More Time Machine Control

Is there anyway to control the amount of saving ability of time machine? It saves and saves and saves until my 1TB external drive only has around 300gb left! would be great to control the amount of previous days you wanted TM to save.

no, there is no way to do that. however, you can make a partition on the external and keep the TM backups on that partition. this will restrict the amount of space TM backups take. it's best to make this partition dedicated to just TM and not keep any other data there. you can do it nondestructively even now by splitting the current partition with TM backups in two. this will preserve the data on the partition with the backups. enter "creating new volumes" in disk utility help to see how that's done.

Similar Messages

Time Machine controls are gone

Since the last update I noticed the controls in Time Machine are gone. I cannot anymore delete all copies of files from archives. The only 2 options I have is cancel and restore.
There used to be an options button on top of the window. This now has gone. Anybody having the same issue or a solution?

This is the iSync forum - nothing at all to do with Time Machine.
The correct forum is here:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1227

Control Time Machine, Control Time Machine

Is there some way to control when Time Machine backs up? It totally takes over the machine. I would like to limit it to starting the back up after mignight. Iron Mountain and other back up apps allow that.

I used to allow TM only one or two backups per day simply by ejecting and switching off the drive. I ran TM that way for over a year and never had a single problem.
Here's the thing, sense I was already using CarbonCopyCloner for years before TM came out, plus not needing hourly backups. It was very easy for me to turn TM off, erase the drive and use it as a second CarbonCopyClone instead.

No more Time Machine with AEBS

I have a Macbook Pro and a Macbook Air that were both happily using TM over AEBS. The MBP Logic Board was replaced so I started to setup a new TM backup only to find that it wasn't working over AEBS. Doing some research I found this:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2038
The Macbook Air still works. I'm guessing because it already has a sparsebundle. I cannot get TM on the MBP to see the AEBS Airdisk in TM anymore.
I'm really upset that this functionality was quietly removed. Notice that if you buy a Time Capsule you can perform backups on a USB drive attached to the Time Capsule or use the internal disks.
And I have deleted the original sparsbundle for the MBP as I was going to start over with a fresh backup.

beargeek wrote:
Thanks V.K. I unplugged the AEBS and plugged it back in and the backup is executing now. I had gotten it working over last night, but TM was only showing 'Now' this morning
this usually indicates that the sparse bundle is not being mounted automatically when you enter TM.
is the drive plugged into AEBS at the moment?
even after manually creating a new backup using 'backup now'. If this attempt yields the same results I will follow the steps you provided in your reply.
The post I reference is only a month old. Is there another Apple KB regarding this that you are referencing?
no, but that date means nothing. they tweak these KB articles all the time and always put the latest date on them. I watch the TM KB articles closely and this one has been up for months.

Time machine makes 30 backups for the last two days, no backups for any earlier times: is there a way to control it?

I've been running Time Machine in the background for as long as I've owned my current Mac--- a few months. It is a completely generic set-up: it's a desktop (rarely shut off or asleep) connected to an external hard drive that is much larger (1 TB) than my internal hard drive (0.5 TB), and Time Machine is configured to save backups of my whole internal drive to the external drive. The external is half-full, and the internal is a little more than half-full. I often hear my external crunching away, working on something.
I recently needed to access an old file, so I went into Time Machine mode on the folder where it had been deleted a few weeks ago. While I'm not upset that it isn't available (it's my own fault for deleting it), I didn't expect the Time Machine to have such a bad distribution of saved backups. There are 30 backup snapshots of the past two days, and nothing earlier. I was expecting something more like a few from today, a few from this week, a few from this month, and a few going all the way back in time--- a broader distribution.
I don't see any way to control this in the Time Machine Preferences (in fact, very little control at all). Is there a secret way to control it, or some tip to ensure a more useful distribution of saved snapshots?
Thanks,
-- Jim

