HT3275 How do I convince Time Machine that my  last backup IS an restore option.

My local Genius Bar replaced a dead hard drive yesterday.  A faithful user of Time Machine, I expected there to be no problem restoring to the new drive.  However, when I try to do that, my last two years of backups don't appear as options.  Help? I was running Mavericks

That is correct, you haven't been on Mavericks for 2years.. so only since mavericks will appear.
But that should still include whatever was current on the previous hard disk.. that is the idea of TM.. you don't need to plough through 2 years of backups.. just restore and it will restore what was on the disk.
If it is failing badly.. highly possible with Mavericks.. since it seems to completely misbehave with TM..
Mount the sparsebundle and you can manually select items to restore.
See Q15 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
Or try doing a restore to alternative location.. Q16.

Similar Messages

  • HT3275 I received this message and I'm unsure how to fix it "Time Machine couldn't complete backup to Time Capsule the backup disk image"/Volumes/The Vision Board/Alex Parry.sparsebundle" is already in use

    I received this message and I'm unsure how to fix it "Time Machine couldn't complete backup to Time Capsule the backup disk image“/Volumes/The Vision Board/Alex Parry.sparsebundle” is already in use

    Look at the more like this on the right column of the web page.
    This is the most common error here.. we answer it 5-10times every day.
    Simple method.. pull out the TC power cord .. count to 10.. plug in the TC power cord.
    Look at the other references for more info.

  • PLEASE HELP! How do I get Time Machine to remove old backups?

    It is my understanding that Time Machine will never fill up the drive it's on because it will remove old backups to make room for new ones. It's not doing that for me. The drive Time Macine is backing up to has filled up & will not allow any more to be written to it, so I can't do backups. I don't see anywhere that I can change a setting to fix this problem. It would be VERY helpful if someone would walk me though how to fix this problem. I've had to turn Time Machine off because it's locking up my system trying to write to the drive.
    THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!!

    Thank you. I've gone there & read what's at the link. I've tried going into Time Machine & for some reason I can only see backups (in Time Machine) that go back to earlier today. However, if I actually look on the disc that I'm backing up to, I see database files that go back to April of this year. I looked earlier today & I saw files that went all the way back to October of LAST year, but I just did a big installation & that must of put things over the edge.
    Anyway, I'd like to say that I saw an answer to my problem at Pondini's site, but I've been there looking around since before I wrote this thread asking for help & I just don't see anything that looks like it will specifically help me on this situation.
    I'm still stuck.

  • How can I force Time Machine to use existing backup sparsebundle files?

    I backed up both my OSX Mountain Lion MBP and MacOSX Snow Leopard iMac to the same USB Disk. I then plugged this USB Disk into my Time Capsule, and configured Time Machine in both macs to use it through the network. But Time Machine insists on creating new backup sparsebundle files, ignoring the existing ones. How can I force Time Machine to use the existing backups.backupdb sparsebundle files instead of creating new ones?

    How can I force Time Machine to use the existing backups.backupdb sparsebundle files instead of creating new ones?
    You can't. Time Machine works differently over a network than it does with a locally-attached drive. What you could do is delete the folder named "Backups.backupdb" at the top level of the volume, which contains the backups you made via USB. You should then be able to backup to the same sparsebundle locally and over the network. But I wouldn't recommend doing that. Certainly don't do it unless you have at least one other complete backup (which you should have anyway.)

  • How do I tell Time Machine to do a backup now?

    I thought there was a way to tell Time Machine to make a backup now.  However, I can't find a place to tell it to make a backup.  Any suggestions?

    Hey Eric,
    Aah, there it is!
    Thanks for helping me find that again,
    Charlie

  • Time Machine Bad Date: Last Backup December 8 2008

    This morning the message under the Time Machine icon in the top menu bar showed Last BackUp December 8 2008.
    Entering Time Machine itself, I could see that the last backup was actually September 2 2010 5:02 pm
    Since running a back up this morning it appears to have righted itself.
    Anyone else having this issue?
    I updated iTunes to version 10 yesterday afternoon. Can't see how that could be related, but who am I to say. Should also mention I am a MobileMe member.
    I am wondering if this is more likely a software glitch in Time Machine or if it indicates that the Time Capsule itself is starting to fail.

