Need help restoring entire system

Last night I decided to upgrade the harddrive in my iMac and then use Time Machine to restore my system. However, I ran into a bit of a snag. When I go to restore I have to select the file I want to restore from. Time Machine states that it only shows "complete backups", however I find this very inaccurate as the list showed every single backup for each hour they were created. If I selected the last backup it wouldn't copy anything, reboot and hang until it loaded the cd again. I then selected the first backup since I know it contained the entire system. That worked fine, however, obviously I had made several changes since the first backup. Most of my apps are missing as well as all file changes that were made. I can't find a way to simply restore my system to the last state it was in. If I reboot and tell it to restore the last backup it erases the drive and ofcourse there are no files for it to copy over. How do I get my system to look exactly like it did prior to changing the hard drive? There has to be a way to do this using Time Machine since they claim you can restore your system after a hard drive failure.

Just to clarify what I did. I booted using the DVD and can successfully restore my system from a Time Machine backup, however, I can only restore using the first backup Time Machine makes (where it backs up the entire system). What I can't get it to do is restore from the last backup point. So basically I can restore my system to look like it did on October 26th, but I can't restore it to look like it did yesterday. The problem with that is not only am I not able to see applications I have installed since the first backup, but all the file changes I have made are gone. If I try to reboot from DVD and restore from backup and select the last backup that was made on Nov 7th, it says it is "copying files" but within 10 seconds the system reboots and loads from the DVD again because the Nov 7th backup didn't contain anything (although the Backup process says it only shows "complete backups" I assume it shows more than that. I will try again tonight and select the last backup to see if it works properly the second time around.

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HT4859 I need help restore my old messages and pictures to my phone. I did a restore from my computer and my boyfriends stuff downloaded on my phone. How do I get my stuff back?

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Mission accomplished. While waiting for your reply,. I found an article that mentioned a copy/paste of the following code from the old pref.js to the new pref.js:
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo.position", 0);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_1.description", "Outlook Express Address Book");
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Hi LaLaMelodic,
If you are having issues restoring your iPhone from a backup in iTunes, you may find the following articles helpful:
iOS: Back up and restore your iOS device with iCloud or iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1766
iOS: Troubleshooting encrypted backups
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5162
Regards,
- Brenden

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Connect to iTunes on the computer you usually Sync with and “ Restore “...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414
If necessary Place the Device into Recovery mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808
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If u haven't resolved this issue yet, I just did.
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by pressing the 'Play' and center buttons
simultaneously
(it may take a couple of trials to get it right)
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Need help restoring iPhoto 08 Library into iPhoto 11

Ok, I have spent hours trying to figure this out on my own. I'm not being lazy but I need help! I have a black macbook (2009) that had Leopard (not Snow) and iPhoto 08. It crashed. I had a time machine backup on external drive. I got a new hard drive installed and they upgraded me to Lion and iPhoto 11. I messed up and started the system without hooking up to time machine. I tried to use migration assistant. It imported only imported 400 pics of my many thousand pics.
I did several things: I tried to rebuild the library, look for orphans, etc. I deleted the ProjectDBVersion.plist, Projects.db, Projects.db-journal files as someone suggested. I deleted the new iphoto 11 library. i dragged the my old iphoto library from time machine. I held down option and tried to build it again from the old library. I still get the same 400 pics. I even tried the free version of Photo Library Manager. It created the same library with 400 pics. (not sure if I know how to use this app right).
If I open the new iphoto 11 library, I can see my pics in the "Masters" file. I was able to drag these to my desktop and then put in iphoto but does this method save my edits? Should I drag the "Modified" pics into iphoto instead? I don't care much about keywords, I just want my edits. I also don't want old deleted photos put back into iphoto.
another question, time machine (TM) is not turned on yet with new hard drive and OS. it doesn't recognize my external drive as TM. It asks if I want to designate it as TM. If I do this, will it delete my old backup (with all my important data) and start a new backup of my new hard drive which doesn't have all the pics yet.
I don't have a copy of Lion so if I do a complete restore, I will have to buy it and add all info again. Is this my best option? Would it really make a difference?
Terrance, you out there?
Thanks for any help!

