Can you restore from Time Machine backup to a smaller drive?

My 2008 Air's original hard-drive just died. I have a recent Time Machine backup. Since the laptop isn't under warranty, I am looking at buying a replacement hard-drive on my own (either SSD or 'standard'). My question is, if I was using ~70Gigs (and had a Time Machine backup to that effect) and place a 64G hard-drive into the laptop and attempt to do a Time Machine restore... what will happen? Will I be able to pick and choose what to leave out? Or will the entire restore fail? Thank you.

As long as there is sufficient space on a drive you can restore to any drive. However, be sure the drive is properly partitioned and formatted. In your case you can not fully restore 70 GBs to a 64 GB SSD, but you can restore the operating system and some of your data. That means you cannot do a full restore but will need to pick and choose after you install OS X.
Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
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. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

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    Press Command and R keys while your Mac is starting and restore your backup. You shouldn't use 10.6 to restore the Mountain Lion backup

  • Restoring from Time Machine backup to a smaller drive. Size of backup is more than data on source drive. how can I fix this?

    Hey folks,
    I posted this in the MBP section and realized I posted in the wrong forum so hopefully this is better. Sorry for the x-post.
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    As long as there is sufficient space on a drive you can restore to any drive. However, be sure the drive is properly partitioned and formatted. In your case you can not fully restore 70 GBs to a 64 GB SSD, but you can restore the operating system and some of your data. That means you cannot do a full restore but will need to pick and choose after you install OS X.
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    3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

  • Can't restore from Time Machine backup error message

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    Good to hear MA is doing something!
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  • Imac won't restore from time machine backup after HD (hard drive) recall replacement

    I have an imac bought in 2011, running Snow Leopard.  It required an HD replacement due to the 1 TB Seagate recall - the replacement was done by a certified Apple repair station yesterday.  Before the guy left he started a backup/restore from my latest time machine backup set.  It failed.  I attempted it two times and got error messages that it failed and the computer needed to be restarted to try it again.  No luck.  I called the guy back and he told me to call Apple Care.  Not thrilled about that response since the guy had just left my house I did what he told me to do.  (A quick sideline here:  I recognize that a time machine backup should be no big deal and SHOULD work everytime, but it doesn't.  It irks me that Apple is replacing my HD through no fault of mine and yet they don't allow the restore of data to be a "covered" expense in this process - this isn't just because this was an authorized repair guy - the Apple store would have done the same). 
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    If you can help me, I would be eternally grateful!  I am open to having a phone conversation if you are willing to give me your email to mail you my number. I have so much work to do this week and this was the last thing I needed.  Did I mention this was supposed to be EASY?
    I used to be quite the geek with my PC - still on the learning curve with the mac but not enjoying it.  I am fairly tech savvy and I can follow instructions for a step by step solution if you've got one. 

    I got a recall and had the drive replaced. I have retored 3 timesa dn even had apple do the job and it is still not right. I still can't get a simple ghost of the data from time machineback tot he new drive. 
    This is Apple's explaination as taken from their web page.:
    Restoring your entire system from a backup
    If you are restoring a backup made by a Mac to the same Mac
    With your backup drive connected, start up your Mac from the Recovery system (Command-R at startup) or Mac OS X v10.6 installation disc. Then use the "Restore From Time Machine Backup" utility.
    Note: If "You can't restore   this backup because it was created by a different model of Mac" appears  when restoring  a backup that was  made on a different Mac, follow the onscreen instructions.
    I even posted this information on the community and apple removed it... because they don't like the:
    Off-topic or non-technical posts
    Non-constructive rants or complaints
    But here is my experieince:
    Take in 27iMac running 10.6.8, 5-7 days, what a joke, my boss will be happy to pay for a week without working. Finally get, "if you have TM back up, 3 days." Get machine back with 10.6.3, hit the R recovery, click TM back up, runs for 2 hours, reboots, looks great. Box up take back to office... update to install - OH NO, still running 10.6.3. Updates crash with no specific error on install, BUG PROBELM, nothing runs.
    Call Apple... after hours, tells me to boot using 10.6.2 disk, wipe, reinstall OS, udate to 10.6.8, THEN do the restore. GREAT! Only thing 10.6.2 DVD won't read... now back on phone... take back to the store, Genius says, he'll ix it just like it was. PROMISES it'll be fixed.
    Pick up next day, supposedly, booted to disk, wiped drive, reinstalled, updated to 10.6.8 and THEN did the RIGHT restore... Looks GREAT... apps run and 10.6.8 OS. Back to the office... NOT RUNNING right!!!... fonts messed up, drop box app needs new install, cocktail needs upgrade, Fetch not working, memorized paths gone... back ups locked out of permissions... ***!!
    4 hours on phone with apple and still no rsolution - to missing "settings". Seems there are THREE WAYS TO RESTORE (according to apply tech)... Running MIGRATE ASSISTANT and being able to choose your files, including settings, "R" RESTORE after they load a new OS... or NOW WAITING for them to send me a bootable 10.6.3 disk and then boot from disk, w/o installing OS and doing a restore from TM. I think this is done via the disk Utilties application.
    So now can't back up without doing a full 400 GB back up since permissons are screwed and possibly destroying any good back ups... can't work, like having hands tied behind back. WAITING for solution! Very upset!!!
    I did my first restore just like they said and now an 10 days without proper machine. Just FYI. I thnk I am going to make the store do the tech work so I have somthing to fall back on.

