HT4829 lost everything, 10.5.8 no time machine

OMG, I lost everything ... I did a restore. I have no time machine, no back up. I had a PC, started using husband's MAC. I tried data recovery software. I'm pretty sure this made it worse. Everything is gone. Am I right? Is it gone, or is there any possible way to get this machine back to what it was? ps please keep in mind, I am brand new to anything mac, apple, etc. Anxiously awaiting and fearing replies! Thanks! (ps with the recovery software, it looks as if it's almost retrieving but there is something protecting retrieval of emails, and other docs with a ".dylib" file or something. Also, once I did recover, I saved as disk image and now that image says I don't have permissions and it can't be mounted. ... need some serious HELP!

Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Can't imagine something not being covered there.

Similar Messages

I had a repair done at the apple store where the replaced my hard drive and copied my other hard drive over to the new one. Everything is fine except the time machine wont reconnect to my old file and is trying create a new file but not enough space?

I had a repair done at the apple store where the replaced my hard drive and copied my other hard drive over to the new one. Everything is fine except the time machine wont reconnect to my old file and is trying create a new file but not there is not enough space for both files files? Do I need to do something to have it continue to update my old file instead of recreating a new one?

Depending on what version of OSX you're running, and how the data was transferred, you may be out of luck.
If you're running Lion, and your backups were made to a directly-connected external HD (ie, not a Time Capsule or other network location), you may be able to get Time Machine to "associate" the new disk with the old backups. See #B6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting, especially the pink box there.
If you're running Snow Leopard, you might be able to do a full system restore of your backups to the new HD. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14 for detailed instructions. That should leave a "trail" that Time Machine can follow to "associate" the new drive with the old backups. Unfortunately, that doesn't always work, and there's no way to do it manually, as there is with Lion.

Help! Macbook Air lost association with USB Airport hosted Time Machine Backup

Okay, so my wife's Macbook Air was doing Time Machine backup to USB drive attached to previous generation Airport Extreme...
We bought a brand new Airport router a couple of weeks ago, I plugged it in and everything went smoothly. Plugged in USN drive that attached to older APE router, and it's still visible on the network. However, ever since we got the new router, the existing backups are not associated with the Macbook Air anymore.
Yes, I can start over with a new backup file, but I was hoping to use the existing backup (it takes a while to backup wirelessly, and we lose the whole history if we wanted to recover previous versions of files that were backed up—I can't think of anything we'd need right now, but Murphy's Law will probably apply if I go ahead and erase the old and start new).
I was hoping all I would have to do was drag the old backup file onto the Time Machine icon to re-associate it with this computer, but I can't see any way to tell Time Machine, "hey, here's the backup file you are looking for... it's right here on the same USB drive attached to the new router."
(Also, before anyone says to make sure I have a backup of the backup, I do. The computer is backed up offsite with Backblaze, too.)
Perhaps it will be best to just start from scratch with a new Time Machine backup, that just seems like overkill, since there was nothing wrong or corrupt with the existing Time Machine file, I just switched what router it was attached to. Thanks for any advice/enlightenment.

I guess I have a few comments.
Apple has an opt out.. they do not support Time Machine backups on older Airport Extreme. Apple have always stated it is unreliable and so refused to support it.. only with Gen6 of the AE have they changed to supporting TM backups.
From your point of view it should have worked.. it may indeed still work. But the change of network is significant and it will take some work on your part.
1. I need to know what OS is the MBA running??
2. Moving a disk from one network location to another, I would strongly recommend a full reset of Time Machine on the computer.
See A4 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
3. Pondini in the same reference has some info about inheriting old backups .. slightly different context but it also could help.
see B5 and B6
4. It is also possible to move old backups into a new backup.. but this is then going too far.
I would simply buy a new USB drive.. and keep the old backup drive for a few months until your new one builds up sufficient history to be sure you will not need the old ones.. at that point you can use the old backup drive again after a reformat.
5. To do the new backup, since wireless is indeed a long and burdensome chore to make that crucial first backup, buy a thunderbolt to ethernet adapter.. assuming your MBA is recent enough. Ethernet is so worthwhile having it is required not optional extra. The cost at $35 is one of the cheapest adapters for a very expensive interface..

