn't enough space on the Mac HD. How do I restore everything from a recent Time Machine Backup?

I'm trying a full restore in Lion, but it won't. States that there isn't enough space on the Mac HD. How do I restore everything from a recent Time Machine Backup?

Thanks but I think it has something to do with the 'restore'. in the newest iTunes 11, when I click on the tab "iphone", it redirects me to the "welcome to your new iphone" page and asks about doing a 'restore'. I already did a 'restore', but it went to the original factory settings and I want to 'restore' to my lastest back up as of April 12. When I choose that option, it says my iphone doesn't have enough space. I don't know how much I need to delete in order to make it work. I've deleted lots, but it only has 4.1 GB available. I'm not sure why this isn't enough to do a 'restore'. I don't want to delete all my photos and videos, but maybe I will have to?...7.7GB is used up for that. I can't sync or do ANYTHING...

Cannot restore iphoto library correctly from time machine backup

Hi all,
Yesterday I had to reinstall my mac with no particular reason. Suddenly the startup screen with the "circle" went on indefinitely for 10+ minutes before shutting down the system. Yes, the power cord was plugged in. No, I didn't manage to start it in safe mode...
I thought it wouldn't be a big deal since I regularly back up my mac on an external drive by Time Machine. So I reinstalled and restored the system.
I could log in fine, but here's the catch:
1) only 3 iPhoto events out of 30 are restored
2) for all other events I seem to have the thumbnails but not the original or modified files
3) trying to browse into the Pictures folder shows that:
- the iPhoto library file does not appear with the usual icon
- if I examine the package, for all events that don't show up in iPhoto, the event hierarchy (e.g. 2008/eventxyz) exists but the folders are empty in both the "Original" and "Modified" hierarchies
- same if I click on the same file in ANY of the 4 backups I have on the time machine disk
By the way TM restored the system to MacOSX 10.5.2 even if I'm sure I had a later version. In fact, I can't open iTunes either because it says the library has been created with a later version of iTunes. But what really worries me is that I can't even find the .JPG original files.
Can somebody please help? I relied on Time Machine and there's 6 years of memories there...
Thank you

I have the same symptom, but as the result of an external hard drive failure. My Time Machine backups from June 2009 - August 2009 contain the iPhoto library. When I restore the iPhoto library (pick any random backup date) I can see the thumbnails or a blank dashed outline of the old photos. When I click on the thumbnail I can get the metadata (photo location, photo date, etc...) but the photos are gone. When I am in iPhoto the lower left corner of the interface shows the library size is 42Gb, but the restored library package is only about 3Gb. My guess is the difference in file size is equal to the size of the original (and modified) files that didnt get backed up. None of my iPhoto library packages in Time Machine are larger than 3Gb.
I brought my backup drive to the folks at the Genius Bar. They were perplexed. They suggested I bring in my Mac Mini so they could look at the console. I took a look at the console at home and searched for "Time Machine" and found nothing out of the ordinary.
Not sure why Time Machine would appear to run so smoothly yet selectively not back up my original photos. I can restore everything else from my Time Machine backup to my new external drive just fine.

Help! Macbook Air lost association with USB Airport hosted Time Machine Backup

Okay, so my wife's Macbook Air was doing Time Machine backup to USB drive attached to previous generation Airport Extreme...
We bought a brand new Airport router a couple of weeks ago, I plugged it in and everything went smoothly. Plugged in USN drive that attached to older APE router, and it's still visible on the network. However, ever since we got the new router, the existing backups are not associated with the Macbook Air anymore.
Yes, I can start over with a new backup file, but I was hoping to use the existing backup (it takes a while to backup wirelessly, and we lose the whole history if we wanted to recover previous versions of files that were backed up—I can't think of anything we'd need right now, but Murphy's Law will probably apply if I go ahead and erase the old and start new).
I was hoping all I would have to do was drag the old backup file onto the Time Machine icon to re-associate it with this computer, but I can't see any way to tell Time Machine, "hey, here's the backup file you are looking for... it's right here on the same USB drive attached to the new router."
(Also, before anyone says to make sure I have a backup of the backup, I do. The computer is backed up offsite with Backblaze, too.)
Perhaps it will be best to just start from scratch with a new Time Machine backup, that just seems like overkill, since there was nothing wrong or corrupt with the existing Time Machine file, I just switched what router it was attached to. Thanks for any advice/enlightenment.