    Priscilla Greene wrote:
    That's an interesting point. There have been 2 sparse bundles ever since my MacBookPro got a replacement logic board in 2008 which confused Time Machine into thinking it was a different computer.
    However, the old sparse bundle is dated June 30 2008, which is months before the suspicious date I saw this morning (12/8/2008). It has always been dated like that.
    You might as well delete it, via the Finder (that will likely take a while, so do it via Ethernet if possible). It's just taking up space, and limiting the space available to the new one.

  • HT3275 how do you uninstall time machine on an external hard drive?

    I am using a seagate hard drive and discovered that since using it my space on my macbook is depleting. Don't know where it went so i want to start over and regain my hard drive space and use the back up only to store music and Logic pro data! PLEASE HELP!!!

    Well, this is not easily answered. You can shrink existing partitions in order to add additional ones. But in order to add space from one partition to another that can only be done by first removing the lower partition first. If that partition has data, then it will be lost. Unfortunately, Disk Utility cannot manipulate partitions in place. You need a third-party utility for that, iPartition 3.4.1.
    Now with that said I'll pass on a bit of advice. Do not us your Time Machine backup drive for extra storage. External storage and backups should be kept on separate drives. I suggest you get a separate drive for your storage or Time Machine backups.
    If you use Disk Utility you can shrink your Time Machine partition, but the only way to put that space in another partition is to first delete the storage partition, then recreate it with a larger capacity.

  • How can I prevent Time Machine from deleting a backup?

    I just want to make one particular backup immune to Time Machine's auto-delete function.  It's the one I used to migrate from my old computer to my current one.  I tried to just drag-copy it on to a different drive, but apparently I don't have permission to copy my own computer's backups... weird.
    Anyway, there's got to be a way to lock this particular backup.  I going to have to keep Time Machine off until I can find out how.

    Explodey wrote:
    There's always a way, with a little ingenuity.  I just went to Get Info for that backup and changed the system privilege to "read only."  And if that doesn't work, I'm sure something else will.
    I am sure of one thing that you are going to end up breaking Time Machine which in all likelihood you will not discover until you need to recovery data from it.
    Agreat source of information on Time Machine can be found at http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

  • How can i tell Time Machine to make a backup right away?

    By the hour Time Machine wants to make the backup my computer was asleep. Don't there is a back-up NOW button?

    Click and hold Time Machine icon in the Dock, then choose "backup now".
    -mj

  • Does Time Machine still do incremental backups after a restore?

    Hi --
    We have a 500GB external iomega drive that just died and I have been working to restore it's files from Time Machine onto a new 500 GB drive. I formatted the new drive and gave it the same name as the old one, and it looks like Time Machine was smart enough to do the right thing and restore the files to their original locations.
    However, this morning -- within 24 hours of completing the restore -- we see an error message from TM saying it is out of space and it cannot perform a backup. It claims that about 450 GB are needed, which is about the same size of all the files we restored. Is it possible that once backup files are restored they are not longer considered backed up, and thus Time Machine immediately tries to back up all the files it just restored? I assumed it would still do incremental backups but recognize that restored files do not need to be backed up again unless / until they are edited...
    Thanks,
    Ram on

    felciano wrote:
    Hi --
    We have a 500GB external iomega drive that just died and I have been working to restore it's files from Time Machine onto a new 500 GB drive. I formatted the new drive and gave it the same name as the old one, and it looks like Time Machine was smart enough to do the right thing and restore the files to their original locations.
    That's quite unusual. Normally it does a full backup immediately: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1338
    See #C4 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

  • Time Machine shows no last backup date or oldest backup date

    Hi,
    Sorry for the long title and if this question has already been posted, a search didn't show it up. I'm running leopard 10.5.6 on my iMac 2.4ghz intel, and the time machine icon in the menu bar has stopped showing the date of the last backup and when I check in sys pref no date info is shown for the most recent of the oldest.
    Anyone have any idea how to cure this.
    Thanks.
    Jez.

    I have been using TM for about a month with a new LaCie d2 Quadra. I do not know how this is calibrated for dates. When I activate TM it shows today. For anything back from there it dates everything January 17, 2009 6:45 PMCDT until it goes back to February. In the spot indicating the latest backup it is Jan 17 09 6:45 PMCDT for today. What do you think is responsible for time and date being the same and the actual backups are dated with the wrong date going back until clicking back in time it's the Jan. date until March 20,2009 January 17,2009 6:45 AMCDT. I tried the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist idea. No change.

