New Hard Drive Won't Recognize My Time Machine Backup

I maxed out the space on my MacBook hard drive, so I bought a new 1TB hard drive to replace it. (I keep a TIme Machine backup of my computer on a external Passport) I installed the new hard drive, loaded up Snow Leopard and then it did the whole "Welcome" thing and asked if I wanted to set up the new hard drive. I went through the process and it asked if I wanted to transfer information to the new hard drive. I selected "transfer information from a Time Machine Backup" but when I hit "continue", it doesn't show my Passport, only "Macintosh HD". It's weird. I tried plugging the Passport into a different computer in the house, and it shows up fine.
I'm dead in the water right now. I have a new hard drive in my laptop with OS loaded on it, but no way to transfer my data from my Time Machine Backup to it! Any ideas why it won't show the Passport Drive?
Thanks - I'm really stuck right now.

Does it boot into Open Firmware with CMDOption+of ?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42642
reset-nvram (press Enter)
set-defaults (press Enter)
reset-all (press Enter)
Have you done a PRAM reset...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

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HT201250 My macbook pro crashed and I had to install a new hard drive. I restored from Time Machine backup all the files from my old hard drive onto my new one.

Does it really back up the whole new drive or does it only back up what's been added? It seemed like it was doing the whole thing when I tried it. I stopped it. Don't want to use up all the space on my external. Is there something else I need to do or did I mess up by not doing the migrating thing? thanks!

If you installed a new hard drive, it has nothing on it and yes TimeMachine is going to take forever to restore everything back.
I guess you'll have to erase and start over again now.
Too bad, you should have made bootable clones in addition to TimeMachine, they can restore in a hour or two depending upon content, they are also option key bootable.
TimeMachine has to go through and calculate all the files it needs to bring forward, the files are strewn all over the drive. The read heads are moving all over the platters all the time from fast sectors to slow ones, not matching what's occuring on the internal drive.
With a clone the files are defragmented and optimized, the drive reads one file, moves the heads a tiny bit and reads the next all the while transferring exactly to the internal drive, they are more in step with one another, thus it's much faster restoring from a clone than TM.
Most commonly used backup methods

I am having sporadic issues after new hard drive install and recovery using Time Machine. The same sluggish response, start up screen pixelating...If I reinstall Lion will it wipe out other applications? My HD was formatted and partitioned correctly, I ha

I am having sporadic issues after new hard drive install and recovery using Time Machine. The same sluggish response, start up screen pixelating...If I reinstall Lion will it wipe out other applications? My HD was formatted and partitioned correctly, I have a late 2009 iMac.

Use the trackpad to scroll, thats what it was designed for. The scroll bars automatically disappear when not being used and will appear if you scroll up or down using the trackpad.
This is a user-to-user forum and most people will post on here if they have problems. You very rarely get people posting to say there update went smooth. The fact is the vast majority of Mountain Lion users will not be experiencing any major problems with the OS, or maybe with apps which are not compatible, but thats hardly Apple's fault if developers don't update their apps.

Hard drive packed up, but had Time Machine backup. I installed new sad and upgraded to Mountain Lion., but I can't find iPhoto library and photos or iTunes songs? Is there an answer to this? Graham

Hard drive packed up, but had Time Machine backup. I installed new ssd and upgraded to Mountain Lion, but I can't find iPhoto library and photos or iTunes songs? Is there an answer to this? A backup run did not install either photos or songs. Graham

Thanks so much but none of that helped. It was driving me crazy because it would back up another external drive. I just changed the name of the drive from iPhoto/iTunes Library to Media Libraries and IT WORKED!! I guess for some reason it didn't like the drive being called iPhoto or iTunes ???? I don't understand but I have tried so many solutions and exchanging things out but the name change did it????!!!
Thank you for your help and replying to this. Guess I made my own issue!

HT201250 I have two external hard drives. One is my Time Machine backup drive. The other I use for external storage of files (documents, photos, movies, etc). Can I set Time Machine to backup BOTH my Mac hard drive and my other external hard drive?

I have two external hard drives. One is my Time Machine backup drive. The other I use for external storage of files (documents, photos, movies, etc). Can I set Time Machine to backup BOTH my Mac hard drive and my other external hard drive?

