Restore files from time machine after new install

In my office one of my iMac's suffered a complete system crash. I am reinstalling OS X Lion as I write this post. The iMac was backed up to an external hard drive using time machine. After the new install of Lion how do I grab my user files from the machine backup?
I appreciate in advance your help.

When you complete the installation and boot into the Setup Assistant use the opportunity to restore from a TM backup which will appear in the Assistant. Just have the backup drive connected. You can then restore from the most recent backups of your Home folder, third-party applications and support files, and system preferences.
Restore will take a while, but when done just restart.

Similar Messages

How to restore files from Time Machine after Clean Install of Mavericks

How to restore files from Time Machine after Clean Install of Mavericks. I know the data is there but seems unaccessable because I may have changed the Computer or Owner name. Is there any way to fix that now?

Hi Linc,
my back-up data is managed by Time Machine; the actual data is on a second internal Hard Drive with a capacity of 1TB - not partitioned. I am using Time Machine and have access to all data backed up since Mavericks Clean Install but not the data prior to this date.
When I open the 1TB drive in Finder I can see a folder "Backups.backupdb/Sigi's Mac Pro/ followed by many folders of backup dates going back to 2010-09-20-103441 and up to 2014-02-07-142414 all followed with folder Macintosh HD. February 7th 2014 was the date of the clean install.
These Backups are followed by backup date folder 2014-02-08-075554 with a subfolder of MacPro-320GB (this is the name I assigned to my Boot Drive during formatting; I suspect I should have assigned the same name as before ie. Macintosh HD) and 2014-02-11 with a subfolder Macintosh HD, these are the ones I get access to by way of Time Machine > Restore.
Weird thing is on Febr 11 when I relised my possible mistake and renamed the Bootdrive back to what it was initially ie. Macintosh HD despite this I have access to all backup data since the Clean Install in both folders MacPro-320GB as well as Macintosh HD but not to any data prior to the Clean Install.
Is there something that Time Machine knows and prevents access or is it simply a matter of renaming the subfolder 2014-02-08-07554/MacPro-320GB to ........./Macintosh HD?
I like to restore selectively and not everything - It was hard work reinstalling apps that were supposed to be the troublemakers (ref my discussion on Maverick problems) but I now need to get onto data specific to some of these apps as well as other data I may have missed. Long story? Yes and sorry.
Sigi

Restoring files from Time Machine after installing Maverick

I have an older MacBook Pro and while installing Maverick my aged hard drive gave out. I got a new hard drive installed by an authorized Mac dealer and now I'm trying to restore files from Time Machine. I haven't done anything at all yet with Maverick. I followed the Migration Assistant directions and have the backup connected to my laptop. The backup icon appeared on my desktop. I hit continue and followed directions and reached the point where it said "looking for source" and there is a spinning ball. That was an hour ago. Is it just taking a long time to sort through the large volume of material in my Time Machine backup, or is something wrong? What should I be doing, if anything? Thank you for your help.

I have an older MacBook Pro and while installing Maverick my aged hard drive gave out. I got a new hard drive installed by an authorized Mac dealer and now I'm trying to restore files from Time Machine. I haven't done anything at all yet with Maverick. I followed the Migration Assistant directions and have the backup connected to my laptop. The backup icon appeared on my desktop. I hit continue and followed directions and reached the point where it said "looking for source" and there is a spinning ball. That was an hour ago. Is it just taking a long time to sort through the large volume of material in my Time Machine backup, or is something wrong? What should I be doing, if anything? Thank you for your help.

Can't restore files from Time machine backup?

I kinda successfully restored my files from Time Machine after a clean re-install of Snow Leopard (Time Machine thought they were new files, though, so backed up the 26 GB... waste of space), but now I'm trying to restore the files of the other user on the computer. In her pictures folder, I can't copy the iPhoto Library because I don't have permission to access it! The same problem occurred on my account too, but I was able to go to my Time Machine drive and manually change the permissions for the files I wanted, which doesn't work on her account.
I have made a Youtube video of the error:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1__PdyAetVg
Can anyone assist me in restoring the files? That's all I need help in. Thanks

