Can Time Machine restore to a diffent OS installation?

I am currently running Time Machine and have done a complete backup of my iMac.
I now want to completely reinstall Mac OSX to try to fix some problems and I want to know if my new installation of MAC OS X Leopard will be able to use Time Machine to restore from my backup of the iMac?
I plan on only restoring certain files, such as videos, pictures, and iTunes...
I'm worried that after I reinstall OSX, the system will try to erase my external drive to start a new Time Machine backup.
Many Thanks!

first, the system will not erase the external drive with TM backups unless you tell it to. If you designate this drive as TM drive it will simply start a new backup series. You'll be able to browse your old backups in browse mode before you start the new backup sequence. to do that control-click on TM in the dock and choose "browse other TM disks". this will let you browse your old backups and restore what you want. You'll be prompted for restore location each time you try to restore something. Also, you can always open the TM drive in finder and copy what you need using finder.

Similar Messages

  • Can Time Machine restore to a new internal HDD?

    hi all, i've got a 1tb external drive that's exclusively used by Time Machine. the 1tb drive is connected to my 500gb mac mini. i've been running time machine for 6 months now daily, i just wanted to know if it was backing up everything on my 500gb drive or not. how can i check that it's working properly?
    also, does anyone know how i'd go about restoring my mac mini in case i had to replace the 500gb hdd? can time machine restore everything if i needed it to? if i bought a new HDD tomorrow for example, how could i get my system running back to where it was running today with all of the current settings and files etc?  is there any way for me to check that Time Machine will actually restore OS X, all my videos, music and my work should the HDD actually die?
    is there an apple link i can read?
    thanks for any help.

    To answer your question about replacing a hard drive and recovering what was on your old one ...
    Yes, Time Machine was designed for that. You may have one of two scenarios:
    (1) Your hard drive is replaced by the Apple Store or another Apple repair shop, in which case they usually restore it with the operating system you had before and configure it so it has a new system with no users set up; the first time it starts up it runs Setup Assistant. When Setup Assistant runs, you select the option to restore from a Time Machine backup. It will then automatically restore your entire hard drive to the newly installed one. Everything will be just as it was with the old drive. Exceptions: you MAY have to enter user keys for software like MS-Office and Adobe Photoshop. and you MAY have to reinstall your printers and scanners.
    (2) If the hard drive is replaced but no operating system or anything is put on it, you need to boot from your Install-OS-DVD and install a new operating system on the new drive. Then, on the first reboot, Setup Assistant runs and you can follow the instructions from (1) above.
    A good informational site about Time Machine is here: http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
    How do you know that your Time Machine backup is a good one? You can peruse through all the backups by running Time Machine and manually inspect that the files in those key folders (photos, music etc.) are all there and have the right sizes. You can "test recover" selected folders to a scratch location just to check that it works. I suggest you obtain another external drive and use it to make a "clone" of your internal drive using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. This is like a second backup, a failsafe in case, say, your Time Machine drive were to fail. This is not unheard of, since a power failure could cause both your internal drive and Time Machine drives to crash at the same time. The "clone" should be unplugged and stored separately to avoid this issue. You can update the clone, say once a week or once a month.

  • Can time machine restore in new HDD?

    if i backup my mac os in an external hdd with time machine and then ill change my mac hdd, can time machine restore my os in new hdd?(for example by Recovery Disk Assistant)

    Naming it the same tends to make things easier. Time Machine can backup your entire OS as long as you haven't excluded anything in System Preferences/Time Machine/Options.
    Another option is to make a bootable clone. You should have more than one backup on 2 different drives since hard drives do fail.
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    Clone – Data Backup
    Clone – Deja Vu
    Clone  - SuperDuper
    Clone - Synk
    Clone Software – 6 Applications Tested

  • Time machine restore selective intonation vs full installation compromised system

