HT1553 Can I restore only the system, leaving other files untouched, using Time Machine? (OS 10.5.8)

The last time I restarted my Mac, Bluetooth was gone. I want to restore my system, but leave all other files and applications untouched. Is that a possibility using Time Machine?

How to Perform an Archive and Install
An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.

Similar Messages

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    Emergency Backups (Data Recovery)
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                        Alternative: Network recovery boot (power then Command-Option-R keys)
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              Pull down under Partition Layout to 1 Partition.
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              Format: Select Mac OS Extended (journaled)
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                        http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
                        https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4055
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              Drag the Users folder to the recovery disk.
    C)          To clone the disk:
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              Select Disk Utility.
              Try to repair the system disk twice.
              Whether or not the repair succeeds:
              Drag and drop the system disk to Source:
              Drag an drop Emergency Backup to Destination:
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              Click Restore (the lower Restore button).
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    Create either two Time Machine backups (good) or one or more Time Machine backup(s) and one or more bootable-clone backup(s) (better).
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  • Restoring computer with new hard drive & Logic Board using Time Machine

    My MBPro totally crashed and just got it back from Apple with a new hard drive, logic board, optical super drive, one new 1GB ram chip, and a new video display panel. My questions are two fold, first, have I had so much replaced on this machine that I need to use Migration Assistant instead of Time Machine to restore it?
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    Or can I use an ethernet cable and plug Airport Extreme with the external drive attached into my laptop?
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    Arlee wrote:
    My MBPro totally crashed and just got it back from Apple with a new hard drive, logic board, optical super drive, one new 1GB ram chip, and a new video display panel. My questions are two fold, first, have I had so much replaced on this machine that I need to use Migration Assistant instead of Time Machine to restore it?
    no. you can do a full system restore from TM using the restore utility on the snow leopard DVD.
    Second, If I am suppose to be using Time Machine, I'm having no success! My TM backups were done on a network drive via Airport Extreme with a HD attached to it. Through the Snow Leopard disk utility,
    snow leopard disk utility?? what exactly are you doing? disk utility is not involved in restoring from TM in any way.
    I can access the partition with the backup on it, but then it hangs on "opening TM backup". After about a half hour, I had to do a hard shut down (no other option). I did this several times, same result. So the question is;
    Can I plug the HD directly into my MBPro and restore it that way? I'm not sure if I can do this as I know the backups are different for hard wired and networked drives.
    no, this is not how you should do it. connect the AEBS by ethernet. then boot from the snow leopard dvd and use "restore system from backup" from the Utilities menu. it will let you find the backup on the network and do a full system restore from it.
    Or can I use an ethernet cable and plug Airport Extreme with the external drive attached into my laptop?
    Thanks for any help!

  • How do I recover my files after using time machine restore?

    Hello guys! I have been using Time Machine to back up my Macintosh HD into an external disk in August this year. Considering the limited storage of my external disk, I have excluded all of my photos and musics to be backed up. Today I got some problems of my system and started using time machine to restore my computer to the state of August. After restoring, I found all of my photos and musics and other important files which have been excluded to be backed up by time machine are missing. What a disaster. Is there any way to recover all the missing files? Or is it possible to undo today's time machine recovery? Many thanks in advance!

    many thanks for your reply. But for the current matter, do you have any other great ideas for me to take back all of my missing files. I will definitely buy a lager storage disk to back up all the files. But how could I solve the current issue? I have already tried the software you mentioned in the lien, it seems no help. Thank you anyway!

  • Can i partition my internal disk on macbook prop for using time machine?

    Hi
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    thanks so much.

    Yes you can, BUT DON'T!  If your internal HDD fails, you backup will disappear with it.  Backups should always be on a separate HDD.  Look at this web site for excellent Time Machine information:
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    Ciao.

  • Can you restore only the files that have recently changed with Time Machine?

