How do I reinstall Lion after having to revert to previous Time Machine Backup of Snow Leopard?

After upgrading to Lion, had to revert to a Snow Leopard Time Machine backup in order to transition my Quicken data to a newer version of Quicken compatible with Lion. Now not sure how to get back my upgrade. Command-R during restart does not work, I'm sure because system is now running Snow Leopard. App Store does not show my purchase. Don't want to pay for Lion again. Don't want to restore Lion Time Machine Backup as I will lose my new Quicken Essentials version and data file.

If you are running Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later open App Store and sign in with the same Apple ID you used to purchase Lion. Click on Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should see an active Install button to the right of your original Lion purchase entry.

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I just restored my 13" MBP i5 at the apple store to the newest version of Lion after issues with a previous Time Machine backup from Snow Leopard- this time I created a new account and just ported files and folders, and now MS Office doesn't work. Help?

I just restored my 13" MBP i5 at the apple store to the newest version of Lion after issues with a previous Time Machine backup from Snow Leopard- this time I created a new account and just ported files and folders, and now MS Office doesn't work.
^^ that's the main problem. Here's the full history.
I bought a new 13" i5 MBP, early 2011 edition. I had an old white Macbook 2.14 ghz core2duo on Snow Leopard. I attempted to port over my time machine backup, but encountered problems in that my User was inaccessible from the new computer after the import finished, and I had to go in and change the root password, etc, and for some reason or another, I couldn't install any programs at all from that administrator's account. By "couldn't" I mean I could install them, but upon installation they would never boot. So, I took it to the apple store and did a clean install from the most up to date Lion OSX. Then, I created a brand new admin account, instead of trying to import the old one, and things seemed great. Then, I just imported my old files from the TM backup, but not any system settings, permissions, or user data. Just my Docs, pics, vids, apps, and itunes stuff.
Here's where things get weird again. I imported this stuff under the name "old", but all of these folders have a red negative sign on them, marking them as restricted. So, from my main admin account, I cannot even peruse these folders. Since I didn't import user data, I can't sign in to the "old" account to change permissions. I already tried to change the permissions from system preferences, but that didn't change anything. And now, for whatever reason, of all the apps that were imported then, MS Office is the only set of apps that does not work. When I click on it, it just says there was a problem and asks if I'd like to send a report to apple. I tried reinstalling it to no avail. I'm an English student, so i really need access to Word. Can anyone help? The Apple store is a major detour for me and would like to fix this issue myself.

Most likely you have Office 2004 which are PPC-only applications and will not work in Lion. Upgrade to Office 2011. Other alternatives are:
Apple's iWork suite (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.)
Open Office (Office 2007-like suite compatible with OS X.)
NeoOffice (similar to Open Office.)
LibreOffice (a new direction for the Open Office suite.)

Migration Assistant in Lion won't recognize Time Machine backup from Snow Leopard

I just got an iMac with Lion. I am trying to use the Migration Assistant to move my files/apps etc from a Time Machine backup to the new computer. The MA will not recognize the backup drive - (external firewire 800). I can see the backup drive on my desktop but it does not show up as an option to choose in the Migration Assistant. Any idea what might be wrong. The backup is from an iMac running Snow Leopard and all the system software was last updated on Dec 9th. It think it is as current as I could get with Snow Leopard. Any ideas what is wrong?
Thanks,
Chad