    I have some questions regarding the above mentioned issue
    I have reviewed notes regarding selective app restore method and am aware that there are issues assossiated with failed apps since the original app installer installs files in various libraries and system settings
    My backed up Mac contains rogue programs such as the programming app python 3 and various rogue bugs and system settings.
    1 Does a full restore reset all backed up system settings or does it keep the fresh installation and include all your apps and settings such as mail accounts mail folders documents pictures movies podcasts etc without the bugs
    2 Should the answer to 1 be a yes all compromised settings will be restored, then will I have issues with installing VMware fusion as its an encripted integrated app that I keep all my master business applications but store documents in the Mac documents area.
    Other factors
    1 My accounting tax business has been hacked over and over again for the last 7 months from start of tax season
    2 I have lost 50% of my clients due to the interruptions and been hospitalized twice from sitting on the computer for extended hours and days reinstalling fresh system and restoring Mac documents only, 3 times over,  as well as trying to learn everything about best practice, hacks etc
    3 I'm using fire vault 2 however the time machine backup is not encripted are there any potential problems with either of the two methods?
    4 I will be using a proxy server when I next build the Mac will this be enough to mitigate potential security breach using the full time machine restore method?
    5 I have many apps that I have not purchased through the app center and have not kept the keys and will be a headache to get all my details
    6 what implications are there as far as the prior keychain access is consurned? How does that get restored?
    What is the most effective and efficient method to restore from time machine given above scenario?
    Thanking you in advance
    Peter

    Thank you for your advice
    I tried consulting Telstra premium services and other third party security consultants. I explained my steps and procedures upon each fresh installation and the extent of the hacking and they refused to service me. Additionally Telstra security center replied on the issue of using a proxy server that they only support windows operating systems. Last night an apple consultant told me to obtain the proxy server address and he will guide me through to setting it up. I hope this will resolve the security issue. However I'm not entirely sure. My iPhone was also hacked and 8 GB of data used in 1 day untill I caught on. Freaked me out since I had disconnected from the wifi.
    I'm currently installing from flash drive and transferring my information from time machine. I think it's a full restore.
    I am investing in a website in a couple of weeks however I'm not currently hosting one on my laptop.
    Cheers
    Peter

  • How can Time Machine restore older Mac Pro's - But not Disk Utility?

    Hey,
    So I had posted a discussion earlier last week asking about older MacPro's (2006 - 2008) versions that do not seem to run snow leopard if you just try to install with the MAC OS X 10.6.2 disc - I was trying to use my new Snow Leopard image that i have created for the new school year, and I tried to image a 2006 MacPro model and a 2008 MacPro model, etc...  This would not work, it would let me start the imaging process and then it would give me an error that looked like this "ev/disk02o does not have enough space"  And i just figured that was the computer code way of telling me that the image i had created was not readable by the computer or the disk utility, but this must be something that was written into the programing of Disk Utility or Snow Leopard because i found a loop hole - I was able to "restore" the backup of the new image that i made using Time Machine on the 2008 MacPro and even the 2006 MacPro - which both have earlier versions of the Intel chip.  The restored image works fine, all programs work the same as a 2009 MacPro that i imaged the same image onto using disk utility and i have found no problems yet using any part of the system.  MY QUESTION:  I'm wondering how i was able to do this and if anyone has had a similar experience trying to get images accross a bunch of different models of MacPro's - Is Time Machine a "better" way to restore the disk image?  Did Apple do this on purpose, so that you cant image newer images onto older machines?  Very confused as to why it makes you use Time Machine...
    Thanks again,
    Kyle R.

    You are reading things into that error message that are simply not there.
    Take the error message at face value.
    When it calculates all the "stuff" it has to get onto your disk to do the installation, it does not fit.  (including the .dmg, the Virtual Disk created to mount the dmg, and all the temporay files that are added before the new version takes over and discards the old stuff)  all that stuff in total does not fit.)
    Sure the final image fits, and sure you can restore that final image using other methods: Time machine works, and I'll bet Carbon Copy Cloner and Super Duper work as well.
    Using the method you were using, the sum of all the temp files and all the program files do not fit. It is NOT a conspiracy.

  • Can Time Machine restore files to an external drive?

    I normally keep my iTunes folder on an external USB drive because it does not fit on my 80gig internal drive. I was able to successfully use Time Machine to back up my iTunes folder to a dedicated external Time Machine drive (great!). I now want to restore my iTunes folder to a new bigger external drive that I purchased to replace my exiting USB drive which is beginning to have some problems.
    Here is my challenge: When I try to restore my iTunes folder (60gig) I am not prompted for a destination. I believe Time Machine is attempting to restore to my desktop? Since my internal drive doesn't have capacity how can I restore my iTunes folder directly to an external drive?

