"Checking Time Machine backup..." ?

Hi,
I just bought a new MacBook and chose to use Time Machine during the initial setup process to transfer information from my TM backup volume (on a Time Capsule) to my new computer.
Unfortunately, I can't seem to get past a status window that says ""Checking Time Machine backup...".
It's been saying this for about a half hour now, with the cursor transformed into the dreaded spinning beach ball that's preventing me from quitting the process. It seems stuck, but perhaps it's really doing something.
Anyone else encounter this situation, have an idea for checking to make it's actually doing something, or an idea to just speed things along?
If not, would I ruin the setup process by doing a hold-down-the-power-key force restart? Once rebooted, will I be taken back to the setup video/intro screens that I've not gotten to complete, or will it bypass those and send me straight to the Finder without any data transfer or account setup?
Thanks in advance for your help!
-Brian

browe83,
I wonder if you are experiencing what is described here at MacFixIt:
*Late-2008 MacBooks: Migration Assistant fails*
Users who have just purchased new MacBooks may run into an issue in which the Migration Assistant fails to properly transfer data.
Apple Discussions poster fghia writes:
+"I just bought the new aluminum MacBook and I am trying to move my files and settings across from my IMac. I set up the DVD / CD share software on both machines. I tried connecting both via direct Ethernet cable and wireless. Both machines are stuck on 'Preparing Information' for a long time, then i get a "Network Connection Failed" error message on the MacBook."+
Being first-run hardware, the new MacBooks have had some glitches that have been addressed by software updates from Apple. Before running Migration Assistant on the new MacBooks directly out of the box, connect them to the Internet and run Software Update. Apple recently released software updates for the new MacBooks as well as for Migration Assistant. The standalone installers for these updates are available here:
MacBook Software update
[http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/application_updates/macbookmacbookp rosoftwareupdate12.html]
Migration Assistant update
[http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/application_updates/migrationanddvd cdsharingupdate.html]
It is recommended that users apply the Migration Assistant update to all computers, to ensure they are running the same version of the driver and utility software before transferring data from one Mac to another. Doing so has solved the Migration Assistant issues for users.
Cheers!

Similar Messages

  • Check Time Machine Backup Contents

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    Sorry to say, but from what I've read here, countless numbers of times, is that Time Machine and a NAS NEVER play well together, no matter what a NAS supplier may say.
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  • How Can I Check Time Machine backup has worked?

    Hello all
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    Hi ChicaneChampagne
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    Time Machine Tutorial
    How do I view or restore selected items?
    Restore From Time Machine
    http://support.apple.com/kb/VI29
    You may also find this Link by Pondini of Interest...
    http://pondini.org/TM/Clones.html

  • Checking time machine backups with a new external hard drive

    Is there a way to make sure that my backups are complete looking at time machine? All I see is the front page for each backup and dont see how to open it and look at the files that were backed up? I have a new LaCie ext hard drive that Im using and want to make sure it is working properly. Also, do I need to change my sleep settings to allow Time Machine to have adequate time to back up, or does it take care of everything?

    Cumby wrote:
    Is there a way to make sure that my backups are complete looking at time machine? All I see is the front page for each backup and dont see how to open it and look at the files that were backed up?
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    Separately, Click here to download the TimeTracker app. It shows most of the files actually saved by TM for each backup (excluding some hidden/system files, etc.).
    I have a new LaCie ext hard drive that Im using and want to make sure it is working properly. Also, do I need to change my sleep settings to allow Time Machine to have adequate time to back up, or does it take care of everything?
    TM will do all that for you. If your Mac falls asleep, TM will just do a backup when it awakens. If you manually put it to sleep (or power off) while it's doing a backup, it will just pick-up and continue when it's awake again.

  • How to select correct time machine backup for migration assistant

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    Brilliant. That was it.
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  • Can't access library folder on Time Machine Backup

    I'll try to explain this as clearly as possible...
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    It woked to get me into my current User/Library of my "new" profile but I cannot move back in time into the actual backups despite the timeline increments on the right side of the screen in Time Machine showing they're are backups for the past several months.  I'm stuck on this moment so to speak.
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  • I have a time machine backup file on a USB hard drive.  I bought a time capsule / airport extreme, flat 3TB.  I wish to transfer the backup file from the usb hard drive to the time capsule hard drive.  10.6.8

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    1. Hook up the drive to your husband's computer. If you don't get the same error message, then it is likely a backup of his computer. If you don't get an error message when attached to your husband's computer, enter Time Machine and check the admin user name.
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  • What is the correct procedure to follow after restoring a Mac from a Time Machine Backup?