This happened to me after hard drive replacement under the Seagate Drive Recall at the local Apple Store. Here's what I learned from the process:
I Wagged the Mac home, fired it up (with naked OS installed at the Apple Store), and it wouldn't see my Time Machine drive with Setup Assistant - not on firewire 800 nor USB. Just a grey spinner that lasts forever. When I try just continuing anyway, it offers me something that looks plausible, but then puts up a dialog about duplicate user name, and no matter what I enter, it always says "that user already exists". So I think - maybe Migration Assistant. Complete the setup, create an account, watch the nice welcome movie. BAM - there's my Time Machine drive on the desktop. OK - it has to work . . . but no. Same behavior in Migration Assistant, plus the new OS offers to start making backups on my Time Machine disk - it's not recognizing it at all.
So - back to the Apple Store - let the genius figure it out. It turns out there are multiple problems. First, the "genius" who imaged my new machine picked 10.7.2 but my machine had 10.7.5 - turns out, it's not enough just to have right cat. Even a point release older OS may not recognize a newer Time Machine drive. The guy at the desk said "We have images of everything but the 10.7.2 has free iLife in it, so they like to use that one". What the heck? They don't image what you had originally as a matter of sane process?
Having figured that out, we re-image 10.7.5 at the store thinking we've fixed it. But no - Setup Assistant still won't see the Time Machine drive. Not on USB, not on Firewire. Not in a box, not with a fox.
So here's the second trick - newer machines have a recovery partion. see: http://www.apple.com/osx/recovery/ Boot with the option key held down, pick that partition, then you'll get a "system restore" option, to restore your whole system from a Time Machine backup. My drive was recognized by the recovery partition restore process when neither Setup nor Migration Assistant would. Obviously, there's something broken in Setup/Migration Assistant.
Takeaway:
- if you're getting a drive replaced by Apple, make sure they image *exactly* the same OS
- if Setup Assistant fails, use the recovery partition for system restore
- Use Recovery Disk Assistant http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433 NOW to make yourself a recovery thumb drive just in case. With Apple's new "no media" approach to the OS, you're hosed without it.

Can I restore my system after replacing my hard drive with the original leopard discs, then use my time machine backup (with Snow Leopard) to finish the restore?

I am replacing my original 100gb hard drive for a 500gb. I am currently running OS X.6.7. I understand the process of how to install the new drive and restore the system from the disc. What I am unsure of is whether I need the Snow Leopard disc or can I use the original Leopard discs and then plug in my time machine backup to complete the restore?

How do I restore my entire system?.
or, use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your current system to an external HD, replace the HD, then clone the clone back to the new drive.

How, specifically, do I restore Time Machine backup of Snow Leopard after upgrading to Lion?

I upgraded to Lion and cannot access my Quicken files. I understand that I have to go back to Snow Leopard to export the Quicken files, but I don't see how to restore Snow Leopard from Time Machine. Or, how to boot up directly to the external drive, which was also suggested as a solution.

Stanley Horwitz wrote:
Reinstall Snow Leopard from the original media,
You don't need to do that; just start up from the Snow Leopard Install disc and do a full restore from your last Snow Leopard backup, per the link posted by OGLETHORPE.

What is the correct procedure to follow after restoring a Mac from a Time Machine Backup?

Hi all,
I did a Time Machine backup of my entire system (Time Machine Backup 1) before bringing my Macbook Pro to the Apple Store to to have it tested. After the TM backup I wiped the laptop leaving only the OS (Mountain Lion) on it so that I could determine whether the problems with my system were hardware or software related. The computer passed all tests.
After bringing my Macbook home I did a fresh intall of all the software and everything worked fine. At this point I did another Time Machine backup (in the same location as the previous backup) so that if I ever had problems with my system I could revert to this working backup (Time Machine Backup 2.0). I used my laptop without issue and created a number of new documents. I did not transfer the documents from the previous time machine backup (Time Machine Backup 1). As time progressed I did regular Time Machine backups (backups 2.1 etc.) installed a few new pieces of software and started having system issues again.
At that point I did another Time Machine backup (in the same location as the previous backups) (Time Machine Backup 3) so that my new documents would be safe. At this point I could see all of my TM backups in finder. Then I used Command + R while booting up and restored my system from what I thought was the clean backup (Time Machine Backup 2). In fact it the TM backup I used was not the correct backup (It was one of the backups between 2.0 and 3 and I needed to go back further). I was concerned, at this point, because I did not (and still do not) know what type of effect restoring the system from an old Time Machine backup would have on the Time Machine structure going forward I was unsure whether doing so and having an "old" system backed up might break the structure so I stopped Time Machine from running a new backup.
When I attempted to look for one of the older versions of the Time Machine backups I discovered that there were no longer any listings for TM backups in their previous location. In fact, the only thing I could see was one line in the place where the multiple backups were previously. I took my laptop and NAS (where the TM backups were stored) to the Apple Store and the "genius" said something about the TM backup being "parsed"? He also described it as a "broken window" and he "sees the broken glass but has no idea how it broke". He also said "neither he nor anyone at Apple would be able to assist me" and that I'd have to go to a data recovery place.
Fortunately I did use a second drive to backup the original system (Backup 1) but I really don't want to lose the files created ater Backup 2 / prior to Backup 3.
Does anyone know what happened / how I can get my Time Machine backups back without forking out tons of cash?
thanks
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

