New hard drive on iMac but can't use time machine backup

I just installed a new hard drive on my 2007 iMac but it will not let me back up to a time machine backup. I can see the files i want but has the red circle with this message :The folder “Documents” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents. help!

You haven't gone about this the right way. After installing OS X, when you booted from the new drive, you were prompted to transfer data from a Time Machine backup, among other options. That's what you should have done. The simplest, but not the fastest, way to recover is to start over by erasing the startup volume and installing again.
OS X: How to migrate data from another Mac using Mountain Lion and earlier

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HT201250 I don't store any files on my computer, I store them on a hd. Can I restore docs from my hard drive if they were backed up using time machine? And will it restore if the hd isn't even there? Like what if it got stolen or destroyed.

I don't store any files on my computer, I store them on a hd. Can I restore docs from my hard drive if they were backed up using time machine? And will it restore if the hd isn't even there? Like what if it got stolen or destroyed.

ehphotograph wrote:
Can I restore docs from my hard drive if they were backed up using time machine?
Yes.
And will it restore if the hd isn't even there? Like what if it got stolen or destroyed.
Also yes.
Directly-connected external drives (ie, USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt) are not backed-up by default. You must remove them from the exclusion list in Time Machine Preferences > Options to get them backed-up. (Network drives cannot be backed-up.)
And they must be formatted for a Mac -- any variation of Mac OS Extended.
If the drive is connected, you can browse or restore normally -- just go to the folder or document in question and Enter Time Machine.
If the drive is not connected, it's a bit different. See #E3 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
Message was edited by: Pondini

HT4848 iMac crashed, trying to use Time Machine backup. In Restore From:it only offers Macintosh HD on ..... (grayed). There are backups listed below.

iMac crashed, trying to use Time Machine backup. In Restore From:it only offers Macintosh HD on ..... (grayed). There are backups listed below. When I click on a current backup and click on continue I get a "Select a Destination" with Searching for disk, but nothing comes up.
I am connected to my Passport if that helps, but I think that is where it is getting the backup list.
Any help on how to proceed?
Thanks,

Thanks for your help on this. I was trying to restore from a new drive. The problem I have is that Time Machine will not let me do so, so far.
When I go into 'Restore from Time Machine Back up) I can access the Time Machine HD ok. But then when I go onto next page (Select a Back Up) the 'Restore From' option only has the greyed out name of my crashed HD (this seems wrong?). If I continue the process to erase starts and then stops, message says:
An error occurred while adding a recovery system to the destination disk.
it only seems to want me to back up to my crashed HD which I have no intention of using

Switch hard drive from local to Airport Extreeme for Time Machine Backup

I have an external drive I am using for time machine backups for my iMac. I have an Airport Extreme and would like to use it to backup my iMac and my Macbook Pro (wireless). I have a PC that would be nice to backup a few things also, but not mandatory.
If I move the hard drive from the 400 FireWire port to the Airport, will it need to be reconfigured to allow for backups on teh network? Will it erase (or will I need to erase) the drive's current backup data of my iMac? Do I need to partition it to allow for multiple machine backups?
Thanks.
Matt

If I move the hard drive from the 400 FireWire port to the Airport, will it need to be reconfigured to allow for backups on teh network?
No, as long as the external hard drive is formatted in either HFS+ or FAT32 it will be recognized by the AirPort.
Will it erase (or will I need to erase) the drive's current backup data of my iMac?
Potentially, yes. Time Machine backups are stored differently on local attached drives versus those that are network-based. There is a procedure to "copy" an existing TM backup from an external drive to a Time Capsule that may work for an AirPort Disk (external drive connected to either a TC or AirPort Extreme). However, I would strongly recommend not going this route as Apple does not currently support Time Machine backups to AirPort Disks.
Do I need to partition it to allow for multiple machine backups?
For Time Machine this would not be necessary as it will create a unique "file" for each Mac. However, you may have other requirements that partitioning the drive would make sense. Note: You would have to partition the drive prior to connecting it to the AirPort, as the AirPort Utility itself does not support partition management.

How to install a new 360 GB hard drive to replace my 60 GB using Time Machine?

How do I install a new 320 GB hard drive on my MacBook using Time Machine? I have purchased the hard drive and know how to take out the old drive and put in the new drive.

To transfer your current hard drive I like the free application Carbon Copy Cloner. It makes a bootable copy of everything on your hard drive http://www.bombich.com/index.html

I'm installing a new hard drive and wanted to restore it from Time Machine. When I restart w/ "command" /"R" it returns to orig. startup disk.

I'm trying to load a new harddrive using timemachine when I restart the Macpro using "command"/ "R" keys it restarts to orig. startup disk and not to restore option.