    Hi all,
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    John
    OS ML 10.8.4, Macbook Pro Retina
    Synology DS412 (time machine backup to a file folder)

    I actually already checked Pondini's and didn't find the answer.  Any other suggestions?
    thanks

  • How to restore a time machine backup from a corrupted disk

    Hi.
    I have quite a problem. I recently downgraded to os x 10.5.4 due to the requirements of Digidesign's Pro Tools. I did so with a clean install in order to have the most optimized computer possible without loads of unused data. I had backed up my data using Time Machine on an external hard-drive (LaCie, 1 TB) so I wasn't worried about losing important data.
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    +Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.+
    +Invalid node structure+
    +Volume check failed.+
    +Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.+
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    ANY help is greatly appreciated

    ohnoono wrote:
    Hi.
    I have quite a problem. I recently downgraded to os x 10.5.4 due to the requirements of Digidesign's Pro Tools. I did so with a clean install in order to have the most optimized computer possible without loads of unused data. I had backed up my data using Time Machine on an external hard-drive (LaCie, 1 TB) so I wasn't worried about losing important data.
    However, when I inserted my external hard-drive after the clean installation it turns out to be corrupted in some way. It is only recognized in Disk Utility, it doesn't mount on my desktop.
    Disk Utility is unable to repair the disk. The errors are:
    +Verify and Repair volume “Kristoffer's back-up disk”+
    +Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.+
    +Invalid node structure+
    +Volume check failed.+
    +Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.+
    I went out and bought "Data Rescue II" at once to try to recover my data. It works fine with the stuff I've manually dragged to the disc but the Time Machine backup folders seem compressed in some way (It's only about 86 MB). And when I click a file restored from one of the Time Machine folders it seems like it's just a shortcut to an "original file". I get this error when double-clicking such a file:
    +The alias "filename" could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found.+
    Is there some way for me to get Time Machine to understand the back up disk even though it's corrupted?
    no, that's quite impossible. you may try using Disk warrior on that drive. it's known to be able to fix the kind of error that DU is reporting. if that doesn't work your only hope is data recovery. If Data Rescue II doesn't work you can try other data recovery software like Filesalvage or try professional data recovery services (those can can a fortune).
    Or some other way to retrieve my data?
    I have TONS of extremely important data on the disk so it would cost me a huge amount of work to format the disk and start from scratch.
    ANY help is greatly appreciated

  • Update to 10.9.3 Stopped My Time Machine Backup from Working

    Hi. Just now I upgraded my Mac from 10.9.2 to 10.9.3.
    I also use Time Machine to back up my Mac to an external drive and I've been using it for years.
    One result of the update from 10.9.2 to 10.9.3 is that I'm now unable to back up to my Time Machine drive. I successfully backed up to it earlier this afternoon at 3:17PM (it's now 4:32PM), but I'm now getting this error message:
    "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to 'Time Machine Backup.'
    Files can't be copied onto the backup disk because it is read-only. You may need to repair or erase the disk using Disk Utility. If the disk can't be repaired, select a different disk for backups.
    Last successful backup: Today, 3:17PM"
    I shut down my Mac and restarted it, thinking maybe the error would go away, but it hasn't.
    Did 10.9.3 somehow make my Time Machine backup drive read-only? Is there a way to change it back so that it also has write permissions? I can't figure out how to do it. Or am I going to have to erase the drive?
    Thanks.
    M

    I've had intermittent read-only unable to auto-back-up to an external hard drive in general without the OS number considerations as well. Sometimes just a reboot of the computer and/or the drive reset it. As others stated, I also went into disk utility and checked the disk...which took 30 minutes or so. It then always auto-reinstated my ability to write to the disk as well as ungreyed the write permission below it (still in disk utility) so I could click which setting I wanted, and allowed me to use the other info gui to also change the permissions (which was locking me out before the long disk check). I had alternatively tried to use the terminal to chmod my write permissions to that drive, emulating exactly the other drive permissions (which did work), but I was unsuccessful. After doing the long check disk process as above, however, it did show the command line permissions to be exactly as the working disk, surprise surprise. Maybe I could have sudo-ed the chmod command (I didn't try that before giving up and doing the long disk check process) right away. If so, my advice would be to find the path to the disk by using a file inside it (you can drag something to the terminal to auto-write the path), use ls -l to look at the permissions you want to emulate, and sudo chmod [permission] [file] using this wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmod.

