How do you migrate a FileVault-protected account from a Time Machine backup?

Recently the hard drive on my Macbook Pro died and had to be replaced. Prior to the hard drive's failure, I had backed up my sole user account to an external hard drive using Time Machine. When setting up the new hard drive for the first time, I used Migration Assistant to restore my user account to my new hard drive. However, when I go to log in to the user account I transferred over, I encounter the following error: "You are unable to log in to the FileVault user account "User" at this time. Log in failed because an error occurred." I am absolutely positive I entered the correct password.
My next step was to boot from the install disc and repair the hard drive and permissions. The same problem occurred when I tried to login.
Then I wiped the hard drive and installed Snow Leopard normally without attempting to migrate anything. After the installation, I attempted migration, only to see an error message under the "Users" heading, saying, "User accounts protected by FileVault can't be transferred." Looking at the backups I have on my external hard drive, I cannot see any of my individual files, which I could when logged in on my previous hard drive.
I have scoured the internet for possible solutions but none seem to fit the situation. The techs at the Genius Bar tried a few things beyond my level of technical know-how and were unsuccessful, and they did not seem too optimistic about my chances. They mentioned that I should consider a visit to a data recovery center if I could not find any way to fix this issue.
This is immensely important, considering my FileVault-protected account nestled away in the Time Machine backups on my external hard drive contains all of my work. While I am willing to make the trip to the data recovery center, I would like that to be a measure of last resort. Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated!

A google search for You are unable to log in to the FileVault user account yielded many hits, including this one: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4184 which might help resolve your issue. I don't use TM, so that's all I have to offer.

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I think you should do the following:
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Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
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Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
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Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion. Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
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You

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David,
My apologies....I was working on questions from a different thread and thought yours was part of that one. Your question is fine where it is....
Now....that being said, I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your question. I know you can exclude certain items from being backed up in Time Machine, which would save disk space on your external drive. But, you'd first have to calculate how much disk space you're using for the different things you want to back up vs. those you want to exclude.
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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.
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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.

I have just taken delivery of a brand new 15" macbook pro, tried migration assistant from a time machine backup, music, photos, programs etc. They now take up 350gb of my hard drive but the files are nowhere to be found? can anyone help?

Set migration assistant to run whilst on a lunch break, given that it needed 2 hours or so, when i returned all programs and applications had moved across from my time machine backup of a now dead 15"macbook pro 2009 edition running snow leopard...When i look at my new system information it shows my new 500gb drive is full of music, movies and photos and has only 168gb free, not enough to run a new migration and i don't have any boot disks for Lion so really don't want to erase the hard drive. To compound the problem i'm in Vietnam where there isn't a genius bar just around the corner, or even an aasp within 700km - what should I do?

Is the HDD in the 2009 15" MBP dead? (The original source of your data) If not, you might want ot take it out and put it in an enclosure.
You might try spotlight on know files to see if that gives you any clues where your data is located.
You might down load from the Internet OmniDiskSweeper (free) and open it. It should show you all of the files you have on your MBP and enable to locate them.
Ciao.

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Ok, so I have a mid-2007 iMac and the hard drive finally died. It originally shipped with Leopard or something, but I had it upgraded to Mavericks. I have an external hard drive with a current Time Machine backup on it. I am about to replace the internal hard drive with a brand new (unformatted) hard drive. So here is the question: Is there a way to boot from my Time Machine backup and then reformat the drive and do a Time Machine recovery?
I have the old OS X install disks, but I don't want to have to upgrade through all of the old OS Xs. I also have a Macbook that I could create a bootable USB from--something like this (http://lifehacker.com/how-to-create-an-os-x-mavericks-usb-installation-drive-145 0280026)--and then I could reformat the drive and recover from Time Machine. But is there an easier way? Can I just boot straight from my external hard drive that has the backup on it?
Thanks for your help everyone, I'm hoping to be able to take care of all of this tonight.

You can try this. OPTION boot the computer.
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
"OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the disk icon labeled Recovery HD.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
This should boot the Mavericks Utilities Menu.
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
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5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
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Is it possible to restore a single deleted note from a time machine backup? If so how?

is it possible to restore a single deleted note from a time machine backup? If so how?

Hi James,
I was able to use VI server to invoke LV 6.1 VI's using LV 7.0 without issue.
After discovering this and mentioning it in a post somewhere, Rolf Kalbermatter indicated that was expected. and I should not be suprised.
So....
Vi Server may help you.
James Mamakos wrote:
Is there a separate place for me to post VIs to be converted? What's a ballpark figure for the maximum file size i could put on to be converted?
Do you know if the LabVIEW developers can/will create a way to overcome this problem rather than having to convert a VI through all the intermediate versions?
To the best of knowledge NO.
For each versino of LV there isw code included that runs behind the scenes when you open a VI from an earleir version which replaces old functions with the new versions. This is called Mutation code. To accomplish its task it has to know everything that changed between version X and Y. Since it is possible to baby step the versions up and the number of user that jump multiple major versions is small, I don't think any effort will go into that work.
THe largest attachment I have managed to upload was 3 or 4 Meg.
Just trying to help,
Ben
Message Edited by Ben on 04-28-2009 08:58 AM
Ben Rayner
I am currently active on.. MainStream Preppers
Rayner's Ridge is under construction

How do you migrate a FileVault-protected account from a Time Machine backup?

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