Migration assistant + time machine error

Hi,
I just bought a new iMac 24" and was trying to migrate my data over. Upon starting the iMac, I chose the option of restoring using "time machine" backup. Migration assistant found my backup and I chose that and after a "calculation space" screen it started transferring the data over but it never ends. At the end of the whole process, the "progress" screen (with the progress bar) and the statement saying "Less than 1 minute to completion" (or something to that extant), it just stays there. Nothing happens, it says it is "moving files to link applications". I've done this 3 times, and the last was with a clean install of Leopard using the restore disc. All of them gave the same problem, at first I thought it was a time calculation error but after leaving the 3rd installation alone for 3 hours and it was still stuck on that screen, I think the system hung.
What is wrong?
The backup is on a partitioned 1TB firewire 800 HDD.
Any help would be appreciated.
Desmond

The exact error message when I select the Time Machine backup (which is displayed with yellow triangle on the hard disk) is 'Volume contains an OS X installation which may be damaged.'
The older iMac has the system on the built-in SSD and the applications and files on the internal hard disk whereas the new iMac is a fusion drive. I wonder if this is what the problem is, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that someone in a similar situation was able to use the migration assistant without any problem (can't find it now, though).

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Lost list of my wifi networks after using migration assistant / time machine

After using migration assistant / time machine to set up my new Mac I now miss the list of stored preferred Wlan/WiFi networks. So the passwords of wireless networks I. Used in the past are all gone.
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Thanks for help.

I've been working through this procedure this week. It's pretty good, and when it works it appears to work quite well, but there's still some bumps in the road:
(1) Once you've migrated, Time Machine itself seems to be a little confused and future backups may fail. You might have to start again by changing to a new Time Machine disk on your new laptop. You may lose your older backups, it's not yet clear to me.
(2) You can't restore from a previous backup during the migration, only the most recent one. (You can restore from an older backup using tools on the install CD if you need to.) I suspect this won't be an issue for you.
(3) Migration Assistant once you've logged in a Migration Assistant while you're starting up a new machine seem to work slightly differently. For example, sometimes the newest copy of the applications in your Applications folder (say, iMovie) is preserved, sometimes it makes an exact restore of the old Applications folder even if it's an older version of the application.
Overall it's been a pretty good experience, and what you want to do does work, but be prepared for the possibility of some issues. I tried this back in 10.5.0 a few months ago and had a lot of problems, things seem better now under 10.5.2.
- Ert

After Migration Assistant, Time Machine refuses to use old backups

I've got to say I'm pretty disappointed with Time Machine.
I just dropped $2,000 on my second-ever Mac, a 15" MBP (Core i7 2GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB 5200rpm hard drive, the stock low-end 15" config). From what I'd heard about Migration Assistant, I believed it would easily move my stuff over to my new Mac. For the most part it did, but a few things didn't transfer. Other posts on the topic detail them accurately - Desktop icon layouts, some settings, Growl, etc.
I told Migration Assistant to use my Time Machine backups, which have been happening without incident for a long time. My oldest backup is December 2010.
Now that my new MBP is about 99% set up like my old MBP, I am having a problem with Time Machine.
I get the error "Time Machine could not complete the backup. This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 355.61 GB but only 176.44 GB are available."
Looking at the Time Machine drive in Finder, I found that Time Machine is trying to create a new folder for backups and do a full backup. Where there was once one folder, "[My Name]'s MacBook Pro," there is now an additional folder, "[My Name]'s MacBook Pro 2." Time Machine is trying to back up into that second directory.
Now, I get it that this is a different computer. But really, if I use Migration Assistant to restore my Time Machine backup, I think it would be safe for OSX to assume that I want to continue using those backups. What is especially disappointing for me is, there were things that Migration Assistant did not restore properly. I probably haven't found them all. That makes it CRUCIAL that I have my Time Machine backups, but it seems that Apple thinks it's perfectly normal for me to want to FORMAT my Time Machine drive after Migration Assistant did a half-*** job of migrating my data. I need those backups now more than ever.
I do also have an online backup, but I still don't feel very comfortable destroying six months of local backups just to make Time Machine work again. Both MBPs were running the same (latest) version of Snow Leopard, so it stands to reason all that needs to happen is a very small incremental backup.
I have been Googling for hours. All I've found is a procedure for 10.5 that doesn't work in 10.6 where I get down into the Terminal and change a MAC address in a file on the Time Machine volume. But that's it. In fact it seems like there's no answer.
Come on Apple, you do everything else better than the competition. Why do I have to nuke six months of backups or buy a new 2TB external drive to make Time Machine work again? I assure you I want to continue making incremental backups against my old Time Machine backups, and promise to hold you not responsible should I screw something up by grabbing an old system file or something from February.
Would appreciate any help anyone could offer.