Lost login keychain; Lost previous time machine backups with Lion install

I downloaded Lion and it would not install on my 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 4 gb 1067 mhz ddr3 Mid-2009 Macbook Pro. I got the exclamation mark with hard disk irrepairable error. I took it to the local Apple store. They did a number of hardware tests and after several false calls saying it was ready (when I arrived to pick it up and tried to set up OS (select language etc) I got spinning beachball), I finally brought it home with Lion installed. All seems well, and I restored the data from Time Machine backup done under Snow Leopard. To my surprise, I find old versions of the login keychain - last updated 2010. I had 2 separate time machine backups going back six months, but when I tried to browse one for the newer keychains, I find that all previous Time Machine backups have been removed and all I have is the Time Machine backup from Lion install. So there are two related problems: one is that I lost keychain data and the other is that I can't restore from Time Machine backup since the only backups that seem to be there have restarted with Lion. Another factor, is that the technicians had to reset my user password in order to set up Lion and I subsequently changed it back to my own password. Any solutions to locating old time machine backups or restoring recent keychain entries?

How so I know...
Time machine preferences shows last known backup as NONE
NOTE: I found a section in the time machine prefs to use another backup file and all seems ok now
Thx

Can i do a time machine back to snow leopard from Lion?

After hearing lots of good and bad about Lion, i've re-considered paying the 29 and doing an upgrade. Mostly because of the full screen two finger swipe feature.
would you agree that feature alone is worth the upgrade?
if i didn't like it, could i do a time machine back to snow leopard no problem? I don't have any installation discs.
Thanks for your feedback.

Lion has lots of good features, but the trouble is it has lost nice features too. You can ONLY tell what you think after a week or so of use.
"Going Back To Snow Leopard" is a LOT of work - you will have to use the DVD install disk that came with your computer to erase Lion and install SL from scratch. That means saving your valuables in SL first (Time Machine or some other external drive export like Carbon Copy Cloner). It takes hours of your day, but can be done.
Lion needs a lot of care (adjustments) to make it behave the way you like it - it is REALLY different at first, but there are ways to make it behave a LOT more like SL by tweaking options in System Preferences and so on. It also takes hours to index - leave your machine on for 24 hours after you first install Lion - it will speed up a lot quicker that way.

How can I reinstall Lion after putting in a new hard drive?

Hi, I recently had a new hard drive put on my imac27. When I rebooted it I noticed that the Apple store had set it back to Snow Leapard. How can I reinstall Lion without making a new purchase, Thanks.

Log into the Mac App Store with your original Apple ID. The redownload is free.
(68116)

During upgrade to Lion on Macbook Pro the upgrade stops at OS utilites after rebooting asking to restore from time machine backup or install new copy

My Daughter is currently upgrading her MacBook Pro to OS X Lion. During the upgrade the system rebooted and then stops at the OS X Utilites menu. I have installed this same upgrade on My MacBook Pro and the family iMAC without issue. Did the upgrade encounter a problem? The only options are to Restore from Time Machine Backup, Reinstall Mac OS X, Get help, or Disk Utility.
I'm not sure how recient the backup is on the TimeMachine for her system and she is concered that she may loose a lot of updates she has made to iTunes and iPhoto.
Please help.

I have 8 GB of RAM, but would that even matter during install? Performance once installed and running sure, but I questiong whether the installer would demand that much more, or why it would affect mountain lion when restoring from a time machine backup.

After Mountain Lion update - problems synching contacts and accessing previous Time Machine backup