Thanks, but it doesn't exactly address my question. TimeMachineEditor allows me to set the intervals or times when backups occur, but it doesn't control the algorithm that decides which snapshots should be deleted. My problem was that Time Machine chose to delete all of the old snapshots and keep only the most recent ones: I'd like it to keep more of the recent ones than the old ones, but still keep some old ones.
In fact, the (unmodifyable) text on the Time Machine control panel says that it keeps:
hourly backups for the past 24 hours
daily backups for the past month
weekly backups for all previous months
That would be perfect if it were true.
Perhaps the algorithm did the wrong thing because the size of my internal hard drive varied quite a lot a few days ago: a process got out of control and used up all of my internal disk space. I killed the process and deleted its output (several times), so my internal disk eventually went back down to normal. Perhaps in the intervening hours, Time Machine made a backup, once an hour, and used up all of the external drive space. When it had to choose between keeping "weekly backups of previous months" and "hourly backups of the past 24 hours", it chose to keep hourly backups of the past 24 hours. This was the wrong choice in my case (it was the unwanted output) and is probably the wrong choice in most cases.
Is there a way to control the algorithm that decides which backups to keep and which to delete? I would have it delete the hourly, daily, and weekly backups in a way that preserves their relative distribution.
By the way, while I have made it sound like my problem was a runaway log file (something that would be easy to put in an excluded directory with Time Machine's "Options" button), it was a VirtualBox snapshot merge. The data in question are precious, but were unnecessarily copied many times while VirtualBox failed to merge them properly. I can't simply exclude a directory: I'm talking about a more general problem.
Thanks!
-- Jim

Using Time Machine to Backup an External Drive (RAID 1)

Is it possible to backup an external drive to another external drive using Time Machine in Mountain Lion?
The following diagram describes what I want to do. I am basically trying to use Time Machine as an external RAID 1 system. However, I don't want to buy a RAID 1 box. I want to have control of TWO OR MORE time machine setups. I don't want to backup my OS every time. I simply want to backup one external drive to another external drive. The drives are 2TB each, so the advice to buy a big hard drive to back everything up on won't work. Also, I am often swapping drives and would like to use this system for all of my projects and all of my drives. Any help would be great. Thanks for your time.
NOTE: I am on Lion and wanted to know if this was possible before upgrading.

To be clear, TM can back up your external drive perfectly well, provided it's in MacOS format. What it can't do is back up the external drive alone to one destination, and everything else to a different destination.
As for what you should use instead of TM, I don't really have an opinion. SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner are well regarded. You need to make some decisions about backup strategy before you choose a backup method. TM makes incremental backups, so you can revert to any of several earlier versions of a file. Those third-party products can do that too, though not as efficiently as TM. Also bear in my mind that a single backup is inadequate. You need more than one backup to be safe, and to be truly safe, at least one backup must be stored off-site at all times.

Time machine takes forever on initial backup, progress bar randomly resets

When I first tried to run Time Machine I was sure that it would be simple, as Apple Software generally is. I was warned by another user that the first backup might take a while, so I began the backup on a Friday night (the day my crispy new external 320GB Seagate drive arrived). When I went to bed it was on around 24GB of approx 65GB of data. When I got up the next morning, it had only backed up 27GB!
Another problem I had a couple of times was after the backup had been going for 3-4 hours it would reset itself and start all over again! In other words the progress bar got 50% of the way through and then went back to 0%. This was obviously extremely annoying, and prompted me to stop the process, reformat the backup drive and search for some more answers in the internet.
After a full Saturday of fluffing around, calling my friend who has Time Machine working OK and watching the little blue bar creep along at speeds like 1.5MB/s (according to activity monitor) I finally managed to get it to work!
I've summarised what I did below:
_Formatting your Time Machine drive_
In the Disk Utility, select the drive and choose “Partition”
Press the “Options…” button.
Use "Apple Partition Map" partition scheme if the disk will be used with Time Machine and a PowerPC-based Mac.
Use "GUID" partition scheme if the disk will be used with Time Machine and a Intel-based Mac.
The following links are worth a look:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1550
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple/leopard-disk-utility-format-issue-screws-with-t ime-machine-but-theres-an-easy-fix-316573.php
_Spotlight may interfere_
Turn off indexing for Spotlight on the Time Machine drive
In the Spotlight control panel
Click the privacy button
Click the + button and choose your Time Machine backup drive
This will mean that Spotlight will not try to index the drive while the backup is happening.
_Excluding files_
In the Time Machine Control Panel
Click Options…
Do not back up:
Press the + button and choose the system folder
Choose “Excluded all system files “ in the dialogue box that comes up.
See the following link for more info on this step:
http://www.macinstruct.com/node/234
I’ve also heard that *turning off 3rd party antivirus software* may also help (if you have any – I don’t)
_The following links may also be helpful:_
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306681
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1209412

