Migration Assistant in Lion won't recognize Time Machine backup from Snow Leopard

I just got an iMac with Lion. I am trying to use the Migration Assistant to move my files/apps etc from a Time Machine backup to the new computer. The MA will not recognize the backup drive - (external firewire 800). I can see the backup drive on my desktop but it does not show up as an option to choose in the Migration Assistant. Any idea what might be wrong. The backup is from an iMac running Snow Leopard and all the system software was last updated on Dec 9th. It think it is as current as I could get with Snow Leopard. Any ideas what is wrong?
Thanks,
Chad

This happened to me after hard drive replacement under the Seagate Drive Recall at the local Apple Store. Here's what I learned from the process:
I Wagged the Mac home, fired it up (with naked OS installed at the Apple Store), and it wouldn't see my Time Machine drive with Setup Assistant - not on firewire 800 nor USB. Just a grey spinner that lasts forever. When I try just continuing anyway, it offers me something that looks plausible, but then puts up a dialog about duplicate user name, and no matter what I enter, it always says "that user already exists". So I think - maybe Migration Assistant. Complete the setup, create an account, watch the nice welcome movie. BAM - there's my Time Machine drive on the desktop. OK - it has to work . . . but no. Same behavior in Migration Assistant, plus the new OS offers to start making backups on my Time Machine disk - it's not recognizing it at all.
So - back to the Apple Store - let the genius figure it out. It turns out there are multiple problems. First, the "genius" who imaged my new machine picked 10.7.2 but my machine had 10.7.5 - turns out, it's not enough just to have right cat. Even a point release older OS may not recognize a newer Time Machine drive. The guy at the desk said "We have images of everything but the 10.7.2 has free iLife in it, so they like to use that one". What the heck? They don't image what you had originally as a matter of sane process?
Having figured that out, we re-image 10.7.5 at the store thinking we've fixed it. But no - Setup Assistant still won't see the Time Machine drive. Not on USB, not on Firewire. Not in a box, not with a fox.
So here's the second trick - newer machines have a recovery partion. see: http://www.apple.com/osx/recovery/ Boot with the option key held down, pick that partition, then you'll get a "system restore" option, to restore your whole system from a Time Machine backup. My drive was recognized by the recovery partition restore process when neither Setup nor Migration Assistant would. Obviously, there's something broken in Setup/Migration Assistant.
Takeaway:
- if you're getting a drive replaced by Apple, make sure they image *exactly* the same OS
- if Setup Assistant fails, use the recovery partition for system restore
- Use Recovery Disk Assistant http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433 NOW to make yourself a recovery thumb drive just in case. With Apple's new "no media" approach to the OS, you're hosed without it.

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I just restored my 13" MBP i5 at the apple store to the newest version of Lion after issues with a previous Time Machine backup from Snow Leopard- this time I created a new account and just ported files and folders, and now MS Office doesn't work. Help?

I just restored my 13" MBP i5 at the apple store to the newest version of Lion after issues with a previous Time Machine backup from Snow Leopard- this time I created a new account and just ported files and folders, and now MS Office doesn't work.
^^ that's the main problem. Here's the full history.
I bought a new 13" i5 MBP, early 2011 edition. I had an old white Macbook 2.14 ghz core2duo on Snow Leopard. I attempted to port over my time machine backup, but encountered problems in that my User was inaccessible from the new computer after the import finished, and I had to go in and change the root password, etc, and for some reason or another, I couldn't install any programs at all from that administrator's account. By "couldn't" I mean I could install them, but upon installation they would never boot. So, I took it to the apple store and did a clean install from the most up to date Lion OSX. Then, I created a brand new admin account, instead of trying to import the old one, and things seemed great. Then, I just imported my old files from the TM backup, but not any system settings, permissions, or user data. Just my Docs, pics, vids, apps, and itunes stuff.
Here's where things get weird again. I imported this stuff under the name "old", but all of these folders have a red negative sign on them, marking them as restricted. So, from my main admin account, I cannot even peruse these folders. Since I didn't import user data, I can't sign in to the "old" account to change permissions. I already tried to change the permissions from system preferences, but that didn't change anything. And now, for whatever reason, of all the apps that were imported then, MS Office is the only set of apps that does not work. When I click on it, it just says there was a problem and asks if I'd like to send a report to apple. I tried reinstalling it to no avail. I'm an English student, so i really need access to Word. Can anyone help? The Apple store is a major detour for me and would like to fix this issue myself.