    Axel,
    Yes, I'm certain. I store my own iPhoto and iTunes libraries on a secondary partition of my internal hard drive, so I am familiar with this usage. As it turns out, I also have a partition created on my external drive, the same one being used for TM, that has the same name as my secondary internal partition.
    When I open the mounted partition that has the same name as the internal secondary, then click the Time Machine icon in the Dock, I am taken to the backup of the secondary internal partition. If I select my iPhoto library (for example), then click the "Restore" button, I am returned to the "current" Finder, where the library is being copied to the same-named external partition.
    A potentially confusing explanation , but it affirms that Time Machine is looking at the volume's name.
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  • HT201250 I accidentally deleted all my emails. Can Time Machine restore them?

    I lost all my emails. I was deleting specific ones on my Mac mail and accidentally deletaed all. I wonder if Time Machine can restore them and how to do it if so.  I have OS X 10.6.8. Thank you for any help.

    Yes it can; it restored mine from time to time.  
    Go to your email pages, then open Time machine.   It should open with a rather narrowed version of the page but decipherable all the same.
    Once the grey time scale appears, scroll up until you reach the approximate date or the date of the missing mail.   Highlight the mail then click restore.
    Clearly it could be a long job to do all of them and I don't think there is a form of consolidated restoration.
    Message was edited by: seventy one

  • Can Time Machine Restore the whole operating system ?

    Hi there,
    I understand Time Machine can be used to locate files which were accidentally deleted.
    But can it restore the whole OS system together with all the settings to say a 2 weeks ago ?
    If can, I desperately beg someone to be kind enough to guide & teach me how to do it step by step.
    Many thanks

    RyanManUtd wrote:
    Question 1:
    I am doing a full restore on the same Mac. For avoidance of doubt, can you kindly confirm that the first paragraph of item#14 does not apply to me ?
    Yup. This works fine if it's the same Mac. That's what it's intended for.
    Question 2:
    I have a Lacie Firewire800 external HDD connected to my Mac, I have already updated & backup data on this Lacie FW800 HDD to yesterday.
    As I intend to restore the entire system to 2 weeks ago, I am afraid that my Lacie would also be restored to 2 weeks ago, would it ?
    When you say "entire system", it refers only to the Mac internal harddrive or everything connected to it ?
    Ah, yes, that's a bit misleading. That procedure will restore your internal HD only. By "entire system," it really means everything on your internal HD (which is all most users have): OSX, apps, configuration, users, settings, preferences, data.
    If you want to restore an external HD, you must do that separately, so your LaCie won't be touched. Just to be extra-safe, I'd eject and disconnect it if I were you.

  • Can time machine restore system language files deleted by "monolingual'?

    I've removed some important language files while using monolingual (namely -English (American) -English (British) not realizing these are subset and required).
    I should've read the FAQ first... now some programs are appearing in weird character formats.
    Can I replace those files with my Time Machine back ups?
    Which folder would I need to replace back with previous file?
    Since I did this only late last night, I should be able to just replace a certain system file folder, without causing much headache, I'm hoping!

    kacmaz wrote:
    Can I replace those files with my Time Machine back ups?
    Yes.
    Which folder would I need to replace back with previous file?
    That's the problem; language files aren't in a central location; each application has it's own set of language files, containing the translations of the messages for that application.
    Since I did this only late last night, I should be able to just replace a certain system file folder, without causing much headache, I'm hoping!
    I don't know much about Monolingual; I don't know if it removes language files from your System folders, or only Applications. And if you've installed any apps anywhere else, I don't know if it got them, too.
    If you're only having trouble with apps, you might be ok to restore only Applications, but to get everything back the way it was, you'd need to do a full system restore, per #14 in the Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

  • Can Time Machine restore a deleted page???

    Please help me...
    I accidentally deleted a web page from my iWeb site. I don't want to restore the entire site from Time Machine... just the one page. I've updated the blog and other pages since I deleted the page "gallery" that I wish to restore.
    Does Time Machine save individual pages with photos? If so, where?
    Can anyone help??