If you installed a brand new hard disk, there is no recovery partition. OS X Internet Recovery should enable you to boot with ⌘ R but this does not work on all Macs, just ones with updated firmware that enables this function. Yours may predate that ability.
Read this: from http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
Some computers that did not ship with OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion installed may have a software update available that allows them to use Lion Internet Recovery.
Therefore, without a recovery partition, your 2008 MBP cannot boot OS X Internet Recovery.
Boot from your original system installation disc, then restore from your Time Machine backup. It will create the recovery partition on your new HD.
Time Machine backup volumes are also bootable, so you should be able to boot from the TM volume using Startup Manager. Connect the TM volume then an Option key while starting the MBP.

Hard drive died with a kernel panic during time machine backup

after installing a new hard drive into my 13" macbook pro (mid-09), i used the time machine utility on the os x install disk to restore from my last backup. the restore went well and all my data was fine. however, after about 30 minutes of internet browsing, i got a random kernel panic and after rebooting the computer the new hard drive was no longer being recognized.
i have no idea what happened to the drive (it was brand new, just installed earlier today) but a major concern of mine is that time machine was trying to back up the computer when the kernel panic occured, so i had to reboot in the middle of taking a backup. could this possibly corrupt my time machine backups?
im really scared right now so any insight helps.
and more info regarding my situation can be found here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4174894?tstart=0

after installing a new hard drive into my 13" macbook pro (mid-09), i used the time machine utility on the os x install disk to restore from my last backup. the restore went well and all my data was fine. however, after about 30 minutes of internet browsing, i got a random kernel panic and after rebooting the computer the new hard drive was no longer being recognized.
i have no idea what happened to the drive (it was brand new, just installed earlier today) but a major concern of mine is that time machine was trying to back up the computer when the kernel panic occured, so i had to reboot in the middle of taking a backup. could this possibly corrupt my time machine backups?
im really scared right now so any insight helps.
and more info regarding my situation can be found here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4174894?tstart=0

I was thinking about formatting my external hard drive into two partitions. HFS for time machine backup

I really want to format my MacBook after I back up and have it clean like a new machine. And I was wondering if I need to back up after a couple of months will Time Machine back it up as a new computer or will it overwrite?
Also if I do 250GB HFS+ partition for time machine & 250GB NTFS/FAT32 to use with windows. Can the HFS+ partition be used to save files from MacBook using drag & drop? I.E. without using time machine?

A data recovery specialist or some data recovery programs should be able to help. Most format simply rewrite the directory tree saying no files are on this disk. The bits that represent the files are still flipped appropreiately so they still exists, you just don't have the location info to get at them. Secure formats and erases rewrite each bit to a zero or 1 or random so the data is then truely gone. This type of format takes a long time to complete.
I'm not making a recomendation of a particular program but here is one company that does what you ask:
http://www.remosoftware.com/mac-recovery The cost is pretty high but I'm sure they don't sell many copies and need to cover their development costs.
Good luck and don't write anything on the freshly formatted disk until you decide what to do.

I just installed Mountain Lion on my iMac that was previously running Snow Leopard. Bugt I found that some key applications no longer work, so I would like to go back to snow Leopard. I can't use time machine backups for this. what can I do?

I just installed Mountain Lion on my iMac. But In was dismayed to find that my Canon scanner software (Canoscan LIDE500F)no longer works. Nor do any of my MS offce applications. I tried to use time machine to reinstall Snow Leopard (my previous operating system), but unfortunately my time machine backups did not include system software. Also, the original system install disk that came with my iMac would not allow me to install Snow Leopard in place of Mountain Lion. I would appreciate it if somebody could tell me how to solve this problem.

The reason your Office doesn't work is because it is PowerPC code. If you will upgrade the 2004 Office to 2011 Office then that will work.
I don't understand how you managed to get your Time Machine backup to not backup the system.
Now if you still what to downgrade you will have to erase the disk and reinstall Snow Leopard. Most likely all of your application and then restore your data from Time Machine.
To me it sounds like it would be easier to upgrade your software and stay with Mountain Lion instead.
Allan

Installed new Hard Drive in iMac G3, can't get OSX to install

I installed a new 40GB drive in my iMac G3 333Mhz Tray Loader, I used the Disk Utility to create one 37.15GB partition called "Machintosh HD". When I run the Mac OS X Panther installer it recognizes my partition but there is a Red Exclamation point on it and it exclaims "You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume. This destinationis not within the first 8GB of this hard disk. Does this mean that I can only create an 8GB paritition for the Operating System?

