Restore of time machine backup doesn't work

Hi all,
im having trouble trying to restore backups made with time machine.
Every time i try to restore a file i there is none available. I do backups about once a week. As soon as i select a file to restore time machine shows no backup available. Only the first backup on the timeline is selectable. What has happened?
On the external harddisk all files are available and i can use the finder to copy the necessary files onto my harddrive. But i doubt thats how it's meant to work.
I'm not sure but i think it all startes with the 10.5.5 update, but i have no definite proof of that.
HELP PLEASE
Thank you

Hi -(,)^(,)-
(hope i spelled that right )
Backups are made from system disk as well as the user data disk. So the process of saving works well!
Your tip gave me a hint. I have two disc. Systemdisk (named MacPro) mounted as / and a user disk,
(named UserData) mounted as /Users
I can browse all files chonologically using the timeline on Disc MacPro. When i select a folder on UserData the timeline greys out and only the initial backup is visible and selectable. I mounted the second disc as
/dev/disk1s2 /Users hfs rw,auto 0 2
in /etc/fstab. I'm now positively shure that it all began with 10.5.5 update last week.
Any idea how to solve this problem?
Thanks for your help so far

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Restore from Time Machine backup doesn't install working system folder

A routine restart turned into a major problem this morning. I'm runnning 10.8.5. on a MacPro tower and a 480GB SSD for a boot disc. Been running fine for the past 2 years.
I restarted the machine and when I came back to it I was dropped into the Recovery / OSX Utilities screen. This was unexepected!
Tired restarting again, and it gave me the circle+line through icon ( / ) a couple of times and then the apple as it apparently located the Recovery partition.
Running Disk Utiliites "Repair" and "Repair Permisions" on the SSD came back with flying colors, so I assume it's not a hardware issue. That said, multiple reboots and nothing. I was basically dead in the water. I only have a boot USD stick, which just launches you into recovery mode.
Knowing that I was going to be out for a few hours and that I have regular Time Machine backups of my drive, I opted to perform a System Restore on the main SSD, using a backup from earlier this morning.
After 4+ hrs of "restoring", I optomistically rebooted the machine. It's still gave me the "system folder not found" icon, and booted into Recovery mode.
This time I quit the application and specifcially went to select the SSD as a Startup Disk and it's not even showing a 10.8.5 folder on the SSD!!
I just booted up my Mac Pro in target disk mode and plugged it into my MacBook Pro to examine the drives. I can see all 4 drives on my MacPro, including the boot SSD. My boot disk appears to contain all the files it had before, but won't boot! I can verify that the backups are the exact folder structure that I had before, so what's going on?
Should I:
Wipe the SSD again, and install OS X from my laptop? Can I do that through Target Disk mode? Or just do that through the Recover Tool?
Some people with similar issues were told to perform clean installs and use migration assistant to pull the files over. But I really would like to know why using Time Machine backups aren't doing what they are supposed to – the files are all there!
Is there something I can do to my restored SS
Obviously this is a desperate time for me, so any assistance is greatly appreciated.

So far, the closest to a solution has been that I've since reformatted the drive. Installed a fresh copy of 10.8, and now I'm trying to migrate over all my content from the Time Machine backup using the Migration Assistant. In an hour I'll find out if I just wasted the last 2 hrs.
I guess I have a "Quad Core", I have two many machines to keep all the specs straight. I've been using it for over two years. It's not an OS issue.
I'm still blowaway by the fact that I could actually just restore from a Time Machine backup. When connecting to the TM via the system utils, it should be handled like a byte-for-byte clone. I think that's a rather major failure on Apple's part, but not the last one of late.
I still am not confident enough in Mavericks to take that plunge.

Imac won't restore from time machine backup after HD (hard drive) recall replacement