Did you use Setup Assistant when your new Mac first started up, or skip that, create a user account, then use the Migration Assistant app in your Applications/Utilties folder?
If you used Setup Assistant, when you started your first backup you should have gotten the message in #B5 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting. It sounds like you didn't (or chose Start New Backup). And no, the Leopard procedure doesn't work on Snow Leopard. That's what #B5 is for.
Usually, if you use Setup Assistant, Time Machine will still say it's going to do a full backup, and make room for it, but actually do an incremental backup (very, very slowly).
Either way, it usually deletes a lot of old backups. We're hoping that will be fixed in Lion.
Once it's decide to make a new backup, there's no known way to prevent it.

Permission issues after Snow Leopard clean install, Migration Assistant+Time Machine restore.

Hello, here's the situation.
I've done a clean install, for various reasons, I've got backups including one done just before the clean install. Following directions somewhere else I set up a user account called "test" just for the purposes of reimporting PART of my old system, since one of the reasons I did the clean install was to clean up my system (get rid of all those little ghosts of old programs, the old programs themselves, files and settings I not longer want etc.) so I didn't want to just import the whole thing. So I imported just the user account and a few folders such as music and photos that I knew I wanted back on. Then I restarted so that it would log back into my old user account that's been restored using Migration assistant. So far so good. I enter time machine and start restoring Applicatons, their associated support files, a few preference panes, some other files and folders I want back on, so and and so forth. Then I enter my old home folder and see that many of the subfolders I don't have access to, I check their permissions with Get Info and see that read/write access has been granted to my test account, which is ridiculous since it didn't exist when they were backed up. Some searching reveals that on the first Time Machine back-up after a restore like this it should as at the start whether I want to inherit he old backups, so I tell Time machine to do a backup, figure that it shouldn't take much, seeing as there's nothing new, and I've put it all in the same place as in the backup. It doen't give me any such prompt, instead just starts indexing/preparing hundreds of thousands of files, and tells me that the backup should take about 135 gb of space. I stop the backup, give up on working this out myself, and come here. Help?
Of note
The "harddrive" (it's a partition, I've got Windows on the other part) is not named the same as it was in the backups, would this affect it?

I'm not familiar with Lightroom.
Where is the "Lightroom 2 catalog" folder in the second message, and what are it's permissions?
Note that +Repair Permissions+ only repairs permissions on files installed by OSX or certain Apple apps, and you should use the version of Disk Utility that's on your OSX volume, not your Install disc. See: [About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1452].

HT4889 Apple Store changed hard disc - created user account ("User"). I ran migration assistant / time machine. All files migrated but on "User" I can't open them. Help!

I changed my Seagate 1 Tb hard disc under the Apple Exchange Program.I received the iMac and the Apple Store created a new account on my iMac ("User"). I connected the Time Machine and ran the migration assistant. All files etc. have migrated. I can see the Macintosh HD and my old user account but am not allowed to open them. How can I get back to my old settings etc.?

what is the message that you get when you try to open a file?
1. You can try to change the permissions to see if they will allow you to write to the file(s).
2. Naviagte to your Home folder Macintosh HD-->Users-->Username and press command+i to get info and on the bottom of the screen click on the lock and unlock the security check, remove your current username and then re-add it and next to the minus symbol click and select apply to enclosed folders