It might start backing up your new drive but will not erase what's on it as long as there is sufficient space. Also you can turn on TM and exclude your entire HD via the TM Options pane.
Then go to your Pictures folder and enter Time Machine. Go back to the appropriate date, select the library and use the Restore button.
OT
NOTE: if you have trouble entering TM's backups go to the Lion forum and ask your question there. Also do a search there for Time Machine so see if there are any similar topics there already.

Restore entire system from a Time Capsule backup?

Can anyone help me restore my entire system (MacBook Pro, os x 10.5.8) from a set date in time using Time Machine. I use a Time Capsule wifi for back-ups. I have found lots of tutorials and how to's that say it can be done, but none which actually spell out how to do it step by step if you're not changing Macs or using a more modern operating system. I've been to two Apple stores with all of my equipment and the instructions from the Genius Bar haven't worked when I get home to start the back-up. One Apple store wiped my iPhone and restored and synched it to a store laptop when I had my own with me, so now those don't synch or recognize each other and I've lost all my iTunes settings. The second store said I needed to restore my Mac with a snapshot from my HD, which seems like the place I'm restoring to, not restoring from.
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The problem started when I was trying to synch and charge my iPhone routinely. During the synch I received a software update window that read I should update the latest iWork software updates. So I clicked yes. Then a window popped up reading I needed to download the latest iPhone software updates, so I said yes. After two hours of downloading and installing my iPhone screen went black, read I needed to plug into iTunes, which it was. And when I unplugged and plugged it back in to the Mac and iTunes it read my only option was to Restore to factory settings. I immediately shut everything down and went to the Apple store and when I got back home iTunes doesn't open on the Mac. The phone is on a different system than the Mac. My iCal and Address book files are corrupted, missing information, some records are duplicated. And all of my photos in iPhoto are all dated with the same date from 9 months ago. The photos from recently are in the Library, but the date informaton is corrupt.
From what I'm reading I can restore the computer to what it looked like in a point in time when I know everything looked and synched correctly, a few days before the problem without losing too much data? Can anybody shed some light on this? Thanks so much.

smnolmagic wrote:
Can anyone help me restore my entire system (MacBook Pro, os x 10.5.8) from a set date in time using Time Machine.
See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14 for all the gory details.
The second store said I needed to restore my Mac with a snapshot from my HD, which seems like the place I'm restoring to, not restoring from.
There may be a misunderstanding there -- effective with Lion, Time Machine does make "Local snapshots" on the internal HD of laptop Macs, so they're available when your regular TM backups aren't. But you can't do a full restore from them.
And since you're still on Leopard, the only way to have backups on your internal HD would be if you'd created a separate partition on it and directed TM to back up there, instead of to your Time Capsule.
Since Lion has been out for about 18 months, the AppleStore folks may have forgotten (or never known) the differences from Leopard and Snow Leopard.
I want to first ensure TM is backing up to the Time Capsule and not to my Mac before I do a complete restore.
Use the Time Machine Browser (the "Star Wars" display) to see your backups. You might want to review the Time Machine Tutorial, and perhaps browse Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
When I go into TM I see the dates on the right hand side, but none are pink as some tutorials read they should be? Is that a new addition with later operating systems.
Yes, that's a change effective with Lion. The "Local Snapshots" are shown in white, backups on an external HD, Time Capsule, etc., in pink. But on Leopard, all you'll see is white. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #15A for details.
From what I'm reading I can restore the computer to what it looked like in a point in time when I know everything looked and synched correctly, a few days before the problem without losing too much data?
Yes, per #14 in the FAQ as above. Once that's done, you can then selectively restore more-current items from subsequent backups, if you want.
However, note that, on Leopard, doing a full system restore makes your internal HD look like it's an entirely different disk to OSX and Time Machine. Once you're running on the restored version, you'll need the procedure in #E3 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting to see the backups from the "old" disk.
Also, when you do the next backup, it will be a full one -- everything you just put back on the disk will be backed-up in full. That will take a long time and probably a lot of space on the TM drive.

