Connecting to an old time machine backup ?

had to reformat my drive and would like to connect it to the old timemachine backup I have - How do I do that ?

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the page that opens.
Select "system.log" from the file list. Enter "backupd" (without the quotes) in the Filter text field. Post the messages from the last backup, beginning with "Starting standard backup." Post the log text, please, not a screenshot. Edit out excessive repeats, if any. Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included – edit that out, too, but don’t remove the context.

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Is there a way to get my photos off an old time machine backup from an external hard drive?

Is there a way to get my photos off an old time machine backup from an external hard drive?

You will have to connect the Time Machine HDD and click on the Icon. You will see one folder called Backups.backupdb. Click on that and you will have to continue until you find the home folder. The iPhoto library (where the pictures are, not the application) will probably be in your pictures folder. You will have to drag that to your desk top. Then you will have access to individual images.
Ciao.

Help. I hit 'Restore All' in an old Time Machine backup

I fully realize I made a terrible mistake. I had an iphoto library on my imac that i haven't backed up at all. I was playing around with an old time machine backup and i pressed restore all thinking it would warn me that i was going to overwrite my existing library. well, now i have lost a years worth of photos without having backed them up. my question is, is there anyway to retrieve them? the trash holds nothing. there is no backup save my iphone. when i hook that up it only shows 2 photos. hide already imported photos is NOT checked. i imagine i can pull them off. i'm wondering if they will be the full resolution however. i would like to UNDO the restore first if there is a way. if not i guess i have to do it with the iphone which i'm not sure if it had all the photos from my previous library anyways. please advise and i will love you forever.
mark

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. About the only recourse is to use a file recovery application like SubrosaSoft FileSalvage. You can run it in demo mode to verify that you can recover the photos you want before you have to pay for it.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
Note: There's now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

Accessing Old Time Machine Backup From a New Account

I have had problems with my old Account and decided to create a new Account. I can "see" the old Time Machine backup lists from the new Account, but can't open or restore them to the new Account. I get the message that I do not have sufficient privileges although I set the new Account up with Administrator privleges.

You should have used Setup Assistant, not Migration Assistant, to transfer your data. I suggest you start over by booting into Recovery, erasing the startup volume, and installing OS X. When you reboot, Setup Assistant will start automatically. Follow the prompt to import data from a Time Machine snapshot. The backup history will then be inherited. The first backup will still be a full one; that can't be avoided.

Can't get old time machine backups to delete from the trash can

time machine backups won't delete from my trash can

You shouldn't be deleting old Tima Machine backups. When TM runs out of space it automatically deletes the oldest backups to make rioom for the new
http://pondini.org/TM/12.html

Old Time Machine Backup Problems - Permissions

Today, I figured out how to access my iPhoto Library photos from my old Time Machine backups. I was SO happy! The backups were from 2011 and earlier (hardrive crashed in May 2012). I had not done a Time Machine backup since 2011, so I decided to do a new backup today. After the backup finished, I decided to look at my old photos again (in the old backups) and when I tried to click on any of the files in the old backups, I get the message: The folder “Pictures” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents.
Of course, now I am crushed/frustrated because I do not understand why I cannot access the old backups anymore. *Note: the new backup is accessible.

No problem.
You probably need to use Browse Other Time Machine Disks and within that older backup go to User/Pictures and restore the file "iPhoto Library" to a separate folder on your drive (so as not to replace your current iPhoto library) and then look in that restored photo library.
You need to do this in the Time Machine "Star Wars" interface from "Browse Other...."

