HT4718 Installed new hard drive, click on restore from time machine, get to 'select a destination' but just keeps searching for disks.. any help please?

Installed new hard drive and want to restore from time machine.
Get as far as 'select a destination' then it goes no further - just keeps 'searching for disks'
Help anyone please?

1. Be sure your drive is attached and mounted.
2. If you have already written any data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next step.
3. In the Finder, choose Go > Utilities. The /Applications/Utilities folder will open.
4. Launch Disk Utility.
5. Click the icon for your external hard drive in the sidebar on the left.
6. Click the Erase tab along the top of the window.
7. From the Volume Format menu, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
8. Enter a name for the external hard drive in the Name field.
9. Click the Erase button.
Make Sure that you choose the correct drive

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HT201250 My macbook pro crashed and I had to install a new hard drive. I restored from Time Machine backup all the files from my old hard drive onto my new one.

Does it really back up the whole new drive or does it only back up what's been added? It seemed like it was doing the whole thing when I tried it. I stopped it. Don't want to use up all the space on my external. Is there something else I need to do or did I mess up by not doing the migrating thing? thanks!

If you installed a new hard drive, it has nothing on it and yes TimeMachine is going to take forever to restore everything back.
I guess you'll have to erase and start over again now.
Too bad, you should have made bootable clones in addition to TimeMachine, they can restore in a hour or two depending upon content, they are also option key bootable.
TimeMachine has to go through and calculate all the files it needs to bring forward, the files are strewn all over the drive. The read heads are moving all over the platters all the time from fast sectors to slow ones, not matching what's occuring on the internal drive.
With a clone the files are defragmented and optimized, the drive reads one file, moves the heads a tiny bit and reads the next all the while transferring exactly to the internal drive, they are more in step with one another, thus it's much faster restoring from a clone than TM.
Most commonly used backup methods

Iphoto 11 on MT Lion can not find my iphoto library after a a hard drive replacement and restore from time machine...HELP

I have an iMac with the recalled seagate drives and I have everything backed up on Timecapsule and on Carbonite. I also copied all my photos to a file prior to having the hard drive replaced. The merge back to the mac worked well except that now iphot can't locate my library. In iphoto 11 they moved it out of the pictures file and it is hidden. Does anyone know how to find it so I don't have to reorganize 20,000 pictures?
Thank you!

In iphoto 11 they moved it out of the pictures file and it is hidden.
They didn't, I'm afraid. The iPhoto Library is still stored in the Pictures Folder by default, and it's not hidden.
Can you see it in Time Machine?

Installed new hard drive, loaded Snow Leopard from disk, how to get back to Lion?

Our 2006 24" iMac, 2.16 C2D (EMC 2111) running the most up to date version of Lion had a hard drive failue. I replaced the hard drive and used the Snow Leopard disk we had to load the OS X. During installation I went through the migration assistant to load our most recent Time Machine backup. It loaded all apps and files just fine, but it did not update the OS to Lion. So, many of our most used applications (Aperture, iTunes) were versions that won't run on Snow Leopard 10.6.8. I thought I could just go to iTunes and view my purchased items and redownload Lion from there, but iTunes version installed from the backup doesn't work with anything less than 10.7. So, I erased the HD, re-installed Snow Leopard and did not use the migration assistant this time. Thinking I could run iTunes and get my Lion purchase downloaded and then resotre from Time Machine. That doesn't appear to be working. I've updated a couple of times, including iTunes, and it doesn't appear that I can find Lion. Would it be in my iTunes library on my external? I haven't reconnected my external yet as I don't want anything to be modified during this attempt to fix things.
How do I get Lion re-installed from this point? I paid $29.99 when it first came out. The iMac won't run Mountain Lion, which seems to be available for download.

Yes, the retail version of Snow Leopard is a full install that can be put on a blank drive.
Order a Snow Leopard 10.6 install disk for $29 from The Apple Store as long as you have at least 1gb of RAM. http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY
Put your install DVD into the optical drive and reboot. As soon as you hear the boot chime, hold down the "c" key on your keyboard (or the Option key until the Install Disk shows up). That will force your MacBook to boot from the install DVD in the optical drive.
When it does start up, you'll see a panel asking you to choose your language. Choose your language and press the Return key on your keyboard once. It will then present you with an Installation window.
Completely ignore this window and click on Utilities in the top menu and scroll down to Disk Utility and click it. You should see your hard drive in the left hand column along with your other drives. Click on the drive and select the Erase tab. Set the format value to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and click the Erase button. After that has finished select the Partition tab. Type in a Name for your hard drive and select how many partitions you want from the Volume Scheme. The usual setting is one partition. Click on the Options button after you've selected a partition to make sure it's set for GUID. Then click the Apply button and after the Partitioning is done quit Disk Utility.
You can now follow the instructions on the install screen
To upgrade your iLife and iWork. If you only want iPhoto or other single apps from iLife '11 you can get them from the App Store after you've upgraded to 10.6.6. iPhoto, iMovie or Garage Band for $15 each and Pages, Keynote or Numbers from iWork '09 for $20 each.

