Restore on new drive: Time Machine versus "Restore" via Disk Utility

I am about to install a new 240GB OWC Mercury Electra 6G (6Gb/s) SSD into the main drive bay of my MacBook Pro, moving the original Apple-installed 120GB 3G (3Gb/s) SSD into the optical bay using an OWC "Data Doubler."
I have my entire Mac OS X Yosemite install, all apps, and all data (that is, the entire contents of the original SSD) backed up to an external Time Machine backup drive.
I'll want to make the new SSD in the main bay my bootable drive, restoring my original SSD's system to the new SSD. The original SSD will then be erased.
Question is, what are the differences between these two restore strategies:
1. Restore from Time Machine to the new SSD
2. "Restore" via Disk Utility, using my original SSD (in the optical bay) as the "Source" and the new SSD (in the main bay) as the "Destination"
Are there any fundamental difference between these two approaches? Such as:
- Is one faster than the other?
- Does one involve more or less risk in some settings or such being "lost in translation" and needing to be reset?
- Would both methods of restore include a recovery partition on the new SSD?
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011, Macbook8,3) | 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 | Yosemite 10.10.2

Thanks Kappy - to clarify / confirm: are you saying that the "Restore from Time Machine" approach would *not* include the Recovery HD (and, possibly inferring, that under that approach, getting the Recovery HD would be possible but would require an additional step)?

Similar Messages

I can't clone (Duplicate) my Time Machine backup properly via Disk Utility

I have an ext. HDD Time Machine backup sitting beside my 10.8 MBP.
I want to create an identical ext. HDD Time Machine backup, because it's safe to have 2 identical HDDs backing up my system.
But when I follow this apple guideline, a problem occurs:
Time Machine: How to transfer backups from the current backup drive to a new backup drive
URL: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5096
The problem is I get a strange path even if I drop "Backups.backupdb" of 3TB1 (The source HDD) onto the root level of 3TB2, the destination HDD (I mean there's nothing in there so I just drag & drop onto the HDD). And the result is my new ext. HDD eating up about 60GB more space.
I have attached pictures of the paths for both Source HDD and Destination HDD, please look.
Why does it alter my file hiearchy like this?
Please help some high-level Mac guy thanks!

Why not just use TM to back up to 2 external drives. TM will alternate between the two when it backs up.
Alternately, you could have a 2 back up strategy like others have using SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner. Both are excellent 3rd party apps to clone your internal drive(s) and both have schedulers.

Restoring data on new drive, time machine can't find old drive because it backed up my old clone drive instead. now what?

My hard drive failed on MB Pro 2008. i was able to start up using a super duper bootable clone on an iomega external drive (the clone was from 6 months ago unfortunately). once the computer started up, it saw the failed drive and i was able to retrieve some new data created since my last time machine backup 10 days ago. i then plugged in another external drive with my time machine backup on it and tried to backup the failed harddrive once more before going to buy a new HD and getting rid of the failed one. INSTEAD of backing up the real HD, time machine backed up the clone drive which is 6 months old. now that i have a new HD and OS 10.6.3, when i try to restore data from the last time machine backup of the real HD (12/27/12), the only option i'm getting is from the backup of the CLONE drive which is 6 months older. i know the info is there but the transfer data option isn't seeing that drive. what do i do???

If I understand you correctly, you have a Clone of your original internal HDD and a Time Machine HDD that backed up the Clone. If it backed up the Clone HDD and deleted the prior backups, then your data is gone. If it backed up the Clone for only the changes made since the Clone was created, the data should be there.
Open Time Machine and see what actually is there. If you cannot open it, Click on the Time Machine icon on your desktop. It will give you a display showing one folder (Backups.backupdp). Open that folder and it will show another single folder. Open that one and it should display folders that are dated for each day/week that backups have been made.
If there are 'old' folders in there, you can access the data by opening then up as the image below indicates:
It may be tedious, but it is better than not having the data.
Ciao.

