I backed up my old macbook onto a hard drive through time machine. now need to restore to new macbook air. HOw??

I backed up my old macbook onto a hard drive through time machine. now need to restore to new macbook air. HOw??

If you've not started the new computer yet, after you've started it you'll answer a few questions and then be asked whether you want to restore the computer. If you answer yes you'll be asked the source. Choose hard drive - make sure the TimeMachine drive is plugged in. Choose the TM drive from the list and let it go. It will take a while.
If you've already started the computer look for Migration Assistant in the Utilities folder. You'll be asked the same question about the source. Follow the instructions above.

Similar Messages

  • Hi, ive been backing up my computer to an external hard drive (with time machine). When i buy a new macbook will that hard drive put all my info on to the new computer?

    hi, ive been backing up my computer to an external hard drive (with time machine). When i buy a new macbook will that hard drive put all my info on to the new computer?

    When you boot the new machine for the first time, you'll be prompted to import your data from a Time Machine backup.

  • I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?

    I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?
    What I am ultimately wanting to do is make more room on my computer by backing up all of my files onto the external hard drive and then deleting them off of my computer. However, neededing to be able to retrieve them from the external hard drive later down the road.
    From what I have read and am trying to understand, is that I probably shouldn't have used time machine. I need to use the external hard drive like a basic flash drive where I can put things on and get things off without having it automatically update through time machine everytime I connect it to my computer.
    Not tech savvy at all and barely understand basics. I need very simple and easy to understand explanations.

    sydababy wrote:
    and then deleting them off of my computer.
    BIG BIG MISTAKE ..... youre making a linchpin deathtrap for your data trying to shove everything on a single fragile HD.
    Dont suffer the tragedy other people make, buy another or 2 more HD, theyre cheap as dust.
    The number of people who have experienced terror by having a single external HD backup is enormous.  One failure that WILL HAPPEN, and kaput,......all gone!
    Dont do it, its all about redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.
    follow here:
    Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
    Deleting them off your computer is fine....having only ONE copy is extremely BAD.
    The Tragedy that will be, the tragedy that never should be
    Always presume correctly that your data is priceless and takes a very long time to create and often is irreplaceable. Always presume accurately that hard drives are extremely cheap, and you have no excuse not to have multiple redundant copies of your data copied on hard drives and squirreled away several places, lockboxes, safes, fireboxes, offsite and otherwise.
    Hard drives aren't prone to failure…hard drives are guaranteed to fail (the very same is true of SSD). Hard drives dont die when aged, hard drives die at any age, and peak in death when young and slowly increase in risk as they age.
    Never practice at any time for any reason the false premise and unreal sense of security in thinking your data is safe on any single external hard drive. This is never the case and has proven to be the single most common horrible tragedy of data loss that exists.
    Many 100s of millions of hours of lost work and data are lost each year due to this single common false security. This is an unnatural disaster that can avoid by making all data redundant and then redundant again. If you let a $60 additional redundant hard drive and 3 hours of copying stand between you and years of work, then you've made a fundamental mistake countless 1000s of people each year have come to regret.

  • I have just upgraded from a Macbook to a Macbook Air. I have been using a iomega external hard drive for Time Machine, which use a Firewire. However, Macbook Air's do not have a Firewire port and i cannot find an adaptor anywhere. Can anyone help?? Thanks

    I have just upgraded from a Macbook to a Macbook Air. I have been using a iomega external hard drive for Time Machine, which use a Firewire. However, Macbook Air's do not have a Firewire port and i cannot find an adaptor anywhere. Can anyone help?? Thanks

    There has never been a reliable firewire ---> USB adapter suitable for external high speed storage.  This was a major issue when the MacBooks lost the firewire port a number of years ago (Apple subsequently brought it back).
    The only high speed port on the Air is the ThunderBolt port.  There are external ThunderBolt drive options out there, but they're somewhat more expensive than traditional USB/FireWire options.

  • I am backing up my computer to an external hard drive using Time Machine.  It has been at 288.91 "used" for a while... should I just let it ride?  It's been going for about 7 hours now.