The tray-loading iMac G3s require a first partition of just under 8GB and that's where OSX must go, so you have accurately intrepreted the messages.
Those computers were designed long before OSX was a gleam in it's daddy's eye and, were it not for the 8G partition thing, could not run OSX at all.
I set up three Powerbooks G3s that share that partition limitation. With a smart install of Panther (install none of the printer drivers and don't install foreign language support or fonts) I got the System to right at 2G, leaving nearly six for apps that must be in the folrder and thfor the needed swap files.
The second larger partition is a great place to put OS9, data files (like music, photo or movie libraries). It is also the best place for apps that don't have to be in the OSX partition. That's usually those with a drag-n-drop installation.

Replaced hard drive, but can't access Time Machine backups of old drive

My internal hard drive was failing so I replaced it. I told the people that replaced it that I could install the System myself and that I had backups of my data.
So, I got the machine home, booted up from the Snow Leopard Install DVD and selected Restore from Time Machine. I chose the last backup which was Mountain Lion 10.8.2. It crashed after several minutes.
So, I restarted. But I had my finger on the Control key rather than the Option key, so it booted to on-line recovery mode. When it asked me if I wanted to restore Lion I decided, "Sure. Why not? Since the restore from Time Machine doesn't work." That took about six hours.
Then I went to the App store and downloaded Mountain Lion. Another six hours and that is done.
Now I can't access the backups on Time Machine. They appear to be there. It shows backups to Feb 2011, which is when I installed Time Machine on an external drive. But I can only access databacked up from my new drive and Admin account.
Last night Browse Other Drives for Time Machine at least showed the old backups. After shutting down overnight only the new backups show.
I've run verify and repair on the external and it's okay.
Please tell me I can get that data back. There's over a decade of stuff there going back two other Macs. Photos, important documents, all my writing are there. I really need it back and I can't understand why I can't get back.
Thanks in advance.

Hi all... I had a very similar issue. I had a hard drive replaced by Apple on my iMac due to a total hard drive failure. I attempted to restore my last time machine back up through my time capsule but I get some type of sparse bundle package error. It appears that something is coming back from the back up as I only have about 180GB remaining space out of 1TB. Any advice? It appears that Apple had re-installed the latest version of Lion back to my hard drive. I'm completely distraught here as like Romantic Heretic, I have over a decade of information currently lost.
Any help with step by step directions would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks

Can you use time machine on a networked hard drive

Can you use time machine on a networked hard drive?

See if this helps: Using Time Machine with a networked hard drive

If my Mac ends up with a virus, can I use Time Machine to go back before the virus?

I have recently just bought a 2TB external hard drive and have just backed up using Time Machine. I was just wondering, if my Mac was to become infected with a virus, would I be able to use Time Machine to restore my machine to back before it became infected with the virus? (So I didn't have to do a full factory setting resortation)
Thank you in advance for any assistance with this query.

My apologies. As a computer user since the days of Mainframes in 1970's, I tend to be rather precise in how I phrase things (a legacy of the old punch-card days). Also I write medico-legal reports for a living, again a field where precision is rather essential!
I saometimes forget that just because I read and write the word 'virus' as meaning just that, others (as you say) are prone to use it as a blanket term for malware and other 'irritations'.
Thanks for your clarifications WZZZ. Hope winter in the Big Apple is treating you well.

How can I get all of my music off of my laptop and onto an external hard drive? I bought a new hard drive for it but it got turned into a Time Machine drive...

how can I get all of my music off of my laptop and onto an external hard drive? I bought a new hard drive for it but it got turned into a Time Machine drive... I want to have all of my music on the external hard drive, and NOT on my macbook pro. Thanks everyone

Hello lramospsych,
To move your iTunes media library to a different location, take a look at the article below to walk you through that process. Make sure that you have everything organized before you move everything over.
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
Regards,
-Norm G.

I have recently restored everything on my iMac after getting a new hard drive. When i try to use Elements, i get the following error code ERROR 150:30. Any ideas?

I have recently restored everything on my iMac after getting a new hard drive. When i try to use Elements, i get the following error code ERROR 150:30. Any ideas?

Did you use migration assistant to copy over programs, documents, and settings? You can't do that with PSE. Elements is not a tidy package in accordance with the apple developer guidelines. The installer strews stuff all of your hard drive in place the migration assistant isn't programmed to look and you can never hope to find all h the bits. You must always install PSE from scratch on a new machine. By attempting to copy it you have made a lot of trouble for yourself.
You will need to download and run this:
Use the CC Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems | CC, CS3-CS6
and then you can go around and manually remove what you can reach. Look in applications, your hard drive>library>application support>adobe, your username>library>preferences. In the user library also delete any saved application states for PSE.
Then you can reinstall from scratch.

New hard drive on iMac but can't use time machine backup

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