wrongusername wrote:
But if I transfer everything with the Setup Assistant, won't I once again be experiencing the problems I had?
If the problems were caused by your data. But that's extremely unlikely. It may have been an app, or, much more likely from your description, something corrupted in the Leopard OS. That's one of the problems with upgrading a sick system without knowing what or where the causes are. It's a bit like a brain surgeon operating on himself: if he isn't in tip-top shape to start with, his condition is likely to change, and not for the better.
Most of us would have recommended first simply doing a +*Repair Disk+* on your internal HD; if that didn't help, installing the "combo" Leopard update; if that didn't work, doing an +Archive and Install+ and re-installing the "combo."
After a clean re-install of Snow Leopard, my Mac worked fine again (except for the TM trouble). So it probably had something to do with my old files.
Probably not. Much more likely OSX was somehow damaged. And you got a whole new one.
How come I could read the files on my external HD and yet not be able to copy the files?
Time Machine uses special "deny everybody everything" permissions on it's backups, among other things, in an attempt to keep us mere mortals from moving, changing, or deleting things and corrupting them.

How do I restore files from time machine backups made before reformatting macbook air?

How do I restore files from time machine backups made before reformatting macbook air?

The section titled "Restoring data from Time Machine backups" in the following may help: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427

Restoring applications from time machine after a clean install of Mavericks.

I had recently upgraded from Mt. Lion to Mavericks from app store. But after few months I thought it was being buggy and slow. Last week after taking a complete time-machine backup I formatted the computer and clean installed Mavericks again. Now I am trying to restore just few handpicked applications one by one. Most of the apps are either not working or asking me for keys. Is there any other way to restore apps from Time Machine? Because all I see is that it just copy pastes the folder from the backup, and does not restore the prefe

If I were you, I would not restore your applications from the backup, more if you want the preferences back. Performance issues will be back and you may need to reformat the hard drive again.
Instead, the best thing you can do is to reinstall your applications manually, so you will not be transferrind files you do not need

Restore from time machine after clean install of Mavericks

I decided to do a clean install of Mavericks to get rid of all the very old files hiding in my system folders. I made a startup disk following online instructions, rebooted from the USB drive and wiped the drive and reinstalled Mavericks. Then I plugged in my Time machine backup drive and tried to recover particular folders from the latest backup. However, I am getting a permission error that prevents me from going into the old user folder from that backup. It has a red circle/line icon on the folder. How do I get around this so I can select what to restore?

You might be able to view in System Preferences > Users & Groups.
Time Machine - Troubleshooting by James Pond is the best source around for Time Machine help.
I'm not seeing your issue listed. It's possible you will need to do a full Time Machine restore to another drive so you can actually boot from the drive then log into the user. If you have enough space on internal you could partition to restore there without polluting your current new install.
Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions 18. How can I copy my TM backups to a different location?
I backup to Time Machine but I also use a clone and use it over Time Machine when I'm trying to restore a User like youare trying to do. Hopefully someone else will have a better suggestion other than doing a full restore.

Problem in restore software and files from time machine to new hard disc

hello, recently im just change my macbook's hard disc, and i can't open any of my software and also the finder is keep no responding after i restore my files and software from time machine. Got any solution about it?

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.

How do I restore applications from Time Machine after installing Mavericks?

I have a 2010 13" MBP and it was running slow, so I used internet recovery to install Mavericks. I had hoped to reinstall all my applications such as Office, iWork etc from my Time Machine backups but it won't let me. I wonder if since I erased my old HD it doesn't recognize the backups from Time Machine. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
Ben

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for details.

Can't restore folders from Time Machine after Lion

Hello guys,
after upgrading to Lion 10.7.1 I can't seem able to restore some old folders from Time Machine
Here's what happens: I log in TM, I can scroll through my old backups, I can choose the folders I want to restore, I can click on the folder, but when the systems tries to restore it, it stops saying that I don't have the privileges to access file A in the folder (and then all the procedure is stopped).
Oddly (at least for me) if I try to restore just that same file A (and not the whole folder) that I should have no privileges for, from the same old backup, I can do it, but I have to give the system my password: It pops up a window saying something "Finder is willing to make some modification, can you authorize?" (forgive i'm translating the alert from another language) and then I can restore it.
Has anybody else this problem and how can be solved?
Many thanks
Ps: I did a simple upgrade on Lion, no partition, no blank disk, and never changed anything in my user preferences, it's always the same, administrator
Pps: Before Lion I could restore easily exactly the same folders and files I tried to restore with Lion