Time machine greyed out in disk utility

I want to erase a time machine backup to use the HD on a different system, yet it's greyed out in disk utility.
The HD still works fine and I can restore files from it and time machine itself still works backing up to it.
I cannot however erase it using disk utility.
Here's a screenshot.
What am I doing wrong?

You've got other problems in addition to the Erase being grayed out.
The menu icons at the top are not right either. The Info, Burn and Eject menu items should be active also.
I'd suggest quitting Disk Utility, reboot your system and trying again.
Post back if that doesn't fix it.
regards

Resize Time Machine sparsebundle size in Disk Utility

I have two MacBooks backing up to a 500GB Time Capsule. Each has a sparsebundle on the Time Capsule that seem to have maximum sizes of the entire disk.
Can I resize each sparsebundle in Disk Utility to something smaller, say 100GB, by simply dragging the partition size down?
If I create a third sparsebundle and mount it can I then use it to store miscellaneous files, basically acting as a NAS drive.
I have seen many topics that discuss ways to limit the size of a Time Machine archive, but I don't think that this one hasn't been presented.
Thanks.

You've got other problems in addition to the Erase being grayed out.
The menu icons at the top are not right either. The Info, Burn and Eject menu items should be active also.
I'd suggest quitting Disk Utility, reboot your system and trying again.
Post back if that doesn't fix it.
regards

Erased Hard Drive and operating system accidentally via disk utility? Here's what to do

I thought I had messed up majorly today when I attempted to erase and re-install an operating system on my friends macbook pro. I used another computer and targeted his computer so his hard drive would show up on my desktop. I then used disk utility and completely erased his hard drive. "Ooops" i thought after trying to then install Lion from my computer's applications folder. Wouldn't work. All his computer would show was a folder with a ? mark!!!
I searched for a solution as to what to do in this situation and got a lot of conflicting complex suggestions. The one that made the most sense was to create a bootable external disk to reinstall the system. This didn't work for me, I was probably doing it wrong.
HERE'S WHAT DID WORK FOR ME:
(what you need)
1) decent wireless internet connection (know the network and password)
2) blank computer hard drive (no OS, no nothing)
3) power cable
thats it
Step 1.
Restart your computer and hold down "Command" and the "R" keys at the same time. do this for about 30 seconds or so and release
Step 2.
Your computer should, after a few seconds or so, show a spinning globe. Your computer will then start searching for an internet connection. Choose a network from the drop down menu and type in the password to the network.
Step 3.
Your computer will then connect with Apple.com's software site (I think this is called OSX Recovery or something [thus the holding down of the "R" for recovery key]) and find your computer's original operating system (not sure how far back this works, but it worked perfectly with Lion)
Step 4.
Download the OS
Step 5.
Upon download completion your computer may shut down. Just turn it back on and when its back up and running it will immediately start to install the OS it just downloaded.
Step 6.
Wait for this to complete and bam, you're back to having an operating system on your computer.
I hope this works for anyone with my problem.
Good luck!

You will need to do the following:
Install Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion Using Internet Recovery
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
Partition and Format the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your newly installed hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. 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 Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion. Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
This should restore the version of OS X originally pre-installed on the computer.

How to restore all system with Time Machine ?

How to restore all system from Time Machine ?
The backup disk for Time Machine is a Usb disk, and the Os is Mountain Lion 10.8.2.
Thanks in advance !

Restore the system with Time Machine and from the external backup Usb HD, by pressing CMD + R at the power on.
It worked without problem.
Thankyou once more !

Migration to new 3TB Time Machine/Time Capsule?