P35 Neo2 - OS died, need help restoring RAID after re-install of XP

I have a P35 Neo2 with on-board Intel RAID. I need a bit of help getting a two drive RAID going again after reinstalling XP.
Here's my situation:
Same hardware, MB, etc. I originally set up the system with a 20gb IDE and two 320gb SATA drives. I put the OS on the 20gb, and set the two 320's up as a RAID. I partitioned the 320's into 200gb + 120gb sections on each drive. The 200gb partitions were mirrored between the two drives, and the remaining 120gb on each drive was used as non-RAID storage space.
I picked up a nasty virus-spyware a month or two ago that I was struggling to find a fix for when the OS began to BSOD. I put the 20gb IDE to the side, and put a 40gb IDE in it's place. I re-installed XP on it last night, and now need to get the RAID up and running again.
I went into Disk Management and it showed three dynamic drives with a yellow triangle icon and labeled 'foreign'. I right clicked and found an option to 'import'. I clicked on import and a window popped up showing all of the partitions and logical drives I had previously created on the two drive RAID. I figured I was in business, so I clicked OK.
Disk Management now shows one dynamic disk as 'Online', but still shows two as 'Foreign'. If I right click on them, and chose import, I get the same window showing my partitions and logical drives, but if I click OK, I get a warning message that: "Some of the volumes you are importing will lose data because you have not moved all of your disks to the system."
I'm in over my head at this point, so any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
GeoD

A 200gb partition is restored, but the 120gb is not, which is confusing. ALso, when I look at the logical drives in the partition, I'm beginning to think I had the 200gb mirror /120 gb storage backwards. The data restored is not something I would be concerned with losing. It's installed applications, and multimedia files that I could lose without worry.
There is also 70gb dynamic drive labeled Missing. I know I left a small portion of all three of the drives unallocated as a reserve, so that must be what this is. It's like the RAID info is incomplete which leads me to the next piece of info.
Something I didn't initially mention for the sake of brevity, was when I right-clicked on 'Import Disk' the applet noted the disk was 3/3. I assumed that meant disk 3 of 3 disks. I've since begun to wonder if I imported the disks in the wrong order. ie) I should have imported disk 1/3 first.
Do you know how to clear out Disk Mgt's info, so I can start over?
I also noticed only one of the 320 SATA's shows up in Device Mgr, (DM). What I found both confused me and encouraged me.
When I created the array, I named the the drives RAID0 and RAID1. They both show up in DM. But only one of them shows up as the drive model: WDC WD3201ABYS-01B9A0. There should be two of them.
The OS knows there should be a RAID, but for some reason only one of the drives show up as hardware. I rebooted and checked the data and power supply cables, (connected), the BIOS, (both drives show up) and both drives show up in Disk Mgt. Just not in DM.
Does that mean the HD has died?
Part of my difficulty is I had a brain injury in 2001, followed by another in 2003. The 2nd injury caused 6 months of what the docs call it a walking coma - I walked and talked, but have no memory of the time.
When I 'woke up' in the Fall of 2003, I found I had lost considerable cognitive function and other problems. These problem have ended up disabling me, (I'm now on SS Disability).
Until then I had been a 'System Admin' for micro-businesses, (max - 15 computers). I built systems and servers, installed networks, maintained them and did all the support. Basically I was these company's Sys Admin on an as-needed basis.
One thing I lost was the ability to troubleshoot and repair hardware. Combined with other cognitive problems, I was forced into closing my business. At the time, I was maintaining close to fifty offices; ~20 had Peer-to-Peer networks & ~20 had servers I had built.
What's doubly frustrating is I was just getting ready to sign up with an online backup service when I got hit with a nasty malware/virus that's so new there's no info on the 'net about it. I got entangled in trying to fix it and spaced out the online back up. Now I find myself in a situation where I desperately need to restore the data on these RAID drives. Because of the memory problems I now have, I completely depend on my computer as an auxiliary 'brain' - I have stuff on these drives that I have to have.
I didn't do much with RAID when I was still in the biz, and this is the first time I've had problems with a RAID of my own, so I'm struggling to figure this stuff out.
Should I be able to install one of these drives by itself so I can get the data from it? The way I understand the theory of RAID is that if one drive dies, you can put another in and the mirrored portion will re-create itself on the new drive. Couldn't that be a way to get the important data off the drive or drives if they don't want to go back together as a RAID?
I could back each up to the online service and then just rebuild them. Not my first choice, but it would reduce my stress level if I thought I could do it.
Sorry to go on, but now you can see why I'm both struggling & worried.
Thanks for any info or help.
Later,
GeoD

Need help restoring iPad2 please.