Old Time Machine Backup

OK this is complex so hope u can bear with me...
I backed up my computer with Time Machine running lion, or maybe snow leapord.
Now I have a new computer and the old one is gone, and it's running Mountain Lion.
I'm just trying to get my old data back, but when I go to "browse other time machine backups" my old backup does not appear in the list.
I've taken this disk to other computers before and accessed my old TM backup, I dunno why it's not working now.
Migration Assistant I learned does work, however there are a few problems with that...
First: Migration assistant did not copy my old iWeb site domain file to my new computer, so I'm hoping its still in there somewhere, becuase iCloud deleted my mobile me site by now.
I also clicked every option therefore now I have two accounts. I DO NOT WANT TWO ACCOUNTS. I have now one with the old time machine backup restore, and one with the new computer account. I want one account, I don't want to have to relogin to have to check my old email box. Not only that the directories of one account are locked an not accessible by another... not good.
Finnaly Time Machine just popped-up a window asking if I should "integrate" old time machine backups into this computer backup, saying that if I did this the old computer would not be synced with this new time machine backup. Since I don't have the old comptuter that should be fine. However I'm still hoping to find my old website on that disk somewhere, perhaps in a earlier version of the TM backup.
If I do this "integration" will I be able to now browse my old time machine disk as I was able to before and on other computer's which run lion?
Thanks.

OK it's actually called "inherit" it says:
Would you like this computer to inherit the backup history from "XX" on "X" backup disk?
3 options
don't back up now, Create new backup, Inherit backup history
If I click inherit backup history... it will backup my new disk... and hopefully allow me to accesss the older one like i've been trying to do all along...

Privilege problem with old Time Machine backup

There are all kinds of posts about privilage problems, but I can't find my answer. I did a clean install of Snow Leopard, and now I want to only drag my iTunes library and iPad backup files from my time machine backup onto the computer. I can access all the files on the backup drive, including MobileSync and my iTunes folder, but when I try to pull them off the drive I get the terrible message "The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access “MobileSync”." The sharing & permissions for the folder say "read & write" for my user, and the "Locked" box isn't checked in the Get Info window. When I click on the settings gear in the Sharing & Permissions window, the "Make me the owner" option is grayed out even after I unlock the options. I tried resolution for issue 1 here. And I also tried those terminal commands to no avail. When I access Time Machine from the dock, all the backups prior to my reinstall are listed, but I can't access them. Anyone have any other ideas? This is extremely frustrating. Note: I am able to copy over files from the backups created after I reinstalled Snow Leopard.
sudo chflags 0 /Volumes/Volumename
sudo chown 0:80 /Volumes/Volumename
sudo chmod 775 /Volumes/Volumename
sudo chmod -N /Volumes/Volumename

I personally think that Time Machine is a magical process run by unicorns.
I just moved from a MacBook Pro to a brand spanking new iMac 27". My iPad just does everything that I need a laptop to do, and an iMac is so much more powerful than a MBP.
Anyways, I setup my new iMac with the MBP Time Machine backup, as I usually do with new Macs. As I was going to sell my MBP, I was just going to use my 3TB Time Machine drive on my new iMac, thinking that I'd lose 9 months of backups, as I usually do with a new Mac. Except, apparently with Mountain Lion, the unicorns and wizards have decided that the old Time Machine backups are now transferred to the new iMac. So, even though my iMac is only 15 days old, it shows 9 months of backups. Which was a lifesaver, because an important photo got corrupted in the restore process, and I found it in the Wayback Machine.
Cool stuff.

Defrag an old Time Machine backup to save space for archiving?

I'm aware of all the reasons not to defragment an OSX volume, as well as Time Machine volumes, but hear me out on this one...
I bought a new iMac and will be starting a brand new Time Machine backup. I would like to keep the old Time Machine backup around just in case I need access to some old files. I will not be adding anything further to this old backup, and I will not be using this old backup to restore any system. I will only be browsing and restoring files from this backup, but only rarely. I have removed (via the Time Machine interface's "Delete all backups of...") a number of large files and unecessary directories to reduce the backup size. I then ran the hdiutil compact command to reclaim free space from the sparsebundle.
I read, however, that the hdiutil compact command will only delete unused bands of the sparsebundle, and that defragmenting the contents of a sparsebundle will likely produce more "empty" bands that can be removed with another run of compact to further free up space.
Will it be okay to defragment the sparsebundle under these circumstances?