    You'll have to restore the domain.sites2 file in your User/Library/Application Support/iWeb folder from a time that would have the missing page. Select Both in the restore window:
    Click to view full size
    Then you can merge the old and the new domain file into one file with iWebSites. Then drag the missing page from the older site into the newer one and delete the remains of the older site.
    OT

  • Can Time Machine restore Mail 5.0?

    I accidentally removed a mailbox (Mailbox B) which is alias of mailbox A.  Then mailbox B has gone, but mailbox A's emails all gone together!   It happened in the past in Mail 4.5 then I got into Time Machine and restore the last hour.  But this time nothing was restored under Lion and Mail 5.0.
    After the restore failure, I went back into the Time Machine.  I can still see mailbox B, mailbox A and their email headers and details in every hourly backups.  But they are just not restored!  Did I miss any steps under Lion?

    Justice,
    Yes, what you want to do might be possible, but you will need, as others have said, a Mac OS X 10.5 DVD.
    Next you should probably have a second external hard disk (We'll call it HD #2) available and do a full Time Machine backup to it. Then set it aside.
    Next, using the Mac OS X DVD, and your original Time Machine backup disk (We'll call it HD #1), do a ”Restore System From Backup...”, choosing the earlier system software version.
    Reverting To A Previous Mac OS Version
    [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15216.html]
    As the article says, +"Reverting to the previous version of Mac OS X will erase any additions or changes you’ve made to the files on your computer after installing the new version of Mac OS X. To save new or revised files, copy them onto a different disk or back them up using Time Machine before you follow these instructions. Use Time Machine only if you’re reverting to a previous version of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), since Time Machine is not available with Mac OS X 10.4 or earlier."+
    Once the restoration is complete, remove HD#1 and attach HD#2. Now use Migration Assistant to migrate the user accounts, apps, and other data from the full TM backup you perform before starting the "Restore System From Backup...”. When it detects that there are already accounts with the same usernames choose to "Replace" the existing ones with the one being migrated over.
    You should now have an earlier Mac OS X version, but your most recent user data.
    Let us know of this was helpful.
    Glenn
    Message was edited by: Glenn Carter

  • Can I use a Time Machine restore from an older OS to Mavericks?

    I ask because I tried about 2 years ago and had no luck. Here's a little back-story so my situation isn't confusing...
    My iMac (2010) has been having tons of issues lately. More specifically, when I attempted to upgrade to Mavericks last week, it came back with S.M.A.R.T. errors after a scan, so it wouldn't allow me to update. So, in preparation for the HDD to crap out on me, I did frequent back-ups using Time Machine. Well, the day finally came and my iMac won't "turn on" anymore. When I turn it on, it sits at the Mac loading screen for several minutes and then just goes to a blank white screen. (NOTE: This isn't part of my question but if anyone has any suggestions on fixing this, please let me know, thanks!)
    So, back to my question. If I buy a new iMac or a new macbook or whatever, will it be possible to use my Time Machine back-ups to restore everything on it or will it not allow me to because the operating systems are different? As mentioned, I attempted to make a restore on my friend's macbook that I purchased as a spare but when I tried, it came back saying "Different operating systems, cannot restore" or something to that degree. Is there a way around this? Do I have to somehow downgrade the OS on my new machine?
    Luckily, I use iTunes for all my movies/music & Adobe Creative cloud so I can easily restore those on any machine but my desktop personal data, photos, etc are on the Time Machine restore. Help me if you can, thanks in advance!

    If you live near an Apple Store, make a Genius Bar appointment to have the computer tested. Supposedly there is no charge for testing. They can also give you an estimate.
    Genius Bar Reservation US

  • Can't Boot After New HD + Time Machine Restore

    So a couple days ago my 27" iMac running Snow Leopard started making some weird noises and stalling out. Annoyed, I talked for a couple hours with apple tech support which eventually lead me to run an Apple Hardware Test. This test returned the error
    "Alert! Apple Hardware Test has detected an error.
    4HDD/11/40000000 SATA(0,0)"
    I scheduled an appointment at the Genius Bar, and they replaced the hard drive.
    After that I got it home and did a System restore from my time machine backup. It finished fine, but when I restarted it got stuck on the grey apple screen with the spinning dial thing.
    I called apple back and they had me do a couple things like repair disk, verify disk, and one person had me reboot into this command line mode and type some stuff in. Nothing worked. After that They had me try to reinstall the OS first from archive, and next by erasing the hard drive and doing it. Both times the install fails with a big yellow exclamation point saying that it couldn't install support files and the OS couldn't be installed.
    Any ideas how to fix this?
    I'm currently trying to restore from my time machine backup again, but I'm not hopeful.

