Old user files magically show up on new hard drive with 10.6 installed.

My daughters' hard drive crashed and we never backed up any of her files anywhere. She was running 10.4 on that drive. I installed a new unformatted drive and installed 10.6. When everything was up and running, she showed me a good portion of all her old music, and other files created with iWork, on the crashed drive, were on the computer with the new drive. I did not install any of these files and she didn't either. There was no time machine installed on the old drive so there was no backup files installed during the 10.6 install.
So my question is; Where were these old files at and how did they magically show up on the new hard drive? Were they saved somewhere on a non volatile memory chip? They seem to be old versions of files she had saved on the old crashed hard drive.
Thanks

If by "new PC" you mean a Windows based machine you do not want to format the drive for Mac because Windows cannot read Mac formatted drives (not without extra utilities). I'm running an older system so I'm not as up on the capabilities of Snow Leopard. For PC use you will want NTFS or FAT32 format except Macs cannot write to NTFS without extra utilities (not sure if this has changed with newer OS)... I just use FAT format for compatibility with PCs (on my flash drive).

Similar Messages

I see that i have a problem after installing my new hard drive on my macbook pro mid 2009 version. I put a new hard drive, with all of my information from my old drive installed on it, into the computer. but now have the blinking question mark folder

i see that i have a problem after installing my new hard drive on my macbook pro mid 2009 version. I put a new hard drive, with all of my information from my old drive installed on it, into the computer. but now have the blinking question mark folder. I see that it means that it isn't reading the new hard drive.
did i miss a step between transferring all of my information from my old hard drive to the new hard drive and installing the new hard drive into the computer. I believe that i installed properly. it was quite easy.
thanks for your help

It means there is no bootable system on the drive. If you still have access to the old drive, then I suggest you boot from it then clone it to the new internal drive. Use OPTION boot to boot from the Recovery HD on the old drive:
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
     1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue
         button.
     2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
     3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
     4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it
         to the Destination entry field.
     5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
         the Source entry field.
     6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Source means the external old drive. Destination means the new internal drive.

Migrate my old hard drive to my new SDD drive with them both install in my desktop

hi is it possible to migrate my old hard drive to my new SDD drive with them both install in my desktop at the same time? also where can I download the software? I cant find any on SanDisk website Thanks

yes you can migrate with both the SSD and HDD connected internally to your desktop. SanDisk offers a one time use cloning software for free in the SSD Dashboard. Use the link below to install the SSD Dahboard and on the Tool tab there will be an option for Apricorn cloning software.
http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/15108

On a macbook I purchased secondhand hard drive got corrupted and I started to get the flashing folder with the question mark, I purchased a new hard drive and snow lion install DVD I installed the hard drive and tried disc but kept getting blinking folder

On a macbook I purchased secondhand hard drive got corrupted and I started to get the flashing folder with the question mark, I purchased a new hard drive and snow lion install DVD I installed the hard drive and tried disc but kept getting blinking folder

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We're users here and do not speak for "Apple Inc."
Power on the computer and insert the DVD immediately.
Hold down the 'C' key to boot from the Snow Leopard DVD.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1533
After selecting the appropriate language, if necessary, select Utilities, and Disk Utility.
You'll likely need to partition and format the new drive before it's recognized.
http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/0/MA161/en_US/MacBook_13inch_HardDrive_DIY .pdf
(Yes, these instructions ARE 7 years old, but the procedure is the same for installing from DVD media.)

Load Leopard on a New Hard Drive with Windows XP already loaded

How can I load a new, fresh Leopard operating system on a new hard drive, with Windows XP already loaded and working on it's own independent hard drive via bootcamp beta. I have been using Tiger on it's own drive and wish to discontinue Tiger and move to Leopard without reloading windows. Can I just put in a new drive, and load Leopard with the Windows drive in place?
Please, any suggestions would be appreciated.
Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4) Runing Windows and Mac operating systems

Malcolm:
Thanks so much for replying to my question! I am new to MAC and have Tiger and Windows XP on separate drives. I will be removing the drive with Tiger and putting in a new drive to load Leopard and I wondered how that would effect accessing Windows XP since the Windows drive will remain in the system. Is there anything I need to do with bootcamp, since Windows was loaded using the Beta version of bootcamp, and bootcamp icon currently shows in the Windows XP taskbar. Tiger was pre-loaded when the computer was purchased. In fact I had to backdate the beta bootcamp version in order to get it to work. I hope this is not asking too much, but I wondered if there would any problem with Windows after the Leopard load.
THANKS IN ADVANCE!!