I've looked over Pondini's site and it's an awesome resource. I've learned a lot from it over the years. But my specific question isn't answered there.
The Time Machine software is complex and I understand that there's a lot of things to know to keep it running smoothly. However, my particular situation isn't commonly discussed. In scenarios not involving Time Machine, defragging a sparsebundle before running hdiutil compact is known to help free up more disk space by creating more unused bands within the sparsebundle that can be removed by compact. Makes sense. Why would this affect Time Machine's process? And could it be that it won't cause a problem for a sparsebundle that will only be used to browse and restore files? ... As opposed to a sparsebundle that one intends to continue backing up to? Are there defregmenting options that I should avoid, or be sure to use?

Want to move an old time machine backup

I'm trying to backup an old drive before it fails.
It has a folder on it with old time machine backups.
My system won't allow me to move that folder.
I get the message "The backup can't be copied because the backup volume doesn't have ownership enabled."
How do I enable ownership or force that file to be backed up?
Thanks.

nowsthetime wrote:
Now I'm stuck with these files taking up space on a drive and no way to get rid of them without wiping the drive. Which is what I'll have to do.
Launch the Terminal app, in the window that pops up, copy & paste in this snippet, follow by adding a space, and then dragging one of those files into the window. Hit the return key and at the Password: prompt, carefully enter your admin password, and hit the return key:
sudo rm
so it looks something like this:
sudo rm /Users/username/Desktop/"name of file"
If that works, then collect the others into a folder and repeat, but use this as the leading part:
sudo rm -R
so it looks something like this:
sudo rm -R /Users/username/Desktop/"name of folder"

How to transfer a single Application from an old Time Machine backup

Hi
My old G5 unexpectedly died so i picked up a new iMac. When I set it up I used migration assistant to transfer everything but was told by a Genius not to "check" applications as I would need to re-install any apps that used a key anyway and there may be issues with snow leopard.
Turns out the new machine didn't have Snow Leopard after all and the one key application that I forgot to account for was my Palm Desktop. This of course has all of my addresses etc. and was far more up to date then the handheld which I haven't used in a couple years.
Is there any way to selectively retrieve this application from the Time machine backup for my old G5? I would even be happy if I could just get the data but I have no idea where to even look for it.
Thoughts?
Thanks to any caring sole who thinks they can help
SDK

This is what I would do, if you absolutely had to run the old Palm Desktop app on your new iMac.
The last version of Palm Desktop appears to still be available from palm.com
http://kb.palm.com/wps/portal/kb/common/article/33219_en.html
Note: This is probably an old PowerPC application, so your Intel iMac will be using Rosetta to run it. That is fine, but a window letting you know may pop up if it is the first PowerPC app you have run.
Hopefully, the installer and application will work properly on a new Mac with Leopard or Snow Leopard.
When it sets up the new user, it should create a folder in your user home folder somewhere. I do not know where this will be, but I would look in places like
<user home folder>/Library/
<user home folder>/Library/Application Support/
<user home folder>/Documents/
for a folder with Palm in the name.
If you can find that folder, note where it is located. Connect the Time Machine backup drive from the G5. In Finder, go into the backup folder to the latest date/time folder. You should be able to navigate to that same location and find that same +Palm data+ folder. First, just copy it over to the iMac's Desktop. Once you have it on the iMac, the idea here (with Palm Desktop NOT running) is to replace the new folder it created with the one from the old iMac. When you run Palm Desktop, hopefully, it will use your old data from the iMac G5.
I have not done this myself for Palm Desktop, but this technique works in other similar situations.

Recovering single file from old Time Machine Backup

I see many questions/answers that almost address my issue, but not quite, so I'm starting a new post. If this has been answered somewhere and I missed it feel free to just refer me to the correct post!
I recently had to do a full System Restore from a Time Machine backup. The good news is that it worked beautifully and I'm using my iMac like nothing ever happened. When Time Machine tried to run (post restore), it said I didn't have enough space on my external drive. Okay, based on other posts here I see that it won't just continue from the old TM backups and it's starting "anew"...got it.
The old TM backups must still be on that drive because it shows 144GB USED and 100GB AVAIL of my 250GB external drive. Okay, again based on other posts I know that I could just wipe the drive clean and start fresh...BUT...
I restored to my TM backup of 8/24....now I realize that there are one or two files that I at some point stopped having TM backup and now I want to get them back (the whole point of TM, right?)...I figured since it's "holding" that space on my external drive, the old backups are intact and I just need a way to get to them to pull them back to my restored system, then start TM from scratch.
I can't get at the old TM backups. I've tried:
1) Using the "Browse other Time Machine Backups..." feature. It doesn't see the old TM backup...sees the drive, but nothing on it.
2) Browsing the drive in "Finder"...nothing shows up...just the attempted NEW backup.
3) Connecting the external drive to an entirely different Mac and trying to browse the disk in Finder OR use the Browse other Time Machine Backups...still nothing.
So I have a 250GB drive that shows 144GB used, but no way to even view what that is....am I out of luck? Or would something in DiskUtility or a 3rd party software (DiskWarrior) help in this situation?
Is there any way to go pull one or two files from my old TM backup?