wrongusername wrote:
But if I transfer everything with the Setup Assistant, won't I once again be experiencing the problems I had?
If the problems were caused by your data. But that's extremely unlikely. It may have been an app, or, much more likely from your description, something corrupted in the Leopard OS. That's one of the problems with upgrading a sick system without knowing what or where the causes are. It's a bit like a brain surgeon operating on himself: if he isn't in tip-top shape to start with, his condition is likely to change, and not for the better.
Most of us would have recommended first simply doing a +*Repair Disk+* on your internal HD; if that didn't help, installing the "combo" Leopard update; if that didn't work, doing an +Archive and Install+ and re-installing the "combo."
After a clean re-install of Snow Leopard, my Mac worked fine again (except for the TM trouble). So it probably had something to do with my old files.
Probably not. Much more likely OSX was somehow damaged. And you got a whole new one.
How come I could read the files on my external HD and yet not be able to copy the files?
Time Machine uses special "deny everybody everything" permissions on it's backups, among other things, in an attempt to keep us mere mortals from moving, changing, or deleting things and corrupting them.

Retrieving files from Time Machine after updating to Snow Leopard

Updated my 2 year old iMac to Snow Leopard and erased the hard disk first to do a clean start. Having carried out all the updates and loaded on iLife11 tried to use the migration assistant to retrieve data from Time Machine backup but will only find the updated iMac! How do I get it to retrieve from previous Time Machine backups? Know they are on the external Hard Drive somewhere as it still has 400GB on it. Thanks

+Setup Assistant+ and +Migration Assistant+ automatically use the most recent backup. There's no choice. See #19 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
Your best bet is to do a +full system restore+ per #14 in the FAQ. Choose the last backup before the upgrade. That will, of course, put you back on Leopard.
Then just install Snow Leopard (there are no +Erase and Install+ or +Archive and Install+ options anymore). That will install the new version of OSX, without touching anything else.
Potential problems with using +Migration Assistant+ (after setting-up a user account), are that you end up with an extra account; and the accounts you migrate may not be recognized as the same ones as on your backups or other volumes, and won't have the proper permissions to them.
Message was edited by: Pondini

Restore Mac from Time Machine, after grey screen

I'm working with an iMac running Mountain Lion from 2011 with Intel chip
The computer keeps loading up to grey screen. I was able to get to the screen where I get to choose
Restore from Time Machine
Reintsall OSX
Get help online
Disk Utility
I try to restore from Time Machine but after i " select a backup" date it keeps seacrhing for disk and stays stuck on page that says Select a Destination.
This is my fathers Mac and I'm trying to help him fix it. Any help would be greatley appericated
Thanks

Most likely, some folders were inadvertently excluded from your backups, and as a result you can't restore your data in Recovery, Setup Assistant, or Migration Assistant.
Starting from a fresh installation of OS X, set up a new administrator account and log in. You should now be able to enter Time Machine and restore your user data from a snapshot.* I suggest you do this in two stages. Quit all applications except the Finder before you begin.
Restore all the visible items at the top level of your home folder.
Hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar. Enter Time Machine and restore all items in the Library folder. Log out and log back in as soon as the restore is complete.
Any other invisible folders or files at the top level of your home folder that you want to preserve will have to be restored separately. For most users, that isn't necessary.
You'll have to reinstall all third-party applications from scratch, or restore them from another kind of backup, if you have one.
You'll have another problem if this is a new computer, or if you erased the startup volume: Time Machine won't continue your previous snapshot series, but will instead try to begin a new one, starting with a full copy of all files. There might not be enough space on your backup volumes for that. There are different ways of dealing with that situation, depending on your needs. The easiest way is to set your backup drives aside, if possible, until you're sure you'll no longer need the data on them, then erase them and start over. Meanwhile start a new backup on one or more empty storage devices. If that solution isn't workable for you, ask for instructions.
*If you don't see any snapshots in Time Machine, exit the time-travel view and then hold down the option key while selecting
Browse Other Backup Disks...
from the Time Machine menu, which has an icon that looks like a clock running backwards. Select the backups of your computer by its previous name. If you don't have the Time Machine menu, open the Time Machine preference pane in System Preferences and check the box marked
Show Time Machine in menu bar

