Getting My desktop back from time machine

I reformatted from mountain lion back to snow leopard. Now I'm at the point to restore from backup in time machine. What do I select from time machine to get a full restore including my DESKTOP! Ive done this twice now. I select Mac Hd. I select User. And all I get is 200 hundred more GB's used and no desktop. Sorry to yell but I'm a little frustrated ! Bill

To be clear, the Time Machine drive has all your up-to-date data and has OS X Lion on it? Your iMac currently has a new drive with Snow Leopard on it? If so, yes Lion and all your data will end up back on the iMac.
The best instructions, with images to guide you, are Pondini's from point
b) To use an install disk in this link: http://pondini.org/TM/14.html

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Installed new SSD. How do I get my files back from Time Machine?

Hi all, if you take the time to read my issue, thanks a lot. I appreciate any help you can offer, and sorry if anything is unclear...
The 1tb drive eventually failed on my 2009 27", quad core i7 imac. I had USB backup using time machine to an external 2 tb disk.
Repair guy took my mac to his shop, and installed a new samsung 1tb SSD.
He had trouble reinstalling from my time machine backup - so he's just installing Yosemite (I was using 10.8.x?) and giving it back to me with a fresh install of Yosemite.
When he tried to use time machine to restore my system to how it was, he started the process, and it said that it would take 13 hours, so he left it overnight.
When he returned, he found a white screen with a frozen mouse pointer. He did a hard reboot, and then could not access the drive at all - the system would not allow him to read the drive and he had to take the drive out, reformat from another mac, and then install Yosemite again.
Now he has suggested that I simply drag and drop all my folders from the USB time machine backup into my computer, and seems to think this will get things back to how they were. I'm not sure that it works like that though...I'd expect certain applications need to be installed, settings changed, permissions granted, passwords entered...that kind of thing.
Now I have a choice - whether to
A) reinstall my applications one at a time, and then copy the data from my backup drive.
B) manually drag and drop all the files from the most recent backup folder into the "computer" folder. (This was his suggestion)
C) attempt some kind of migration using the Migration assistant. (I believe this is what the guy tried- he started it off, it said "13 hours remaining) he left it running overnight, and came back to a static white screen with frozen mouse, he powered down, then when he switched it back on, the screen did not load any OS (not sure whether it had booted into some kind of BIOS, but he said it was so unresponsive that he had to remove the drive and reformat it from another computer).
D) Try some other application for intelligently restoring my apps and data from the Time Machine backup.
To be honest, my main concern is screwing things up badly! I'm veering towards reinstalling my apps, even if it means fixing up preference settings and typing in codes etc... I would rather take a slow and steady approach rather than a "risk having to take it back to the shop/take it apart" approach.
Also, is migration different from restoring from time-machine?
Perhaps you could advise me? Many thanks

Restart the computer and hold the Command & R keys.
Thanks - I didn't know how to do that!
I did that, and it went through the steps for restoring from the time machine backup. I didn't click on "restore" just yet... My concern is that when the guy in the shop tried that, it resulted in the serious failure that required the drive to be removed and formatted from another computer.
I'm wondering what might have caused that - is it possible that the external drive had a failure, or (more likely) that the drive caddy it sits in briefly lost power or something?
Also, can you tell me if simply drag-dropping the files from the time-machine backup would result in everything returning to its initial state? Or is that (as I suspect) a bad idea?
Right now I have a fresh Yosemite install which works. I'd rather have that, and slowly restore my files and apps manually than risk getting the same result as the guy in the shop. Do you think that restoring from the restore partition is worth trying again?

How to get my files back from time machine on a new computer

My laptop has been stolen so i bought a new one.
I would like to keep the clean install but also i would like to restore my files from my time machine (on a time capsule)
How can i do that ?

After you do a clean install, when you first boot up, Setup Assistant will open and you can restore everything from Time Machine.
Set up a New Mac
Migration Assistant/Set Up Assistant - Mavericks

I performed a "Clean" Install of Lion. How do I get my keychain back from Time Machine?

I erased my hard drive and installed Lion. I did do regular back ups to a USB hard drive. I can see all the old files and applications on my backup drive. How do I get the back up keychain passwords into my newly created Lion keychain?