Are you running it over wireless or ethernet?
We particularly advise initial backup to be done over ethernet otherwise the job has this tendency not to finish. The fact is wireless has errors.. and error correction doesn't work very well during the initial copying.. TM does a verify of the backup once it finishes.. I think this is the 5sec mark.. and keeps building as it discovers files that don't match. It can also be spotlight indexing. What it is doing is good.. doing it over wireless is very bad. It has to read both sides.. then compare then decide if there is a corruption to copy the file again.. then compare again.
It can also be a file is actually corrupt on the source disk.
My inclination is to kill it. Even if you have to restart from scratch.. over ethernet it copies at about 60GB an hour.. it should complete overnight with hours to spare.
Do a verify of the source disk before you start. And load in widget to get actual log messages from TM.
See A1 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Pondini also has some stuff about backups taking far too long.
See D section in reference above.. also how to cancel a TM backup. (other than turn it off).

How to use the time machine?

how to use the time machine? because i don't know where to find the back up. can you please help me.. thankyou.

Time machine is a backup application and service that come with Leopard. When you plug in an external drive you can use it as a backup source. All you do is select the drive in the Time Machine control panel and start the backup. It will back up your whole drive and if you lose a file, go to the location on your drive where that file should be and open the Time Machine application. From there you will be able to migrate to all the points in "time" when the file was changed, and select the version of the file that you want. Then select "restore" and the file will be restored to the location where it last was on your drive.
For more information check out the Time Machine website:http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/timemachine.html

My Macbook won't start, and I must reinstall the disk. I haven't used time machine to back up, and I want to use an external drive to back up now. How can i do this from the utilities page?

I am currently in Zambia on missions work and my computer is constantly exposed to heat. I have just been trying to avoid using it during the hottest part of the day. Today though, I started it up and it was stuck on the grey page with the rotating circle for over an hour, then once the circle left, it remained frozen on the gray page. I used command + r at startup to go to the utilities page to analyze the disk. It found that there were problems with the disk, but then it could not fix those problems and told me to backup as much information as I could and reinstall or redo it all. I haven't ever used time machine to back up any of my information, but i have an external drive that I can use right now to backup my files. I can't get into my computer though to backup the files. How can I use this external drive to backup my files while the computer is currently messed up? Please help.

Emergency Backups (Data Recovery)
A)          Format an external disk:
          (This will erase all data on the external disk.)
          Boot in recovery mode (power then Command-R).
                    Alternative: Network recovery boot (power then Command-Option-R keys)
          To format (and erase) the destination recovery disk:
          Plug in the drive you are about to erase.
          Select the volume that is NOT your system disk.
          Click on Partition.
          Pull down under Partition Layout to 1 Partition.
          Click on Options…
          Select GUID Partition Table.
          Name: Emergency Backup (or whatever you prefer)
          Format: Select Mac OS Extended (journaled)
          Click Apply.
          Click Partition.
B)          Try to boot in Safe Mode (power then Shift key).
          (This will be a slow boot. Be patient.)
          If it won’t boot in Safe Mode, jump to C.
          If it boots in Safe Mode, try to boot in normal mode.
                    If that fixed your problem then start a Time Machine backup.
                    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
                    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4055
          If not, boot in Safe Mode again.
          Go > Computer.
          Double click on the system disk.
          Drag the Users folder to the recovery disk.
C)          To clone the disk:
          Boot in recovery mode.
          Select Disk Utility.
          Try to repair the system disk twice.
          Whether or not the repair succeeds:
          Drag and drop the system disk to Source:
          Drag an drop Emergency Backup to Destination:
          (Take care not to reverse this order.)
          Click Restore (the lower Restore button).
Once your system is healthy, maintain two reasonably current backups. (Time machine restores can fail.)
Create either two Time Machine backups (good) or one or more Time Machine backup(s) and one or more bootable-clone backup(s) (better).
          Use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! to create bootable-clone recovery disks.
          See https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3045
          and https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6031

