Does a fresh OS X install wipe out Time Machine history?

I just did a fresh Mac OS X install in a (failed) attempt to correct an elusive WindowServer problem:
Quit all apps.
Start a Time Machine backup and wait for it to finish.
Turn off Time Machine.
Clone the boot HD ("Hobbes") to another drive using SuperDuper!
Boot from the Snow Leopard install DVD.
Use Disk Utility on the DVD to erase the "Hobbes" HD, retaining the name.
Install Mac OS X.
During installation wrap-up, migrate everything (all accounts, settings, additional files) from the backup (step 4).
Run Software Update to get back to 10.6.8.
Resolve minor details to get everything back to normal.
Before turning Time Machine back on, I verified it was still set to use the same backup HD and that my exclusion list had been preserved. As expected, the backup dates were empty.
With Time Machine's Preferences still open, I did a Backup Now from the TM menu. The "Preparing" step almost immediately reported 10's of thousands of files. I thought, "Yikes! This looks like Time Machine is going to start over from scratch!"
So I quickly pushed the "stop backing up" button. Time Machine promptly stopped ... and filled in the Oldest and Latest Backup dates.
When I calmed down, I realized Time Machine was probably using folder update timestamps to find the new & modified files.
Before I kick off an actual Backup Now, I'd like assurance that Time Machine will simply take a long time to discover the relatively few files that actually need to be backed up, preserving more than a year of incremental backups.
-- Ward

After installing and initializing the new Time Machine 3 TB hard drive, I made a couple of attempts with SuperDuper! to clone my 1.5 TB drive (nearly full) onto the new drive. The progress bar on the first attempt got to about 90% in 24 hours and appeared to stall. So I restarted (for good measure) and attempted to complete the clone, which ran for many hours and stalled.
Thinking that the original TM drive might be corrupted, I used Disk Utility to Repair the drive, which ran for many hours and stalled. When I canceled the Repair, the drive had lost its volume name and would not mount. Yikes! A repair using TechTool Pro 6 ran for hours and hung. Fortunately, it did repair the drive sufficiently so that it would again mount. Whew!
Disk Utility Restore managed to do a block-level copy onto the new drive, taking about 8 hours.
When I pointed Time Machine at the new drive, it immediately warned me that something might be amiss. I clicked the button to proceed with backup set on the new drive.
Backup Now started TM's "Preparing items..." phase, which took about 30 minutes to prepare nearly 3 million items. Next came an "Indexing backup..." phase. That gave me hope Time Machine would eventually "bless" the new drive and pick up where it left off last week. But my hope faded after 24 hours of indexing. The only "backupd" messages in the Console log were periodic reports of waiting for indexing to complete. So I pushed the stop button.
I'm at a fork in the road:
1. Erase the new drive and give Time Machine a fresh start, keeping the old drive around for while in case I need to restore an old file.
2. Give Time Machine another chance to "bless" the old backups on the new drive.

Similar Messages

Clean install? Restoring Time Machine backups?

First let me say I'm relatively new to Mac, I've graded my iMac (Late 2013) to the latest OS, Yosemite. To say that they computer is dragging is a major under statement. Applications such as AutoCAD, anything Adobe (Photoshop, InDesign), Word, etc. drag. By "drag" I mean upon launch the icon bounces for a good 3-4 minutes and the program does not load. Switching profiles? Forget it, spinning pin wheel, 10 min. in I just restarted it. Its unbearable. I assume that I will have to do a clean install. Will Time Machine restore applications, or is this for documents only? Most of my software is from online subscriptions not disks which means this going to be a serious endeavor to wipe the computer and start all over. If anyones has a better idea of how to go about this, I'm all ears.

Hey spodonahue,
It seems like you are saying that your Mac is running a little slower than normal. Here is an article for you that will help you address this issue:
OS X Mavericks: If your Mac runs slowly
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13895
Thanks for coming to the Apple Support Communities!
Cheers,
Braden

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

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

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

After installing Lion my time machine using a Time capsule backups take a very long time, particularly indexing the back up, does any one know why and a fix?