    Here's what I got - apologies for any formatting peculiarities.
    The problem: 10.6.6 mac won't boot after time machine restore to disk.
    Further symptoms: Booting with Command-v shows several errors: usually blued and loginwindow collapse with errors from launchd. Errors will be of the style "dyld: Symbol not found: CSSMOID_APPLE_TP_MACAPPSTORERECEIPT" and other CommerceKit / CommerceCore framework errors.
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    Identifying if you're affected:
    1) Boot the broken machine into "target" mode - hold "Command-t" during boot until the [Firewire|http://itunesu.utah.edu/terms/images/Firewire_Icon.png] icon appears.
    2) Connect the broken machine to the working 10.6.6 machine with a firewire cable.
    3) On the working machine, the disk of the broken machine should mount.
    4) Open Terminal
    5) Run "ls /Volumes" - the name of disk you mounted should be there (in this example, we'll use "Macintosh HD".)
    6) Typing in the path of the broken machine, run:
    <pre>
    nm /Volumes/Macintosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Security | grep random_fd | cut -d. -f2
    </pre>
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    If this comes back with the value 22457 (or less?), your Mac is not booting because it does not have the updated version of the Security library, which is required in 10.6.6 since Snow Leopard added the Appstore / Commerce framework.
    Fixing if you're affected:
    1) First, make sure the working 10.6.6 Mac has a correct version of the framework:
    <pre>
    nm /System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Security | grep random_fd | cut -d. -f2
    </pre>
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    <pre></pre>
    2a) Make a backup of the broken library
    <pre>
    mkdir /Volumes/Macintosh HD/savedLibrary
    cp /Volumes/Macintosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Security /Volumes/Macintosh HD/savedLibrary
    </pre>
    2b) Copy the working version over the non-working version:
    <pre>
    cp /System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Security /Volumes/Macintosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Security
    </pre>
    3) Eject the mounted disk from the working Mac, disconnect the firewire cable, and reboot the "broken" Mac. It should come up.
    If it doesn't, you have problem(s) that are probably outside the scope of this. I'd also suggest restoring your original security library that you saved off.
    Suspected cause:
    It appears that Time Machine never recorded the change to the Security library after the update. If the library hadn't changed, the machine should have failed to boot like it did after restore the moment a 10.6.6 update was applied.
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    <pre>
    for name in 2010-12-30-093337 2011*
    do
    echo -n "In backup on ${name}, version of Security library is: "
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    done
    </pre>
    In backup on 2010-12-30-093337, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-04-100707, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-05-082402, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-06-092846, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-07-094827, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-10-093559, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-11-110542, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-12-094137, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-13-103238, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-14-113145, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-18-112856, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-20-114953, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-21-103642, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-24-102321, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-27-002508, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-27-011931, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-27-104406, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-27-114322, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-27-123928, version of Security library is: 22457
    In backup on 2011-01-27-134523, version of Security library is: 22457

  • Update from 10.7.2 to 10.7.3 blown - Time Machine Restore blown

    Hello,
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    Will it create a Recovery Partition?
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    Any help and suggestions are very welcome :-)
    Regards
    Jimbo
    Naturally, I a am mad as **** at Apple. First, that they abandoned physical media for Mac OS distribution, and secondly that some not so bright lad thought it not necessary to secure the availability of the Recovery Partition under any circumstances short of phyical damage. This really *****, guys!

    Ok... I'm not sure if the following suggestions will work with Filevault 2 enabled. I guess you can try after you create a backup for safety.
    You can recreate the Recovery HD two ways. One is to reinstall Lion using a bootable USB thumb drive of the Recovery HD created with the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. Or from a bootable USB thumb drive with the Lion installer restored to it.
    A second way, which I have used many times, is to follow the instuctions at this site using Terminal commands. Step 3 is what you want to follow. The instructions use the RecoveryHDUpdate.dmg file downloaded from Apple to recreate the Recovery HD. It works great!

  • How do I safely stop a Time Machine Restore midway through?

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    majmanMac wrote:
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