HT201250 Time machine does not recognize WD external drive

Time machine and back-ups worked fine on my MacBookPro. It stopped working, no I believe it is still working but the MackBookPro does not recognize it and when clicking "Back up" I receive the message that the external drive is not available. Thanks to Bootcamp the computer also has a Windows side which I use mainly to run a soaring flight simulator called Condor. When I turn on the MacBookPro and click on "Choice" the window I receive shows the Mac and Windows operating systems, the Back-up and "My Passport." When I click on "My passport" it actually opens...When I turn the computer off and reboot it again there is no sign of "My Passport."
Now, I have a second WD My Passport which I bought for the Windows side of the computer. When I attach it before turning on the computer, I shows up on Finder, however, when I click "Back up" here it seems like it is starting back-up but only for a few seconds and then I get the message that the drive is a Windows formatted drive and that a back-up cannot be completed.
Why does the Windows formatted drive show up in Finder and also when I run the Windows side, however, the driver for the Mac does not show up on Finder?
I now have only the Mac formatted external drive attached and I just received the following messages: Can't back up. Reformat the disk. Files can still be read but the drive can no longer be used for back-ups. Get a new external drive. Run back-ups as soon as possible.
Can anyone help?
Thank you.

OK, so it sounds like you have a Mac formatted drive that you have used previously for Time Machine, and disconnected it for a few weeks, and you can now see files on it OK from your Mac. However, when the system tries to run a Time Machine backup, you get an error message "Can't backup. Reformat the disk. Files can still be read but the drive can no longer be used for back-ups. Get a new external drive. Run back-ups as soon as possible."
I have not seen this problem before, and would recommend that you look through the Time Machine troubleshooting information at http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
For instance, http://pondini.org/TM/B1.html or http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html could help in your situation. I'm assuming (but probably shouldn't) that you've verified that your hard drive doesn't need repair (another Disk Utility function) and that there is still a Time Machine backup on that drive - look for the directory Backups.backupdb.
I hope that helps. If not, perhaps someone with more Time Machine knowledge will pop along soon to help you further.

Time machine problem. Switching from one external drive to another. Problem started when upgrading to Mavrics, and changing to a WD drive

I am a long time Mac user, running my business on an apple platform since 1984. I currently use a 17" MacBook Pro as my primary computer for work. when it is at work it is plugged in via thunderbolt to my monitor and a one tb back up drive. I use time machine to back up the laptop to the one tb drive. When I go home, I take the laptop with me and use another drive at home as a back up. This way I have redundant back ups, in two separate locations. I have been doing this for years, and Time machine has worked flawlessly, automaticity switching from one drive to another.
I recently switched to Maverics, and got a new drive for home. Now whether I am at home or at work, time machine fails to automatically back up. It will alert me every hour that backups cannot be completed, and I must go to the time machine control panel and manually select a drive and click, "back up now". I also see an alert that says "waiting to complete first back up" even though each backup has been completed.
This is quite annoying, and sometimes embarrassing. When giving lectures in large venues, the backup failure alert appears and shuts down my keynote presentation (again, something new since switching to Maverics and the new WD drive.
I have reformatted the WD drive, and also spent time trying to change parameters in the time machine control panel, but so far no luck.
Any advice out there?

Time machine requires a GUID partion scheme, as well as a Mac OS X extended, journaled Volume.
It needs these to correctly:
1) copy the files
2) run a modified spotlight index pass on the files
Both are required to complete a abckup, and most new drives do not conme this way from the factory.