I have an imac bought in 2011, running Snow Leopard. It required an HD replacement due to the 1 TB Seagate recall - the replacement was done by a certified Apple repair station yesterday. Before the guy left he started a backup/restore from my latest time machine backup set. It failed. I attempted it two times and got error messages that it failed and the computer needed to be restarted to try it again. No luck. I called the guy back and he told me to call Apple Care. Not thrilled about that response since the guy had just left my house I did what he told me to do. (A quick sideline here: I recognize that a time machine backup should be no big deal and SHOULD work everytime, but it doesn't. It irks me that Apple is replacing my HD through no fault of mine and yet they don't allow the restore of data to be a "covered" expense in this process - this isn't just because this was an authorized repair guy - the Apple store would have done the same).
Back to the issue. When I called apple care they pretty much had me try the same thing again with an earlier back up set. To my knowledge, it didn't work. I say this because it looked like it was working and when I came back to the imac later, it had restarted and once again booted to the OSX install. (The boot disc is still in the imac). When I tried to boot from another location, one did not show up to boot from so I assumed that the data didn't transfer and it forced another restart. So, I tried something else. I tried to re-install the snow leopard OSX without using the restore function. That appeared to work and then when the machine restarted it asked if I had another mac and I chose the option to get the files/apps/etc. from my time machine backup. The computer chose what I can only assume is the most recent backup set (It chose what I know to be a subfolder that appears under the dated backup folder - Macintosh HD--which btw is confusing seeing as that's always the name of the HD on the imac). I again stepped away from the computer so it could do its thing for two hours. When I returned, I was back to the MAC OSX screen that asks you to choose a language. There were no more options to choose DISK UTILITY or RESTORE FROM BACKUP, etc. When I clicked on English it took me right back into the screen where you say whether you have another Apple that you want to transfer data from. I realized that the imac must have restarted and I assumed maybe it was because the boot disk was still in - except how do you get the disc to eject? I also initially assumed that the backup had somehow failed again and triggered a restart. I tried to choose the option to just set up the machine without transferring data and when I got to the choose a name for your HOME folder message I tried to enter the same name I had it as before and it wouldn't allow me to do so, saying that that name was already in use. I also tried a different name and that didn't work either - got the same message (I assume if it is not the same name that it won't sync up with the time machine data from the backup set). So, I almost tried the "select time machine backup" option again until I looked at my HD space. Clearly, there is space that has been used. HD space was 997 at the start and now it's 636. My initial thought is to somehow get back into the setup area where I can use disc utility and erase the whole thing and then start over but 1) I don't think it's going to work even if I could get back there 2) I have no idea how to get this thing to reboot into that mode 3) I can't get the boot CD out to even try to restart to see if this thing did what it was supposed to, SO NOW I AM TOTALLY STUCK! I have not called Apple Care back because quite frankly they were useless the first time. I have a call into the repair guy but who knows how much help he will be. In the mean time, I have a million things to do and a computer that isn't working - Whoever said Apples never have issues needs to be seriously censored!
A few other notes: I use Time Machine Editor to run my backups weekly. It was set up that way from the get go by an Apple rep who came to my house to get us up and running. Editor should not effect the way that time machine does its work, so I doubt there is relevance but thought it worth mentioning.
One other note is that the Apple Care agent tried to have me do something called a "Source" something or other from the disk utility screen but when she realized that my backup file (shown by date) contained many other sub files (11-27-12/MacintoshHD/MyNamesIMAC/etc.), it was not possible to run this operation - thus we aborted. Sorry I don't remember the name of the process and unfortunately now can't access that option to go find it.
If you can help me, I would be eternally grateful! I am open to having a phone conversation if you are willing to give me your email to mail you my number. I have so much work to do this week and this was the last thing I needed. Did I mention this was supposed to be EASY?
I used to be quite the geek with my PC - still on the learning curve with the mac but not enjoying it. I am fairly tech savvy and I can follow instructions for a step by step solution if you've got one.