New Hard Drive Won't Recognize My Time Machine Backup

I maxed out the space on my MacBook hard drive, so I bought a new 1TB hard drive to replace it. (I keep a TIme Machine backup of my computer on a external Passport) I installed the new hard drive, loaded up Snow Leopard and then it did the whole "Welcome" thing and asked if I wanted to set up the new hard drive. I went through the process and it asked if I wanted to transfer information to the new hard drive. I selected "transfer information from a Time Machine Backup" but when I hit "continue", it doesn't show my Passport, only "Macintosh HD". It's weird. I tried plugging the Passport into a different computer in the house, and it shows up fine.
I'm dead in the water right now. I have a new hard drive in my laptop with OS loaded on it, but no way to transfer my data from my Time Machine Backup to it! Any ideas why it won't show the Passport Drive?
Thanks - I'm really stuck right now.

Does it boot into Open Firmware with CMDOption+of ?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42642
reset-nvram (press Enter)
set-defaults (press Enter)
reset-all (press Enter)
Have you done a PRAM reset...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

Can I start new hard drive set up again?/time machine info missing!

Hi, hoping for some guidance as I think I've made a mistake with my new hard drive set up, and now my time machine hasn't transferred everything over as I've folders missing!
My hard drive packed up & a new 10.6 was installed on my Macbook Pro. Previously running on 10.5.8 which was backed up to time machine 3 week ago. I switched on and went through the 'set up assistant' but when asked 'Would you like to inherit (or reuse) the backup?' I think I chose 'Don't backup now' because I thought I could do my time machine later! I now know I have chosen the hard route!!
Then I tried the 'migrate assistant' - it took 1.5hrs - desktop has screen shots etc as before but I couldn't access thing like 'my pictures' in bridge etc. The dock has LR, PS, Bridge etc as before too. Then I deleted the new admin set up (so I had only my old admin.) I restarted - no change. I then tried 'migration assistant' again but transfered only 'Other files and folders' because when all ticked there wasn't enough room (-81gb)
Now I can go into LR catalog it only has 2 folders (instead of more than 20), and in Bridge I have files & folders, but on accessing them I get 'Items could not be found. It may of been moved or renamed.'
I've looked into erase & install - but I don't have the disc. Maybe I should go back to the shop who installed 10.6? Can I start again so I can transfer from time machine in the set up?
Any advise on how I can get my info back would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks, Heather

I have the same problem, but it is happening with various USB drives including an iphone. If I have any of these connected via a USB hub to the MacBook Pro, they mount and operate fine until I attempt to copy large files to them. Randomly, during large file transfer, the drive will suddenly disappear and I'll get the same error as if I had yanked out the USB cable without unmounting it.
This is happening with:
* A standard (Lacie) powered 500GB USB drive mounted normally.
* A standard (Lacie) powered 500GB USB drive being used as a Time Machine disk (it errors/unmounts during Time Machine backups).
* An iphone 8GB during itunes syncs, only when copying large files (like videos).
I have tried two USB hubs, one powered and one not, and both cause the same problems. If I connect any of these drives/iphone directly to the Mac then they work absolutely fine.
I first thought the (unpowered) USB hub was to blame, but when I started using the powered USB hub and saw the same problems I'm starting to wonder if OS X has a bug with regards to heavy I/O to USB devices connected through hubs...?
Davros: my tip would be to connect the drive directly to the computer (not via USB hub) and see if the problem goes away.

Updated to 10.9.2 and now my WD hard drive fails to backup from Time Machine

Yesterday I updated my software so now I am running 10.9.2 on a mid 2010 MacBook Pro. After the update, my WD 1tb hard drive won't backup. It says "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder" Please help! I don;t know how to fix it and the information I found online was confusingly unhelpful!
Thank you in advance, a stressed student!

Do you have any westerndigital software installed? If yes, uninstall it and restart.
I have several WD disks and they behave perfectly.
TM having problems with finishing backup ofcourse will not eject or free up the disk! It might corrupt your TM backup.
Read about your problem in Pondini's website:
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

2nd External Drive - how to restore from Time Machine backup?