My Time Machine keeps asking to complete a new backup instantly after I just created a new back up

I recentlly starting using a Seagate wireless external hard drive to back up with Time Machine. The initial back up took 8-10 hours and that was at the beginning of April. Now at least once a week if not more Time Machine will give me a prompt saying "Time Machine completed a verification of your backups on "XXX." To improve reliability Time Machine must create a new backup for you. Click start new back up to create a new back up. This will remove your exisiting backup history. This could take several hours."
I understand how the initial back up can take hours. What I don't understand is why Time Machine is no longer taking snapshots of my computer to back up and instead has to delete what back up history I have and start all over. It's time consuming and doesn't make me feel very safe about my back ups. I've tried exploring the Time Machine preferences but there really isn't much I can figure out to change. I contacted Seagate directly and since I'm not using their software only their device they say it's an Apple and Time Machine problem.
Why is this happening and how can I change the settings to avoid having to create an entirely new backup weekly?

Backing up to a third-party NAS with Time Machine is risky, and unacceptably risky if it's your only backup. I know this isn't the answer you want, and I also know that the manufacturer says the device will work with Time Machine, and that it usually seems to work. Except when you try to restore, and find that you can't.
If you want network backup with Time Machine, use as the destination either an Apple Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to another Mac or to an 802.11ac AirPort base station. Only the 802.11ac base stations support Time Machine, not any older model.
If you're determined to keep using the NAS for backup, your only recourse for any problems that result is to the manufacturer (which will blame Apple.)

Time Machine and External Hard Drives

I am running Mountain Lion 10.8.1 on my iMac. I have 2 external 2TB drives that I have configued in Time Machine for backups. I have a LaCie ruggedized external hard drive I use on both my iMac and MacBook Pro for my pictures. My Lightroom library is on this LaCie drive and depending on what I'm doing or where I'm doing it, I might have the drive connected to my iMac via firewire or to my MacBook Pro via USB3.
I want to know if I configure Time Machine to backup up my Lightroom folder, what will happen if when I eject it and disconnect it from my iMac? Will Time Machine just skip over it because it's not connected? Will it just pick up where it left off when I reconnect it? I want an automatic way to back up this folder.
Suggestions/comments?

On Snow Leopard & I would assume in the newer OS versions even though it won't automatically back up until the next scheduled time, you can click on the little time machine icon or otherwise access Time Machine Controls & click Back Up Now.
I do that w my laptop when I've been using it elsewhere & then I want to back up before shutting down for the night.

Files manually added to the TC when Time Machine fills the disk?

I've ordered a Time Capsule & have tried to find the answer to this question, but can't get a definative answer.
On a 1TB drive say I add 200GB of files manually (used as a NAS) alongside the Time Machine backup. When the Time Machine backups reach 800GB would Time Machine stop at 800GB & delete the oldest backups to make room for new backups continually, or would it delete the files I manually added to make room for more Time Machine backups?

Hi,
I think many are waiting for a clear answer on that very relevant question. Anyway, I am.