From an earlier posting, I think A Silverstone asked for a step-by-step procedure.
I have a similar issue I would like a procedure(s) on. Actually two identical issues.
1. I wish to purchase Apples new 3TB tower Airport/Time Machine to replace a 1TB Airport extreme/Time Machine. I want to migrate the old to the new using Apple processes/procedures without a lot of workaround. How can this be done? Does Apple have a procedure?
2. I have a desktop with four drives (three 2TB & one 1TB) and wish at least two of them to be Time Machine capable, i.e., backup every hour like the Airport/Time Machine does. Can this be done? Does Apple have a procedure?
I want to migrate the old Time Capsule data to the new Time Capsule and to two HD's in the desktop.
The idea is to have backups for a Time Machine backup in the event of a power disruption or a hacker that might impact the tower Time Machine. There are other reasons such as storage capacity using a daisy chain process.
One main problem is capturing the old "sparsebundle" in such a way to get it into the new unit and on to internal HD's. How to do this is the question.

1. Time Machine – Transfer Backup to a New Drive
Time Machine – Transfer Backup to a New Drive (2)
You can also use Disk Utility's Restore tab, which is often faster and less prone to errors. Note it will format the new drive.
2. Yes. Go to System Preferences/Time Machine, select Add a drive and you can have 2. They will alternate with each new backup.
OS X Mavericks: Use multiple backup disks

I had a new hard drive fitted to my imac and restored it from my time machine back when I try to open itunes I get this message "the itunes library extras.itdb file is locked, on a locked disk, or you do not have write permission for this file"

I had a new hard drive fitted to my imac and restored it from my time machine back up on an external hard drive when I try to open itunes I get this message "the itunes library extras.itdb file is locked, on a locked disk, or you do not have write permission for this file"

To solve this issue all I did was check to ensure that the file permissions were set as described by the earlier posts, followed by simply deleting the iTunes Library Genius.itdb file. Once the file was deleted I was able to open iTunes without difficulty. Note that I am running Windows 8. Hope this helps!

I tried to install a new hard drive using Snow Leopard to back up with Time Machine. When I installed the new HD I installed Leopard (10.5) on it and tried to use time machine to restore the backup I had made using 10.6. Kernel panic screen occurred.

I backed up my system using 10.6 Snow Leopard's Time Machine to an external hard drive. I did this because I purchased a new internal hard drive to upgrade my 2007 White Macbook from 80GB to 320GB. When I installed the new hard drive, I installed 10.4 (Tiger) and then 10.5 (Leopard) and once Leopard was in I tried to use Time Machine to restore my backup from 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and received a kernal panic screen directly after the bootup.
The screen had code asking for 10.6, so does this mean that the computer is searching for Snow Leopard? If so, how can I do this? Will a bootable drive with Snow Leopard on it be able to solve the issue or will I somehow need to find a way to wipe out this new hard drive?
-Steve

Booting From Snow Leopard Installer Disc
1. Insert Snow Leopard Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.
Drive Preparation and Installation
1. 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 Partition 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. After formatting is complete quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.

Using Time Machine to restore to new hard drive missing recent backups

On Mac Book Pro 2009 with OS X 10.5.8.
I have been backing up to Time Machine on an external drive since 2009. A few month ago I upgrade to OS X 10.9 Mavericks.
Trying to install a new hard drive and restoring from Time Machine. Just before installing the hard drive I again backed up to Time Machine.
Trying to restore from Time Machine.
Note: this link shows the screen I am on. It isn't from my computer. Just showing for display purpose.
http://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/xlarge/public/field/image/2014 /03/time_machine_select_backup.jpg?itok=G2WbV0Vu
"Select a backup. Select the Time Machine backup you want to restore. Only complete backups of Mac OS X appear in the list"
The problem is, the most recent "complete" restore point in the list is August 2011 (OS X 10.5.8). How can that be? Over the years I have checked Time Machine and I have back ups way past 2011.
What should I do?
Thanks

Daniel Greeney wrote:
So I just purchased an internal drive (separate from my system drive) to use as a Time Machine drive, for both of my computers (only one partition). Since they will be backing up every day, I will retain much more recent material in case of drive failure.
Let Time Machine back up every hour, as it's designed. That will protect you best.
My question is this - if I have a drive failure on my current internal system drive, and the internal Time Machine is intact, is it possible for me to take my external bootable backup (say 3 weeks older than Time Machine in how recently it was backed up), make a cone of that on a new internal system drive, and then use Time Machine to restore that drive to what is most current on Time Machine?
Does this question make sense?
The question makes sense until you realize that Time Machine backups contain everything you need (unless you do something silly, like exclude your system files).
Once the new drive is installed and formatted, you can restore your entire system from the TM backups faster than you can copy the clone to the new internal HD. See #14 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum. Note that you use the Snow Leopard Install disc only for the Installer on it; you don't install OSX from it.