I have had Time Machine configured to back up my photos and videos on an external drive. My Time Machine backup is a separate drive attached to my MacBook by FireWire. I have Leopard OS. I have in the past successfully retrieved deleted photos from the Time Machine backups using iPhoto.
Now, unfortunately, the external drive with the photos and videos has developed a problem (possibly power-related) so that my MacBook no longer recognizes that drive. Obviously, this means that iPhoto can't find/open that photo library. Which means that iPhoto can't access the backup via Time Machine. Help! The photos must surely be on the Time Machine backup but I can't figure out any way to retrieve them.

callipygia600,
This one's easy. Purchase a new drive to replace the one that went "belly up." Format (erase) it using Mac OS Extended, and give the volume that will be created the exact same name as the bad drive. Navigate into the new (empty) volume in the Finder, then open Time Machine from the Dock.
You should be able to navigate "back in time" and see the backed up contents. Select everything you see, and click "Restore." It will all be restored to your new external drive. The key is to use the same name for the new drive.
In the meantime, your backup can be accessed in the Finder if necessary. Using the Finder, navigate into the "Backups.backupdb" folder on the backup drive, then into the latest backup. You will see one folder named for your startup disk, and another named for your secondary/external volume. Within that second folder you will find the items that were stored on the bad drive. You can safely copy these to another volume using the Finder, but do not attempt to move or modify them otherwise (do what you like with the copies).
Scott

"You don't have enough access priveleges for this operation." (iTunes) What does this mean? My computer crashed, installed new hard drive. Now, when I open iTunes get the error, also cannot purchase or download anything in iTunes or Cloud iOS 10.6.8

Just got my computer back today, can access all programs. Only issues are in iTunes, iTunes Store, Cloud and match.
Cannot, dowload or purchase anything either.
All help is appreciated!
Michelle

Read the part about changing permissions on the iTunes folder in: https://discussions.apple.com/message/11583914
iTunes: Missing folder or incorrect permissions may prevent authorization - http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1277 - Shared folder issues with Store authorization.

IPhoto: Photos appear as "exclamation" after restore from Time Machine

My hard drive was recently having issues so Apple replaced it for free. I have a 2TB Time Capsule and restored the new hard drive using Time Machine. It seemed to go without issue. However, when going into iPhoto, with some of the Events (seems to be the more recent ones), I get a big exclamation icon instead of the image. The thumbnails seem fine for I can browse the Events just fine. It is when I click a thumbnail that I get the big exclamation. Does this mean that my master image is somehow gone. Mind you, I could see the images just fine before getting the new hard drive. I was have some sort of seek issues on the old one so Apple decided to replace it however the seek issues didn't affect iPhoto as I could use it and see all the images just fine. But now on the new hard drive with the restore from Time Machine, I can't see the images.
Any ideas?

Ah, yes, that is a PITA. Unfortunately, you're not the first.
All I can think is, iPhoto may have been open at the wrong time during a backup.
The iPhoto library is a rather unusual critter. It's actually a "package" (a special folder that's treated like a single file for most purposes), with all sorts of cross-linking and indexing and there's no telling what all (at least by us mere mortals). When iPhoto is open, apparently there can be some things updated on disk, but others still in memory, so a backup of what's on disk would be out of sync and not usable if you restored it. Time Machine usually seems to handle this ok, but I'm not convinced it always does.
Time Machine really ought to send a message if it can't back it up. I don't have a problem with it continuing, and backing-up everything else, since you might not be around, but it sure ought to tell you so you can be sure to close iPhoto and run another backup to be sure. But it doesn't.
Please feel free to provide your opinion here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/timemachine.html

Restore from Time Machine can't see new HD

I am upgrading my 250gb hard drive to a 320gb WD Scorpion (found here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136280) so I took out the old hard drive, put in the new one, booted from the leopard install disc, and went to Utilities>Disk Utility. I can see the new drive, I partitioned it using Mac OS Extended (journaled), and called it Macintosh HD. Then I went to Utilities> Restore System from Backup... I selected my external drive with my time machine back ups, and picked the latest one. On the Select a Destination screen, it says "Searching for disks" but never finds my new drive that disc utility can clearly see, so I can not restore my system.
PLEASE HELP! Why is it not recognizing the drive?

Hi jonmerlin
Welcome to Apple Discussions
Sounds like you have formatted it correctly, but have not set it to the correct Partition Map Scheme.
While booted from your Install disc, open Disk Utility and select the drive in the left hand column. Then click on the Partition tab and then the Options button, there you'll see several choices. The first "GUID Partition Table" is for Intel-based iMac's or "Apple Partition Map" for PowerPC-based Mac's. Select the choice that is appropriate for the Mac you have, then click OK. You should now be able to format the drive as Mac Os Extended.
Then follow the instruction in the Restore from your Time Machine backups article:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15638.html
Dennis

Migrate, restore from Time Machine or fresh install

Folks
Getting an MBP today and migrating from MBA. Should I fresh install, use the migrate tool or restore from Time Machine?