Migration assistant; Time Machine; extra external HD

Hello all!!!
I just got a new MacBP and I would like to migrate all my files/settings to my new one from my old one via Time machine back up.
My set up as of now is this: I have a external HD that I include in my TM backup and a HD exclusivly for TM backup (total of 2 external HD's).
Should I connect the exteral HD and the Time machine HD to the new MBP when I use Migration assitant or just my TM backup?
It makes sence not to connect my HD since I'm not messing with my external HD to migrate; all i'm moving is are my settings, apps, and files (all) that are in my TM backup.
Thanks
Eric

Good. In that case you can do the following:
Start up the new computer which will boot to the Setup Assistant.
Connect your Time Machine backup drive to the computer. Use Firewire if possible because it will be faster than USB.
Complete the registration in Setup Assistant.
You will get a screen in which you can opt to restore from a TM backup. Select that option.
Follow instructions for migrating your Home folder, third-party applications and support files, and system preferences.
Upon completion of the migration process you should be logged into your migrated account.
Also, see:
How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from another Mac
Migration Assistant tips and tricks
OS X Lion- How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from another Mac

Migration from iMac to Macbook Pro using Migration Assistant / Time Machine

Dear all:
I have an iMac, Intel Core 2 Duo, with the latest Leopard version running. I have made a complete backup of my data on an external hard drive using Time Machine (only approx. 90 GB). I will be in New York next week and would like to buy a Macbook Pro. On the Apple website I found the following information regarding Time Machine:
"Migration with style.
To make setting up a new Mac even simpler, Time Machine shares its data with other Mac utilities. Use Migration Assistant to copy portions of any Time Machine backup to a new Mac, or select “Restore System from Time Machine” in the Leopard DVD Utilities menu. Choose any date recorded in Time Machine to set up your new Mac exactly as your previous Mac was on that date."
Is it really so easy? I only have to make a Time Machine backup of my iMac to the external HD, buy a Macbook Pro, plugin the external HD the Macbook Pro, start the Migration Assistant, choose the latest Time Machine backup from the external HD and set up the new Macbook Pro with all settings and applications? Really? If yes, that would be awesome!
Has anyone of you guys done this procedure in the past?
Suggestions and comments are welcome!
Regards,
Tobias

I've been working through this procedure this week. It's pretty good, and when it works it appears to work quite well, but there's still some bumps in the road:
(1) Once you've migrated, Time Machine itself seems to be a little confused and future backups may fail. You might have to start again by changing to a new Time Machine disk on your new laptop. You may lose your older backups, it's not yet clear to me.
(2) You can't restore from a previous backup during the migration, only the most recent one. (You can restore from an older backup using tools on the install CD if you need to.) I suspect this won't be an issue for you.
(3) Migration Assistant once you've logged in a Migration Assistant while you're starting up a new machine seem to work slightly differently. For example, sometimes the newest copy of the applications in your Applications folder (say, iMovie) is preserved, sometimes it makes an exact restore of the old Applications folder even if it's an older version of the application.
Overall it's been a pretty good experience, and what you want to do does work, but be prepared for the possibility of some issues. I tried this back in 10.5.0 a few months ago and had a lot of problems, things seem better now under 10.5.2.
- Ert

Time Machine Error This backup is too large for the backup disk

Hi, I have a 1TB Time Capsule which backs up my Mac. I was having some issues with my mac so I decided to perform an erase and install and then use Migration Assistant to transfer everything back to my Mac.
After I reinstalled Snow Leopard and restored my Mac using Migration Assistant, Time Machine says that the backup has failed. It says " Time Machine Error This backup is too large for the backup disk. The Backup requires 663 GB but only 255 GB are available.
What do I do? Is my only option to erase my Time Capsule and have it back everything up from scratch?