I got a recall and had the drive replaced. I have retored 3 timesa dn even had apple do the job and it is still not right. I still can't get a simple ghost of the data from time machineback tot he new drive.
This is Apple's explaination as taken from their web page.:
Restoring your entire system from a backup
If you are restoring a backup made by a Mac to the same Mac
With your backup drive connected, start up your Mac from the Recovery system (Command-R at startup) or Mac OS X v10.6 installation disc. Then use the "Restore From Time Machine Backup" utility.
Note: If "You can't restore this backup because it was created by a different model of Mac" appears when restoring a backup that was made on a different Mac, follow the onscreen instructions.
I even posted this information on the community and apple removed it... because they don't like the:
Off-topic or non-technical posts
Non-constructive rants or complaints
But here is my experieince:
Take in 27iMac running 10.6.8, 5-7 days, what a joke, my boss will be happy to pay for a week without working. Finally get, "if you have TM back up, 3 days." Get machine back with 10.6.3, hit the R recovery, click TM back up, runs for 2 hours, reboots, looks great. Box up take back to office... update to install - OH NO, still running 10.6.3. Updates crash with no specific error on install, BUG PROBELM, nothing runs.
Call Apple... after hours, tells me to boot using 10.6.2 disk, wipe, reinstall OS, udate to 10.6.8, THEN do the restore. GREAT! Only thing 10.6.2 DVD won't read... now back on phone... take back to the store, Genius says, he'll ix it just like it was. PROMISES it'll be fixed.
Pick up next day, supposedly, booted to disk, wiped drive, reinstalled, updated to 10.6.8 and THEN did the RIGHT restore... Looks GREAT... apps run and 10.6.8 OS. Back to the office... NOT RUNNING right!!!... fonts messed up, drop box app needs new install, cocktail needs upgrade, Fetch not working, memorized paths gone... back ups locked out of permissions... ***!!
4 hours on phone with apple and still no rsolution - to missing "settings". Seems there are THREE WAYS TO RESTORE (according to apply tech)... Running MIGRATE ASSISTANT and being able to choose your files, including settings, "R" RESTORE after they load a new OS... or NOW WAITING for them to send me a bootable 10.6.3 disk and then boot from disk, w/o installing OS and doing a restore from TM. I think this is done via the disk Utilties application.
So now can't back up without doing a full 400 GB back up since permissons are screwed and possibly destroying any good back ups... can't work, like having hands tied behind back. WAITING for solution! Very upset!!!
I did my first restore just like they said and now an 10 days without proper machine. Just FYI. I thnk I am going to make the store do the tech work so I have somthing to fall back on.

HT201250 when restoring a time machine backup to a new computer, does it affect the new operating system on the new computer

when restoring a time machine backup to a new computer, does it affect the new operating system on the new computer?

That depends on how you do it.
By far the best, easiest, most reliable method is to use Setup Assistant when your shiny new Mac first starts up, to transfer your apps, users, data, etc. That doesn't disturb either the OS or basic Apple apps that came with the new Mac. See Using Setup Assistant on Mountain Lion or Lion.
There is a facility to restore an entire system from Time Machine backups, including the version of OSX on the backup, but that's for use when your internal HD has been erased or replaced only. It's not a good idea to restore the full backup of one Mac to a different one. Depending on the circumstances, the installer may not allow it. Even if it does, the Mac may not start up, or may kernel panic, or not work properly.

Yeah. Got a time machine backup, should that work? Thanks.

Yeah. Got a time machine backup, should that work? Thanks.

You can schedule backups in CCC for whatever you like. I run two CCC clones on separate disks - a weekly backup and a daily backup. You could have an hourly backup too, if you wish. You can choose to back up on some days and not others (e.g., you might not do any work on the weekend, so see no point in having a backup schedule run on those days. In this regard, CCC is far more flexible than TM.
It's also more versatile in the backup options it will allow you. Once you've restored your system to the good, I would forget about only cloning your User account, and clone your entire internal disk. This is what most people do I believe, because not only will this copy everything (literally, clone your disk) unlike Time Machine (which skips certain items), it will also make your backup bootable (again unlike Time Machine).
That menas if your internal disk ever goes kaputt, or you wreck your system with an update or upgrade, you can simply boot back into your system in minutes by connecting the clone.
About the only advantage I see that TM has over a bootable clone is the 'star wars/versions' type interface, which makes restoring individual files much simpler and user friendly than a clone (but since it's not that hard to do it with CCC anyway, that personally doesn't bother me too much). Others on this board will argue that TM is faster (not in my experience) and causes less wear on your drive (mines happily going 3 years later, but there's no way to empirically test this claim, AFAIK).

Issues with restoring a Time Machine backup onto new Macbook Pro Retina

I recently got a new Macbook Pro Retina and I've been trying to restore a Time Machine backup made today from my old Macbook Pro laptop. I didn't restore from the first start up (foolishly, seemingly) simply because of the trivial reason of wanting to see the system all clean and new.
I've tried the Migration Assistant but it gets stuck on "looking for source..", despite having the ex.HD plugged in and double checking the existance of the backup itself on the ex.HD.
I've also tried booting the laptop up in the 'restore' mode (cmd R) and restoring from there but it sends me in a constant loop of 'this backup was from a previous model of laptop' or something to that affect. It also doesn't display the recent backups at all, only displaying those from the beginning of this year for some reason. All backups are in the same place on the ex.HD so its not an issue with locating the backups.
Really stuck on this one! Would really appreciate some help!
Thanks a lot, and merry Christmas

Yes, you can restore to another machine if needs be.

How to restore a Time machine backup and get a recovery partition?