Restoring Your Entire System / Time Machine

Disclaimer: Apple does not necessarily endorse any suggestions, solutions, or third-party software products that may be mentioned in the topic below. Apple encourages you to first seek a solution at Apple Support. The following links are provided as is, with no guarantee of the effectiveness or reliability of the information. Apple does not guarantee that these links will be maintained or functional at any given time. Use the information below at your own discretion.
Q: Can I restore my Macs’ entire system, and how is Time Machine involved?
A: Yes, you have several options, each involving increasing degrees of severity. In all cases Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) will be required as previous OS X versions do not work with Time Machine backups. Naturally, all of these methods will require a significant amount of time, so plan accordingly.
*Archive & Install*
An Archive and Install is the least invasive of the 3 methods. This approach results in a fresh copy of the Mac OS system software while at the same time preserving all current user accounts on your Mac. Additionally, this method will permit Time Machine to continue backing up to the same set of backups it did prior to the installation.
Procedure:
Verify that your Mac has uninterrupted AC power.
Turn “OFF” Time Machine in the Preferences.
Insert your original Mac OS 10.5 Leopard DVD and reboot while holding down the “C” key.
At the “Welcome” screen click “Continue”.
At “Select a Destination” choose your Macs’ hard disk.
Click “Options” in the lower left.
Choose “Archive and Install”.
Ensure that “Preserve Users and Network Settings” is checked.
Click “OK”.
Back at the “Select a Destination” screen click “Continue”.
At “Install Summary” click “Install”.
Once the installation is complete, use Software Update to bring your Mac up to date.
Next, Launch Disk Utility, select your Macs’ internal disk on the left, and click “Repair Disk Permissions”.
During this initial period, Spotlight is going to re-index your Mac’ hard disk. This can take up to several of hours depending upon the volume of data. Allow it to complete before resuming Time Machine backups. You can monitor its’ progress by clicking on the Spotlight icon in the menu bar.
During the installation a new folder was created at the root level of your hard disk labeled “Previous Systems”. These are all the system files that were just replaced with fresh copies. If you are comfortable, you can delete this folder right away. Otherwise, wait a week or so incase there is something you wish to retrieve, then delete it.
Finally, turn Time Machine back “ON” in the Preferences. Time Machine should continue to backup to the same set of backups that it did prior to the Archive & Install. However, due to the extensive changes to the systems’ directories, the first backup will require a lengthy session of “Preparing...” as Time Machine performs a “deep traversal”. Allow this to proceed uninterrupted. Naturally, this first backup may be a significant one, perhaps involving several GB of data, so attempting this wirelessly will require time and patience.
*”Restore System From Backup...”*
If however, your system has experienced a serious malfunction, or a Mac OS software update has produced undesirable behavior, you can perform a full system restore from your Time Machine backups. This will result in a system virtually identical to the OS environment that existed on the date of the backup you choose to restore from. All system software, applications, and user accounts will be replaced with copies as they existed when that backup took place. The advantage here is that, generally, no further installation of 3rd-party software is required and all of your personal & system settings a preserved. The disadvantage is that because you retain your personal settings and system files, you run the risk of reintroducing any problems you experienced with the previous installation, including issues that necessitated the full restore in the first place.
Naturally, the time and date you choose to restore from can make a significant difference in the state of your resulting OS environment. Choosing the most recent date from which to restore is most desirable. If, however, one or more Time Machine backups occurred after you began experiencing issues with your system, then going farther back in time to restore from will be more advantageous. Files created or modified after you began experiencing system issues may later be recovered via Time Machines’ “time travel” interface (“Browse other Time Machine disk...”).
Unfortunately, restoring your system by this means will result in Time Machine abandoning previous backup sets and beginning a new set. So verify ahead of time that you have enough space on your backup drive for another full backup. Alternatively, once the full restore is complete, you can delete the old backups to free space on the drive. Or you can begin backups on a different hard disk while retaining the older backups until you are satisfied that the current set have accumulated enough history.
Procedure:
Verify that your Mac has uninterrupted AC power.
For faster installation, Time Capsule/AirDisk users should connect their Macs directly to their Airport device via ethernet.
Insert your original Mac OS 10.5 Leopard DVD and reboot while holding down the “C” key.
At the “Welcome” screen go up to the “Utilities” menu and select “Restore System From Backup…”.
The “Restore Your System” window reminds you that this procedure will erase all data on your Macs internal hard disk. Click “Continue”.
At “Select a Backup Source” choose your Time Machine backup disk and click “Continue”. (If the backup disk you are restoring from is a network drive then click “Connect to Remote Disk”. Next, choose the disk image from which the restore will be drawn from and click “Continue”.)