Problems "transferring" files from time machine to new hard drive

I was experieincing the spinning beach ball of death so I replaced my hard drive with a new one. I am running mountain lion (10.8.2) and the new Hard drive has two partions - one for "start up" which I was able to use migration assisant to move over my applications from my time machine. The problem I am having is that I can't figure out how to get my user account data transferred to my the data partition (journal extended) on my new hard drive.
When I enter time machine I can't "see" my last back updates before I changed hard drives.
I put my old hard drive in a case and it "isn't working" so I can't just copy data from my old hard drive. It did work initially but now it doesn't mount and I can't see it in disk utility.
Any Ideas on how I can get my user data off my time machine back up?
I forgot to mention that when I go into my external hard drive containing my time machine via finder and click on the folder with my user data I'm not able to open the various files - they have a red "-" and it says, The folder “Desktop” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents. In disk utility I can't run repair disk permision on my time machine drive because it is grayed out.
Thanks - Dave

I see. Don't do that. I do not believe using Migration Assistant is a valid method of accomplishing what you intend.
Furthermore, unless you are using the "Enter Time Machine" feature, you really shouldn't pick and choose what you want to copy from a Time Machine backup... "no user serviceable parts inside". You can certainly find and individual files and folders in the Finder, but you will run into the permissions problems you describle. I would not attempt to circumvent those protections.
As I understand Time Machine, you must either restore a volume from a Time Machine backup, thereby erasing the volume first, or restore individual files and folders by using "Enter Time Machine" when the backup has already been properly designated for the source.
Since your replacement hard disk - the source, now - is technically new, the latter is not an option. It's as if you were trying to restore to a different computer. This can't be done.

Moving my "My Documents" file, in its entirety, to new hard drive

I've asked this before, and I have received responses, but I think I'd better ask again before I do it, because it seems iTunes and iPod are so user unfriendly that I could lose everything I have in the process.
I just bought an external hard drive because my C drive is nearly full. I want to move my ENTIRE My Documents folder (which is very large due to music, photos and videos) from the C drive into this new hard drive (my H drive.) I was led to an Apple web site that supposedly tells me how do this, but at the end, the directions say, "After the folder has been copied, locate your original iTunes Music folder, and drag it to the Trash or Recycle Bin. Note: Don't remove the iTunes 4 Music Library files that may be in the same location as the iTunes Music folder." I assume those two files are the ones called "iTunes Library" and "iTunes Music Library", right? I don't know what the "4" means on the instructions. Now, does that mean that I cannot move my entire My Documents file onto the new external drive, just because this folder has to remain in the same site? The presence of these 2 files require that My Documents stays in my C drive? I just find that hard to believe. As you can tell, I am lost. Can I just drag and drop the entire My Documents folder from my C drive to my new H drive, and then somehow tell iTunes where everything is?
Thanks in advance.
Dave Schwartz

The default location is c:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes. If you were to move the library files and the iTunes program was unable to locate your library it would attempt to create an new blank library file in that location as long as you haven't moved anything else. If your songs are on another drive they won't be affected but iTunes won't know where they are. If you follow the instructions for moving your iTunes Music folder in the Apple guide you should have no problems. I keep my iTunes Music folder on a second internal drive and used the article. The move went without a hitch. I used the same article you were using before I believe: Moving your iTunes Music Folder

Have found multiple iTunes Library.xml files. Moved Library to new Hard Drive and it needs to be completely rebuilt?

Hello. I have a Mac Mini operating Mac OS X 10.7.2. I recently had to move my iTunes Library to a new hard drive. I followed the directions on how to move the library and refind everything yet when I do so what comes up is a mere skeleton of what I had. I have had to hunt down my purchased Apps, Music and Movies and re-add them to the library. I also noticed in doing this I have multiple iTunes Library.xml files ... shouldn't there only be one? If so how do I clean this up without doing any accidental damage (i.e. how do I find the one that is being used and delete the rest?)? If I delete the others is there any risk of losing purchased content? Lastly syncing my iPads has become a nightmare as I get the "This iPad is currently synced to another iTunes library" message. Obviously something