Hi,
I'm quite confused!
I restored from a Time Machine backup and then setup boot camp (and removed that partition a while back) and now I don't have a recovery partition. (Can't enable File Vault and
bash-3.2# diskutil list /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *120.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            87.4 GB    disk0s2
My new MacBook Pro didn't come with any CDs.
Apparently I need the recovery partition to reinstall Lion from the internet.
"Recovery HD offers on-disk recovery tools, allows you to restore from Time Machine backups, reinstall OS X Lion over the Internet..."
The recommended solution from Apple seems to be reinstall with your OSX 10.6 CD (which I don't have) and then upgrade to Lion (which seems like a PITA).
Info from : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4649
What process should I follow to restore my recovery partition and apply the current state of the machine from a backup?
(the process should not involve anything I don't have, like USB memory sticks, Lion CDs, etc....)
Supplementary questions which are only relevant if the answer is "you can't" (which would seem to be a major bug!) :
Or is there a clever method to install a recovery partition onto an existing disk (which clearly has space for it)? I have searched for it but all the results I found have either not mentioned that it works without reinstalling but look like it's needed, or do say "reinstall".
If I install Lion to an external disk, can I boot from that and use the recovery disk assistant tool to restore the partition to my internal disk? (Which I assume I'll need to do to get FileVault to work) ?
Thanks,
Max

Maxs-MacBook-Pro:Applications max$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *120.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            87.4 GB    disk0s2
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *136.2 MB   disk2
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         30.7 KB    disk2s1
   2:         Apple_Driver_ATAPI                         2.0 KB     disk2s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS Recovery Disk Assistant 136.2 MB   disk2s3

Restore a Time Machine backup from an overwritten partition?

I had a TimeMachine backup on an external disk.
I accidently overwrote the partition containing the TimeMachine files.
How can I retrieve my Time Machine backup? All data recovery software I have found will find jpgs, mp3s, etc, but not restore an overwritten partition or recover the TimeMachine backup.

You can try using a partition recovery tool to try rebuilding the partition tables and hopefully restoring the filesystem on the drive so it provides the system with a properly set up Time Machine drive; however, this will be a hit or miss success.
One tool that may work here is TestDisk: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
...though keep in mind that this is not guaranteed to work.
If you cannot do this, then it will be very difficult if not impossible to restore the Time Machine backup database in a usable fashion when the partition has been destroyed, as in order to do so you would need to restore a number of important files including all of their metadata that is often not possible to do with file restoration tools.
To get Time Machine running again your best bet would be to start fresh, though if you want to keep files from your lost Time Machine drive then you should use another one until you can scour this one and restore the files you've lost.

Restore a Time Machine backup on a newer version of the OS

My MacBook running Leopard (10.5.5) was recently stolen, but fortunately I have a Time Machine backup.
I'll make do with an old iBook running Tiger for now, but when I 've saved up a bit, and when Snow Leopard is released (and preferably a new version of iLife as well), I'll buy a new MacBook.
I was wondering though, what would happen if I would restore my Time Machine backup (made under Leopard) to a machine running Snow Leopard. Of course nobody can tell now, but has anybody tried restoring from a TM backup made in a previous version of the OS? For example from 10.5.2 to a Mac that came with 10.5.4 pre-installed? Do you need to update the OS afterwards?
If updating is necessary: is it easy to use the grey disk that comes with your computer to update the OS? I never needed it before...

In the situation you are talking about, Time Machine offers the option of migrating data, using Migration Assistant, from a Time Machine backup, ie the same process you use to transfer to a new computer but coming out of a backup rather than a previous machine. This process will generally work between different versions of operating system and so it's a reasonable bet it will work to transfer from a backup under Leopard to a machine running Snow Leopard. That process allows you to bring applications and settings across as well, although whether that would be a good idea would depend on how confident you were that your apps would work under Snow Leopard.

Restore a time machine backup (Yosemite)

Hello all,
Since updating to Yosemite I've had so many problems trying to get it to work properly. I want to do a clean install. Firstly, I made a backup of my Yosemite (10.9) via Time machine. I then installed the latest version of Yosemite with a clean install, when I tried to restore the Time machine backup (just files and applications) I get a warning stating: This backup has been made on a newer version" Yet the backup was made on 10.9!
I then restored my backup and tried updating Yosemite 10.9 to 10.10 via the App Store. Again I get an error stating that I can't open the installer as the version I'm using is newer.
I need the files and applications that I've got. That is why I need the Time Machine backup. I'm open to some suggestions on how to resolve this.
Note: Several aspects on my current system do not work, ever since I did an App Store update to Yosemite. Items such as Disk Utility gives an error of "Incorrect Disk Utility Version" and Wifi network drops an aweful lot.
Thanks
Dan

So you did the fresh install the way I said?
If yes then try booting to Internet Recovery by holding down Command+Option+R at startup. Yo know yo are in Internet Recovery since you have to connect to the internet right away to download disk utility and other necessary things.
Internet Recovery initially asks you to select a Wi-Fi network and enter a network password when needed. Next, Internet Recovery downloads and starts from a Recovery System image. From there, you are offered the same utilities and options as the Recovery System on a startup drive.