Most likely you have Office 2004 which are PPC-only applications and will not work in Lion. Upgrade to Office 2011. Other alternatives are:
Apple's iWork suite (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.)
Open Office (Office 2007-like suite compatible with OS X.)
NeoOffice (similar to Open Office.)
LibreOffice (a new direction for the Open Office suite.)

Time Machine Backup from Snow leopard

My old Macbook died. It was rurning Snow Leopard, and fortunately i had everything backed up with time machine on an iomega network drive. I just bought a new Macbook pro with Mountain Lion and i get an error when i try to access the time machine backup: "The version of the server you are trying to connect to is not supported. Please contact your system administrator to resolve the problem."
Any ideas?
Thank you

See Pondini's Excellent information here...
Setting-up a new Mac from an old one, its backups, or a PC
But am not sure about TM and your iomega network drive
More Info here...
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.htm

Keep last Time Machine backup from Snow Leopard

Recently my 2008 Macbook (aluminum) was running much slower so I performed a backup in Time Machine on my external HD, erased my MacBook's HD and performed a clean install of Mountain Lion. I do not need all of the files from my Time Machine backup so instead of restoring from that backup I manually transferred only the important documents (mostly because I did not want old software, etc.). I reinstalled my software from disks or re-downloaded and am happy that this machine is performing beautifully. I would like to save *ONLY* the last TM backup I made before wiping my HD as a file on the HD and then erase the external so I can set up TM to do backups on the computer again (Ideally, would partition external to contain the last backup of the "old machine" but need to know size of that file to do so.). However because of the weirdness with how TM writes files I am not sure which files must be saved for this to work. Do I just save the file linked in the "Latest backup" alias, and if not what other files need to be saved? Is it even possible to do this?

See Pondini's Excellent information here...
Setting-up a new Mac from an old one, its backups, or a PC
But am not sure about TM and your iomega network drive
More Info here...
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.htm

Time Machine Backup of snow leopard

Can i restore a Snow Leopard Time Machine backup using the Leopard Installation disks?
I screwed up some mac's at the office and need to repair it before anyone finds out :P
thanks

Again, since Snow Leopard has not been released, we cannot discuss any aspect of it except the feature information Apple has officially announced. If you are a registered Apple developer or authorized participant in an Apple seeding program, you have special forums available to you where you can ask questions about Snow Leopard.

Migration Assistant Mav.: not showing ML Time Machine backup

Hi Mac community,
my own MBP mid 2010:
clean install of Mavericks
connected FireWire 800 external hard disk with recent Time Machine backup done in Mountain Lion
started Migration Assistant, selected the Time Machine disk, and transferred all user data
everything worked absolutely PERFECTLY and now Mavericks runs smoothly with all my old user data
So I wanted to do the same thing with a relative's late 2009 iMac:
still in Mountain Lion, doing Time Machine backups to TWO different USB 2.0 hard disks
browsing the Time Machine disks manually to check whether all the files are there -- they are, including the (hidden) ~/Library folder
clean install worked fine, Mavericks runs OK
starting Migration Assistant in Mavericks ⇒ and - OH HORROR - the connected external Time Machine hard disk does not show up as a source - in fact, NOTHING shows up
So I copied over the data manually, for which I had to enable the root account (how else would one delete/replace a whole ~/Library folder??)
Then I tried to fix permissions manually (because other users could now read the files in the home folder).
All the old data (mails, contacts, calendars) is still there, but the whole thing doesn't really run smoothly; each time one logs into the account, keychain asks weird questions and dock icons pointing to programs show questions marks again. Later today, I'll try to fix permissions for the home folder as a whole (Recovery Boot ⇒ Terminal ⇒ resetpassword ⇒ Reset Home Folder Permissions and ACLs), but I'd rather do another clean install and somehow get Migration Assistant to offer me the Time Machine backup as a source for user data transfer - AS IT SHOULD in an OS that 'just works' ...
Anything I could do to convince Mavericks to use my old Time Machine backup??
This is a real nightmare for me ⇒ I f*cked up a relative's system -- really hope I can fix it again.
Cheers, folks!

sorry, i don't know what else it could be then. if you have another external drive you can try doing a full system restore from the TM backups onto that drive and see if MA will recognize that drive and migrate from it. other than this there is always manual migration. slow and tedious but it can be done. see this link for help with that
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6185507

HT1338 HELP! iMac won't recognize time machine backup!