At “Select a Backup” choose from which set of backups you would like to “Restore From” in the drop-down menu. (If your backup drive only has one set, this will be grayed out.)
Next, highlight the date and Mac OS X version from which you would like to restore.
Click “Continue”.
At “Select a Destination” choose your Macs’ internal hard disk. Give the installer time while it calculates the space required for the restore. When ready click “Restore”.
Confirm your desire to erase the drive by clicking “Continue”.
Obviously, this will take quite some time. But when the installer finally announces it has finish, click “Restart”.
After logging in, immediately go to System Preferences --> Time Machine, and turn “OFF” backups, even if a backup attempted has begun.
Next, Launch Disk Utility, select your Macs’ internal disk on the left, and click “Repair Disk Permissions”.
During this initial period, Spotlight is going to re-index your Mac’ hard disk. This can take up to several of hours depending upon the volume of data. Allow it to complete before resuming Time Machine backups. You can monitor its’ progress by clicking on the Spotlight icon in the menu bar.
Finally, turn Time Machine back “ON” in the Preferences. Time Machine should continue to backup to the same set of backups that it did prior to the restore. However, due to event logs being out of sync, the first backup will require a lengthy session of “Preparing...” as Time Machine performs a “deep traversal”. Allow this to proceed uninterrupted. Additionally, the subsequent backup may be quite substantial involving many GB of data, but don’t be alarmed.
Your system has now been restored to virtually the same state it was in on the date of the backup you chose. (See this article for a list of files that TM does not restore, http://shiftedbits.org/2007/10/31/time-machine-exclusions/)
*Erase, Install, & Migrate*
A final option, reserved for last resort, is to erase the hard disk, install a fresh copy of the Mac OS, and then use Migration Assistant during the installation to restore your user accounts. This is the Mac equivalent of ‘Slash and Burn’, and really should only be necessary if you require a completely fresh start.
Procedure:
Verify that your Mac has uninterrupted AC power.
For faster migration of user data, Time Capsule/AirDisk users should connect their Macs directly to their Airport device via ethernet.
Insert your original Mac OS 10.5 Leopard DVD and reboot while holding down the “C” key.
At the “Welcome” screen click “Continue”.
Click “Agree” to the user agreement.
Select you Macs internal hard disk and click “Options”.
Select “Erase and Install”.
Select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” for disk format. (Avoid selecting “Case-sensitive” unless you know what you are doing.)
Click “OK”.
Click “Continue”.
At “Install Summary” click “Customize” if you would like to eliminate certain Print Drivers, Fonts, or Language packages from being installed. Otherwise, click “Install”.
If you wish, you can click “Skip” when the DVD integrity check begins.
After the initial installation completes, your Mac will restart and you will see the video introduction.
At “Welcome” select your country and then preferred keyboard.
At “Do You Already Own a Mac?” you are asked “Would you like to transfer your information?”
+from another Mac+
+from another volume on this Mac+
+from a Time Machine backup+
+Do not transfer my information now+
Select “from a Time Machine backup” and click “Continue”.
At “Select a Backup Volume” choose your Time Machine backup disk and click “Continue”. (If you are attempting the migration wirelessly, then click “Join...” and select your network first.)
At “Transfer Your Information” check all the categories you wish to migrate over. If you wish your Mac to be in the same state as your last backup, then check everything. Give the installer time to calculate sizes.
Once that is complete, the “Transfer” button will become active and you can click it.
After the install, verify the registration information, click “Connect” and you are done.
After logging in, immediately go to System Preferences --> Time Machine, and turn “OFF” backups, even if a backup attempted has begun.
Next, Launch Disk Utility, select your Macs’ internal disk on the left, and click “Repair Disk Permissions”.
Interestingly, no Spotlight indexing appears necessary, so, once the permission repair is complete, turn Time Machine back “ON” in the Preferences. Time Machine should continue to backup to the same set of backups that it did prior to the restore. However, due to event logs being out of sync, the first backup will require a lengthy session of “Preparing...” as Time Machine performs a “deep traversal”. Allow this to proceed uninterrupted. Naturally, the first backup after a significant installation like this will be quite large so don’t be alarmed.
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Beardpapa wrote:
-I popped in a laptop hd I had lying around while waiting for the RMA replacement on the dead one, and did a remote restore in Snow Leopard Dvd utility using my latest TM backup (used mount_afp afp://user:pw@host/ etc etc etc in terminal).
Did you do a full system restore, per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum)?
If so, everything should have been restored, just like they say, unless things were excluded from Time Machine (there's some very bad advice about that on the internet).
All the things you describe are in +*<home folder>/Library/Preferences.+* If you used +Migration Assistant+ instead, you may have an extra user account, that has the restored preferences.
-I also looked over at the User Tips post by Glenn Carter on Restoring Your Entire System / Time Machine.
That applies to Leopard only.

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