  • Unable to recover Mavericks via Time Machine on iMac (2011). I have one Time Machine backup from this week On new Time Capsule. I already attempted safe boot and NPRAM reset. Hard drive and permissions verified as ok.

    Some more history - I'm not too techie so added everything in I thought might be significant!
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    - last week decided to upgrade installed memory from 4gb to 16gb. Faster loading but still running out of memory - just takes longer to do so.
    - also last week purchased 2gb Time Capsule (to back up 660gb on 1TB drive)
    - one successful Time Machine backup completed last weekend.
    - I decided to try and clear some space, tidy my folders, old music files,  delete duplicates etc (Not system files)
    - then tried out 'time machine restore' just to test it out. Deleted files and folders recovered ok using Time Machine menu (the one that looks like outta space)
    - yesterday, Avast Anti-Virus flagged virus detected (sorry, I didn't manage to capture details) and quarantined file, but I couldn't get any windows to respond so forced Mac to shutdown.
    - attempted regular reboot , system hanging on white/ apple symbol screen.
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    - attempt NPRAM reset, reboot hanging at Apple symbol still
    - attempted reboot into Disk Utility. HD drive verified ok. Permissions checked and Safari permissions fixed (only)
    - finally attempting restore from Time Machine Backup via Disk Utility. Stalls at 'select a backup source'. Menu is 'searching for Time Machine Backup....'
    Nothing is listed, after a few mins machine just goes to sleep.
    My Time Capsule and networks are all switched on. No idea what to try next!

    Most of the problems like this that people report on this forum are due to bad "utilities" like Memory Clean and Avast.
    Your Mac probably didn't have a virus. There has never been an OSX virus "in the wild". Third party antivirus software is of very dubious utility on Macs. Macs are not PCs. OSX has anti-malware protection built into it already.
    Do you have any other third party "utilities" on your Mac, such as CleanMyMac or MacKeeper?
    Is the RAM you installed the recommended type of RAM for your Mac?
    Take a look at this page: Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
    But your OS may be damaged beyond repair, or beyond what disk utility is able to repair.
    In that case you have a few options:
    There is a small chance that a (reputable) third part utility like Techtool Pro 7  may be able to fix your OS.
    Try to boot into single user mode (restart, hold down ⌘S until you see a black screen with white text) and repair your hard drive. Here's a reference with directions: Repair Your Hard Disk in Single User Mode | Everything Macintosh
    bite the bullet, boot into the recovery partition or internet recovery, and erase your HD, reinstall Mavericks from scratch, and start over. Your documents are probably still on your Time Machine Backup. I wouldn't reinstall the documents via a migration- you don't want to reinstall bad system files along with your documents- but you could copy them one by one back to your internal HD. And most importantly- don't reinstall any third party "utilites" like Memory Clean or Avast (or any other third-party antivirus software, for that matter).

  • Unable to use a Time Machine backup

    I am getting very frustrated, as I cannot use a Time Machine backup the way I want to.
    Short story, my Macbook Pro Retina (running Yosemite) is, and have for a while been, a litte buggy and slow, so I wsh to to a clean install of OSX, and use migration assistant to recover files and settings. I have tried to to a complete restore, but this hasn´t helped.
    The problem is, the migration assistant can´t find the backups. When I restart with Cmd+R and prompt a restore from TimeMachine backup, it CAN find both mine, and other backups stored on the disk. But after I do a clean install, and get to the assistant, it CAN´T find any of the backups.
    The backups are on a WD 2TB disk, connected via my Mac Mini.
    I have tried creating another account on the fresh install, and verify disk and permissions. One time, that actually made the assistant find the backups, but I have never been able to recreate this. I did not try to copy the files on that occation, somehow.
    I don´t understand how the two backup modes works differently. Complete restore cand find the files, assistant cannot.
    IMPORTANT NOTE: The backups are created via a Mac Mini sharing the Time Machine disk. My backup is created as a disk file on Timemachine/Mybackup, and the Mac Mini backup is another level down on Timemachine/backups/Macmini. I don´t know if this has anythong to do with it.
    On trying to recover, I have plugged the external drive directly into the MBP.
    I have had to go back and to a complete restore every time, but I am not satisfied with this result.
    I have tried to explain as good as I can, and will be very grateful for hints and tips.