  • Help with Restoring from Time Machine Backup with new Hard Drive

    Hello. Recently, my hard drive died in my 24" Early 2008 Aluminum iMac. Luckily, I had a time machine backup, and I took it upon myself to replace the 320 GB Hard Drive with a 2 TB Seagate Barracuda disk. The hardware replacement (although difficult) went fine. Now, I'm having a bit of trouble restoring the new drive from my time machine backup. The new disk shows up in Disk Utility with the correct capacity. I formatted the new drive with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using my installation disk. My only problem is that the drive isn't showing up when I am choosing which drive I want to restore my time machine backup onto. I can pick out the backup I want perfectly fine, but I can't find the new drive. Any help?

    UPDATE: I restarted it (Classic IT Crowd "Have you tried turning it off and on" moment) and the drive shows up on screen. Right now, I'm waiting for it to "Calculate disk size needed for restore" and I'll keep you posted.
    UPDATE 2: Currently restoring. Let's see if it's successful.
    Message was edited by: funman895

  • Can you restore a Time Machine backup to a newly formatted disk.

    I am planning on reformatting my MacBook's hard drive, and then restoring my files to it, because of a problem I am having with Boot Camp telling me to reformat my disk and try partitioning again. Can I do this with Time Machine (i.e. wipe everything off my hard drive and then restore it with a Time Machine backup)? Would I just boot up from my Snow Leopard disk and then click on "+Restore Time Machine Backup+"? I am new to Time Machine, and haven't even performed my first backup, so please forgive me if this is a stupid question.
    Also, if I can do this, would it leave it exactly as it was before I reformatted or would I have to download all the updates again (e.g. my computer has Mac OS X v.10.6.2 installed. Would it restore to that or would it restore to v.10.6.0, the version that is on my Snow Leopard disk)?
    Thank you.
    James.

    yes, you can do it with TM but it would be safer to do using a bootable clone. to do it with TM boot from the SL install DVD, reformat the internal drive using disk utility in the utilities menu. quit disk utility and select 'restore system from backup" from utilities menu. follow the instructions.
    but as I said, it's better to use a bootable clone. make a clone to an external drive using CCCloner or Superduper. then boot from the external, reformat the internal using disk utility and clone the clone back to the internal.
    either method will give you your current system back so you won't have to reinstall anything afterward.
    Message was edited by: V.K.

  • How do I restore from time machine backup onto unmounted disk drive "disk0s2?"  :-(

    In trying to restore my MacBook Pro after a strange freeze, I seemed to have unmounted the main disk drive. So, I have no drive on which to restore my computer using my time machine backup. What do I do now???

    Give this a try:
    Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions - Lion/Mountain Lion
    Boot to the Recovery HD:
    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
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    When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
    See if you are able to get the partition to mount. If not select the Terminal from the Utiilities menu. At the prompt enter:
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    Press RETURN and authenticate. Your password will not be echoed. Press RETURN again. I'm assuming you have a disk with one partition. If that's not correct, then do not use the above command.

  • Can't Restore from Time Machine Backup???

    I was trying to revert my OS to Snow Leopard from Lion, and thus I backed up all my files first just in case something went wrong. I however forgot that you cannot restore a backup from a newer OS to an older one, so I redownloaded Lion to set things right and backup only my files. However, when I redownloaded Lion and I connected my externel hardrive and clicked on time machine, all the backups were in pink and when I clicked on them they were unresponsive. What happened and how do I fix this?

    marcus221 wrote:
    I redownloaded Lion to set things right and backup only my files. However, when I redownloaded Lion and I connected my externel hardrive and clicked on time machine, all the backups were in pink and when I clicked on them they were unresponsive. What happened and how do I fix this?
    If your backups are on a network, it may take a few moments for the display to be "populated" and responsive.
    What you see in the "Star Wars" display depends on how you got there.  If you start from, say, your Documents folder, then that folder is all you'll see.  If it wasn't included in your backups, you can't select them.
    Select something else before going into the display, or select something else in the sidebar.
    See #15A in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

  • Restoring from Time Machine backup that has multiple drives

    I'm interested in not only backing up my Macbook Pro drive but also an external hard drive. I know that this is possible by adding the external drive in the 'Options' of Time Machine.
    My question is, If I want to do a full restore from my Time Machine drive, will I have to restore both my Macbook Pro drive and my external drive or will I have an option to pick either or?
    For example, if my macbook pro's drive is okay but that external drive that i also backed up using Time Machine is dead. Can i just restore my external drive on to a new external drive without having to restore my macbook pro's hard drive as well?

