How to keep using existing Time Machine backup after replacing main hard drive

The hard drive in my iMac (Lion) is failing. I cloned it to a new drive and installed it in the iMac. Now the system wants to start fresh with a whole new Time Machine backup.
It seems obvious that there must be a way to keep using the existing Time Machine backup set, but I can't figure out how to do it. Help, please.

If you had done a full system restore from Time Machine, it would have been done automatically.  But 3rd-party cloning apps don't leave a "trail" so Time Machine can figure out that the new drive has all the old stuff on it.
Effective with Lion, there is a way to "associate" the new drive with the backups of the old one, but it requires the use of Terminal.  See #B6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.  As noted though, this only works on directly-connected backup drives, not backups made over a network.

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    Thanks.

    Rather than do that, which means starting over from scratch, losing all your edits, organisation and so on, why not simply use iPhoto Library Manager to revert the Library to the older version? Easier, less destructive.
    The instructions on that are here
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  • How do I restore a Time Machine backup to a new hard drive in an iMac 5.1?

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    Thanks den.thed,
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    I have a Power PC G5 computer that I will soon be replacing with a current i5 or i7 Mini. How do I transfer the Time Machine files from the internal hard drive on the G5 to an external drive that I will later use with the Mini?

    Hi, likely the easiest is to just poll the drive & get something like this...
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    Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
    http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
    Or SuperDuper...
    http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/

  • TS1338 I have 4 Trojan Horse viruses on my external drive I use for Time Machine.  My MacBook Pro hard drive is clean.  I have eased the external drive 3 times using Disk Utility and it still has the 4 Trojan Horse viruses. How do I get rid of them. Wayne

    I have 4 Trojan Horse viruses on my external drive I use for Time Machine.  My MacBook Pro hard drive is clean.  I have eased the external drive 3 times using Disk Utility and it still has the 4 Trojan Horse viruses. How do I get rid of them. I am using 10.8.3  Wayne

    ksu62 wrote:
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                                              classload.jar-5db452le31.zip
                                              ar3.jar-6ce3b2f-45l483f.zip
                                              classload.jar-lef99412-63bsd3fl.zip
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  • I threw out 24 time machine backups from an external hard drive into my desktop trash and now I can't empty my trash.

    I threw out 24 time machine backups from an external hard drive into my IMac desktop trash and now I can't empty my trash.

    Since you didn't mention what type of error message you were seeing, I'm going to guess on what is happening.
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  • I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and i can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help

    I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and I can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help? I can find the mail folder in my libraries, but the Restore Button is grayed out

    OSX treats the reformatted drive as a different one; it's the same as replacing it, and the old one is no longer connected.
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  • Is there a way to get my photos off an old time machine backup from an external hard drive?

    Is there a way to get my photos off an old time machine backup from an external hard drive?

    You will have to connect the Time Machine HDD and click on the Icon.  You will see one folder called Backups.backupdb.  Click on that and you will have to continue until you find the home folder.  The iPhoto library (where the pictures are, not the application) will probably be in your pictures folder.  You will have to drag that to your desk top.  Then you will have access to individual images.
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  • How can I use the Time Machine Backups from my Old Computer?

    I have two months of Time Machine backups made using my old Macintosh computer which died and I no longer have. I have now purchased a new computer and am trying to use the Time Machine back ups from the original computer, but it will not recognise them. How can I get my new MacBook Pro to use the Time Machine Backups from my old Computer? I phoned the Apple help line and they said I cannot use them and would have to delete them. This sounds crazy if you can only use the Time Machine back up file with one computer and have to delete it when you buy a new Mac. Surely there must be some way to transfer ownership (not files) from an old to the new Mac?
    Thanks
    Richard

    Thanks Kevin for the suggestion posted on MacOSXHints how to "Repair Time Machine after logic board changes".
    http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080128003716101
    It seems as though I am not alone with my frustration with the way Time Machine uses the MAC address of a computer to tell one system from another. This means that if you have your Mac repaired with a new logic board, or replace your system with a new one, you can't resume backups where you left off. Reading through the readers who used the fix using Terminal, it appears that the fix does not always work. I contacted Apple again, but they were no help. Surely Apple should come out with a solution as more and more people use Time Machine/Time Capsule.
    It is CRAZY that after a change computers or a switch in the computer logic board that you cannot resume your Time Machine back ups.

  • Using old Time Machine backup after clean install of system

    I had a system crash on my G4 iBook running Leopard. Based on advice given at the Apple store genius bar, I reinstalled Leopard from an install DVD, reformatting the drive. During the system installation process I used my Time Machine backup to reinstall the former users (but nothing else). I then installed my needed applications. So far so good.
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    Any suggestions? Thanks!
    Dan

    DanK wrote:
    I had a system crash on my G4 iBook running Leopard. Based on advice given at the Apple store genius bar, I reinstalled Leopard from an install DVD, reformatting the drive. During the system installation process I used my Time Machine backup to reinstall the former users (but nothing else). I then installed my needed applications. So far so good.
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    If there's room for that, it will just be a large incremental backup, added to the existing ones.
    If not, Time Machine will begin deleting your oldest backups, one by one, trying to make enough room for the new backup (the amount on the internal HD plus 20% for workspace). But it won't delete the latest backup -- if that's the only one left, and there still isn't enough room, the backup will fail.
    If there is room, the first backup may appear to be very slow; why is not clear, but as long as it's making progress, let it run. Subsequent ones should be normal.

  • Can I migrate my data from a regular hard drive to a solid state drive using only a Time Machine backup from an external hard drive?

    I just bought a Samsung 830 256GB solid state drive which I will use to replace my 15-inch, 2.53 GHz, Mid 2009 MacBook Pro's stock hard drive. I also keep an external hard drive in which I keep my regular Time Machine backups via FireWire. Would I be able to migrate all my data from it after putting in the solid state drive? I prefer not to use any third-party applications and I do not plan on replacing the SuperDrive with the hard drive that I'm going to remove from my laptop.

    chinodelarosa wrote:
    Would I be able to migrate all my data from it after putting in the solid state drive?
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  • How do I encrypt my Time Machine Backup on the External Hard disk

    I have taken a backup of my data onto an external Hard Disk. I have used the Time Machine application to take the back up.
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    jcorroon wrote:
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  • Can I restore from Time Machine backup after replacing hard drive

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