It's hard for me to picture the exact situation. It sounds like you still have your library file on the internal but some files on the external, and maybe some on the internal, some of which are in the library and others not... By re-adding things after consolidating it may have made things into a hodge-podge. Yes, that article you referenced says: "iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder"with Media Folder being the emphasis. You probably should have just moved your whole iTunes folder. Still, moving the media folder as instructed should not have messed up the library. Did you make the mistake of starting up iTunes before the external drive had mounted fully and it then told you it couldn't find many files? How you proceed to sort it out will depend upon how much time you want to spend and how important things such as ratings and playcount are to you. I have not actually used the consolidate feature across different drives myself (and don't feel inclined to do so here to test ).
If you are in the USA you can download some previous purhcases with iCloud, but not all.
Here's a bit on what an iTunes folder should look like:
What are the iTunes library files? - [http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660]
More on iTunes library files and what they do - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management]
Library files with graphic and explanation of different iTunes versions - http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=13169517
Once you get iTunes working off the external drive it should just put new media to the external when you add it.
I have almost no experience with synching (I synched my neice's iPod, once, about 4 years ago).

My old iMac broke so i got a new hard drive installed. How can i retrieve my old purchased items?

hiya
got a new hard drive installed and couldn't retreive anything off my old hard drive
can i get my old purchased items from itunes
thanks

Hi hopscotch,
Log into the iTunes store and do a search to find your previously purchased items. Click the "Buy" button, and put in the same iTunes id and password that you originally used to purchase. A dialogue box will come up indicating that you have already purchased this item and do you want to download it again for free....
Say yes, and it will be re-downloaded to your Mac.
Hope this helps!
Cheers,
GB

I have a macbook pro, a little over 2 years old, have been advised I need a new hard drive....after 2 years!!!!

My macbook pro is just over 2 years old....for the last couple of months it has been running very slowly,the beachball is in permanent residence!
I have been advised I need a new hard drive....after only 2 years I'm not at all impressed. Is this normal?

Over a very large sample of drives, these drives are very reliable, despite being moved around inside laptops.
You do not have a very large sample, you have ONE drive. Anything that happens, from having it run for twenty years to having it die on the first day, is within the normal range.
The rapid resolution to your problem IS to replace the drive. At your leisure, you may find that after re-writing every block with Zeroes (a process that can take half a day and has no guarantee of success) enough spare blocks can be found to return the drive to service. Or maybe not. If you are willing to invest the time and energy to do this, you may get a nice backup drive, or you may get a doorstop. No one can predict ahead of time.

Please help! Cannot access TC backups on new hard drive with Lion!

I know this seems like a generic posting, and believe me that I have searched through countless posts to find the situation most similar to mine. To start, the basic story (I am pretty computer illiterate, so excuse the lack of terminology):
-My computer was working slow, beach balling, etc. two weeks ago - took to Apple Genius Bar for help and they suggested need for new hard drive. I already had a hard drive crash in January, but since I have had a Time Capsule running Time Machine since September 2009, I hooked it right up and restored from a backup with no issue... so I wasn't worried about this. I waited to make sure that I had the most recent backup (and needed to use my computer for law school for a couple days), so I turned it in a day later immediately after a complete incremental backup via TM on my TC.
-Got my computer back from the Apple "depot" with new hard drive and hard drive cable.
-Had an extremely hard time getting my TC to link to my computer and via AppleCare phone help, realized that Apple had given me back my computer with Leopard, and they said that I needed to go back to the store to get a Lion reinstall since the backups had been done in Lion.
-Went back to Apple store, reinstalled Lion... they told me there would be no issue once I got home and hooked up to TC. Connected to TC via ethernet and went through "set up" procedure as if it was new computer - could never get past the "Select the Disk" page. Either it was beach-balling or just sitting there, and I couldn't click continue or anything.
-Called AppleCare again, they said to try it through Migration Assistant instead of Set Up... again, could not connect to TC. They said it was too complicated to do over the phone and sent me back to the store...
-By now, I am on vacation and spent 5, yes FIVE, hours at another store trying to migrate the data to no avail. I obviously don't know everything they tried, but I know they tried installing each operating system since Leopard, going through set up and migration assistant, and doing a disk repair of the TC. None of this worked. Every single time my TC connects and you can see the title of the drive ("Data") and the two separate backups ("emilysmac" was my old computer and "emilysmacbookpro" was the dummy one we tried to make). Emilysmacbookpro was accessible with no data on it, but once we clicked on emilysmac it just said "connecting" forever and never did anything.
Basically:
-300GB of my TC shows that it has been used, so I know something is there.
-I can also pull up the data on another computer, and it shows files dated from September 2009 up to the date I last updated, but they do not look how they used to - they are "Unix Executable" files and cannot open through Time Machine.
I have a really hard time thinking that my TC AND my computer hard drive failed at the same time - which is actually what Apple suggested to me. Is there anything that anyone knows that will help?! I am desperate here! This TC had backups of all my music, pictures and law school work over the past 2.5 years. Any help would be much appreciated!

