If I ever wiped out my hard drive, how would I get everything back using time machine?

I will probably wipe out my hard drive eventually and I want to be prepared for it.

Pondini's Time Machine FAQ
Start reading to learn.
Time Machine - 101 Tutorial
Apple OSX and Time Machine Tips
Migrate Time Machine backup to new Mac in Lion
Basic Backup
Get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
SuperDuper!
Synk Pro
Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Although you can buy a complete external drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets especially for Firewire drives (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
Cool Drives
OWC
WiebeTech
Firewire Direct
California Drives
NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.

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I recently upgraded my Macbook pro with a new Hard Drive. I then transferred the data using Time Machine. Now when I want to backup using Time Machine again, it won't do it as it did before to the same external HD. How can I get it to reconnect?

Purchased a new, larger solid state drive to replace my old drive. I installed OSX then I had Time Machine do it's magic.
Now when I want to do a backup using Time Machine, it tells me that the external HD is full. When I did so prior to upgrade, it would erase old backups and then do a new backup.
Please help. I am worried about losing files, and am tired of seeing the "Time Machine hasn't backed up in xxx days" Error Message.
Thanks.

it thinks yours is a new machine so it doesn't want to start deleting another machine's backups
see the bottom of this page
http://pondini.org/TM/19.html

HT4623 the update wiped out my contacts. how do i get them back?

i updated my iphone 4s and now i don't have my contacts. they're gone. how do i get them back? I can't figure it out.

They will be in whatever program/service you have been syncing. Just sync them back.
If you have failed to sync them with your computer/service regularly, as the iphone is designed, then they are probably gone.

I've taken out a Hard Drive and can't get it back!!!!!

Hi all, I have taken out a drive from the 2nd bay of our xserve (don't ask me why) and now I have put it back in it comes up on the desk. Before I removed it we had the facility to save work on all of our imacs on the server which had 1.5TB of space left, now it only shows 800GB of space. How do I change things back?

First ensure you have backups, and test the restore pass.
Verified and valid and current archives are a massively larger consideration than is free space.
As for the disk, how big is the disk?
Launch Terminal.app on the server and enter:
df
Post that.
Then launch Disk Utility, select the disk, and request a verify. If there are problems, request a repair.
Y'all may need to reboot some client and server boxes, too.

New hard drive, how to put my music back using ipod

my computer broke (its a dell) and since its fairly new, my computer guy had to replaced the memory and hard drive. everything was wiped out, my documents, pictures, and my itunes library. i had to install itunes again, but i still had my account but all the music was wiped out. luckily my ipod has all my music on it and was updated before my computer crashed. how do i safely transfer all the music on my ipod to my library? will it all go in under one playlist or can i transfer it so my playlists (purchased, favs, etc...) are added as well?

There is a after market program called "ipod to computer transfer". Try this link. It says it's shareware...
http://www.sharewareconnection.com/tansee-ipod-transfer-pro-3-4.htm

The last iTunes wiped out my audiobooks. How do I get them back in my library without having to import them again?

I just went to iTunes and realized that my audiobooks have been wiped out. I just did an update for iTunes. The audiobooks were the last time I went to look at them, but now they are gone. I could use some help.

I am happy to say that I finally figured out how to get my calendar back: I dug deep into the bowels of the phone, and discovered that syncing had been changed from "all events" to "one month." I changed it back, and - presto! - my life returned.
I am sorry to say that I didn't get any help from anyone at Apple or on this forum. I don't understand why the Appleistas feel free to change these things without warning us, and without telling us how to fix them. I like this phone, but because of the company's institutional arrogance, I strongly doubt that I will ever purchase another Apple product.

Files still on hard drive How do I get them back?

I mistakenly deleted all the system files, so I reinstalled OS X, and after it installed, my files were not there, when I click about this Mac, then storage, it says used space 280 GB out of 500 GB. So my files are still on my hard drive but its not on showing on the recent installation. These files are very important because they have all my Xcode projects saved.

Find out what user_id they belong to.
If you do not have an entry in
System preferences > Accounts ...
that uses that user_id, then create one, and make the shortname (which is exactly where the files will be stored) agree completely.

Backed up Adobe Creative Suite on external hard drive, how do I get it back onto my Mac?

My Mac is four years old and the hard drive crapped out. I backed up my entire computer before getting a new hard drive, this includes my Adobe Creative Suite which is very important as I am a designer. I need help figuring out how to get this all back onto my Mac so I can get back to work!
Any help will be very much appreciated!

Which Creative suite version you want to install and do you have the Serial Number for that and what is the Operating System ?

Upgraded to yosemite and lost a hard drive; how do i get it back?

How do I get a hard drive recognized that was left off after upgrading to Yosemite?

I wouldn't recommend trying to go back to leopard.
So you have a PowerMac or Mac Pro and multiple internal drives?
All your other drives show up?
Was it an older drive? formatted in any particular way?
If you have an external drive case and another mac, you might be able to try that, and see if it spins up. Or just boot up with the door off and try to feel if there's vibration on that drive.
You could look for trials of Data Rescue, Disk Warrior, Data Recovery Wizard ... and see if these applications will list the drive. They can look at a lower level what is connected to the system than disk utility gives access to. Tough call though without anything showing in disk utility suggesting the drive is still alive but gotten corrupted.
If you know a mac tech, probably not a bad idea to give them a call and see what they advise that you could try yourself. Chances are though that he/she/they just want you to drop if off suspecting a failing drive.

