How to bring files from time machine (ext drive) to another mac?

Getting another Mac and need to install specific files from a Time Machine Backup of another Mac.
Has anyone done this without Time Machine doing a full restore on the new Mac? I'd like to bring over items such as: preferences, Mail files, Safari bookmarks, pictures, etc.
Thanks.

I am not adverse to using migration assistant.
With your suggestion, among others I shall. However, I think it is better to load applications from my DVD's into the new Mac, then open and use the migration assistant. Don't you agree?
Otherwise, I think, the migration assistant on initial startup of the new Mac will migrate files that do not have apps already installed. Maybe that does not matte?? Does it will migrate over apps first? All shall come from my TM backup which I am concerned were from a Power PC G5, to now to run on an Intel based Mac, and I thought it best to load apps without any touch from the PPC.
Please, tell me if I do not need to install apps first and then run migration assistant. Thanks to all...

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Hi Linc,
my back-up data is managed by Time Machine; the actual data is on a second internal Hard Drive with a capacity of 1TB - not partitioned. I am using Time Machine and have access to all data backed up since Mavericks Clean Install but not the data prior to this date.
When I open the 1TB drive in Finder I can see a folder "Backups.backupdb/Sigi's Mac Pro/ followed by many folders of backup dates going back to 2010-09-20-103441 and up to 2014-02-07-142414 all followed with folder Macintosh HD. February 7th 2014 was the date of the clean install.
These Backups are followed by backup date folder 2014-02-08-075554 with a subfolder of MacPro-320GB (this is the name I assigned to my Boot Drive during formatting; I suspect I should have assigned the same name as before ie. Macintosh HD) and 2014-02-11 with a subfolder Macintosh HD, these are the ones I get access to by way of Time Machine > Restore.
Weird thing is on Febr 11 when I relised my possible mistake and renamed the Bootdrive back to what it was initially ie. Macintosh HD despite this I have access to all backup data since the Clean Install in both folders MacPro-320GB as well as Macintosh HD but not to any data prior to the Clean Install.
Is there something that Time Machine knows and prevents access or is it simply a matter of renaming the subfolder 2014-02-08-07554/MacPro-320GB to ........./Macintosh HD?
I like to restore selectively and not everything - It was hard work reinstalling apps that were supposed to be the troublemakers (ref my discussion on Maverick problems) but I now need to get onto data specific to some of these apps as well as other data I may have missed. Long story? Yes and sorry.
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I recently selected to exclude my Aperture.library file from Time Machine, but only after it had done about 8 backups already... the file doesn't exist in the latest folder on my TM hard drive but it is there in previous ones.
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Ewen,
Let me make my self more clear.
Because of the Apple KB article regarding Aperture and Time Macine, that's exactly why i chose to EXCLUDE my aperture.library file from time machine.
Please don't read any negative tone in this, i'm just trying to explain myself.
But hind sight is 20/20, so i was looking for a way to delete the old previous version of the aperture.library that was sitting on my backup time machine drive (useless taking up space)
I apologize for not searching out that KB article, but i didn't think i'd have to do that. I assumed Apple would know how to have Aperture play nice with Time Machine....
Any way all is good. we're all educated now

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Hello,
My TimeCapsule internal drive recently almost "died". Of course, it died a few days before I lost a very important file... When I enter TimeMachine in the Finder, I can go back in time a few days in the past, but not more, I can not access September backups for example, because the folders are just black rectangles instead of regular Finder folder windows, and the "time scale" on the right hand side is purple instead of white.
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Enter Time Machine from Finder. To see all mounted volumes shift - command - c. Information learned from Linc Davis.

How to delete files from time machine volume

Before selling my old MacBook Pro, I had backed up all my data on to an external WD hard drive using Time Machine. I had since switched to a desktop but since I did not have any need for the MacBook Pro files at the time, I had put aside that WD hard drive. Recently, I wanted to clear some space on that external drive to make way for some of my present files. I drilled down in to Backups.backupdb and tried to delete files, but was met with the error "
An error occurred.The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error -5000.) Insufficient access privileges for operation".
It did prompt me for a username and password before showing that message. I tried both my current user/pass as well as (what I remember to be) my old user/pass on the MacBook Pro. Both presented me with the same error message.
I also did try to mount the drive as Time Machine on my present system, and then try to enter Time Machine and delete it from there. However, clicking on "Enter Time Machine ... " does nothing.
Any ideas?