Hold down the option key and select Go > Library from the Finder menu bar. That's your home Library. With that Finder window open, try to enter Time Machine. If you can, navigate to a snapshot of the Keychains folder and restore it. You may have to hold down the option key and select "Browse other Time Machine Disks" from the Time Machine menu.

How do i get my contacts back from time machine?

Today i restored my macbook pro and backed it up on an external disk (My passport for mac). Now i'm putting some files back on to my mac and put most of the stuff i wanted got back on, but i cant find the way how to get my contacts back.

Bring the Contacts or Address Book window forward, then enter Time Machine and scroll back to a snapshot that includes the contacts you want to restore. Select the contacts and click the Restore button in the lower right corner of the screen.

How to bring my files back from time machine

I just got a new hard drive as the old one broke down .. I installed the snow leopard and then the Lion as i was running before ....
How can i restore the computer from time machine back ups ? i have lots of data in time machine that needs to came back !

To be clear, the Time Machine drive has all your up-to-date data and has OS X Lion on it? Your iMac currently has a new drive with Snow Leopard on it? If so, yes Lion and all your data will end up back on the iMac.
The best instructions, with images to guide you, are Pondini's from point
b) To use an install disk in this link: http://pondini.org/TM/14.html

I deleted my iPhoto Application from my MacBook Air by mistake. But I have backup on my TimeMachine. How does it work if I wanna get it back from Time Machine? Is it possible? Thanks.

I've just deleted iPhoto from my applications by mistake on my MacBook Air. But I do have a backup on Time Machine. Can I get it back from there? How do I do it? Thanks.

Do you still have iPhoto in your Trash? Thenopen the Trash, select "iPhoto", ctrl-click, and select "Put Back".
If iPhoto came preinstalled on your mac, or you bought it from the AppStore, it would be easier, to download it again from the AppStore. If you open the AppStore and sign in with your AppleID, click the "Purchased" tab, then you should see iPhoto waiting for you, ready to download. Click the "Install" button.
To restore from TimeMachine, select your Applications folder in the Finder.
Enter Time Machine and go back in time, to the time before you deleted your iPhoto. select iPhoto and press the restore button.
Good Luck

.me mail wiped out from iPhone. Restore desktop Mail from Time Machine how?

Wife using her iPhone (OS 4.0.2) for some reason choose delete all on the mobile me account, which wiped out all of our old email on our iMac. Very important email from many years !
Fortunately, We are running Time Machine on a NAS, so getting the files back isn't a big deal. What I don't know is what I'm supposed to copy over. If I look at users-->library-->mail-->Mac(username)-->INBOX.imapmbox-->messages.. I can still see all the same messages that are showing up in time machine. Is there another file or trick I need to do for the mail app to get all of these messages back in the inbox and everything back to normal ?
Thanks !

Start Mail and while looking at the mail window, start time machine.
It should come up with the "star field" and you will have all the accounts and mailboxes available as far back as your TM backups go.
From there you can restore your mail.
Cheers

Mail gets stuck importing messages from Time Machine when setting up new Lion Macbook Pro

I just used time machine to set up my new 13-in mid-2012 Macbook Pro and am having trouble setting up the Mail application. It opens fine, asks me to import my messages, takes about an hour and a half, then gets stuck at "less than a minute." I then have to cancel out, and restarting causes the whole process to start over.
I've tried deleting the Envelope Index, but that didn't help. I also tried restarting the computer. Hitting "Cancel" instead of "Continue" to try to set up Mail without importing my messages just exits the application.
Any ideas why it hangs at the very end, and how I can avoid this?

Did anyone find a solution here?
This has happened to me after numerous crashes over the years and just did again. Seems to be a recurring problem when dealing with lots of mail messages.
Today, after 3 attempts, it still hangs up on 50,951 of 166,972 (yes there are a lot and for a reason).

