How long does it take for Time Machine to do a Full System Retrieve?

Question

I have recently installed Snow Leopard 10.6.1 to find it clashes with fonts in Quark. I am now reverting to Leopard!
I have installed system disc and am now retrieving a full system backup from my Time Machine from a few days ago.. (PRE Snow Leopard)
It's been whirring away for 8 hours... (it said 50ish hours to retrieve initially) it NOW says 48 hours are left. Is this normal and should I just sit it out as it is still chugging away?
Hoping for some reassurance or some advice on what to do next...
Thanks

Answer 1

Pondini wrote:
mysie wrote:
Decided to use Time Machine to back up my computer (2-3 hours I think?), so I could wipe the drive and do a clean install.
Why? What kind of trouble were you having? (If there's a hardware problem of some sort, this isn't going to help.)
The computer has become more and more buggy over the past 6 mo. or so, to the point that almost every action I took in any application, even just the finder to check the date!, resulted in "beach ball". Sometimes the programs would unstick, but usually they did not - trying to get the Force Quit menu would then make the finder stall if it wasn't already stalled. In the rare event I was able to shut down normally (instead of being forced to power down), start up was just as slow as when it was forced - anywhere between 3-20 minutes, with no pattern or reason why. I looked online for clues, used Disk Utility (took a few hours itself, considered an online memory test suggestion I found online, but the idea of going through the process of turning my machine back on, waiting for it to load, waiting for it to connect to the internet, load a browser, get to the site, start the test - each would have been its own beachball. I decided it was time for the last resort option, reinstall.
The OS clean install took about 18 hours (after quoting 40 hours).
Do you mean it took 18 hours just to Erase and Install (there is no "clean install") Leopard? If so, you should stop right there. That's ridiculous. Something is very wrong with your Mac. (Normal for Snow Leopard is in the neighborhood of 45 minutes; Leopard is longer, as I recall, but not anything remotely like that).
Funny story: I had begun the archive/install process, when I found another disk that I thought had a more recent OS on it, so I decided to quit the process and start over again with that disk. I knew this was risky, but my data was backed up elsewhere, so oh well. It took a few minutes for the window popped up asking if I was sure, warning my computer might not startup again. I foolishly chose yes. As predicted, the computer wouldn't start again. I had to start up from the disk (can't remember which one now). At that point, "archive and install" was not an option - it thought my machine had nothing on it, so the only option was to just install, not reinstall. One disk was freestanding Leopard, the other was my iMac install disk - but now I can't remember which one I found 2nd, and which one I used for the final install.
So when the restart dialog came up, I chose to use Time Machine to move everything back over. It took a few minutes to calculate, then said it would take 19 hours and five minutes.
Do you mean when you were asked if you already have a Mac, and wanted to transfer your data?
Without some idea of how much data you have (30 gb? 1 tb?), there's no telling whether that's sensible.
It asked me for a language preference, then maybe one other question, and then asked me if I had a Time Machine backup and did I want to use it. I said yes, it said plug in the external drive now, I did, and away it went. I have about 120GB of data, mostly mp3s and photos. I deleted all my gaming software earlier in the week and some old OS 9 apps that somehow came over in a previous migration, this made my hard drive's finder window look sleeker, but helped nothing.
Anyone have an opinion on when I should stop this process
If it took 18 hours to +Erase and Install,+ stop it Now.
It sounds like your internal HD is failing. Disconnect everything except your keyboard and mouse.
Find the second disc that came with your Mac. It's probably labelled +Applications Install DVD+ and has instructions on it (in very tiny type) telling you how to run the +Apple Hardware Test+ (mine says boot up while holding the "D" key).
That will do a relatively fast and cursory check of your memory, hard drive, etc., and I suspect will tell you there's trouble with the hard drive.
Report back with your results.
(Whether your backups were corrupted by whatever's wrong is hard to tell, but it's likely you'll be able to recover most, or all, of your data. So disconnect that drive until you get your Mac sorted out.)
Next funny story: I can only find a Disk 1 for my iMac. The disk had a Disk Utility, which turned out to be the same one program I used to verify/repair the drive and verify/repair permissions - another set of "everything is ok". I can't recall if there was an Apple Hardware Test on that disk. Is there a way to get that program online?
I'll go try to quit the Time Machine now and see what's on that disk.
ps: Because the issue was freezing/stalling, I never considered the hardware, so I apologize for all the idiotic choices I made in the process. No public flogging is necessary, as I am already in the process of doing that myself.