Hi Linc,
my back-up data is managed by Time Machine; the actual data is on a second internal Hard Drive with a capacity of 1TB - not partitioned. I am using Time Machine and have access to all data backed up since Mavericks Clean Install but not the data prior to this date.
When I open the 1TB drive in Finder I can see a folder "Backups.backupdb/Sigi's Mac Pro/ followed by many folders of backup dates going back to 2010-09-20-103441 and up to 2014-02-07-142414 all followed with folder Macintosh HD. February 7th 2014 was the date of the clean install.
These Backups are followed by backup date folder 2014-02-08-075554 with a subfolder of MacPro-320GB (this is the name I assigned to my Boot Drive during formatting; I suspect I should have assigned the same name as before ie. Macintosh HD) and 2014-02-11 with a subfolder Macintosh HD, these are the ones I get access to by way of Time Machine > Restore.
Weird thing is on Febr 11 when I relised my possible mistake and renamed the Bootdrive back to what it was initially ie. Macintosh HD despite this I have access to all backup data since the Clean Install in both folders MacPro-320GB as well as Macintosh HD but not to any data prior to the Clean Install.
Is there something that Time Machine knows and prevents access or is it simply a matter of renaming the subfolder 2014-02-08-07554/MacPro-320GB to ........./Macintosh HD?
I like to restore selectively and not everything - It was hard work reinstalling apps that were supposed to be the troublemakers (ref my discussion on Maverick problems) but I now need to get onto data specific to some of these apps as well as other data I may have missed. Long story? Yes and sorry.
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How do you delete file from time machine back up?

This from Apple KB Article If Time Machine is not in your Dock, you can enter Time Machine from the Menu Bar or System Preferences.
Deleting data from a Time Machine backup
To delete all backups of one or more items from a Time Machine backup, follow these steps:
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Click on the item you would like to delete. Command-click to select multiple items.
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Authenticate with an administrator password when prompted.

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Hi everyone,
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Hong

Blue-
Time Machine will automatically delete back-ups as the need for space arises. If you want to delete a certain file (application, document, whatever) and have it gone for good you can do that as well.
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http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
...it covers everything!
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I upgraded my macbookpro hard drive to 1 TB then migrated my files from time machine. I'm now locked out of the computer because the password is not the same as my usual one and one that was years old and not retreivable. How do I work around this?

I upgraded my macbookpro hard drive to 1 TB then migrated my files from time machine. I'm now locked out of the computer because the password is not the same as my usual one and one that was years old and not retreivable. How do I work around this?

Whether or not you are able to recover the data off the drive yourself will depend on if the drive suffered any impact damage in the crash. You can buy USB SATA or IDE adapters (Intel and almost all G5 use SATA) that will let you connect your hard drive to a computer (like a flash drive) to see if you can recover the data. If the drive has suffered physical damage if may not mount.
If you know someone who has one of these adapters you could try using theirs, otherwise you could buy one but you take the risk of the data on the drive being non recoverable. Regardless, both are much cheaper than $1699!
(Alternatively, if you know of someone with a Mac Pro or PowerMac G5 they may be able to install the drive in their machine and try to boot from or mount it and copy the data off.)

How can I delete undesirable backup files from time machine?

Can anyone give me details of how to delete undesirable backup files from Time Machine,
I'm trying to remove mackeeper which has been running since 2011
And I'm stuck at the first hurdle......
Thanks

The problem I have is that i dont have an option to delete backups of this file on the options menu, and when I click delit or try to drag it to the trash I get a box saying " This operation can't be completed because backup items can't be modified"
Iam really tempted to just delete mackeeper from HD library and Applications but it is stressed that I need to do the TM deletes first?
Am stuck please help

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How do I restore files from time machine backups made before reformatting macbook air?

The section titled "Restoring data from Time Machine backups" in the following may help: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427

How do you retrieve individual files from Time Machine?

If a file original is lost or becomes corrupted, is there anyway to retrieve that individual files from Time Machine? If so, how?

ElRay (Amazingly, not the 1st) wrote:
SharonZ wrote:
Time Machine finds that file, and not other files that meet the criteria. BUT...
That's not what TM was doing. My search criteria was "by filename", however when I try to go backwards in TM, that limit is lost and it appears to be returning every file in the rolled-up weekly archive. This is especially odd, because I have since determined that the file was actually corrupted before TM was running, so there should be only one version of the file in TM's archives.
No, it was a file sitting on my disk. Email was mentioned, because the fact that every email in every junk folder appears as a separate item to be restored, which is what triggers that little "too many files to show you at one time" issue.
So your name search returned lots of junk mail items. I shudder to think what the file name was that you were searching for! <g>
Also: you can tell Time Machine to ignore your junk mail if you've filtered the junk mail in Mail into a different folder/box.
I figured that one out. I had used Spotlight to find the junk mailboxes, but couldn't, only the messages "labeled" junk. I had to use 'find' in Terminal.app to actually find Mail's junk & spam folders.
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You've already found your Junk mail, of course, but I'm suggesting this as a general approach, especially for other readers of this thread, who might not want to touch Terminal.
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Ewen,
Let me make my self more clear.
Because of the Apple KB article regarding Aperture and Time Macine, that's exactly why i chose to EXCLUDE my aperture.library file from time machine.
Please don't read any negative tone in this, i'm just trying to explain myself.
But hind sight is 20/20, so i was looking for a way to delete the old previous version of the aperture.library that was sitting on my backup time machine drive (useless taking up space)
I apologize for not searching out that KB article, but i didn't think i'd have to do that. I assumed Apple would know how to have Aperture play nice with Time Machine....
Any way all is good. we're all educated now

How to bring files from time machine (ext drive) to another mac?

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