Lost space on external drive after TIme Machine uninstall

I installed time machine and realized I didn't like it. It allocated 35GB on my external hard drive. I performed a zero out erase through disk utility and I can't get that 35GB back! I tried zero out twice and still nothing. What do I do!? Will the 7-pass do anything different? I don't want to waste several hours doing this. Thanks.

you haven't lost anything. that's just the gigabyte discrepancy as i suspected. the advertised capacity of 500GB is measured in decimal GB while the actual capacity is measured in binary GB. This is a well known bait and switch used by all hard drive manufacturers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte
The result is that a 500Gb drive will actually format to about 466Gb.

Lost Office 2011 product key after time machine restore

Hi I am high school student, recently I reinstall os x 10.8.4 because it was getting buggy and then I restored using my time machine backup. Everything was fine all the program and files, Adobe Master Suite, lightroom 5, all restored but MS Office 2011 when I opened it, it asked me for the product key... The Office 2011 it is a legit version but it is an educational version so it was put on my our IT department before I even got this mac so I never knew the product key... So there aren't a box or email sent my microsoft, nothing, it was just there when I got it.
Is there a way to find out the product key like in my time machine backup? I searched about program to do that but none that is free... I guess the last resort would be ask my IT department but my IT department is scary, they are like take it outside of school to fix anything, they don't want anything to do with it.

Sorry, mis-typed. That should have been Transmit FTP app. So when I launch any of those apps, I am asked for the license key again...

Recover lost iCal information through iCloud (or Time Machine?)

I recently had the misfortune of accidentally deleting all of my iCal events on my iPhone. I was using Awesome Note and saw that my calendar events appeared in the app, and not wanting them there, attempted to delete them out. Little did I know that this action would affect my phone's iCal events - and because I'm hooked up to iCloud I no longer have the events now on my computer or iCloud account online. I do have Time Machine running but have been unsuccessful so far in recovering my events via that route. I see that my iTunes says it backs my iPhone up to iCloud but I have no idea how to recover this data. HELP! Isn't this iCloud/Time Machine supposed to make it easy to fix a problem like this??

Please see this page:
http://www.wilmut.webspace.virginmedia.com/notes/icloudtm.html

If I have a prob upgrading to SL, will my Time Machine be able to fix it?

Forgive my ignorance here but I'm a fairly new Mac user. I currently have Leopard on my Mac and I purchased the Snow Leopard upgrade. I'm aware that there is an option to simply upgrade the OS while keeping all your files and applications in place and not doing a complete wipe of the hard drive. That is what I want to do, a simple upgrade, not a full wipe. Here's my concern: should anything go wrong with the install or I lose some info, will I be able to restore everything from my Time Machine? Is the Time Machine a full back up of everything on my Mac so that nothing will be lost? Will my Time Machine be able to restore my old files on the new OS (Snow Leopard) or would I have to uninstall SL and reinstall Leopard so that I could restore from the Time Machine? Its a lot of questions, sorry, just want to be sure before I upgrade.

Cliona23 wrote:
Forgive my ignorance here but I'm a fairly new Mac user. I currently have Leopard on my Mac and I purchased the Snow Leopard upgrade. I'm aware that there is an option to simply upgrade the OS while keeping all your files and applications in place and not doing a complete wipe of the hard drive. That is what I want to do, a simple upgrade, not a full wipe. Here's my concern: should anything go wrong with the install or I lose some info, will I be able to restore everything from my Time Machine?
in principle, yes.
Is the Time Machine a full back up of everything on my Mac so that nothing will be lost?
yes.
Will my Time Machine be able to restore my old files on the new OS (Snow Leopard)
yes.
or would I have to uninstall SL and reinstall Leopard so that I could restore from the Time Machine?
no, that's not necessary. you can do a full system restore from TM. boot from your Snow leopard (or leopard) install DVD and select "restore system from backup" from the utilities menu. this will wipe the hard drive and restore your system from the TM backup. However, TM is pretty buggy and this procedure is known to fail sometimes. therefore a bootable clone is a better backup in this situation as the other poster suggests. you can make one using superduper or cccloner. boot from the clone to make sure it works. THEN you can safely upgrade.