Hi, thanks for the help. I erased everything off of the Time Capsule and it's backing up my Mac from scratch. It's almost finished backing up my whole mac. It's now at 641.86gb of 646.54gb but it's now backing up very slowly. It's backing up .1 every few minutes. Is this normal?
Here's the log from Time Machine Buddy:
Starting standard backup
Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://Stuart%[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
Mounted network destination using URL: afp://Stuart%[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
Creating disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule/StuartsMacPro.sparsebundle
QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule/StuartsMacPro.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
Detected system migration from: /Volumes/My Book
Backup content size: 850.0 GB excluded items size: 606.5 GB for volume Stuart's Drive
Backup content size: 425.9 GB excluded items size: 67.3 GB for volume Macintosh HD
No pre-backup thinning needed: 722.56 GB requested (including padding), 928.68 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Copied 28.3 GB of 602.1 GB, 29340 of 1478089 items
Copied 55.0 GB of 602.1 GB, 41596 of 1478089 items
Copied 82.9 GB of 602.1 GB, 55899 of 1478089 items
Copied 110.7 GB of 602.1 GB, 63347 of 1478089 items
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Copied 166.8 GB of 602.1 GB, 94574 of 1478089 items
Copied 194.7 GB of 602.1 GB, 102854 of 1478089 items
Copied 222.8 GB of 602.1 GB, 114388 of 1478089 items
Copied 129159 files (242.5 GB) from volume Stuart's Drive.
Copied 248.4 GB of 602.1 GB, 130414 of 1478089 items
Copied 265.5 GB of 602.1 GB, 355699 of 1478089 items
Copied 293.6 GB of 602.1 GB, 382912 of 1478089 items
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Copied 349.8 GB of 602.1 GB, 399204 of 1478089 items
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Copied 434.5 GB of 602.1 GB, 415817 of 1478089 items
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Copied 541.3 GB of 602.1 GB, 590386 of 1478089 items
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Message was edited by: Stuart Lawrence
Message was edited by: Stuart Lawrence

TS1963 Migrating from Time Machine onExternal Disk, Why won't Migration Assistant see my USB Connected external disk drive?

I had to format my internal disk drive on my MacBook Pro, and reload Mountain Lion 10.8.3. The startup assistant could not see my external disk drive with the Time Machine backup files. After many tries I told it to skip restoring the files and let it boot up. I was able to see my 1 TByte external drive and could see the Time Machine files using Finder.
I started the Migration Assistant and told it to migrate from Time Machine Files on an external drive. It also did not see the backup drive. The only drive icon it showed was the Macintosh HD (my internal drive).
Isn't it supposed to show you the drive you are moving the files from? I tried starting it and it looked like it was going to try to migrate the files from the internal drive (to where I don't know, back to itselfl?) Or do I just not understand. Is it seeing the external drive, without identifying it (in the Migration Asst,)?
Really looks like it is going to back up the internal HD with files that are on the internal HD and not from Time Machine.
I need to restore my files and have been told I need to do so using Migration Assistant and not Time Machine.
Help pleae and soon, need to get my taxes finished!
Thanks!

I'm surprised that no one replied to this. But I learned a few things that may be helpful to some of you with this same question.
When you restore data from an external disk drive with Time Machine files on it. As you move through the dialog (in either System Startup or in the Migration Assistant) it will ask if you want to restore from an external disk with Time Machine files. If you select this option, it will show you only one Icon. You will expect to see your external disk drive listed as the source of the restore. The icon that is shown will look like your ilnternal drive and will be labeled something like Macintosh HD. That is not your internal drive, but is your backup drive. It is labeled the same as your internal disk drive and it is telling you that you have found the backup for your internal disk drive.
Would be nice if Apple would put a note of explanation about this as part of that dialog. I wasted several hours trying to make it work Finally I took a chance and selected the drive shown and it did restore my system. I ended up with two users since I did it from Migration Assistant. Had I done it from the System Startup, there would only be the one user.

HT201250 How can I migrate a Time Machine backup from an external hard drive to a new TimeCapsuls?

I just got a 2TB Time Capsule. I want to migrate my time machine backups on an external hard drive to the new Time Capsule. I have about 430Gb of files to back up; I don't want to wait 7-8 days for the backup, unless I have to. I am using OS 10.7.5 (forget which cat that is). I have mounted the TC drive as 10.0.1.1; I tried to drag and drop from old to "data" on TC, but I get the error "The volume is the wrong format for a backup." Any ideas how I can move my old files to the new, and bypass creating a brand new backup file?
Thanks.

Rather than do that, which means starting over from scratch, losing all your edits, organisation and so on, why not simply use iPhoto Library Manager to revert the Library to the older version? Easier, less destructive.
The instructions on that are here
If you really want to start over: you can access the Originals folder simply by going to your Pictures Folder and finding the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.