HT5085 I have purchases (music )that is on ipad and plays but is not in ibary on pc as I changed hard drives - how can i get them back to libary to play on pc and sync ipad without losing them ?

I have purchased music that is on ipad and plays but is not in libary on pc as i cleared hard drive to portable backup ?how can i get back ? and sync ipad without losing it al ?

SADLY not as i downloaded an upgrad to my original PAGES/
i have in the meantim had to open www.icloud. then from there import the file that i am working on and then check on ipad if it uploaded/ yes it did.
but what a waste of time as it doesn not save any changes done automatically back in the cloud....
i am now downloading the new LION and hope that it will fix the problem
i cant find any other way. I was lead to believe that you wrote, it saved automatically, on to the cloud, you then opened anohter device in anotother country even, and the new file was there, waiting, in its latest version.......
and the same magic was supposed to happen in reverse.
It doesn't/
if i have to open a browser, go to www.icloud....why on earth did they not just leave us an icon to drop it in in that case?
I hope the new lion will help resolve the isssue/
any other ideas> keep em coming...thank you so much.

The OS update wiped out my calendar. How do I get it back?

My phone (an iPhone 4) was updated unexpectedly a few weeks ago while syncing, and a lot of things were changed. Having to arrange my apps the way I wanted them was a fairly minor annoyance - but my calendar entries before November are completely gone.
This is a huge problem. I need those entries to do my taxes. This is a disaster.
I have another problem: I recently completed treatment for Stage 3 inflammatory breast carcinoma. I'm planning to write about it - but without my calendar entries, I don't have all the information I need. Reconstructing it will be almost impossible.
I wrote to Apple about it, and have had no response of any kind.
Can someone help me? I'm getting desperate. Thank you!

I am happy to say that I finally figured out how to get my calendar back: I dug deep into the bowels of the phone, and discovered that syncing had been changed from "all events" to "one month." I changed it back, and - presto! - my life returned.
I am sorry to say that I didn't get any help from anyone at Apple or on this forum. I don't understand why the Appleistas feel free to change these things without warning us, and without telling us how to fix them. I like this phone, but because of the company's institutional arrogance, I strongly doubt that I will ever purchase another Apple product.

I refreshed my windows 7 and lost my itunes on my computer. I have my music on my external drive, how do I get everything back? HELP

I need help reseting my itunes after I refreshed my windows 7 on my pc. I have my music on my external drive & my ipod. How do I set up again?

This question has to do with how to restore your computer drive if you backed up the computer to an external drive. Did you use backup software or did you just copy the data from the old computer to the new computer? If you just copied, then you need to just copy over the Music folder which should contain the iTunes folder.

External hard drive no longer found after becoming full from time machine, External hard drive no longer found after becoming full from time machine

Hi, I have been using an external hard drive as a backup for my Mac using Time Machine. I was under the impression that once the backup drive became full, it would start to delete previous versions of the backup. However, instead of doing that, it has just stopped working and I now cannot access the hard drive via a Mac or a PC. On the PC, it does at least show up in that it will allow me to disconnect it safely but I cannot do anything else with it.
I am now looking to reformat it, and start again from scratch - but can't do this as it doesn't show up anywhere. Does anyone have any advice about how I can get this working again?
Thanks.

Can you see the drive in Disk Utility? If so, try selecting it and using the Mount button in the top menu. You can also run repair disk and repair permissions.

Can i recover photo files lost when i wiped out my hard-drive and reinstalled mac os x?

Can i recover photo files lost when i wiped out my hard-drive and reinstalled mac os x? I know that when a computer is wiped cleaned that the info is still on the hard drive, how do I access it? Can I pay someone to access it? Long story short, everything was saved to my external hard drive except my photos, by mistake of course.

You have to stop using the drive immediately. Completely stop. Do not boot the computer from the drive.
File recovery software: Try using an application such as Data Rescue 3 - http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php or FileSalvage - http://subrosasoft.com, or one of the ones listed in the (old) link below. Some have free trial versions that let you see if the software will help before you decide to buy. You will also need a second hard drive equal to or larger in size than your first drive as a destination drive for recovered files.
http://data-recovery-software-review.toptenreviews.com/mac-recovery-software
It is critical that you do not use the computer or even turn it on until you have rescued your files. Files only have the directory reference to them removed when you empty the trash or otherwise delete them from a computer (unless you use secure erase, in which case they are gone forever or can only be potentially be recovered by very expensive means) and are still present on the computer. However, their space is marked as available to any other file creation done on the computer (even done by you booting the computer) and there is risk that your files will be overwritten by the computer.
Even if the above works, do not expect the results to be pretty or even 100% successful. Files will often lose their names and you will have to re-name them one by one.

I accidently deleated file from the Elements organizor and from the hard drive. Can I get it back?

I accidently deleated a file from the Elements organizor and from the hard drive. Can I get it back? How to do it?

There's a good chance that you can if you haven't done too much work after deleting it. Typically files are not actually wiped from the hard drive, rather the space they take is marked as free to use by another file if needed. So if it hasn't been used by another file it can be recovered.
Try this program... it will help if you know where the images were stored.
http://www.piriform.com/recuva
Colin

If I ever wiped out my hard drive, how would I get everything back using time machine?

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