Time Machine and Restoring to new Hard Drive

Computer: Intel Core Duo iMac, Model iMac 7,1
My hard drive bit the dust about a week ago (Work supplied computer). Everything is backed up through Time Machine. I took it into the local Apple repair service with a OS 10 (10.5.4) disk.
Had a new drive put in. The tech told me that the disk supplied was not the correct one and as a favor, he went ahead and installed 10.6.5.
Problem I have now is that I cannot restore from my Time Machine back-up. They told me to go ahead, put in the 10.5.4 disk, restart with it holding the "C" key and when it comes up, go to Utilities and restore from back-up (Time Machine). I have don that but as soon as it comes up, I get a message that says "Disk cannot be installed on this computer." I hit OK and go to utilities anyway (just a shot in the dark), select "Restore from back-up" and nothing happens.
I'm sure that going from the old to new OS is probably the reason for this. I really just wanted to restore it to what it was without having to go in sort files and redo all of the software, etc. So I sit here with a good computer running 6.5 and all my files sitting in a back-up folder on the desktop.
Is there a way to get this problem resolved? Help is appreciated.

Scott Hughes wrote:
Thanks for the help. Got the drive erased at least think I did (it was quick).
Did you reformat it? (and yes, it's quick). If the shop put the wrong partition map scheme or format on it, that could explain what you're seeing.
And let me be sure I understand: Your Mac was running Leopard, and the shop installed Snow Leopard, right?
And the 10.5.4 disc you're using is either the one that came with that Mac (gray), or a retail Leopard disc (black) that you purchased later?
*EDIT: If either of those is wrong, stop now and post back*
|
and when I start it from the disk, it still tells me that the disk cannot be installed on the computer.
Which disk is that, your Leopard Install disc or the internal HD? Do you get that when you start up (ie, never see the select your language, etc), or when you select +Restore System from Backup?+
If the HD is set up ok, I guess it's possible the backups, or at least the OSX part, are so badly corrupted the Installer doesn't know what to do with it.
Try Repairing your backups, via the copy of Disk Utility on your Install disc.
If all else fails, install OSX. When your Mac restarts, you might be able to use +Setup Assistant,+ per #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).
But it may not like your backups, either. If so, set up an account with a name different from any on your backups. Then we can try some other things.
Message was edited by: Pondini

Want to get SOME data from Time Machine to restore to NEW Drive.

1) System: Leopard.
2) HD configuration: 1TB Time Machine drive backs up internal 500GB AND an external 500GB (called "iMac Annex").
3) The 500GB iMac Annex died.
4) How can I get the iMac Annex Data on Time Machine to restore to a NEW external 500GB drive ("iMax Annex 2").
Migration assistant only seems to ask about the "System to Transfer," and only my internal drive shows up.
Question: Can I drag and drop the folders on Time Machine (from the latest backup set) to iMac Annex 2, then reconfigure Time Machine?

hebron,
I have done this little routine in the past, and Time Machine has carried on without the "hiccup" you seem to have had. Also, I was not asked for a destination folder.
However, Time Machine may have changed a bit in this regard in one of the intervening updates, or it could be that I named my "replacement" volume during a format, and the UNIX disk name and the OS X Finder disk name were reproduced exactly as they were prior to the erasure/replacement; in other words, our mileages may have varied.
Nevertheless, I see no real problem for you either way. I suspect that Time Machine is simply performing a "deep traversal" in preparation of a normal backup of what you have, and an entirely new backup will not be created. Let it run its course, and you tell us the outcome. Even if a new backup is made (and not just a large, but normal backup), you have all of your old files, and you have a backup of same. At some point, you can delete any old backup folders, if you end up starting a new one.
Scott

Restore iPhotoLibrary specifically from EXTERNAL Hard drive Time Machine back up?