Clean install selective restore from time machine backup

Hi,
My harddisk crashed, and I have just installed a new harddrive.
I have just installed a fresh OS and am wondering if it is possible to selective restore stuff from my time machine backup.
I only want to restore some of my data file.
When I plugin my time machine backup. the preference pane does recognize that i have previous backup. But when I go into time machine state, the older stuff doesn't show up.
how can i get my old files back?
I can't see anything from before I changed my harddisk and did a few reinstall of the OS.

Restoring specific files or folders
While your backup disk is connected, click the Time Machine icon in the Dock and the Time Machine restore interface appears. You can literally see your windows as they appeared "back in time." Note: If you use FileVault, you cannot browse for individual items in your Home folder. However, you can restore all files and folders by using the Restore System from Backup feature of the Mac OS X Installer.
You can use the timeline on the right side of the window to reach a certain point back in time (the timeline shows the times of all backups on your backup disk). If you don’t know exactly when you deleted or changed a file, you can use the back arrow to let Time Machine automatically travel through time to show you when that folder last changed.
You can also perform a Spotlight search in the Time Machine Finder Window search field to find a file. Simply type the Spotlight search field and use the back arrow to have Time Machine search through your backups to find what you are looking for.
Before you restore a file, you can also use Quick Look to preview a file to make sure its the one you want. Highlight the file and press the Space Bar to bring up a preview.
To restore, select the file/folder and click the "Restore" button. The file will automatically be copied to the desktop or appropriate folder. If the file you are restoring has another file in the same location with the same name, you will be prompted to choose which file to keep or keep both.
Restoring your entire system from a backup
If you are restoring a backup made by a Mac to the same Mac
With your backup disk connected, start up your Mac from your Mac OS X v10.5 or Mac OS X v10.6 installation disc. After starting up, use the Restore System from Backup feature of the Mac OS X Installer.
Note: If "You can't restore this backup because it was created by a different model of Mac" appears when restoring a backup that was made on a different Mac, follow the onscreen instructions.
If you are restoring a backup made by one Mac to a completely different Mac
Important: If the backup you are about to restore is from a completely different Mac, use the Migration Assistantto transfer data from the backup, as described in the next section.
Restoring a Time Machine backup on a new Mac
When you buy a new Mac, you can transfer all of your applications, files, settings, and other information from a Time Machine backup you've already made.
You will be asked if you want to transfer files when you start up your new Mac for the first time. Or, you can use the Migration Assistant (located in Applications/Utilities).
If you use a Time Capsule, see Restoring files from a Time Capsule backup.
Deleting data from a Time Machine backup
To delete all backups of one or more items from a Time Machine backup, follow these steps:
Click the Time Machine icon on your Dock to enter the Time Machine restore interface.
Click on the item you would like to delete. Command-click to select multiple items.
Control-click (or right click) the highlighted item(s) and select "Delete All Backups of..." from the contextual menu, or select "Delete all backups of..." from the Action Item menu.
Authenticate with an administrator password when prompted.
Important: Do not use the Finder to move to the items to the Trash, or to move or delete items in your Time Machine backup repository. The folder containing your Time Machine backup repository is called "Backups.backupd" and is located on the external disk or Time Capsule you have chosen in Time Machine preferences.