Long story short. I hit Software Update on my iPad. I use iCloud, keep all of my hardware and software up to date. As soon as I did, the iPad displayed the connect to iTunes screen and will not come out of recovery mode. iTunes displays that the iPad is in recovery mode and needs to restore before updating. I go through the prompts. Download goes through and then displays a message saying "The software for the iPad "iPad" was corrupted during download" I have tried this process multiple times and get the same result. I have tried DFU mode but still never get out of the connect to iTunes screen. Very frustrated. I would appreciate any help.

Are you using itunes 11 on computer?
You can also try a different computer.
How did you attempt DFU mode?
DFU mode = Device Firmware Update mode
DFU mode is a mode where the iPod Touch/iPhone will be made to force a restore of the firmware into whatever version firmware it is given.
Getting your iPod Touch/iPhone into DFU mode is somewhat tricky, and it may require some patience/practice because timing is essential to get it to DFU mode and not into recovery mode.
1. First, Open up iTunes, plug in your iPod Touch/iPhone to the CPU's USB port. Turn on your CPU's speaker and make sure it is loud enough that you can hear it.
2. Hold down the Home button and the Power button ( simultaneously, until the screen goes black and the device turns off. (past the red slider/slide to power off screen)
3. Now let go of the Power button, but continue to hold the Home button. Your iPod Touch/iPhone should have turned off and the screen should not be on.
4. After around ~10-20 seconds, you will hear a noise (beep/ding) from your CPU as if it had just recognized a new hardware device, now iTunes should recognize it in DFU mode.
5. After iTunes recognizes the iPod Touch/iPhone, let go of the Home button otherwise it will go into recovery mode and you will have to do the entire DFU process over again.
6. You will know when you have put your iPod Touch/iPhone correctly into DFU mode when the display is blank and that you do not have anything on your device.
And you are done, now you can install any iPod Touch/iphone,ipad on to your device via the iTunes SHIFT recovery method.

Restoring Entire System to Earlier Backup with Leopard CPU Drop-in DVD

After some programs failed in a pernicious manner, I decided to return the entire system to a Time Machine backup made earlier today. Time Machine Help "Recovering your Entire system" seems to be the only relevant help. It says to choose Utilities > Restore System from my Mac OS X Install disc. But I was shipped two Tiger Mac OS X Install Discs and a Leopard CPU Drop-in DVD (updates to Leopard). The Leopard Drop-in does not have Utilities > Restore System and I am reluctant to use either Tiger disc to restore my Leopard system.
What should I be doing? I hope the answer provides a restore process that is relatively quick because the changes are relatively small.
Message was edited by: Butterflie14

Butterflie14,
The term "delta" doesn't really apply to Time Machine backups. Each backup is a complete "snapshot" of the entire installation. In order to do this without copying over huge amounts of data, Time Machine uses "multi-linked" files in the various backups, all pointing to the same data. That is, with the exception of any new/changed files; these represent the only real data that is transferred during each backup. Only in this sense does "delta" apply.
Restoring from a backup, at least in the context of "going back to a previous state," is an all-or-nothing proposition. That doesn't mean it has to take a long time. First, the process of erasing a drive takes mere seconds. Second, a Time Machine "Restore" doesn't include a new installation of OS X from the installer disk (which would take a long time), but rather a restoration of the entire system from the backup. As such, it is dependent entirely on the speed of the drive and connecting bus (FW 400, 800, USB, etc.). In the case of my FW 800 drive, a complete "Restore" of a 50 GB system took about 30 minutes.
I agree, to take this step seems like a waste just to recover from some "pernicious" action of a particular application. If you were a bit more specific about what application we're talking about, and just what it did, perhaps I could offer better advice. You can restore anything that has been backed up by Time Machine, but may have been deleted from your internal disk in the meantime, but you cannot really "un-modify" OS X, if that is what has happened. To do so, you must perform a complete "Restore."
Scott