I have installed Lion over Snow Leopard and noticed a marked increase in the time it takes my time capsule/time machine to back up. It seems to spend a very long time indexing the back up. Does any one know why and more importantly is there a "fix"?

The first index with Lion takes a very long time. Could take over 10 hours. You just have to wait. You can see the progress by opening Console and entering backupd in the search box

Fresh install and save time machine files

Is it possible to do a fresh install of the os (i have a new SSD on the way) and get the OS to somehow recognize the time machine files - ie. not delete them and start anew?
I have 2TB drive of backups for the last 5 months.
I'm thinking the best way would be to just clone the last 2 months sans OS files (or whatever fits) to another drive (via my eSata drive dock).
Any thoughts?

If you're going to install OSX on the SSD, and leave everything on the internal HD, Time Machine will just back up the SSD, and continue to do "incremental" backups of both the SSD and the internal HD.
But if you also move your data to the SSD, TM will back it up completely, since it's a different drive.
If there isn't enough space on your TM drive, it will start deleting old backups trying to make room; if it gets to the last remaining one and still hasn't enough room, it will fail (leaving the last backup).
You can delete all backups of things from the internal HD, if you want, per #12 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Wipe out Time Capsule?

I got a message on my computer this morning saying that to improve functionality I needed to do a brand new Time Machine backup to my Time Capsule, thus wiping everything out. I'm unsure as to what that means. I like to be able to go back over several months if I need to. Has anyone else had that message?

The existing backup has become corrupted.
You can try verifying the sparsebundle.
See A5 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
You can also just see the topics.. this is not such an unusual problem.
You might do better if the old backup can be archived.. and then start with erase and clean backup.

Clean Lion install, keeping Time Machine history?

I have a 2011 unibody MBP, and have been gathering kludge on it for some time, and on previous machines (2007 MBP, 2004 Powerbook) whose data I've migrated over using the Migration Assitant. I'd like to, at some point soon, do a fresh install of Lion, grab my data from backup (or a disk image clone), and reinstall my applications (only the ones I'm currently using, with no detritus from other apps I've installed, used, and since uninstalled).
However, I use a Time Capsule (1 TB) for backups, and wanted to know two things:
Is it possible, after doing the install, to have the previous history of my computer (on the Time Capsule) integrated with my current and future Time Machine backups? (I.e., the Time Capsule sees the new, clean machine as the same machine, and allows me to step into my file history and grab stuff, if need be.)
If the answer to the above question is yes, how would I do this?
Apologies in advance if this question has been answered elsewhere. A cursory perusal of the discussions here didn't turn up anything; but I know there's the chance I could have missed something.
Thanks,
Paul

Having no answer, I took the decision to experiment.
I renamed the new external USB HDD with the same name as the older (soon to be replaced) ones and copied via Finder all the files on it (Aperture libraries, videos, documents).
By using Time Machine while on the new drive (not backing up, but just looking at older backups), I was able to see the previous versions of the external USB HDD files. So I thought that was that easy.
So I decided to manually trigger a new TM backup. However, it computed something like close to 500 GB to backup. Thus eventhough in terms of history for now I can trick TM to think it is the same HDD, when it comes to create a new backup, it simply wants to rebackup everything.
Now I'm getting worried because:
I don't know if the history will be kept after the backup has run;
Because it will push 500GB of data to the TM storage, it might fill it up and TM will start to remove older backup whereas this would have been unnecessary.
Note: I don't rely solely on TM for backup, I use Crashplan as well. So if I lose TM, it is "OK" as I could always restore something from Crashplan, but then for the oldest backup (for the last 2 years) I would only have one copy instead of 2... It is not that critical as I do not think I deleted something I would like to restore from that time period. But our of curiosity I would like to still found out how to properly change an external HDD that was backed-up by Time Machine without losing the history.