    Certainly you can restore files with Time machineas I noted in my original post  - that is what TM is all about
    1 -  launch Time Machine
    2 - go back to the when you made the backup
    3 - select the iPhoto library (by default in your pictures folder)
    4 - click the restore button
    See - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US - for more details
    One quote from that article
    To restore, select the file/folder and click the "Restore" button. The file will automatically be copied to the desktop or appropriate folder.  If the file you are restoring has another file in the same location with the same name, you will be prompted to choose which file to keep or keep both.
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    And you may need to post in the Time Machine forum as this is really a TM question not an iPhoto question
    LN

  • How many times can you restore from the same backup?

    how many times can you restore from the same backup?

    As many times as you want till you delete or modify it.
    It's YOUR backup, a copy of all your stuff.
    Not some copyrighted, access controlled bunch of bytes representing a picture, a song or a movie, with a bunch of lawyers from the entertainment maff1a hellbent on restricting what you can do with it.

  • I'm having a problem with logging into a FileVault-protected user account after restoring from Time Machine backup.

    Hi all,
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    Once I erased the hard drive and reinstalled the operating system, I browsed the Time Machine disk and, within the Users folder, there was no folder for the main user account. When I tried to reinstall everything by restoring from Time Machine backup, I'd get the option for all the user accounts, but when I tried to log in with the main one I'd get the dreaded "You are unable to log in to the FileVault user account "User" at this time. Log in failed because an error occurred." Finally, when attempting to restore from the Time Machine backup again, I noticed something strange: After the computer got to about 10% done restoring, it declared itself completed successfully and rebooted.
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    Thanks.

    Hroodbwai wrote:
    I can't find it! not sure what's going on but the only folder shown is the " Shared" folder.
    Did you have only the one user account? If there were others, they should also be in the "Users" folder. You probably won't have access to the files inside them, but they should be there.
    From what can make out, it looks like it's not backed up any of the files for the filevault account. Can't see user folder when looking through previous backups in Time Machine galaxy view.
    Are you doing that from a Finder window set to your internal HD, or your computer name? It should look something like this (with the Finder in List view):
    |
    |
    I'd been logging out and backing up manually on a regular basis.
    Scheduled backups should run normally; but they won't back up the File Vault sparse bundle, nor will any run manually.
    The only time it's backed-up is when you actually log out.
    You should have seen this window on logout:
    |
    |
    followed by this one:
    |
    |
    If you didn't see the second one, or cancelled it, the account wasn't backed-up.

  • Can't restore latest time machine backup

    I have just had my the hard drive in my macbook pro replaced and am trying to restore from a time machine backup.  I back up regularly (about once a week) to an external hard drive, but the most recent option for backup is October... help!
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    Welcome to Apple Support Communities
    It looks like you want to have the whole backup restored. In this case, instead of using the Time Machine app and restoring files individually, you need to use Migration Assistant (in /Applications/Utilities).
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  • I cannot able able to start my macbook and then i started my mac in a recovery mode now mac os X utility window opens with 4 options 1. Restore From Time Machine Backup 2. Reinstall Mac OSX 3. Get Help Online 4. Disk Utility if i try to restore my mac wit

    i cannot able able to start my macbook and then i started my mac in a recovery mode now mac os X utility window opens with 4 options 1. Restore From Time Machine Backup 2. Reinstall Mac OSX 3. Get Help Online 4. Disk Utility if i try to restore my mac with time machine no option appears if i reinstall from Mac OSX error comes and cannot able to recover from disk utility please help how can i reinstall mac OSX

    Guitar21,
    your MacBook Pro has booted into its Recovery mode. From the OS X Utilities menu, select Disk Utility. On the left-hand side of the Disk Utility window, select your internal disk’s boot partition (typically called “Macintosh HD”). On the right-hand side, press the Verify Disk button if it’s not greyed out; if it is greyed out, or if it reports that errors were found, press the Repair Disk button. Once the verification/repair is completed, exit Disk Utility and select Restart from the Apple menu to restart in normal mode. Does it get to the login screen now?

  • Had to install a new hard drive early 2008 iMac, now can't restore from Time Machine.

    Had to install a new hard drive in a early 2008 iMac, now can't restore from Time Machine. Backups show in Time Machine but  I can't select them.
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    Here are some notes on Time Machine problems.  
    http://pondini.org/TM/  
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