My hard drive failed in my iMac 2.8 Intel Core i5. Luckily, I had a time machine backup on a usb hard drive. Also luckily, there was a free replacement available for my iMac because the Seagate hard drive in my iMac was prone to failure. I brought it to the Apple Store for a replacement, which took about a week. When I got home to restore my system from the backup, it won't see the time machine backup. It sees the drive but no backup is selectable. I know it is there because I updated my System software to the latest Mountain Lion and you can see the files on the backup drive, with dates for the backups and everything. It won't allow me to restore in Migration assistant or Recovery Mode or anything.
HELP!!

Most likely, some files were inadvertently excluded from your backups, and as a result you won't be able to restore your data in Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant.
Starting from a fresh installation of OS X, set up a new administrator account and log in. Follow the instructions on this page to associate your existing backups with the new installation.
You should now be able to enter Time Machine and restore your user data from a snapshot.* I suggest you do this in two stages. Quit all applications except the Finder before you begin.
Restore all the visible items at the top level of your home folder.
Hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar. Enter Time Machine and restore all items in the Library folder. Log out and log back in as soon as the restore is complete.
Any other invisible folders or files at the top level of your home folder that you want to preserve will have to be restored separately. For most users, that isn't necessary.
You'll have to reinstall all third-party applications from scratch, or restore them from another kind of backup, if you have one.
*If you don't see any snapshots in Time Machine, exit the time-travel view and then hold down the option key while selecting
Browse Other Backup Disks...
from the Time Machine menu, which has an icon that looks like a clock running backwards. Select the backups of your computer by its previous name. If you don't have the Time Machine menu, open the Time Machine preference pane in System Preferences and check the box marked
Show Time Machine in menu bar

Migration Assistant not seeing OS X Server time machine backups

Hello,
I use my OS X Server box as a time machine server, to which my other computers back up, just like you would to a time capsule. However, I now want to use one of those backups to restore to a new computer. When I try to use migration assistant to do this, it sees my server machine, but it says there are no backups on it. I noticed on the hard drive the server uses to back up the clients, the sparse bundles are saved under a "Shared Items" folder, unlike what happens if you do time machine backups connected directly to an external disc with USB, where the backups directory is at the top level directory.
Any ideas what could be going on here? As it is it looks like no time machine backups managed by my server machine are usable by migration assistant.

In the sidebar of a Finder window on the client, select the icon representing the startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) At the top level of the volume are folders with these names, among others:
Applications
Library
System
Enter Time Machine and select the most recent snapshot, which is behind the frontmost window. Are those folders present in the snapshot?

How do I reinstall Lion after having to revert to previous Time Machine Backup of Snow Leopard?

After upgrading to Lion, had to revert to a Snow Leopard Time Machine backup in order to transition my Quicken data to a newer version of Quicken compatible with Lion. Now not sure how to get back my upgrade. Command-R during restart does not work, I'm sure because system is now running Snow Leopard. App Store does not show my purchase. Don't want to pay for Lion again. Don't want to restore Lion Time Machine Backup as I will lose my new Quicken Essentials version and data file.

If you are running Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later open App Store and sign in with the same Apple ID you used to purchase Lion. Click on Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should see an active Install button to the right of your original Lion purchase entry.

Can I Install My ML Time Machine Backup on Snow Leopard?

I have a Time Machine backup with Mountain Lion on it. Can I install this straight onto a Mac with Snow Leopard on it? If so, does it install the hidden Lion Boot Partition as well?

No.

Can I restore my system after replacing my hard drive with the original leopard discs, then use my time machine backup (with Snow Leopard) to finish the restore?

I am replacing my original 100gb hard drive for a 500gb. I am currently running OS X.6.7. I understand the process of how to install the new drive and restore the system from the disc. What I am unsure of is whether I need the Snow Leopard disc or can I use the original Leopard discs and then plug in my time machine backup to complete the restore?

How do I restore my entire system?.
or, use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your current system to an external HD, replace the HD, then clone the clone back to the new drive.

Using Leopard Time Machine Backup after snow leopard install

So I want to install Snow Leopard (and set up bootcamp), and I wanted to wipe my hard drive and do a clean install - because in the past i've had some trouble creating a bootcamp partition.
would i be able to wipe and install snow leopard, and then easily restore my data and settings from a time machine backup?

You may get a better response if you posted your question
in the Snow Leopard forum...
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=263
Dave

Migration Assistant won't recognize Time Machine Backup

I recenly got my old thunderbolt-less macbook pro back from a repair and I can't seem to resotre my data. My external drive it reconized in finder, but not in Migration Assistant. I have updated to the newest OS and still nothing. I was tunning mavrics before the repair so this should be working right? Thanks for any help you can offer.