Can a Server install alter a Time Machine backup's permissions?

I'm trying to change a server from Advanced to Simple, so I'd planned to:
1) Run a final Time Machine backup
2) Shut the server down
3) Reinstall Leopard Server from scratch
4) Reinstall any/all needed apps or files using Time Machine.
The first snag I ran into was that after step 3) all files in the Time Machine backup seemed to have had their permissions altered so that I could not access the folders and could not make changes to the files.
Based on help from someone else I was able to find out that an ACL is in effect on these files.
I also had some files stored on the Time Machine Backups drive as regular files....these do not appear to have the ACL applied.
When I couldn't figure out how to deal with that I went ahead and did a Full Restore using the Leopard Server Install DVD. This went without a hitch and the Time Machine backup files no longer appeared to have the ACL applied.
So can installing Leopard Server using all defaults where possible (excl. server name and such) and using the Simple server options alter the existing backups on a Time Machine Backups disk like this? Is there something I can/should be doing differently to get this to work "correctly"? Reinstalling from scratch again is still an option if there's something different to try.
Thanks in advance!
-Matt
P.S. I was expecting to have to do some manual reconstruction on the mail server that runs on this box, but didn't expect issues like this so any help is appreciated!

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

Re-installing iTunes with time machine

Somehow I can't find a clear way in other forums in how to re-install iTunes and associated playlists from the time machine back-up.
I installed a 650gb hard drive and took the old 100gb drive out and erased it. I backed up everything via time machine. When I loaded a iTunes again. All the playlists, artwork, and different menus I had for the 'music' were gone?
I have tried to drag the 'iTunes" folder from time machine and put it in the "music folder' of the computer - NOTHING
Tried the restore function from time machine - NOTHING
What am I doing doing wrong or missing? How can I get my 'iTunes' the way it was before I switch hard drives? with all the playlists and artwork?
I don't understand why after loading from time machine I get a music tutorial thing and not my music?
Please help, this is just has dragged for about a month now.
Thanks

In which order do you do all this?
What did you do to get everything back onto the new HD
Did you run Migration Assistant and pull everything off the TM backup?
No particular order. Open the the MBP took the old HD and put the new one in. Then using my external HD followed the intructions TM told me to follow to restore the HD.
Never used Migration Assistant
Did you install the iTunes app first?
Then you should go to the Time Machine and copy /Macintosh HD/Users/yourusername/Music and copy the iTunes folder to the new drive.
-All know is that I copy everything that you said and even try a restore cause the other option did not work. Even by doing this I still don't have the playlists; Im even missing artwork.
The files are copied but it is in a really raw format - there is organization in the files. In other words , it is not the same iTunes that I used to have.
Any other thoughts?

Permission issues after Snow Leopard clean install, Migration Assistant+Time Machine restore.

Hello, here's the situation.
I've done a clean install, for various reasons, I've got backups including one done just before the clean install. Following directions somewhere else I set up a user account called "test" just for the purposes of reimporting PART of my old system, since one of the reasons I did the clean install was to clean up my system (get rid of all those little ghosts of old programs, the old programs themselves, files and settings I not longer want etc.) so I didn't want to just import the whole thing. So I imported just the user account and a few folders such as music and photos that I knew I wanted back on. Then I restarted so that it would log back into my old user account that's been restored using Migration assistant. So far so good. I enter time machine and start restoring Applicatons, their associated support files, a few preference panes, some other files and folders I want back on, so and and so forth. Then I enter my old home folder and see that many of the subfolders I don't have access to, I check their permissions with Get Info and see that read/write access has been granted to my test account, which is ridiculous since it didn't exist when they were backed up. Some searching reveals that on the first Time Machine back-up after a restore like this it should as at the start whether I want to inherit he old backups, so I tell Time machine to do a backup, figure that it shouldn't take much, seeing as there's nothing new, and I've put it all in the same place as in the backup. It doen't give me any such prompt, instead just starts indexing/preparing hundreds of thousands of files, and tells me that the backup should take about 135 gb of space. I stop the backup, give up on working this out myself, and come here. Help?
Of note
The "harddrive" (it's a partition, I've got Windows on the other part) is not named the same as it was in the backups, would this affect it?