    A possible reason for backups not to be available in Migration Assistant is that the computer doesn't have a name, or the name is corrupt. Open the Sharing preference pane and check the name. If you can't do that, reset the PRAM. Credit to ASC member Csnote for this observation.
    Otherwise, starting from a clean installation of OS X, set up a new administrator account and log in. Enter Time Machine and press the key combination shift-command-C. The front window will show all mounted volumes. All snapshots should now be accessible.* Select the one you want and navigate to your home folder (in the Users folder at the top level of the old startup volume.)
    You should now be able to restore your user data. I suggest you do this in two stages. Quit all applications except the Finder before you begin.
    Restore all the visible items at the top level of the home folder.
    Hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar. Enter Time Machine and restore all items in the Library folder. Log out and log back in as soon as the restore is complete.
    Any other invisible folders or files at the top level of the home folder that you want to preserve will have to be restored separately. For most users, that isn't necessary.
    You may have to reinstall all third-party applications from scratch. That would be the only point of doing a clean installation.
    You'll have another problem because you erased the startup volume. The next time you back up, Time Machine won't recognize any files as being the same as they were before, and will make a full copy of all files. There might not be enough space on one or more of the backup volumes for that. There are different ways of dealing with that situation, depending on your needs. The easiest way is to set the backup drives aside, if possible, until you're sure you'll no longer need the data on them, then erase them and start over. Meanwhile start a new backup on one or more empty storage devices. If that solution isn't workable for you, ask for instructions.
    *If you don't see any snapshots in Time Machine, exit the time-travel view and then hold down the option key while selecting
              Browse Other Backup Disks...
    from the Time Machine menu, which has an icon that looks like a clock running backwards. Select the backups of the computer by its previous name. If you don't have the Time Machine menu, open the Time Machine preference pane in System Preferences and check the box marked
              Show Time Machine in menu bar

  • Trying to use a new, larger external hard drive for my Time Machine backup.  However, every time I start the backup, it gets started then fails.  And, I can't delete the few files that did save on the external.  Sort of a catch 22.  Any ideas?

    Trying to use a new, larger external hard drive for my Time Machine backup.  However, every time I start the backup, it gets started then fails.  And, I can't delete the few files that did save on the external.  Sort of a catch 22.  Any ideas?

    Is it a USB hard drive?  USB hard drives have the problem of not giving full speed if they are hooked up on the same bus as keyboards and mice.  Double check your profiler to make sure that is not a problem.  If it is Firewire, make sure there aren't other firewire devices in use at the same time.  I recommend not only keeping a Time Machine backup, but also a clone, and if you do use Time Machine, to make sure the Time Machine drive or partition is at least twice the size of the original drive.

  • How can I "Put Back" a time machine backup from the trash to my external hard drive?

    Basically what happened was I accidentally put an older time machine backup from my external hard drive into the trash on my macbook. Since then, time machine has made new backups onto my external hard drive. How can I either "Put Back" or replace the deleted backup back into my hard drive?
    Whenever I try to move it it says "A newer item named “Backups.backupdb” already exists in this location. Do you want to replace it with the older one you’re moving?" I click replace and after a few minutes of loading, it says "Cannot replace. An item named "" already exists."

    As long as you don't delete the trash, the files should be recoverable.
    I suspect using the Put Back command could take a long time, so be patient.
    If your Time Machine backups are mixed with your daughter's backups you might want to buy a larger drive and move the Time Machine files to the new drive.
    Regarding missing photos in iPhoto...There might be options to rebuild/recover that data from iPhoto rather than trying to revert to a Time Machine backup.
    Check out this third party app, iPhoto Library Manager. It has a demo.
    http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/
    Options for a larger drive.
    I like the Seagate USB 3.0 Backup plus drives. Works on USB 2.0 ports. They come formatted for PC but easy to format in Disk Utility.
    I don't recommend Western Digital because of the boot problem with some of their drives.
    LaCie makes good drives.
    All Mac formatted drives will cost more and it’s easy to reformat with Disk Utility. Do not use the software that comes with the drives. It’s recommended that you use Apple’s Disk Utility.
    Prices vary but this gives you an idea of what you’ll find. As you notice the second and third TB is usually only $15 more per TB. Normally, you’ll find these prices but right now the 1T is more than the 2T
    Seagate Backup Plus 1 TB USB 3.0 $85
    Seagate Backup Plus 2 TB USB 3.0 $99
    Seagate Backup Plus 3 TB USB 3.0 $115
    I have seen the 3T on sale for $99.
    Locally, Best Buy seems to have the best prices.

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