My laptop Photo Library is corrupted somehow. I tried to restore from a prior in Time Machine on laptop and made the mistake of not saying to keep BOTH copies, but after trying for 3 hours of telling me it was doing it through various windows, a little one popped open saying something about permissions and it opened an old iPhotoLibrary from 2 years ago! ... I do have that one now and am copying it off my laptop as fast as I can to FLICKR
cuz APPLE has become a PHOTO sinkhole... (We are talking 20,000 pics folks with scanned in family pics from 100 yrs ago!)
I think I have a good copy on my External Hard Drive Time Machine back up from about 3 weeks ago. How do I use that to Restore from
or should I just wait for this PHOTOS thing to come out?
NEXT Question is there a convenient way to split it into MULTIPLE ones..eg KEEP old stable photos in one or more.
and use another for all the new ones not editted or sorted yet? I do see there is a new Option under iPHOTO/File menu to just switch
libraries but, of course, you cant even see that if your Library wont open!

For TM help post in the forum for your OS - and see https://www.apple.com/support/timemachine/ and http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html and http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Depends on undisclosed information
With the current OS and iPhoto you switch library using the switch library command - with any version you can switch libraries by holding the option key down while you launch iPhoto which brings up the select library window
And generally it is not a smart idea to have multiple iPhoto libraries - it generally has no advantages and makes things much more difficult and complicated and often leads to user errors that cause major problems
If you want to anyway the most convent way to split libraries is to use the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ -
LN

Using Time Machine to restore an *older* BackUp drive

Here's my situation - I have currently been backing up my 2 computers (A Macbook Pro and a Mac Pro tower) to two separate external bootable drives (not Time Machines). I then take the drives off site in case of theft or fire, and know that if I need to I can always restore from these bootable backups.
However, because of the time and effort of bringing them in from their offsite location, I only back up once every few weeks, sometimes a month or more. So I just purchased an internal drive (separate from my system drive) to use as a Time Machine drive, for both of my computers (only one partition). Since they will be backing up every day, I will retain much more recent material in case of drive failure.
My question is this - if I have a drive failure on my current internal system drive, and the internal Time Machine is intact, is it possible for me to take my external bootable backup (say 3 weeks older than Time Machine in how recently it was backed up), make a cone of that on a new internal system drive, and then use Time Machine to restore that drive to what is most current on Time Machine?
Does this question make sense? I'm essentially trying to use a combination of external bootable drives and Time Machine in order to have peace of mind, knowing that I will have a complete, bootable restore, but it will then be able to become as up to date as the last Time Machine backup.

Daniel Greeney wrote:
So I just purchased an internal drive (separate from my system drive) to use as a Time Machine drive, for both of my computers (only one partition). Since they will be backing up every day, I will retain much more recent material in case of drive failure.
Let Time Machine back up every hour, as it's designed. That will protect you best.
My question is this - if I have a drive failure on my current internal system drive, and the internal Time Machine is intact, is it possible for me to take my external bootable backup (say 3 weeks older than Time Machine in how recently it was backed up), make a cone of that on a new internal system drive, and then use Time Machine to restore that drive to what is most current on Time Machine?
Does this question make sense?
The question makes sense until you realize that Time Machine backups contain everything you need (unless you do something silly, like exclude your system files).
Once the new drive is installed and formatted, you can restore your entire system from the TM backups faster than you can copy the clone to the new internal HD. See #14 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum. Note that you use the Snow Leopard Install disc only for the Installer on it; you don't install OSX from it.

Restore on new drive: Time Machine versus "Restore" via Disk Utility

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