I'm not familiar with Lightroom.
Where is the "Lightroom 2 catalog" folder in the second message, and what are it's permissions?
Note that +Repair Permissions+ only repairs permissions on files installed by OSX or certain Apple apps, and you should use the version of Disk Utility that's on your OSX volume, not your Install disc. See: [About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1452].

IPhoto won't open after clean install followed by Time Machine restoration of data.

Hello.
I've just completed a clean install of OS X Yosemite followed by a restoration of my data from a Time Machine backup on my Mid 2010 iMac i3 3.2GHz.
Since the install iPhoto will no longer open. The icon in the dock bounces for a short while and then I receive the following error: iPhoto cannot be opened because of a problem. It then shows problem details and system configuration, the top part of which I post below:
Process:               iPhoto [466]
Path:                  /Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhoto
Identifier:            com.apple.iPhoto
Version:               ???
Build Info:            iPhotoProject-910029000000000~1
App Item ID:           408981381
App External ID:       729712666
Code Type:             X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:        ??? [1]
Responsible:           iPhoto [466]
User ID:               501
Date/Time:             2014-11-15 16:52:59.886 +0000
OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.10 (14A389)
Report Version:        11
Anonymous UUID:        34962211-17B1-3442-0D78-C0F697641981
Time Awake Since Boot: 920 seconds
Crashed Thread:        0
Exception Type:        EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)
Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000
Application Specific Information:
dyld: launch, loading dependent libraries
Dyld Error Message:
Symbol not found: _OBJC_CLASS_$_RKMigratedLibrary
Referenced from: /Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhoto
Expected in: /Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/MacOS/../Frameworks/RedRock.framework/Version s/A/RedRock
in /Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhoto
I then get a long list of binary image data which I haven't posted here (but can if required).
I believe the version of iPhoto I have is 9.6 as that update was installed a short while before I did the clean install of the OS.
I would try reinstalling the iPhoto again but cannot see a way to uninstall or to download again from the app store.
Has anybody seen this behaviour before and/or know of a fix or workaround so I can get my iPhoto program working again please?
Many thanks for your time.
Alex

Looking at that report I would reinstall iPhoto as a first step:
To re-install iPhoto
1. Put the iPhoto.app in the trash (Drag it from your Applications Folder to the trash)
2. Download it from the App Store to reinstall It's on your Purchases List* there.
*Sometimes iPhoto is not visible on the Purchases List. it may be hidden. See this article for details on how to unhide it.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4928
One question often asked: Will I lose my Photos if I reinstall?
iPhoto the application and the iPhoto Library are two different parts of the iPhoto programme. So, reinstalling the app should not affect the Library. BUT you should always have a back up before doing this kind of work. Always.

Migration assistent and built out time machine hdd

Hi all,
my MacBook Pro got stolen and miraculously my time machine died at the same time. I got out the hard drive and put it in a casing with firewire.
My problem is: I try to run Migration Assistant on my new MacBook Pro, but when I select "From a Time Machine backup or other disk" it doesn't recognize my external disk and just shows a spinning wheel. The disk does show up in Finder.
I would appreciate if somebody could give me a hint on how I can best solve this, because I really need the backed up data.
Thanks in advance,
Roy

Time Machine uses a different method to manage its backups on a locally-mounted disk as on a network disk.I 'd first try mounting the "sparsebundle" volume on that disk. If that doesn't let Time Machine access the saved data, then see item #18 of the Time Machine FAQ, particularly the third point under "How to".