I have just set up a MacBoook Pro with a new SSD drive to replace the internal hard drive. I made sure I had a current Time Machine then connected the SSD drive externally and installed Mountain Lion. I installed the SSD drive into the computer. Before restoring applications from the Time Machine backup, I enabled the root user, logged on as that and deleted all other accounts as I have previously had issues with creating a new account from a backup and making that the 'home' user.
All went well except that a few seconds after I opened Contacts they all disappeared. They were replaced with two entries - one for Apple and one with the name of the home account.
I tried to retrieve Contacts from the Time Machine backup. I could see all the past dates but they were all red and inaccessible.
I looked at Contacts in my account at iCloud.com - they were the same 2 contacts as my local machine. I went through the installation process again but made sure that there was no connection to the Internet on completion. My contacts were intact. I exported them to a file and turned on the Internet. A few seconds later, my Contacts were gone..!
I imported from the backup I had made but, after a few seconds they were replaced with the two contacts from iCloud. Nothing I tried would allow me to add the contacts and have them synch to iCloud. I finally found a workaround:
1 disconnect from the Internet
2 import Contacts from the export file
3 select all contacts (ctrl-A) and drag them to the 'on my mac' account in Contacts
4 connect the Internet and watch all the contacts disappear from the iCloud account
5 select all contacts from the 'on my mac' account adn drag them to the iCloud account.
6 watch them synch to iCloud
I still don't understand the problem - perhaps someone can enlighten me - but here's the workaround if someone is having the same problem.
And I still can't access the Time Machine backup that I used to setup the MacBook Pro. Looking at the files within the Time Machine the backup. it looks as though it is probably a permissions issue but I don't see why as the account I am using is the same name as the one used to create the backup. Any guidance would be appreciated.
Jeff

I think you went about this the wrong way. ok....
Could you please try this... (1) Open Address Book - keep it as the main window. (2) Enter Time Machine from the icon in the menu bar... do you have that icon? If not, Open System Preferences, Click Time Machine, put a check mark in Show Time Machine in Menu bar. Close System Preferences. Go back to your addressbook. Make it the primary application open. Now go to the icon in the menu bar that represents TimeMachine and click Enter Timemachine. You should see your stuff...
if you dont...
I would also try...
Open system preferenes. go to the icloud tab. sign out. then sign in.
jdxxs wrote:
I have just set up a MacBoook Pro with a new SSD drive to replace the internal hard drive. I made sure I had a current Time Machine then connected the SSD drive externally and installed Mountain Lion. I installed the SSD drive into the computer. Before restoring applications from the Time Machine backup, I enabled the root user, logged on as that and deleted all other accounts as I have previously had issues with creating a new account from a backup and making that the 'home' user.
All went well except that a few seconds after I opened Contacts they all disappeared. They were replaced with two entries - one for Apple and one with the name of the home account.
I tried to retrieve Contacts from the Time Machine backup. I could see all the past dates but they were all red and inaccessible.
I looked at Contacts in my account at iCloud.com - they were the same 2 contacts as my local machine. I went through the installation process again but made sure that there was no connection to the Internet on completion. My contacts were intact. I exported them to a file and turned on the Internet. A few seconds later, my Contacts were gone..!
I imported from the backup I had made but, after a few seconds they were replaced with the two contacts from iCloud. Nothing I tried would allow me to add the contacts and have them synch to iCloud. I finally found a workaround:
1 disconnect from the Internet
2 import Contacts from the export file
3 select all contacts (ctrl-A) and drag them to the 'on my mac' account in Contacts
4 connect the Internet and watch all the contacts disappear from the iCloud account
5 select all contacts from the 'on my mac' account adn drag them to the iCloud account.
6 watch them synch to iCloud
I still don't understand the problem - perhaps someone can enlighten me - but here's the workaround if someone is having the same problem.
And I still can't access the Time Machine backup that I used to setup the MacBook Pro. Looking at the files within the Time Machine the backup. it looks as though it is probably a permissions issue but I don't see why as the account I am using is the same name as the one used to create the backup. Any guidance would be appreciated.
Jeff

How do I get back iphone app information from a DELETED Time Machine Backup disk

Hi People,
here is what happened:
I have been using an iPhone App (Audio Memos Free - The Voice Recorder) to record song ideas (I am a songwriter). I have been using it for years.
I backed up my iphone to itunes, and backed up my mac on Time Machine. After a month or so I did a fresh OSX install on my mac, copied all of my files back from Time Machine into my mac, and tried to set up Time Machine. I was not able to do so, so I had to format the Time Machine Backup disk and doing a "fresh" mac Time Machine Backup.
After a week or so, my iphone asks me something like "you do not possess the rights for one or more applications". do not know what i did, but after 1 minute my iPhone was wiped out of all my apps and app contents. I had also the icloud app sync, so i did not worry, recovered from icloud notes, contacts, and all other things. so i did another backup to itunes.
Now i discover icloud did not recover or save the "Audio Memos Free" app content. I know the data are hidden into the Time machine Backup HD, but i do not know where to search for the itunes backup in it.
I know it is in library, but library won't show up.
Any help would be much appreciated.
PS there is a chance that, even without a data recovery, my latest itunes backup was containing these songs, but i do not know how to fish that out of the Time machine drive.
Thank you in advance.