Problems restoring files with Time Machine after hard drive failure

Hello everyone,
I had a Mavericks (10.9.5) installation on my Mac Mini when my hard drive suddenly "died". I therefore replaced the hard drive with a new one and started the recovery mode using the cmd + R keyboard shortcut during booting. I then partitioned and formated the new hard drive and afterwards selectd "Restore from Time Machine Backup" (see the screenshot on the following page: https://www.apple.com/osx/recovery/). To my surprise, the following error message was displayed: "An error occurred while adding a recovery system to the destination disk". After some research, I discovered that this problem is probably caused by a Mountain Lion installation bug (http://macdailynews.com/2013/02/28/new-macs-suffering-from-os-x-mountain-lion-in stallation-bug/). This leads to my first question:
1) Why does the recovery mode start the Mountain Lion (10.8.5) installer and not the Mavericks (10.9.5) installer?
Anyway, since this problem left me no alternative, I selected "Reinstall OS X" instead, which downloaded Mountain Lion from the Internet. After the installation was complete, I used Migration Assistant to recover my two accounts, their apps and data. However, after the process was completed, I discovered that some files were missing in a folder that I was using before the hard drive "died". This leads to my second question:
2) Why are some files missing from that folder?
Anyway, I though I could quickly recover these lost files by entering Time Machine. I did that and selected the respective folder. However, having that folder or any other folder selected, Time Machine doesn't display any previous back-ups on its timeline although the latter goes back as far as 26 August 2013.
3) Why doesn't Time Machine display older versions of that folder on its timeline?
I will greatly appreciate any help!

Try E2/4 in the 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems
James Pond (Pondini) died last year unfortunately.

Restoring files from Time Machine to external drive

I keep my iPhoto library -- aning may other files -- on an external drive (iomega 1 TB). I use Time Machine (Time Capsule) for my back-ups of iphoto - and all my files on this drive. The external drive is failing. I have bought an new external drive and wish to restore my iPhoto library to this new drive. The steps for restoring from Time Machine require me to click on the iPhoto library and then enter time machine. I cannot do this as the folder is now unreadable on the drive and I do not wish to restore it to this old drive in any event.
I have accessed the time machine drive and can see the iphoto back up is there.
What is my next step?
Robert

You are correct Linc. I am probably not being clear enough. The dead drive is disconnected and I am only using the new external drive, the iMac and the Time Machine backup drive which is connected to the iMac via ethernet.
I am trying to what you have suggested and appears all over the internet as the correct method. Unfortuntely, it is just not working. I will take snapshots of the screens to illustrate. (not sure how to take sceenshots in Time Machine.)
While in finder I have the sidebar. I choose my iMac and choose enter Time Machine (Home Drive is the new external drive):
Just before I enter -- a window opens that says "connecting to back-up volume":
Then another window opens -- on it's own -- that is the Time Machine Back-up and it does not have the sidebar:
As I slide into Time Machine another window opens -- on its own -- that contains the elements of my sidebar:
As show below in another screen grab:
And now I am in Time Machine with that window -- i have even tried to click on the sidebar window which lies in the background just prior to sliding into Time Machine but I still get this window):
No side bar. But, I can choose any back-up window behind it it -- going back in time -- and get windows that looks like this:
Via the bottom status bar I can manuever to the correct back-up date and time i want and get this window:
The Iomega HDD contains the back-up of iPhoto Library (and other files) thart I wish to restore. I should be able to open this folder. Choose the files to restore and voila. But when I choose the foloder. Nothing. It freezes -- except i can still manuever the mouse. No spinning wheel. Nothing. I cannot exit Time Machine etc. I end up shutting down using the power button.
BTW. Here is the wiondow I get when I click on the Time Machine drive in the sidebar:
I can choose the iPhoto Library and I dragged and dropped to the new drive. There was an error the first try (after 4 hours...) but the second try worked. I have duplicated/backed-up the library getting ready to experiment with an new iPhoto upgrade.
Is this the same library?
But any thoughts on what happened during the Time Machine process is appreciated.
Robert

No privilages to restore file from time machine

After selecting a file to restore from time machine.
it comes back with an error stating "You don't have privilages to access this file."
I am the only user and setup Time Machine under my user.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks

http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Home.html

Restore files from time machine after new install

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for