Finder shows wrong disk space (Time Machine turned off)

Hi,
I have a disk space issue with my Mid '11 MacBook Air. The actual free space in my Hard Drive is much more than the space what Finder reports.
After trying almost everything i knew (Turned off Time Machine, used Disk Utility/DaisyDisk/OmniDiskSweeper), I have no success so it is starting to be annoying.
Here is the result of the du -chxd 1 / command (as root):
bash-3.2# du -chxd 1 /
258M          /.DocumentRevisions-V100
18M          /.fseventsd
577M          /.Spotlight-V100
0B          /.Trashes
0B          /.vol
8.3G          /Applications
2.6M          /bin
0B          /cores
4.5K          /dev
1.0K          /home
12K          /Incompatible Software
4.6G          /Library
8.0K          /lost+found
1.0K          /net
0B          /Network
185M          /opt
4.8G          /private
988K          /sbin
5.2G          /System
53G          /Users
437M          /usr
4.0K          /Volumes
77G          /
77G          total
The Finder says i have only 23 GB of free space:
If anyone have some idea what to check, please share it.
Thanks in advance
Peter

There may be a directory problem. Try Verifying your SSD, per #6 in Using Disk Utility.

Time Machine doesn't connect to backup volume

I am trying to 'Enter the Time Machine' and it simply hangs. It tries to connect to the server but gets stuck on 'Connecting with backup volume. Eventually, I get the error message "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup - the backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Larry's iMac.sparsebundle” could not be accessed (error -1)."
I think everything I had in the Time Machine has been lost as it shows 998GB of 998gb free. Annoying but not disastrous as my iMac hard drive is working fine. I just want to be able to backup before upgrading to Yosemite.
I'm on OSX 10.8.5
Can anyone help?
Thanks!

See C-17 in the 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

Loss of Exclusions in Time Machine on Upgrade to 10.6.1

Am running a 1st Gen Unibody Macbook with FileVault activated + 1TB Time Capsule (latest Firmware). Time Machine has been running perfectly under OSX 10.5.x for more than 11 months.
After upgrading to 10.6.1 from fully updated 10.5.x I have lost all Time Machine exclusions associated with my 'User' (/Macintosh HD/Users/myself/) account folder. All other high level exclusions (/System Files and Applications etc) remain intact.
Upon trying to add the folders lost from the exclusions list in Time Machine again, I found my 'User' folder and all sub-folders are 'greyed out' and not selectable. Consequently, Time Machine backs up my Virtual Machines folder and other large folders I don't need and want to back up.
I have already tried the 'full reset' approach from Time Machine Troubleshooting, without result; and I'm now at the limit of my OSX expertise. Can anyone shed any light please?

that explains it. a filevaulted home directory is stored inside an encrypted sparse bundle. you can not exclude individual items in it from backups. TM can either back up the whole sparse bundle with everything in it or not back up the whole sparse bundle at all. TM has other limitations with filevault. it only backs up your home directory when you log out and you can not restore individual items in your home directory using TM interface.
If you were able to do this before and were able to exclude things in your home directory from backups it means that you were backing up incorrectly and you were backing up your whole home directory TWICE! let me explain. when you log into a filevaulted account, the sparse bundle with your home directory is mounted an a virtual disk image (i.e. like an external drive, but it's hidden from finder). If you go to TM system preferences->options. your home folder will be listed on the exclusion list. DO NOT remove it from there. if you do it will remove the virtual drive with your home directory from the exclusion list. then TM will back up your home directory twice. once as an encrypted sparse bundle and second time as a nonencrypted external drive. you can then exclude some items on that "external drive" from backups but that will not really help you as the whole home directory will still be backed up completely as an encrypted sparse bundle.

Time Machine in System Preferences not Apps how do I move it?

I had trouble and lost my time machine in docks and applications. Lost my airport network and had to reinstall with disc. Still had problems and ended up having to reset my time machine and everything came back except the Time Machine doesn't show up in my applications or my dock. I would like to get it listed in my applications and then I can put it back in my dock.

Hi, Yes you are correct in iPhoto Prefernces, Advanced tab editing I used to have iPhoto and "Use external editor.". It changed to iPhoto and iPhoto Library. I have einstaleed PSE 9 and downloaded the update. There is still no lkink to external editor in the drop down box. Have I done something wrong inadvertently or is there a clitch? can you reinstal iPhoto. I am new to Macs. Every thing came preinstalled. it is the top of the range system with 16 Gb of rRAM, 2 Tb hard drive to top graphics card etc. I used to be on Windows PC. Have more than 27,000 photos on the system. Much apprecite your reply and interest in this.

How to restore external drive using Time Machine?

My external drive quit working and it held my iTunes library and other important documents. Everything is backed up to Time Machine. Time Machine is another external drive. The external drives are Seagate Go Flex that sit on the removable bases.
Any tips going forward? I was thinking about Drobo? I need safe backups.
Should I stop everything, get another good drive and somehow restore? I can't just tell Time Machine to restore contents of lost drive - correct?
How much risk is there?
I have an iMac 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7
Running 10.8.2 - everything is up to date
Thanks for helping. This is scary.