    I am backing up my computer to an external hard drive using Time Machine.  It has been at 288.91 "used" for a while... should I just let it ride?  It's been going for about 7 hours now

    It does not immediately delete the files that are missing.. it merely tries to backup the new files it has discovered on the external drive. Since you moved the files there, the backup at least for a while will contain both copies.. and that is why it doesn't have enough space to backup.
    Fixing the problem.. hmm pondini is the expert.. you should be able to delete the backup of the photos in existing backup.. there are instructions to do it.. but it is a very poor way to do things.
    Much better. .archive off the existing backup.. this is long and slow but worth it. you need a usb drive of the same size as the TC drive. Then erase the TC and start a fresh set of backups.
    The alternative is to use the USB drive as a new target.. but it is much slower than the TC internal drive.
    http://pondini.org/TM/12.html

  • Backing up photos on iMac using external hard drive and time machine

    How do i back up photos from my imac using an external hard drive and time machine
    Thanks in advance

    Apple explains how to use Time Machine in http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427.
    Setting up and using TM is very simple to do, connect any external HD (format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using Disk Utility ) and your computer shoudl ask if you want to use that EHD for a Time Machine backup. If you have any questions visit your local Apple Store or reseller and they can answer how to setup and use TM and also should be able to offer suggestions on EHDs. My personal preference is OWC (www.macsales.com) Mercury Elite Pro due to the build quality and OWC's level of support.

  • HT201250 can i back up my iTunes on one external hard drive to another external hard drive through time machine?

    I have my itunes on an external hard drive which I use on my macbook. Can I back these files up through time machine onto a second external hard drive?

    For TM yes, for another backup program running on the mac yes. You can avoid the NTFS issue by installing a NTFS driver in your mac: there are two proven ones: Paragon and NTFS-3G. These drivers make it possible for a mac to read and write NTFS formatted drives.
    But it will not help TM (I am not 100% sure about that), but other backup apps it will help.

  • Did my first back up today using external hard drive and time machine now i can't drag and drop

    Hi, i did my first back up today using time machine it all went onto my external hard drive fine. Now i cant drag and drop anyhting. I assume ive cahnged some settings in time machine but cant figure it out what to do can some one help ?
    thanks

    Brandbasher wrote:
    Thanks Pondini but i have closed time machine, removed external hard drive.
    Did you eject it first?
    Now i cant drag and drop anything on my desk top, or mail or any other application. Ive tried moving folders, documents none of it works. Even moving around documents within a folder, it wont let me chnage the position of files.
    That shouldn't be related to Time Machine (especially if the backups aren't mounted).
    What happens when you try those things?  Do you get any messages?  Anything you can post a screenshot of?
    Have you tried a Restart?
    Does it happen in another user account?  (If you don't have one, create one via System Prefs > Users & Groups.)

  • Backing up iPhoto Library on external hard drive through Time Machine

    Hi - I was advised by the folks at the Genius Bar to move my iPhoto Library to an external hard drive (drive 1), and then buy a separate 1TB external hard drive (drive 2) for all of my Time Machine backups. They said I could back up the Library in drive 1 via Time Machine, to drive 2. That way, I'd have 2 spots where my photos were stored.
    I can't figure out how to make sure the Time Machine is also backing up the Library in drive 1. Where do I set that up? At the Genius Bar, they insisted I could do it, but when I poke around Time Machine on my System Preferences, I can't figure out how to tell Time Machine where to find the iPhoto Library. And when I open up Time Machine, I just get the application view, not a set up view.
    Please help! Thanks!

    By default Time Machine will backup all locally connected disks.  so if the iPhoto library is on a locally connected disk it will be backed up.
    To double check that the disk with the iPhoto Library is not being excluded open System Preferences->Time Machine and click on the Options… button.
    If the disk with the iPhoto library is in the excluded list remove it.

  • Where can I find the Stickies database (content). I recovered my hard drive from Time machine and need to load old data.

    Where can I find the Stickies database (content) in OS 10.8 and above. I recovered my hard drive from Time machine and it loaded the app but not the content.

    How to Recover StickiesDatabase From Time Machine

  • I recently purchase macbook air with OS 10.10.2. I want to use my Seagate external backup plus hard drive for time machine back up. How to partition my 1TB Seagate back up plus hard drive for use with mac and windows pc?

    Hi All,
    I recently purchased 13" Macbook Air with OS 10.10.2. I want to use my 1TB Seagate backup plus external hard drive as time machine and my windows 7 pc. Please suggest a method. Thanks in advance for your reply.