  • Time Machine deletes data on backup drive when restoring?

    Here's what I did. I allowed Software Update to update me to 10.5.2. Then my finder stopped working (this happened the last time I upgraded also. I was hoping whatever was wrong then would be fixed by now.) Also Time Machine wouldn't launch to restore the system. So I booted with the install disk and used the Restore System option. I got a list of backups to choose from, and selected the most recent that was marked as 10.5.1. I should have looked more carefully because I ended up restoring to a point over a month ago.
    What I don't understand is that the newer files on my backup disk have been deleted. Time Machine gives me a choice of now or a month ago (and beyond). And when I browse the backup database with the finder, I also see no folders newer than a month ago. Why would these files be deleted?

    Thanks, but I checked preferences and Time Machine is correctly set to access my backup disk.
    I contacted Apple Care and was told that Time Machine does not delete the backups more recent than the one selected for restoring, so he suspects that instead, Time Machine has not been making the backups since that point. Either it was turned off or full. Sure enough, the backup disk is full. There would have been an error message telling me that, but it's possible that my son was using the computer when that message appeared last month and he dismissed it.
    So I think that's the answer to my mystery. Thanks to anyone who was scratching their heads over this.

  • Time Machine will not delete backups

    I am running 10.8.2 and have a recurring message every couple of weeks from Time Machine that says the backup disk is full and the backup could not be completed.  I am attempting to have about 750G backed up onto a 1000G Gsafe external drive.
    I do notice that everytime my Backup drive is mounted, there are what appears to be 3 old backups in my trash that will not delete when I empty the trash.  The system asks me if I want to remove all items or only unlocked items.  I select "all items", and the files remain in the trash.  I am sure this has something to do with the Time Machine error.
    Any ideas?

    The backup volume was full. That shouldn't happen, because TM is supposed to manage disk space by deleting snapshots as needed to make room for a new one, up to the last complete snapshot, which is never removed automatically.
    One possibility is that you were writing other data to the volume during the backup. Apple recommends that no other data be stored on a backup volume.
    Otherwise, I suggest you clear possibly corrupt data from the TM preference file. Open the Time Machine pane in System Preferences. Click the padlock icon in the lower left corner, if necessary, to unlock it. Scroll to the bottom of the list of backup drives and click Add or Remove Backup Disk. Remove the problem disk, then add it back. Quit System Preferences. Test.

  • How can I get Time Machine to back up an external hard drive (iPhotos) that is attached to airport extreme base station. Note: Time machine is usb to macbook pro and external drive with iphotos is usb to airport extreme base station. Help please. Thanks!

    How can I get Time Machine to back up an external hard drive (iPhotos) that is attached to airport extreme base station. Note: Time machine is usb to macbook pro and external drive with iphotos is usb to airport extreme base station. Help please. Thanks!

    Once you have the drive connected to your Mac, click System Preferences (gear icon) on the dock
    Click Time Machine
    Click Options
    Be default, the hard drive will be Excluded from backups. Click the drive to highlight it, then click the "-" (minus) button at the bottom of the list to remove the drive from Excluded items.
    The drive will be backed up on the next Time Machine pass
    Everything above assumes that the hard drive has been formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as Time Machine will only backup drives in that format.

  • I have Time Machine that I used to back up my old computer. It was running snow leopard. My MacBook died, so I got a new one which is running Lion.  how can I restore the data from the time capsule to my new Mac?

    I have Time Machine that I used to back up my old computer. It was running snow leopard. My MacBook died, so I got a new one which is running Lion.  how can I restore the data from the time capsule to my new Mac?

    In technical support, sometimes you have to make educated guesses. I'm sorry that you were offended.
    iTunes does prompt when it is going to erase a device, and the message is clear.
    She said in her message that she was able to successfully sync the old ipad. This indicated to me that itunes wiping the data was not an issue, because either it had been setup at the apple store (in which case it doesn't actually wipe the ipad despite saying it will*) (*based on a single case I saw), or because the itunes media folder was migrated.
    Furthermore, my solution was to tell her how to backup her ipad (by either doing it manually, or as a last resort, by deleting the corrupt backup -- that she couldn't access anyway.)
    I got that last part of the instructions from the "Taking Control of your iphone" book which I found samples of when I did a google search for "corrupted backup itunes".
    She marked this as a solution, so it worked for her.

Maybe you are looking for