I can't just tell Time Machine to restore contents of lost drive - correct?
Sure you can. Follow the instructions linked below:
I can't see backups for a disk/partition that's no longer connected

Where can i find edited adobe photoshop files in time machine after update?

i was having issues with my computer, brought it in to apple store. they suggested i back everything up on external using time machine before doing a erase/re-write. i did so. HOWEVER, my edited photos in photoshop & bridge are gone. after the re-write, i updated from CS3 to CS5.5. all of my metadata is gone from the pictures, my keywords and all of the edited photos.
i don't know if it is related and it's not really my question, but i cannot access any of my itunes music now as it says that it cannot find original files. super frustrating as no one seems to know how to help with this. these two issues arose after my time machine backup that the apple genius told me would certainly back up all of my files. it seems i did something wrong prior to the backup or prior to the software updates that i did after the rewrite. any suggestions that could point me in the right direction are appreciated.

That path is still correct - at least it is on my system - but unless you had Library brought out into a place where it could be found, in the Sidebar for instance, I don't know how you'd get into it in Time Machine. Try this, though: access the user's Library folder via the Go To Folder command, then drag the Library folder into the sidebar. Then run Time Machine and see if the Library folder persists in the TM interface. If it does, you should then be able to navigate into Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ and find and restore the backup folder.
Hope this helps.

Cannot Find Photos on External Hard Drive Using iPhoto and Time Machine

Hi everyone,
This is my first time posting on this forum and am really hoping for some help! I have a 2006 PowerBook G4 that is running iPhoto and Time Machine, and I've used an external hard drive to backup everything on the computer via Time Machine. When I plug the external hard drive into my newer 2010 MacBook Pro, I follow this path to try to access the photos:
     External Hard Drive > Backups.backupd > PowerBook G4 12" > Latest > Macintosh HD > Users > Me > Pictures > iPhoto Library
When I click "iPhoto Library", I get the following message:
     "The iPhoto Library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library. Relaunch iPhoto with <option> key held down to choose another   library."
So, I do as the error message says and I hold down the "option" key and iPhoto launches and says:
     What Photo Library do you want iPhoto to use?
In this case, I choose "Other Library..." and again follow this path:
     External Hard Drive > Backups.backupd > PowerBook G4 12" > Latest > Macintosh HD > Users > Me > Pictures > iPhoto Library
When I choose this, I again get the following message:
     The iPhoto Library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library. Relaunch iPhoto with <option> key held down to choose another   library.
So as you can see, I'm feeling a bit like I'm chasing my tail in trying to open these photos. I did follow another user's advice and confirm that all photos are infact on the hard drive by using the "control" button and clicking "iPhoto Library" under the pictures folder, and choosing "Show Package Contents". All looks to be in tact in the "originals" folder when showing package contents, however, I just can't find a way to actually view the photos in iPhoto. I really don't want to import all the photos to my current MacBook Pro, because I'd like them to live on the external hard drive (which is formatted for Macs) so that I can browse the photos on the external drive, rather than housing it on my computer.
One other thing I tried was opening iPhoto on my MacBook Pro and going to File > Browse Backups... which essentially opens Time Machine and shows me the photos on my MacBook Pro but gives me no option to view them from my External Hard Drive.
Any super users out there willing to lend me some help?
Thanks!

The iPhoto Library is a Time Machine backup, and so cannot be used as the main library. Relaunch iPhoto with <option> key held down to choose another   library.
You can have an iPhoto library on an external drive and use it from different machines
and you can have a Time Machine backup
The two can not be on the same volume - and iPhoto can not access the TM backup - it must be restored to use it
LN

How do I restore a second volume from Time Machine?

I lost an external hard drive due to failure. Luckily, I found out that for some reason Time Machine had backed up the drive's volume along with my startup internal drive.
Now I just want to restore that lost drive's volume folder from Time Machine to a NEW external drive. However, I imagine that if I merely click "Restore" from Time Machine app it will attempt to put this volume (which is 100GB) onto my internal drive.
Is there a way to direct the location of the restore of that volume folder to my new external drive? Or can I just go into my Time Machine Backup drive and drag and drop the volume contents from the Time Machine volume onto it?

I was able to access my external disk through the status bar of the finder in Time Machine: double click on the Macintoshand select the drive. I have not restored yet (no sufficient room) but it should be ok.

HT4829 lost everything, 10.5.8 no time machine

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