I have installed a Apple Time Machine now my Windows laptop will not connect to the internet

I recently installed an Airport Time Capsule without any problems and my iphone, ipad and Macbook Air can all connect to the internet without issues, but my son's Windows desktop suddenly won't connect to the internet.
It basically joins the network and shows that it has internet access but when you go to any webpage it says, "unable to connect to the internet"
I rang the BT helpline as i have installed the Mcafee anti-virus, which was free, thinking that there might be a confliction? After a few checks i was asked to disconnect the Time Capsule and re-connect the BT router. As soon as i did that i got internet access on my sons machine.
BT suggested i speak to Apple as there is obviously something i need to do to the desktop to enable it to work with the Time Capsule, and it is beyond their capability.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance, Pete

Yes I don't see problems there.
I presume the 10.0.2.29 on the Mac is just a typo.
There is a good chance windows is just being stupid, which is not surprising.
Reboot the whole system.
Restart in correct order.. modem.. TC.. 2min gap between them, and then PC.
Test with just the PC running.
See if you can open a web page.. no luck
In the command window again, ping the various IP addresses.
So ping 10.0.1.1 first.
Then ping 8.8.8.8
If those pings work, then try and ping a website. eg www.google.com
Does that work or not?
If ping works and the web pages won't open that is one of those hard ones.
Make sure under network in the PC it is located at home.. not work or public. Windows has this nasty habit of flipping itself autonomously between these settings.. take off the firewall if it is still a problem.
And finally go into the TCP/IP settings and change the DNS to 8.8.8.8

Restore with install DVD and Time machine backup that excludes system

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

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

Restoring Leopard after installing SL with Time Machine with only a SL Disk

I just bought Snow Leopard and I haven't installed it yet. I am currently running Leopard on my MacBook Pro. I have heard of issued with Adobe CS4 and I'm afraid of having such issues, so before I install SL, I want to make sure I can revert to Leopard in case I have problems with Adobe CS4 applications. I use Time Machine, and I know that to restore the entire system from Time Machine, I need a bootable OS X install disk.
My problem is the following: I do not have my Leopard install DVD at hand, it is in another country and I won't have access to it for a few months. So I was wondering whether I can restore my current system (after installing Snow Leopard) using Time Machine, by booting from the Snow Leopard install disk.
So basically: If I installed Snow Leopard, and wanted to go back to before I installed it, could I simply insert the Snow Leopard install disk, and restore Leopard, along with my apps and documents, from my Time Machine backup? Or do I need the Leopard disk to do that?
Thanks!

Mate Dobray wrote:
I want to make sure I can revert to Leopard in case I have problems with Adobe CS4 applications.
You shouldn't have anything but maybe minimal CS4 problems under Sno. But, anything can happen.
I use Time Machine, and I know that to restore the entire system from Time >Machine, I need a bootable OS X install disk. My problem is the following: I do >not have my Leopard install DVD at hand, it is in another country and I won't >have access to it for a few months. So I was wondering whether I can restore my >current system (after installing Snow Leopard) using Time Machine, by booting >from the Snow Leopard install disk.
I have never done exactly what you say, but my opinion is that it will work.
So basically: If I installed Snow Leopard, and wanted to go back to before I installed it, could I simply insert the Snow Leopard install disk, and restore Leopard, along with my apps and documents, from my Time Machine backup? Or do I >need the Leopard disk to do that?
I think it should work as said above. No guarantees though. It would be better is you bought a firewire external and cloned your existing system to the external to be safe--considering the difficulties that might arise since you don't have your Leopard disk.
Can you at least back your data up separately on your TM disk? Then, worst case is that you might have to do an erase and install of Sno if your first install doesn't work well and then figure out how to deal with lost apps if TM let's you down.
Message was edited by: donv (The Ghost)

Does a fresh OS X install wipe out Time Machine history?

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