You are going to get several answers here depending on users' opinion and experiences. My own view, having done the Time Machine backup as demo in a class, is that, if you have the time and all the settings written down, the best way is to start from scratch. Indeed, the last two Macs I bought, I even installed the OS myself, despite them being out of the box.
Having written that, I do find Time Machine a useful facility and it is possible to selectively bring the data back, which is really quite useful with a new machine. This would be a great tool in the case of a stolen computer or if a hard disk had crashed and it was necessary to get up and running quickly. As a note, I still found that with the TM restore, certain parts (such as Mailboxes and some other network related security stuff) still needed setting up again.
I did use the migrate tool once and was not over-convinced although I understand it has been updated. Someone else should offer an opinion on that.
If time is of the essence, go for the TM or Migrate tool. If you want a more stable and secure environment (perhaps that backup could bring over a problem), go from scratch with a selective backup.

Cannot Reinstall OS X Lion OR Restore from Time Machine

With Firevault enabled, I attempted to reinstall OS X Lion from Recovery Mode. After being asked to enter the password to unlock the encrypted 'Mactinosh HD' disk, the reinstallation began. Everything seemed fine until the install process was supposedly finished, then a window popped up explaining that there was an error and to try again. I tried again and the same thing happened. I also tried to restore from Time Machine with no success (the same thing happened). I opened Disk Utility via Recovery mode and verified/repaired the 'Macintosh HD' disk and its permissions, but the reinstall/Time Machine restore still fails. Then I erased the disk with Disc Utlilty, and attempted this again with no success. My computer no longer boots into OS X at all (it didn't even before I erased the disk via Disk Utility). It can only boot into Recovery Mode or Windows--I'm basically running a pretty overpriced Windows PC.
I am using a 21" iMac with an Intel Core i5 processor, CPU @ 250GHz, have 4 GB of RAM, and am (supposed to be) running OS X 10.7 Lion. Right now I'm using Windows 8 Consumer Preview x64 bit on a Bootcamp partition on the same computer if that matters to anyone. If there's any useful information I could provide to help you help me then please let me know! This is a pretty sucky issue that I'm having a great a deal of trouble and frustration with and any help would be very very appreciated.

Whenever I try to do this it says "Error trying to turn off encryption". The message does not offer much in the way of an explanation aside from that. Maybe that's simply an 'incorrect password' message? I entered my adminstrator password which works to unlock the drive, but apparently not to turn off encryption unless the error has nothing to do with my password. I opted to have Apple hold on to my Filevault restore key which I was too lazy to write down when I first enabled the feature, so if that is the password required to turn off encryption I suppose I'll need to call Apple Care to retrieve it. =/
By the way, the computer no longer boots into reguar Recovery Mode but now boots into internet recovery. Interestingly enough, another attempt at Time Machine recovery also appeared to work (saying that it was done successfully) but in fact it didn't.
Also, whenever I try to change startup disc to Macintosh HD it says "Error: Building boot caches on boot helper partition failed". Whenever I restart holding the Options key to view available drives/partitions, only Windows and My Passport (external hard drive) appear.

User account to available after restore from time machine

After havi g to erase my hard drive and reinstall Mountain Lion I could not aces my time machine backup during the installation process. Have been able to access The drive and perform restores from Time Machine however I cannot access my User account. If I try and add the account inSystem Preferences it states that the account with that name already exists but it is not available to log in to.

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
There are a few possibilities. You've posted in the Leopard Time Machine forum, but your signature says you're running Snow Leopard. If you used a Leopard Install disc to restore a +*Snow Leopard+* backup, that's the problem. Try again with a Snow Leopard Install disc (you can use either disc to restore a Leopard backup).
If not, why did you restore? If you were having, say, internal HD troubles, it's possible that they corrupted your installation of OSX, those changes were backed-up by Time Machine, and restored. If that's a possibility, try the restore from an earlier backup.
If nothing seems to work, do an +*Erase and Install+* of Leopard, if that's what you're running; or start up from your SL Install disc, select +Disk Utility+ from the +Utilities Menu,+ erase your internal HD, quit Disk Utility and install OSX.
When your Mac restarts with only a fresh copy of OSX, +Setup Assistant+ will ask if you want to transfer your data from another Mac or Time Machine backups. Do so -- see #19 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), for details.

Disk Repair notified me it could not repair the HD. Iam to reformat the disk and restore backed up files. OS Utilities give me a "Restore From Time Machine Backup" option. I have not reformatted the disk; does this restore option do both?

Disk Repair reported that it could not repair the HD Disk. I am to reformat the disk and restore backed up files. OSX Utilities give me a choice of restoring from time machine backup (which I have on MyPassport) but no information on reformatting the disk, which I assume I have to do first. How do I reformat the HD ...or does the restore from Time Machine do both things?

Boot OS X Recovery and use Disk Utility.
If Disk Utility reported the disk cannot be repaired though, you should replace it with a new one.

HT4718 Installed new hard drive, click on restore from time machine, get to 'select a destination' but just keeps searching for disks.. any help please?

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