A possible reason for backups not to be available in Migration Assistant is that the computer doesn't have a name, or the name is corrupt. Open the Sharing preference pane and check the name. If you can't do that, reset the PRAM. Credit to ASC member Csnote for this observation.
Most likely, some folders were excluded from your backups as the result of a failed or aborted software installation.
Starting from a clean installation of OS X, set up a new administrator account and log in. Enter Time Machine and press the key combination shift-command-C. The front window will show all mounted volumes. All snapshots should now be accessible.* Select the one you want and navigate to your home folder (in the Users folder at the top level of the old startup volume.)
You should now be able to restore your user data. I suggest you do this in two stages. Quit all applications except the Finder before you begin.
Restore all the visible items at the top level of your home folder.
Hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar. Enter Time Machine and restore all items in the Library folder. Log out and log back in as soon as the restore is complete.
Any other invisible folders or files at the top level of your home folder that you want to preserve will have to be restored separately. For most users, that isn't necessary.
You'll have to reinstall all third-party applications from scratch, or restore them from another kind of backup, if you have one.
You'll have another problem if this is a new computer, or if you erased the startup volume: The next time you back up, Time Machine won't recognize any files as being the same as they were before, and will make a full copy of all files. There might not be enough space on one or more of your backup volumes for that. There are different ways of dealing with that situation, depending on your needs. The easiest way is to set your backup drives aside, if possible, until you're sure you'll no longer need the data on them, then erase them and start over. Meanwhile start a new backup on one or more empty storage devices. If that solution isn't workable for you, ask for instructions.
*If you don't see any snapshots in Time Machine, exit the time-travel view and then hold down the option key while selecting
Browse Other Backup Disks...
from the Time Machine menu, which has an icon that looks like a clock running backwards. Select the backups of your computer by its previous name. If you don't have the Time Machine menu, open the Time Machine preference pane in System Preferences and check the box marked
Show Time Machine in menu bar

Lion won't mount Time Machine backup, but...

My Time Machine back up to an external drive seemed to have failed. It won't mount on Lion long enough to fix the problem. Other times it just locks up.
I dual boot with Vista and it sees the drive and all the files just fine. Any idea of what I can do to mount it on Lion. I'm tempted to just format it in Vista. Mount it in Lion, if it does at all, then format again for OS X. See if just a corrup files and not a failing hard drive.
Any suggestions are appreciated.

Robert Pena wrote:
My Time Machine back up to an external drive seemed to have failed. It won't mount on Lion long enough to fix the problem. Other times it just locks up.
Sounds like a problem with the drive itself, but might be corrupted data. See if you can Repair it, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
I'm tempted to just format it in Vista. Mount it in Lion, if it does at all, then format again for OS X. See if just a corrup files and not a failing hard drive.
If you do that, format it again with Disk Utility. Among other things, be sure it has the GUID partiion map scheme, not MBR (the Windoze setup), or even a version of GUID set by Windoze.

Lion can't see Time Machine drive that Snow Leopard does

We just set up a backup system for our group. It's a 8 Tb Pegasus drive attached to a Mac Mini Server. I have set up 4 Macs running Snow Leopard with no problems at all. Two systems are running Lion and I can not get Time Machine to see the backup drive. We are connecting via AFP on a network.
Any ideas or remedies? Thanks!

If I'm understanding correctly, your 4 SL machines work fine with the drive. Your Lion machines do not seem to able to see the drive in TM.
But your Mini server is a Lion server correct? It can browse and backup to the Pegasus on its own right?
The link Linc cited is related to an issue with older storage devices that use legacy AFP and no longer work properly with Lion machines. Even if the legacy is enabled you can only browse the drive and can set the drive for TM, but will not be allowed to use it for TM (TM errors will say as much). But this Promise Pegasus? is a brand new Thunderbolt using product entirely which subsequently makes me think that can't be the case at all.
Random thoughts:
How about LAN traffic firewall? Any chance you have the AFP port blocked internally?
I briefly flipped through a manual on the Pegasus... and it doesn't even offer any hints on time machine or shared usage. I guess there isn't anything particular on the disk side to do besides plug it in and the disk arrangements.
OS side... buggy sharepoint setups? TM usage is a selectable function for any particular sharepoint. I'm not sure how you are setting it, but have you tried to create a sharepoint on the Pegasus (a folder stored on it and not the root) and share it out with TM allowed? You should be able to see that at least.

Migration Assistant in Lion won't recognize Time Machine backup from Snow Leopard

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