I would email iTunes Customer Service:
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/store/browser/
CG

I have recently Re-imaged my 24intel 2Gb Ram Leopard, after carrying out and checkign the time machine Backup., I have recently Re-imaged my 24intel 2Gb Ram Leopard, after carrying out and checkign the time machine Backup.

I have been having issues with the iMac and so decided to Erase/Install from scratch after first carrying out a Time Machine backup (which I checked had worked)
Once installed I tried to mount the USB drive and it didn't show.
I checked all the usual features and Preferences but finally cheked Disc Utility.
Disc Utility showed me the onboard drive with the Sectors/Partitions whilst the External WD Drive USB showed only as a single line with no sectors/partitions.
After rebooting a few times the drive mounted once and I got 90gb of data off it but then it failed again never to return since.
I still keep on getting the 'Virtual Drive' for backup software mounting every time though so it appears that the physical drive is ok.
Any ideas on getting it to mount or getting my data back??

I have been having issues with the iMac and so decided to Erase/Install from scratch after first carrying out a Time Machine backup (which I checked had worked)
Once installed I tried to mount the USB drive and it didn't show.
I checked all the usual features and Preferences but finally cheked Disc Utility.
Disc Utility showed me the onboard drive with the Sectors/Partitions whilst the External WD Drive USB showed only as a single line with no sectors/partitions.
After rebooting a few times the drive mounted once and I got 90gb of data off it but then it failed again never to return since.
I still keep on getting the 'Virtual Drive' for backup software mounting every time though so it appears that the physical drive is ok.
Any ideas on getting it to mount or getting my data back??

Linking previous Time Machine Backup to a new Mac OS X Reinstall

Hi guys,
Several recurring problems prompted me to reinstall Mac OS X Leopard 10.5. Beforehand, I had made a copy/clone of my entire Macintosh HD onto an external hard drive. After the reinstallation, I selectively copied specific folders back to my fresh installation.
On my previous installation, I have had Time Machine running for several months. Trouble is, when I connect the external hard drive which holds the Time Machine backups, the Mac does not recognize it.
I wish to have my new reinstalled Mac back up to this same Time Machine backup. I have copied all of my documents and applications back onto my new installation. I wish to browse previous backups of the files I had made.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe if I choose my old Time Machine hard drive as my Time Machine backup disk in my new installation, Time Machine simply starts an entirely new backup and ignores the old Time Machine backups made from my previous installation.
I would appreciate any help you guys could provide.
Many thanks.

I had that problem and a more challenging one as well - don't feel bad, mine was caused by the Apple geniuses at my local Apple store doing the same backup and reinstall OS thing.
One thing to be sure of - go to the "SHARING" pane in System Preferences, and be sure that there is a name for your computer in the appropriate box - AND that the name is the same one you were using before your re-install. Mine had been changed, and when I fixed that, TM recognized the TimeCapsule drive. However - another more difficult problem persists. Here's a message I posted on another thread dealing with the "other" problem: TM won't show the backups made prior to my reinstall (except under special circumstances, noted in the message).
have an almost identical problem. yesterday I picked up my MacBookPro from the Geniuses at my local Apple retail store. In order to fix a problem with QuickTime, they ported all my files to a backup disk, reformatted my HD, installed a clean copy of OS X 10.5, upgraded it to the current version, then copied my files back to my computer's HD. They messed up my password; somehow made many of my applications vanish (I've mostly fixed those problems now) AND I can no longer access the backup files saved prior to their "help".
One wrinkle - I can see all of the backups in the TimeMachine window if I am at the level of my hard drive, OR clicked on the applications folder. If I select any other subfolders, the pre-"help" backup files gray out and cannot be used. If I move to a pre-"help" backup file while at the HD level, all but the applications folder are grayed out and non-responsive to clicks
I ran DiskUtility - repair permissions - and while it found a huge number of things to fix, this did nothing for my Time Machine problem.

How can i restore my mac book pro using a lacie time machine backup

I just replaced the hard drive on my mac with a larger memory one. How do I restore my mac as it was previously from a time machine backup on a lacie external hard drive?

Read about all the options that are available:
http://pondini.org/OSX/Setup.html
Ciao.

How do I reinstall Lion after having to revert to previous Time Machine Backup of Snow Leopard?

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