Yes you can make multiple backups on one hard drive, for example if you’ve 1TB hard drive installed in your PC and you’ve two Mac Machines with 500GB drive each then you just make two backup images with size of 500GB each.
http://www.halfspot.com/use-your-pc-hard-drive-for-time-machine-backup/

New hard drive won't recognize my iPhone

My hard drive crashed and my replacement hard drive won't recognize my iPhone. I can see all my content, but can't move or replace it. I was able to access content on my iTouch just fine and luckily synched my contacts back into my laptop, but no dice on the phone. Any ideas? BTW, my phone is a jailbroken original iPhone and I am not particularly proficient with this kind of stuff.

Does it boot into Open Firmware with CMDOption+of ?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42642
reset-nvram (press Enter)
set-defaults (press Enter)
reset-all (press Enter)
Have you done a PRAM reset...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

Can I switch external hard drives and still access old Time Machine backups?

I have a Mac Book Pro linked to 2 1TB external hard drives, one used as my Time Machine Back up, the other used as a manual ad hoc back up and to store even older files.
The TM back up drive is now full. If I just unplug it/switch it off and plug in and set up a new 2TB hard drive as my TM back up, will I still be able to access the back ups on the original TM drive if necessary, through TM?
Wil it be a start over situation with the new drive, performing a complete back up to begin with?
Or would you advise me to transfer the old back folder to the new drive, given that it will be larger?

Hi den.thed,
Thank you for this - I think the easy option by far appears to be to leave existing backups on disk 1, and plug in disk 2 and start over.

I had my hard drive replaced and since my Time Machine backups say failed

I had my hard drive replace and since my Time Capsule backups are failing. The exact message is:
The backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk.
The problem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. If the problem persists, use disk utility to repair your backup disk.

No, replacing your hard drive has nothing to do with it. There is a problem with your backup drive. As far as Time Machine is concerned replacing a drive is no different than buying a new computer. Time Machine will need to make a brand new backup from scratch.
If you have a large enough backup drive this may not be a problem. Otherwise, you may not have sufficient space to maintain a new backup and keep the old one. So, I would suggest under the circumstances that you erase your backup drive, then start a new Time Machine backup from scratch.
Drive Erase
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After Disk Utility loads select the volume you wish to format from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the Disk Utility main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
For additional help with Time Machine: Visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.

I have an external hard drive set up as a Time Machine backup on my IMac. I want to add a second external hard drive and put my Aperture Photo Library on it. Is there a way to have the photos on this second hard drive automatically back up to the Time Mac

I have an IMac with an external hard drive set up as a Time Machine for automatic backups. I want to add a second external hard drive and load my Aperture Photo Library on to it so that the library can be shared by both me and my wife. Is there a way to automatically backup the photo library that will be on the second hard drive to the Time Machine hard drive?

Open System Preference > Time Machine
Click Options....
Ckick on external disk in list and hit the - button below the list to remove from the Exclusion list
Allan

New hard drive - restore vs. transfer from time machine

The hard drive in my MacBook went bad and the shop was unable to salvage any of the data. They installed a new hard drive and installed OS 10.5 from the disk I had.
I have a backup on my TimeMachine device that is probably 2 weeks old and want to restore from that. I was instructed to boot up my MacBook with the TM connected and then do a restore. However, when I do this, I am prompted with a welcome, I pick my language and then it asks me if I want to TRANSFER from a device. I am not given the opportunity to get to the Utilities menu, from which I could do a restore.
From reading the various posts, it appears that you can get to the Utilities menu if you boot up from the Leopard DVD, but I have an OS installed on my drive already.
My question is, if I do a "Transfer", as it's being presented to me, will that result in the same state as that of a "restore" from the utilities menu? If not, should I put in the DVD and boot up from that, even though I've got it installed on my hard drive already?
Thanks,
Melba

Yes, tell it you want to Transfer from a Time Machine disk. The word "transfer" can be a bit confusing but it is what you want.
What you're seeing is essentially the same thing the "Migration Assistant" does (which is in the Utilities folder). Migration Assistant was originally created to let Mac users just "move in" to a new Mac if they buy a new machine. It connects to the "old" machine, finds all the applications, user accounts, and a few other things, and then copies them over to the new machine so that everything is all set up and ready for you to go.
When they invited Time Machine, they implemented a restore by putting it into the same Migration Assistant. It sees the latest backup on the Time Machine pretty much exactly as if it were looking at the hard drive of another Mac and it's transferring all the info over to your new hard drive.
Both methods would restore your applications, and ultimately even all your user data. But the advantage of doing it now (vs. letting it finish booting the system and doing it later) is that if you tell it you want to do it later, it'll end up prompting you for your name, etc. and building a user account for you. Then when you try to do a restore via Migration Assistant later (to restore you apps & data) it will complain that an account under that name already exists and to pick another name.
If you just let it run the migration now it will create your user account exactly as it was from the last backup.