Cannot restore a Time Machine backup

Yesterday I replaced my startup drive in my Mac Pro. I formatted the drive and then ran Software Update. Now I have a nice, clean, working system drive!
The problem is, I can't restore from my Time Machine backup. When I used "Restore from Time Machine backup" within Disk Utility, it took several hours to (supposedly) restore, only to completely crash the drive. After that 7 hour process, all I got was a grey screen with the message "You need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button..." etc. So, I reformatted and updated the drive again, and then tried Migration Assistant. Well, M.A. reads my backup as 0.0kb, and therefore does not restore anything. So now I am at a loss as to how in the world I can restore all my data to my new drive.
Do I use Disk Utility, Migration Assitant, Setup Assistant, or ??
For what it's worth, my backup drive is very flaky as far as appearing on the desktop. It is rarely there when I reboot so I have to unplug and re-plug the USB cable to get it back. However, the backup IS there, and "Get Info" shows it to be 1.4TB. I just can't get it to restore no matter what I try. Help!!
Thanks,
Ben

Please disregard my question... I am an idiot.
No, don't beat yourself up. You're far from the first to do that.
Did you erase the backuop you'd restored? If not, just install a fresh version of OSX.
If you did, just restore again, using your Snow Leopard disc.
See #E8 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

I'm having a problem with logging into a FileVault-protected user account after restoring from Time Machine backup.

Hi all,
My computer had been running really slowly for a while, so I decided to erase the whole hard drive and reinstall the operating system, and then I was going to restore the files I cared about from Time Machine. The main account, which had all my documents and photos, was FileVault-protected. The last thing I did before erasing the hard drive was to run one last Time Machine backup. As far as I remember, I always ran Time Machine backups with the FileVaulted user logged in.
I don't remember whether I was using FileVault 1 or 2. I had been using FileVault 1, but I installed Lion as soon as it came out and I thought I had migrated to FileVault 2 at that point.
Once I erased the hard drive and reinstalled the operating system, I browsed the Time Machine disk and, within the Users folder, there was no folder for the main user account. When I tried to reinstall everything by restoring from Time Machine backup, I'd get the option for all the user accounts, but when I tried to log in with the main one I'd get the dreaded "You are unable to log in to the FileVault user account "User" at this time. Log in failed because an error occurred." Finally, when attempting to restore from the Time Machine backup again, I noticed something strange: After the computer got to about 10% done restoring, it declared itself completed successfully and rebooted.
I've tried a number of tips that came up from questions about similar issues on the Apple support forum, but had no luck. Is there any way to get these files back? Did they ever even get backed up?
Thanks.

Hroodbwai wrote:
I can't find it! not sure what's going on but the only folder shown is the " Shared" folder.
Did you have only the one user account? If there were others, they should also be in the "Users" folder. You probably won't have access to the files inside them, but they should be there.
From what can make out, it looks like it's not backed up any of the files for the filevault account. Can't see user folder when looking through previous backups in Time Machine galaxy view.
Are you doing that from a Finder window set to your internal HD, or your computer name? It should look something like this (with the Finder in List view):
|
|
I'd been logging out and backing up manually on a regular basis.
Scheduled backups should run normally; but they won't back up the File Vault sparse bundle, nor will any run manually.
The only time it's backed-up is when you actually log out.
You should have seen this window on logout:
|
|
followed by this one:
|
|
If you didn't see the second one, or cancelled it, the account wasn't backed-up.

Can't restore latest Time Machine backup after drive replacement- only the very first.

My 13" Macbook Pro running 10.8.5 had a bad hard drive which had to be replaced. After the new drive was put in I tried to restore everything to the new drive with Time Machine but could only restore the first backup I ever did after getting the computer, which was over a year ago. I can drag and drop files but I would rather have all my preferences and bookmarks etc. How do I restore the latest backup which was only about a week ago? Thank you.

Not yet; I'm not sure if Migration Assistant is quite right. Since I posted the question I ran across this youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYUem-QfYBs
which suggests that I need to start up from a bootable external disc in order to restore a Time Machine backup to the same computer that the backup came from when the drive is replaced. The video actually seems to describe my issue exactly. The only confusing thing is I don't know why I would have been able to restore the very first Time Machine backup if I need to boot from an external disc. More investigation needed.

Can't restore latest time machine backup

I have just had my the hard drive in my macbook pro replaced and am trying to restore from a time machine backup. I back up regularly (about once a week) to an external hard drive, but the most recent option for backup is October... help!
I can see a backup from yesterday if I navigate the hard drive in finder, but it won't show me this option in the restore from time machine backup prompt.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
It looks like you want to have the whole backup restored. In this case, instead of using the Time Machine app and restoring files individually, you need to use Migration Assistant (in /Applications/Utilities).
If you do not have anything you need on your new MacBook Pro's hard drive, there's even a cleaner way of restoring the backup. Hold Command and R keys while your Mac is starting up to start up into OS X Recover, select the option to restore a Time Machine backup and follow its steps. The backup you select will be restored and your Mac will be the same as before replacing the hard drive

Restore of time machine backup doesn't work

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