    Greetings,
    Before i ask my question,  i'll give a bit of background as to my issue.
    I was editing my $PATH within the ~/.bash_profile file and accidently overwrote my $PATH. So now simple terminal commands such as open or 'ls' no longer work. In order to edit the file, I need to change the defaults to allow me to see hidden files, but I can't do that because the defaults command stopped working after I screwed up the $PATH. Also, I used the echo commadn to verify that the previous $PATH no longer exists. The environment variable now just points to an empty folder I accidently set it to in TextEdit.
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    Now my question, it seems that Time Machine is doing a full restore of every file in the backup and not just the files it incrementally changed between its hourly backups. Why does it do this? My restore process should have just been a couple of minutes, restoring a couple hundred or so files at most. Restoring several hundred thousand files seems stupid when the I select a backup that is one hour old. Is there anyway to set it up so I can restore incrementally?
    Thanks,
    Johnathon.
    Message was edited by: Scionwest
    A quick note, I performed the restore from within the Time Machine while booted into OS X; the restore did not take place in the special bootup tool available. Why it does not provide an option to simply restore the files changed over the last hour is mind boggling to me

    You are making this way too complicated. In Terminal, choose Shell > New Command…. In the text box that opens, enter bash --noprofile . A Terminal window will open that does not use your .bash_profile, so the bad $PATH will not be an issue. Now you can remove, move, or edit .bash_profile.

  • I just had the hard drive replaced in my computer under the Seagate 1TB Hard Drive replacement program.  I backed up my files prior using Time Machine.  Everything is back as it should be but I do not understand how to replace iLife app to access my photo

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    Larry

    iLife is preinstalled on all the Macs. If you purchased iLife in the App Store or your computer came without DVDs, open App Store > Purchases and download the applications. If your Mac came with discs, insert the Applications DVD and install iLife applications

  • How can I print ONLY the active document?

    Whenever I go to File/Print the darn PSE 9 program sends all of the working files in the bin to the printer. I've searched online for 2 hours now looking for an answer.
    I like to work with having several to many files in the 'bin' and prefer to only print the active file I'm currently working on without having to close the 'working files' before I can print. How can I print ONLY the active document or file in the project bin? Please help, I've upgraded from PSE 3 to PSE 9 and really like the updated features, but this one pain in the neck default is getting the best of me.

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  • How to backup only the system with time machine?

    Hi,
    I have an external disk, seagate, that I used to backup working files from an older Mac.... I got a new Mac mini and would like to backup the system.
         I don't want to erase these old files.  Is it possible to only backup the system OS and installed software, with Time Machine I don't know if you would call this a bootable disk or the hard drive needs to be blank?

    You should have a separate partition (or disk) for Time machine or it may at some point overwrite your other files because it makes hourly updated backups so it needs more and more room.

  • How can i restore an iphoto library without using time machine

    I somehow created a new iphoto library and my old one was deleted and wasn't saved using time machine. Is there any way i can get my old library back. Please help!!!

    The dock icon always enters the last IPHOTO library opened - so all may not be lost ..
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    Thanks.

    Had a similar issue with Peggle (close to the last level, but my saves didn't transfer! AAAHH!!!). What I had to do (according to AppleCare) was to restore my phone from a backup. This doesn't take long at all, and you don't have to redownload the OS to do it (it simply replaces "your stuff" with the backup. Doing it this way (instead of going with "new phone" fixed my problem. From there, you can change the name of your phone or whatever you want in iTunes.
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  • How do I make the Volumes folder visible so it will back up using Time Machine?

    Hi
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    OK I have to say this even though you probably realize it, having anything but mount points in the Volumes folder, especially regular files that are critical to you is really a bad bad idea. 
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    But again having anythgin in there is going to be a problem.
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    Can I install mympictures and music that were back up using time machine from my McBook into my new i-Mac - the back up is on a portable drive.

    Hello:
    There should be no problem - although I have never done what you describe.  Attach the drive to your new computer. open Time Machine, and retrive what you wish.
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