Exactly Glenn....I did nothing to the hard drive after the "restore from Time Machine Backup"...
I've never used the Migration Assistant...have to look into that.
I didn't want to be argumentative since I was the relative newbie asking for help, but I HAVE to believe that if I didn't write over the files (i.e. reformat the drive), AND the Finder is recognizing that there are 144 GB USED, the files must be there, untouched....
The urgency isn't there for me anymore, I've already re-created the one doc I wanted to recover and the other file was my Windows XP virtual machine file...(I didn't want to have to re-install Windows from scratch - but I did)....so maybe this is a good time to "play" with that drive while I can afford to lose everything on it!

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

REstoring from old time machine backups on new install

Hi, I've been looking for good documentation on this and haven't seen an answer yet.
I want to blow away and reinstall my OS (10.5.1) I made a full backup to my time machine disk and I had planned on reinstalling the OS and all my apps for a clean start, then when the time came to move my photos and itunes back just connect my time machine disk to the new installation and copy the data back. Once I was satisfied that everything I needed was restored from the time machine dist to the new install I would go ahead and re-enable time machine on the new install and blow away my old backups starting from scratch. Has anyone done this yet? I do not want to plug in the old time machine disk and not be able to access the data that was created by the old installation. I would be bitter to say the least. Before anyone suggests another means of backing up I have thought of that, but, I'd like to see if this works.
I understand the scenario of beginning an install and choosing to restore that way, but, the reason I'm reinstalling is to start with a fresh OS form scratch an be able to restore selectively.
Thanks for reading my wordy post, I look forward to hearing back!
Thanks again

I think I'm facing the same issue as you. I ran Time Machine on my MBP. Now I've bought a new iMac. I started it with the Leopard CD and instead of installing Leopard on the new machine, I selected Restore from Time Machine Backup (or something like that). Everything from my old machine is now on my new machine. Sweet!
Only one problem. I've now enabled Time Machine on the new iMac and it tells me that there's not enough room on my external 320 GB drive for its first backup. It also tells me that its first backup will be 112 GB in size! This large size leads me to conclude that Time Machine will not add to the backups from the old MBP, but instead start a new series for the new iMac. To confirm this, I looked on the backup drive.
On the external backup drive, there are a series of 4 KB files, one for each machine that has previously been backed up. These names are nearly identical to the machine's MAC address (which you can find by open Network Preferences > Airport > Advanced). Time Machine will create a sparsebundle file for each machine backed up over the network; its name will have the format MachineNameMacAddresssparesebundle (Backups made when the backup drive was connected locally are saved in a folder called Backups.backupdb). So, to delete an old backup from a machine you're not using any more, you need to delete the 4 KB file containing the machine's MAC address, AND either the sparsebundle file OR the machine names' folder inside the Backups.backupdb folder.
Hope this helps.

Transfer old time machine backup to time capsule

I've just bought a new Time Capsule.
I have Time Machine backups for two MacBook Pro computers - one on a direct-connected USB drive, and the other on a drive connected to the AirPort Extreme USB port.
What's the best way to transfer these backups to my new Time Capsule?
Walt

The methods are described here.
http://pondini.org/TM/18.html
Pesonally I think it better to start over and retain the old devices for 6months or so as archive.. then if you have never needed them you can scrub and reuse them.

Connecting to an old time machine backup ?

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