Restoring Entire System with Time Capsule

Hello,
I configured my Time Capsule with custom user accounts (AirPort Utility -> Disks -> File Sharing -> Secure Shared Disks: with Accounts). I think this may be causing a problem with selecting a backup source for an entire system restore to a re-formatted disk.
I am trying to follow the steps detailed in item #14 of this forum's FAQ but not having luck. I get to step "e" and on the "Select a Backup Source" dialog I am presented with the correct ("volume" on network "time_capsule") option. The "Continue" button is disabled and the "Connect to remote disk" button brings up a logon dialog with "System Administrator" pre-populated as the user. It does not accept the password I assigned to the Time Capsule, so I type the custom user name and password and it seems to authenticate successfully but then drops me back to the "Select a Backup Source" with the "Continue" button still disabled.
So my problem is that I can't locate the Time Machine backup. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Mickey
Message was edited by: OscrDGrch
Message was edited by: OscrDGrch
Message was edited by: OscrDGrch

OscrDGrch wrote:
Hello,
I configured my Time Capsule with custom user accounts (AirPort Utility -> Disks -> File Sharing -> Secure Shared Disks: with Accounts). I think this may be causing a problem with selecting a backup source for an entire system restore to a re-formatted disk.
That's probably right. You're more likely to find someone who knows how to deal with that in the +Time Capsule+ forum, hiding in the +Digital Life+ section, at: http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1253

I need help restoring data from my time machine.

1) On the time machine, where do I find the TRASH file that is located on the dock in my desktop? I'd like to restore that to a prior date but can't find it.
2) I DID A VERY BAD THING & need help to get back to where I was before. I wanted to delete files that were taking up lots of space. My OTHER section was using 160G. I downloaded OmniDiskSweep and found that 120G was being used by my virtual machine (I run Quicken in Windows, through VMware). I started to delete files that were called Snapshots assuming these were the snapshots that the program regularly takes of my files. Apparently they were not. I also deleted the program Windows XP Professional because that was never used. When I try to open VM or quicken program, it says it is missing a particular snapshot, i.e. Snapshot 11104. I deleted about 20 of these. I left all the other files that said Windows XP Home Edition. But now it shows that I only have the Professional Edition, even though that's what I deleted. I'm trying to restore from Time Machine and it looks like the information is not there - I've tried various different backups and nothing seems to have the information I need. The earliest back up I have is from 5/7 when I started time machine on a new external 1TB HD. Would that have the information I need since it's the very first back up? Please Help.

I am assuming it's real data because it's taking up storage on my HD. It falls in the category "other" and the total of this section is 160G. Here is a snapshot of the virtual machine.
I also took a shot of the VM snapshots & it tells how much space is being taken up by the snapshots.
I've now changed the number of snapshots taken down to 12 (didn't know I had this option) & I can delete alot of the 21 snapshots that have already been saved. I have no idea how much of the HD was set aside for the VM because someone else installed it for me 5 years ago. I've had enough problems with it over the years that I've wanted to switch to Quicken for Mac or find another financial program to use. I've upgraded the VM 2x over the years, but didn't want to spend $100 for Version 5. I understand the concept of a VM but that's about all.
I did do the disk cleanup in Windows on the C drive. I deleted 700 MB of temporary files and then compressed 4G of data down to 2G. While the cleanup was progressing it said that the C drive was 30.99G and 78% of it was free. That just doesn't make sense to me. It recommended a defrag, so I did that also.
I'm pretty sure it's real data because I recently had to switch from a 320G external HD for TM, to a 1T HD. One TM backup was over 300G which I found to be excessive because I basically use my computer for mail, some word processing, and my financial data.
Thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate it.

Need help restoring itouch - dont have passcode or original PC

Hello folks -
My father in law just gave me his old itouch to me. It had been collecting dust for more than a year now.
I would like to begin using the itouch, but I am unable to access it on my PC. I don't know the passcode for the itouch, and the original PC that the itouch was synced to is long gone.
I have tried to restore the itouch, but nothing seems to work.
What do I need to do to begin using the itouch.
Thanks in advance. All help is greatly appreciated.

Connect in recovery mode and restore, you'll get the option to rest the passcode during this process:
iOS: Unable to update or restore and iPhone and iPod touch: Wrong passcode results in red disabled screen
If you cannot remember the passcode, you will need to restore your device using the computer with which you last synced it. This allows you to reset your passcode and resync the data from the device (or restore from a backup). If you restore on a different computer that was never synced with the device, you will be able to unlock the device for use and remove the passcode, but your data will not be present. Refer to Updating and restoring iPhone, iPad and iPod touch software.

Need help restoring entire system

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