Can I start new hard drive set up again?/time machine info missing!

Hi, hoping for some guidance as I think I've made a mistake with my new hard drive set up, and now my time machine hasn't transferred everything over as I've folders missing!
My hard drive packed up & a new 10.6 was installed on my Macbook Pro. Previously running on 10.5.8 which was backed up to time machine 3 week ago. I switched on and went through the 'set up assistant' but when asked 'Would you like to inherit (or reuse) the backup?' I think I chose 'Don't backup now' because I thought I could do my time machine later! I now know I have chosen the hard route!!
Then I tried the 'migrate assistant' - it took 1.5hrs - desktop has screen shots etc as before but I couldn't access thing like 'my pictures' in bridge etc. The dock has LR, PS, Bridge etc as before too. Then I deleted the new admin set up (so I had only my old admin.) I restarted - no change. I then tried 'migration assistant' again but transfered only 'Other files and folders' because when all ticked there wasn't enough room (-81gb)
Now I can go into LR catalog it only has 2 folders (instead of more than 20), and in Bridge I have files & folders, but on accessing them I get 'Items could not be found. It may of been moved or renamed.'
I've looked into erase & install - but I don't have the disc. Maybe I should go back to the shop who installed 10.6? Can I start again so I can transfer from time machine in the set up?
Any advise on how I can get my info back would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks, Heather

I have the same problem, but it is happening with various USB drives including an iphone. If I have any of these connected via a USB hub to the MacBook Pro, they mount and operate fine until I attempt to copy large files to them. Randomly, during large file transfer, the drive will suddenly disappear and I'll get the same error as if I had yanked out the USB cable without unmounting it.
This is happening with:
* A standard (Lacie) powered 500GB USB drive mounted normally.
* A standard (Lacie) powered 500GB USB drive being used as a Time Machine disk (it errors/unmounts during Time Machine backups).
* An iphone 8GB during itunes syncs, only when copying large files (like videos).
I have tried two USB hubs, one powered and one not, and both cause the same problems. If I connect any of these drives/iphone directly to the Mac then they work absolutely fine.
I first thought the (unpowered) USB hub was to blame, but when I started using the powered USB hub and saw the same problems I'm starting to wonder if OS X has a bug with regards to heavy I/O to USB devices connected through hubs...?
Davros: my tip would be to connect the drive directly to the computer (not via USB hub) and see if the problem goes away.

HT4718 Installed new hard drive, click on restore from time machine, get to 'select a destination' but just keeps searching for disks.. any help please?

Installed new hard drive and want to restore from time machine.
Get as far as 'select a destination' then it goes no further - just keeps 'searching for disks'
Help anyone please?

1. Be sure your drive is attached and mounted.
2. If you have already written any data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next step.
3. In the Finder, choose Go > Utilities. The /Applications/Utilities folder will open.
4. Launch Disk Utility.
5. Click the icon for your external hard drive in the sidebar on the left.
6. Click the Erase tab along the top of the window.
7. From the Volume Format menu, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
8. Enter a name for the external hard drive in the Name field.
9. Click the Erase button.
Make Sure that you choose the correct drive

Lion won't install can't select hard drive that is used for time machine backups

I installed Lion, agreed to the eula but both drives are greyed out. My Macintosh HD - ( this dirve is used for time machine backups) and my external drive (this drive does not use the GUID Partition Table scheme...). Though I don't use time machine, I tried turning it on and selecting the external drive with no luck. I'm stuck - any ideas?

"Backups.backupdb" if the file in Time Machine. As the discussion says, you have to find that file and trash it. Try spotlight to locate it. If that does not work, down load OmniDiskSweeper from the Internet (free) and go through an organized search to find "Backups.backupdb". If that takes too long or is too tedious, then if you have everything backed up, erase the HDD and start from square one.
Ciao.

HT4718 I have an external hard drive that I used as Time Machine Backup. I have not used it for a while and now, when I plug it in computer says: This disc is not readable. I want to recover the backups and not erase and reformat the disc. Thank you in

I have an external hard drive that I have used as Time Machine backup, but not for a while. Now when I plug it in, computer says this disc is not readable.
I want to keep the backups on it and not erase and start over.
Thank you in advance.
Gregor

It sounds like something went wrong with the drive. Did you drop it? How long has it been sitting around unused?

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

New Hard Drive Won't Recognize My Time Machine Backup

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