I guess I have a few comments.
Apple has an opt out.. they do not support Time Machine backups on older Airport Extreme. Apple have always stated it is unreliable and so refused to support it.. only with Gen6 of the AE have they changed to supporting TM backups.
From your point of view it should have worked.. it may indeed still work. But the change of network is significant and it will take some work on your part.
1. I need to know what OS is the MBA running??
2. Moving a disk from one network location to another, I would strongly recommend a full reset of Time Machine on the computer.
See A4 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
3. Pondini in the same reference has some info about inheriting old backups .. slightly different context but it also could help.
see B5 and B6
4. It is also possible to move old backups into a new backup.. but this is then going too far.
I would simply buy a new USB drive.. and keep the old backup drive for a few months until your new one builds up sufficient history to be sure you will not need the old ones.. at that point you can use the old backup drive again after a reformat.
5. To do the new backup, since wireless is indeed a long and burdensome chore to make that crucial first backup, buy a thunderbolt to ethernet adapter.. assuming your MBA is recent enough. Ethernet is so worthwhile having it is required not optional extra. The cost at $35 is one of the cheapest adapters for a very expensive interface..

How can I restore Parental Control Settings from Time Machine Backup?

I was trying to adjust one of the parental controlled accounts for my child. I disabled parental controls, rebooted, and re-enabled it. Now all the settings that I had setup before are gone. How can I restore Parental Control Settings from Time Machine Backup?

Hi ...
I've found a solution to my problem.
Time Machine locates extenal HDD backups differently depending if they were done via a network or via a USB/FireWire/Thunderbolt connection.
My initial backup was done via a direct Thunderbolt connection. I ran into the above issue b/c the second time when I tried looking for the backup file the HDD was conencted to my iMac and I was accessing it via a network conenction.
I simply connected the drive directly to my MacBook pro and ... voila. I was able to see the backup, select the iPhoto library and begin the restore.
Hope this helps.
BTW - I found this out by reading the 'blue box' selection on this page: http://pondini.org/TM/E2.html
(Thanks goes to Pondini!)

HT1338 Can I do a clean install after using time machine backup?

Can I do a clean install after using time machine backup?

Hi, if I understand correctly yes, but may I ask the purpose of doing so?

AEBS, device name, and Time Machine backups, question

Will changing the device name of my AEBS (what shows up, for example, in a Finder window sidebar, affect time machine backups that live on a an AirDisk? I just want to make sure, before I make any changes, that my computers won't 'lose' the existing backups if I do change the device name.

I'm afraid to try it, but that is what I am not clear about. The Drive name isn't changing, just the AEBS device name. The big question is does TM just care about the drive name, or does it also care about the AEBS device name. If you are right, than I am out of luck. But would love someone to definitely confirm.

Can I move old Time Machine backups that were USB to Network backups?

I recently bought a new Airport Extreme and attached my 1TB WD HD to it for network file sharing and Time Machine backups. I had originally backed up my MacBook Pro with that external HD via USB directly connected to the laptop. I know (thanks to these foruns), that, since I'm now using Time Machine backups via wifi, the location of the backups is different and my wifi Time Machine can't access the backups on the HD that were made when it was directly connected.
My question is: is there a way to move the old TM backups so that they can be recognized via wifi? If not no big deal, but then I would need to delete those backups, since they are taking up a big chunk of the external HD space. I saw a few forum posts about deleting TM backups and it seems that I would have to do it via TM itself...does that mean I have to reconnect the HD via USB to run TM so I can access those backups to delete them?
Finally, once I do get to delete the old backups (or move them, if possible), is it safe to repartition the external HD so there is one partition for TM and one for storing files via my network? I've read about using Disk Utility to do this, but I haven't tried it yet.
Thanks for any input.

No, what you're doing is splitting the TM partition in half, so this will only work if you have more that 50% free space.
See: Disk Utility - Add, Delete, and Resize Existing Volumes With Disk Utility
My only concern about that would be that my other files would be on the same partition as the 'old' TM and thus I wouldn't want to delete it, which brings me back to my original issue of space being taken up on the drive.
You should consider putting those files on their own partition, so think about spliiting the disk into 3 or more partitons, and 1st move all of your other files to the 3rd (last) partition. You just need to decide how much space to allocate.
With some limitations, you can do a lot with Partitoning without losing data, see: Disk Utility - What You Need to Know About Modifying Existing Volumes

Clean install of Lion and Time Machine backups

Hi All,
I have a new MBP on it's way to be delivered to my house today, and my question is about Time Machine backups. I'd like to restore from my old MBP's Time Machine data, but I'm a little concerend because I've had some issues with Lion. Specifically, very slow at random times, spinning beach balls, etc. I didn't do a clean install of Lion, just the download/upgrade method, and from what I've read, that's caused some problems for people.
Will a restore from a Time Machine backup replace all of the "fresh" system files, etc. on the new MBP, or only move specific files, or files not present in the system (i.e. app preferences)? I'd rather not have to manually copy and install everything if I can avoid it, but I don't want to transfer any old problems to the new MBP. Thanx.

OK, you're right. I wish Apple would get rid of the Applications Folder in the User Folder.
If you haven't read this yet:
How to use Migration assistant to transfer files from another Mac
I still believe you are relatively safe in not porting over trouble from your previous System.
What trouble are you having

Restore with install DVD and Time machine backup that excludes system

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