Reinstall system to solve beachball issue, then get files from time machine backup.. will the bring beachball back

Hi,
My iMac has a beachball issue to the extent that now it not even starts up anymore, I don't even get to the desktop screen. I plan to reinstall the system from with the CD I got when I purchased the iMac 2 years ago, then update the operating system to the latest version, and then get my files and programs back from my latest time machine backup, which was completed c. 2 weeks ago.
1) Will this process generally work? I am running Mavericks 10.9, so the CD I want to install from will be an older version, but I then plan to upgrade to 10.9 before accessing the time machine files.
2) Post upgrading the op system to the latest version, when I then get the programs and files back from time machine, will that bring also back the beach ball issue, or given that everything will be saved and installed 'cleanly' it will be alright?
I am not a mac pro, so still learning, please forgive if I am not posting required info. Let me know what you need.
Thanks

1. Yes.
2. Depending on what is causing the beachball, restoring may or may not bring the problem back.
Spinning Beach Ball
Spinning Beach ball (2)
Spinning Beach ball (3)
Spinning Beach ball (4)

Restore Mac from Time Machine, after grey screen

I'm working with an iMac running Mountain Lion from 2011 with Intel chip
The computer keeps loading up to grey screen. I was able to get to the screen where I get to choose
Restore from Time Machine
Reintsall OSX
Get help online
Disk Utility
I try to restore from Time Machine but after i " select a backup" date it keeps seacrhing for disk and stays stuck on page that says Select a Destination.
This is my fathers Mac and I'm trying to help him fix it. Any help would be greatley appericated
Thanks

Most likely, some folders were inadvertently excluded from your backups, and as a result you can't restore your data in Recovery, Setup Assistant, or Migration Assistant.
Starting from a fresh installation of OS X, set up a new administrator account and log in. You should now be able to enter Time Machine and restore your user data from a snapshot.* 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 your 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 your home folder that you want to preserve will have to be restored separately. For most users, that isn't necessary.
You'll have to reinstall all third-party applications from scratch, or restore them from another kind of backup, if you have one.
You'll have another problem if this is a new computer, or if you erased the startup volume: Time Machine won't continue your previous snapshot series, but will instead try to begin a new one, starting with a full copy of all files. There might not be enough space on your backup volumes for that. There are different ways of dealing with that situation, depending on your needs. The easiest way is to set your 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 your 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

How many ways to restore from time machine backup

I inadvertantly reformated an external hard drive with my iPhoto library. I have it backed up with time machine but am having trouble getting to the backup from time machine while iphoto is open. Never shows any backups.
There is device called Time Machine Backups in Finder.From there I follow a path backups.backupdb/<computer name>/2012-06-02-222911/Pictures/Pictures/iPhoto Library which from the size and date modified looks like my iPhoto Library. Can I simply copy this file to my newly formatted drive to restore? Is there someplace that explains in greater detail than help what the meaning of the device "Time Machine Backups" and the contents are?

Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I can't imagine anything TMwise not covered.

Why would it be preferable to reinstall OS X rather than restore from time machine backup after Internet recovery?

Hello,
I have not been able to startup my less than one year old MacBook Air (had flashing question mark folder on grey screen and startup manager only appeared once but froze) and so finally managed to do Internet recovery.
Now get 4 options:
Restore from TM backup
Reinstall OS X
Get help online
Disk utility
I'm really new to mac and am wondering why the kind user here who has answered my previous questions has recommended reinstall over restore option? And why not disk utility which says it could repair a disk...although it also says it could erase a disk which sounds pretty scary to me!
Also, am I right in thinking reinstall would be like the reformatting I did on pc, ie will get me back to a 'new' system?
And if I choose this option can I then get the majority of my stuff back from time machine backup on external hd?
Thank you for your help with this.
E.

I'm really new to mac and am wondering why the kind user here who has answered my previous questions has recommended reinstall over restore option?
Apparently that was dominic23 and hopefully this person will see this post.
Will not startup...help!: Apple Support Communities

How to restore a Note in Mail from Time Machine

I have accidentally deleted some text in a note that I had in Mail (Notes).
Trying to undo didn't work, and I can't find the file to restore it back from Time Machine.
I've tried searching with spotlight but couldn't find anything.
Any ideas of where the saved note would be stored?
Thanks in advance and Happy Thanksgiving

Don't try to restore the file; restore the Note. Go in Mail to the mailbox where the note belongs. Enter Time Machine from there and step back until you find the Note.

Restore app from time machine

Daily tracker was updated to iSO 5 and my ipod does not work on that release and i was stupid enough to delete the on that did work. how do i get the previous one from time machine

- Go to iTunes>Preferences>Advanced and find the location of your iTunes media file.
- Go to Finder>Time Machine> and search for that Mobile Application folder that has the app you want. You may be able to do it by just search for the app by it title.
- The copy that app to the Mobile Applications library.

Getting My desktop back from time machine

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