HT4413 When migrating from time machine to my new hard drive, only some files and applications and setting are transferred, not all of them. In my latest back up I have them all. How can I fix that?

When migrating from time machine to a new hard drive, not all is transferd, only partial documents, applications , settings etc. How can I migrate the latest back-up with all the content.

sohs wrote:
When migrating from time machine to a new hard drive, not all is transferd, only partial documents, applications , settings etc. How can I migrate the latest back-up with all the content.
If you want to use Time Machine to recover the contents of one of its a backups to a new drive, follow the instructions in Mac OS X 10.6: Recovering your entire system. Note that you must select the "Restore System From Backup" option from the Utilities menu of the Installer disc to do this.
Also note that if you are transferring files to a hard drive to be used with a different computer, you should use Migration Assistant instead. This intentionally will not copy everything because some settings, applications, etc. are not compatible computer-to-computer. Migration Assistant will copy everything that is.

Migrated with time machine. Had all programs, photos, music, etc. Today all photos, music and some programs disappeared. updated with the new software fix. Can I do the migration from time machine again?

I migrated from old machine with Leopard to new machine with Lion. After migration, I had all photos, music, applications, etc. This morning there is no music, no photos and missing programs. I have now downloaded the fix they put out yesterday. Can I simply redo a new migration from Time Machine to get those things back?

Monty,
If you used Migration Assistant what has probably occurred is it created another user account. Log out of your current account and see if there is another account, if so log into that one and see if your information is there.

Time Machine Error when upgrading from old iMac to new iMac

Hi. I recently purchased the new 27" iMac and just completed migrating all data from an old PPC iMac. When I went to activate Time Machine and begin backing up on an existing 1TB Time Capsule, I received the following Time Machine error: "The backup disk image "xxxx" iMacG5 sparsebundle" is already in use."
Does this mean I need to go into Time Capsule first and delete the old iMac's sparsebundle before activating Time Machine on the new iMac? If so, is it safe to just drag the sparsebundle file to the trash?
Thanks!

sgrubman wrote:
Hi. I recently purchased the new 27" iMac and just completed migrating all data from an old PPC iMac. When I went to activate Time Machine and begin backing up on an existing 1TB Time Capsule, I received the following Time Machine error: "The backup disk image "xxxx" iMacG5 sparsebundle" is already in use."
Does this mean I need to go into Time Capsule first and delete the old iMac's sparsebundle before activating Time Machine on the new iMac?
No, you shouldn't have to do that, but you may want to if the TC's disk isn't well over twice the size of the data you're backing-up.
Most likely, all you have to do is eject the sparse bundle via the Finder.
A new feature in Snow Leopard will allow you to continue backing-up to the same sparse bundle. See #B5 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum.
If so, is it safe to just drag the sparsebundle file to the trash?
Yes, but if there's nothing else on the Time Capsule, this will be much faster:
Use the +*Airport Utility+* app, in your Applications/Utilities folder.
Select +*Base Station > Manual Set-Up+* from the Menubar, then Disks in the tool Bar, then Erase.

I'm having trouble backing up my second macbook to a new time capsule. continue to get an error message -- "Time Machine Error. The backup disk image could not be created." Is there something I need to change in my time capsule or time machine?

I just set up a new time capsule. it worked fine on my first macbook. But now I cannot backup my second macbook. Getting "Time Machine Error" "The backup disk image could not be created." Do I need to change settings on my time capsule to allow the second computer, or do I need to change something on the computer to allow time machine to work right?

Try #C9 in Pondini's Time Machine Troublshooting
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

I have not been able to back up for2 days. Time machine error message: /Volumes/Data/David's MacBook Air.sparsebundle" is already in use.

I have not been able to back up for2 days. Time machine error message: /Volumes/Data/David’s MacBook Air.sparsebundle” is already in use.
What now?
Macbook Air.
Was working fine for the past year until now.

See more like this on the right.. this is the most common error reported here since mountain lion came out..
Or read C12.. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Or just restart the whole network.. in right order from off.. modem.. router / TC.. clients 2min gap.

Migration assistant + time machine error

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