PS I have also looked through Pondini's site, but I am not sure if I am missing something since I don't totally understand all of it. Thanks again!

Installed a new hard drive, but can't install mac os X

Hi! I need some help. I just installed a new WD320GB hard drive in my new macbook, but when I try to install OS X on it I'm not able to. When I get to the "select destination, Where do you want to install Mac OS X" screen, the new hard drive doesn't show up. What do I have to do?

Or you could have purchased a case to power the new hardrive as an external drive, plug it into your laptop, format the drive, then copy the old drive using Superduper! to your new temporary external hardrive. Once you transfer your old hardrive onto your new hardrive (external), you would then remove the new hardrive from its external drive case, then remove your old hardrive from the laptop, and then install the new drive into your laptop. It should work like a charm after that. The best part is that you can install the old hardrive into your external case, format the old drive turn that into a backup external drive. I hope this all makes sense.
Anyway, this was just an idea that actually works best.

I can't install Snow Leopard on a brand new hard drive with a brand new optical drive.

I need help please. I have a 2009 MacBook Pro. The hard drive crashed a while back so I bought a new one. The original Snow Leopard disc that came with it was scratched so I bought a new one of it as well. After trying/failing to install Snow Leopard on the new hard drive about a dozen times I bought a new optical drive as well. I installed the new optical drive today, tried to install Snow Leopard again and STILL got the same installation error messages. Any help that anyone might be able to provide would be greatly appreciated.
Last error message:
Install failed: The Installer could not copy the necessary support files.

Did you partition and format the new drive first?
Drive Partition and Format
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
7. Upon completion quit Disk Utility and return to the installer. Complete the Snow Leopard installation.

How do I transfer email messages from an external hard drive to a new hard drive with Lion installed as the operating system?

How can I retrieve the old email messages from Mail on an external hard drive which operated with Snow Leopard, then transfer the old Emails into my current version of mail operating with Lion?

'''https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile'''
'''https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles'''
These can't get your data back, but will help in the future.
These add-ons can be a great help by backing up and restoring Firefox
'''[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/febe/ FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension)]''' {web link}
FEBE allows you to quickly and easily backup your
Firefox extensions, history, passwords, and more.
In fact, it goes beyond just backing up -- It will actually rebuild
your saved files individually into installable .xpi files.
It will also make backup of files that you choose.
'''[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/opie/ OPIE]''' {web link}
Import/Export extension preferences

New hard drive and cannot re-install Windows 7

RE: HP Pavillion DV7-4270us
Windows 7 64-bit
4MB Ram 640 GB Hard Drive
After receiving the S.M.A.R.T. warning about possible hard drive failure soon, I installed a Seagate 500GB hard drive. Next I began the recovery process by using my rescue discs. All that went fine.
Then the screen stated that after the pc restarts it will load all software and drivers. It will turn off and on several times and this will be normal. Please do not shut down pc.
Now is where my problem began. It never loaded the software and drivers even after running for 7.5 hours. I new this was extreme.
I just noticed on this forum someone else had a similar issue. The reply said to be aware and not to install a smaller hard drive than you originally had.
I am assuming this is my problem also. If anyone knows for sure, please let me know. I suppose I will install a 1TB hard drive, even though that is more than I will ever need.
Thank you!

Hi:
That could be the issue, or the recovery disks you made won't work--even on a 1 TB hard drive.
Rather than tossing money into a new HDD, if you can read the 25 character product key on the bottom of your notebook, you can make your own plain W7 x64 installation media, which will install on any size hard drive.
Here is how to do that...
Link to the W7 ISO file downloads is below. Download the applicable version of Windows 7 that is on your product key (Home Premium, Pro, or Ultimate). The SP1 Media Refresh files are the latest ISO files.
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/14709-Windows-7-Digital-River-direct-links-Multiple-Languag...
Use the Windows 7 USB/DVD installation tool to compile the ISO file you download from Digital River. Link below. You need a DVD or a 4 GB flash drive to use the USB method of compilation.
Use the 25 character windows 7 product key to activate your installation.
http://download.cnet.com/Windows-7-USB-DVD-Download-Tool/3000-18513_4-10972600.html
Then go to the PC's support and driver page to install the drivers you need.
Before you try the above, see if making this CD patch works for the factory recovery disks.

Old user files magically show up on new hard drive with 10.6 installed.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for