    I strongly recommend having an external drive dedicated solely for TimeMachine. You could partition the drive but if something goes wrong you risk losing the data on both partitions. Should you decide to go ahead with splitting the drive for two different uses you’ll need to partition the drive either using the Mac’s built in Disk Utility program or Windows utility. I believe the built in Windows disk utility program will destroy the current partition and erase the data that’s on it - I use a third party Windows disk utility program for partitioning and it allows for non-destructive partitioning but warns to back up data first just in case. Apple’s Disk Utility can do non-destructive partitions but I don’t recall every trying to do a non-destructive partition on a disk originally formatted for Windows using it. Again - back up that data just in case.
    Finally, your TimeMachine drive should be at least 1.5 times (I prefer 2 times) the size of the data you expect to be backing up a year or two from now.  In other words, if you currently are using 50GB of your computer’s drive but expect to begin purchasing Mac software to replace software on your Windows computer and if you expect to be putting photos, music, and other data on it you might expect that two years from now you’ll have 100GB of stuff on the drive. So a 200GB partition is the smallest size you’d want.  TM’s backup scheme keeps multiple copies of data as it changes so the extra room is important for this scheme.

  • Every time I try to back up my Macbook Pro with an external hard drive using Time Machine, I receive the error of "the disk does not have enough space". I have a 500GB hard drive and only 120GB Macbook. It worked fine before the latest Maverick's

    Every time I try to back up my Macbook Pro with an external hard drive using Time Machine, I receive the error of "the disk does not have enough space". I have a 500GB external hard drive and only 120GB Macbook. It worked fine before the latest Maverick's update. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    My guess would be it has created an entirely new backup of your drive when you upgraded to Mavericks.
    See Here: http://pondini.org/TM/1.html
    And here: http://pondini.org/TM/9.html
    Peruse the whole site. There is a lot of information there.

  • On my macbook pro the hard drive icon is not on my desktop and I don't know how to find the hard drive or get the icon back on my desktop

    on my macbook pro the hard drive icon is not on my desktop and I don't know how to find the hard drive or get the icon back on my desktop

    Click on the Desktop. From the Finder menu select Preferences. Check the boxes for what you want on your Desktop. If they are already checked, then try unchecking and rechecking.

  • I went to Mac Store and had replaced hard drive because I encountered 4HDD ERROR(hard drive failure). I had backed up my old hard drive by TIME MACHINE regularly. Now how can I restore everything I had?

    I went to Mac Store and had replaced hard drive because I encountered 4HDD ERROR(hard drive failure). I had backed up my old hard drive by TIME MACHINE regularly. Now how can I restore everything I had?

    Thanks for your response.
    I had tried COMMAND+ALT+R which led me to directly to INTERNET RECOVERY via wifi. After 1 hour or so it dropped me at the same point.
    I've tried MIGRANT ASSISTANCE as well, it kept on LOOKING FOR OTHER COMPUTERS even though I clicked on TIME MACHINE BACK UP USING EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE
    so what to do now?
    P.S. Guys at MacStore were so careless to even listen to me when I asked them about retrieving back up :(
    Please help

  • Accessing back-ups on external hard-drive with Time Machine.

    Hi guys,
    I hope someone can help me with this problem. I am a novice at this so please be patient and forgive my ignorance.
    I backed up the internal hard-drive of my '06 iMac onto an external Iomega 500GB hard-drive using Time Machine.
    A couple of weeks later the internal hard-drive of my iMac fried and I got the " grey screen of death ".
    Now I have the external hard-drive connected to my '06 MacBook.
    There is 300GB of data on the external hard-drive. There is only 50GB of space available on my MacBook.
    I would like to access my iPhoto on the external hard-drive but when I click on the iPhoto icon in Time Machine, I get "error code 10657 ".
    I am NOT trying to do a full restore of the back-up onto the MacBook because :
    1. There is not enough space available on the MacBook and
    2. I will do a full restore when I have bought and installed a new bigger hard-drive into the iMac.
    So, I guess my question is this : Is it possible for me to access my iPhoto on the external hard-drive using my MacBook without doing a complete transfer and if so, how ?
    Thanking you in advance,
    Sean.

    If this is a network device, you can't back it up with Time Machine. If it's directly attached, and in Mac OS format, delete it from the exclusion list in the Time Machine preference pane.

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