Restore Time machine backup from a stolen computer to a different Mac Pro

*My Mac Book Pro was stolen.* It had some Time Machine backups, but Time Machine had stopped working about 6 months before it was stolen. I had stopped using the USB drive since TM would never complete. (2 issues)
1. When I plugged in this USB backup disk to the Mac Pro just now, it asked me whether to use Time Machine with it. It told it no, ask me later so I could browse it first.
2. It looks like the old problem with Time Machine not backing up the stolen laptop shows up as a file called "2008-09-22.204132.inProgress". I am hoping that the backups previous to that one are okay. So far, browsing the files appears to me that my data is intact but perhaps spread across 40 folders.
So now, what should I do to retrieve the data I want?
A. Copy the data files and pictures manually without Time Machine? How do I know I will get the latest versions?
B. Use Time Machine with this disk and somehow ask TM to restore to a different machine? (Is that even possible?) (Will it merge the files into my user folders?)
C. Use Migration Assistant?
D. Copy and paste the entire file structure to a directory someplace and pull off the data as I need it?
*End result: I want my external hard disk wiped ASAP, and in the meantime I want my data files preserved.*
The old MacBook Pro definitely did not have Snow Leopard but the MacPro does to which I want to copy the data. It probably had Leopard. But honestly my user data is not necessary, just primarily the data, pictures, DVD projects, etc.
As a side note: My old laptop and my MacPro used the same username and password.

lhbilly wrote:
*My Mac Book Pro was stolen.* It had some Time Machine backups, but Time Machine had stopped working about 6 months before it was stolen. I had stopped using the USB drive since TM would never complete. (2 issues)
1. When I plugged in this USB backup disk to the Mac Pro just now, it asked me whether to use Time Machine with it. It told it no, ask me later so I could browse it first.
2. It looks like the old problem with Time Machine not backing up the stolen laptop shows up as a file called "2008-09-22.204132.inProgress". I am hoping that the backups previous to that one are okay. So far, browsing the files appears to me that my data is intact but perhaps spread across 40 folders.
So now, what should I do to retrieve the data I want?
start Migration Assistant located in /Application/Utilies. it has an option to migrate your data and applications from a TM backup. migrate what you want. note that users will be migrated to new users so to access your old home directory you'll have to log out and log in as the migrated user.
A. Copy the data files and pictures manually without Time Machine? How do I know I will get the latest versions?
B. Use Time Machine with this disk and somehow ask TM to restore to a different machine? (Is that even possible?) (Will it merge the files into my user folders?)
C. Use Migration Assistant?
D. Copy and paste the entire file structure to a directory someplace and pull off the data as I need it?
*End result: I want my external hard disk wiped ASAP, and in the meantime I want my data files preserved.*
The old MacBook Pro definitely did not have Snow Leopard but the MacPro does to which I want to copy the data. It probably had Leopard. But honestly my user data is not necessary, just primarily the data, pictures, DVD projects, etc.
As a side note: My old laptop and my MacPro used the same username and password.

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How can I use the Time Machine Backups from my Old Computer?

I have two months of Time Machine backups made using my old Macintosh computer which died and I no longer have. I have now purchased a new computer and am trying to use the Time Machine back ups from the original computer, but it will not recognise them. How can I get my new MacBook Pro to use the Time Machine Backups from my old Computer? I phoned the Apple help line and they said I cannot use them and would have to delete them. This sounds crazy if you can only use the Time Machine back up file with one computer and have to delete it when you buy a new Mac. Surely there must be some way to transfer ownership (not files) from an old to the new Mac?
Thanks
Richard

Thanks Kevin for the suggestion posted on MacOSXHints how to "Repair Time Machine after logic board changes".
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080128003716101
It seems as though I am not alone with my frustration with the way Time Machine uses the MAC address of a computer to tell one system from another. This means that if you have your Mac repaired with a new logic board, or replace your system with a new one, you can't resume backups where you left off. Reading through the readers who used the fix using Terminal, it appears that the fix does not always work. I contacted Apple again, but they were no help. Surely Apple should come out with a solution as more and more people use Time Machine/Time Capsule.
It is CRAZY that after a change computers or a switch in the computer logic board that you cannot resume your Time Machine back ups.

Problems trying to restore Time Machine backup to a new computer

Hi there-
I recently purchased a new MacBook Pro and want to downgrade it from Lion to Snow Leopard. I have Time Machine backups from my slightly older MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard. However, when I attempt to restore from the Snow Leopard backup, I get a message stating I can't restore that backup because it was done on a different computer. Is there a way around this so that I can essentially just overwrite my new computer with my latest backup of the older running Snow Leopard? Thanks in advance-

I should say though, I don't know for sure if a complete disk wipe will allow you to boot off the 10.6.3 Snow Leopard disks or not, as I don't fully understand how the firmware works. There are two parts I know of, the hardware firmware and the EFI software firmware.
EFI supposedly has it's own partition on the drive, which should be able to be completly erased.. When I installed rEFIt however (it's a alternate firmware allowing me to boot other operating systems), it required two reboots for it to take hold.
I also should say I've never taken a factory Lion installed machine and put Snow Leopard on it.
So far what I've been able to determine is the firmware is blocking the booting of the 10.6.3 disks (the only retail version there is) so you can't install Snow Leopard, if the firmware can be flashed to a earlier verison the 10.6.3 disks should boot as the hardware drivers for 2011 MBP's reside on the 10.6.3 disks.
But if you have a second Mac, then the target disk mode of the link above should work, you can also create a large HFS+ journaled partition in Disk Utility in Lion and then use Target Disk mode of the other Mac to install Snow Leopard there.
I wish you luck, you might have to visit MacRumors or another Mac site to get further information. The Lion machines are very new, Apple is resisting attempts to downgrade from Lion to Snow Leopard and not many have done it yet.
I bought my machine pre-Lion so I can stick with Snow and avoid the Lion pain, but have it on another older Mac for experimental puposes (quad boot).
I'm pretty sure rEFIt will allow you to boot off the 10.6.3 disks.
I'm sorry if I couldn't have been more help, I'm still learning how to get around this 10.6.3 block myself.
If I had a factory Lion machine, I would most certainly post a blog how to downgrade the SOB to 10.6 somehow.

Can I restore time machine backup from Panther 10.3.9 to Lion 10.7?

Hi,
I would like to upgrade my old mac running Panther 10.3.9 to a new Mac running Lion before it fails on me.
Can I simply restore a Time Machine backup from Panther to Lion? Will my applications come across and function normally?
Let me know if you need any specific names of apps.

No your applications will not run on an Intel Mac running Lion. Macs running Panther 10.3.9 were PPC processors. Lion has no support for these old Applications Leopard and Snow Leopard supported some old PPC Applications using Rosetta

Restore Time Machine backup from different computer?

I'm going to put a new HD in my MacBook Pro.
Once I've done it will it be possible to restore my user folder, applications etc. from a different computer's (Power Mac) Time Machine backup?

Thanks again Joe.
One last question. Once I've transferred my files from the Power Mac's Time Machine disk could I select that disk in MacBook Pro's Preferences as it's Time Machine backup disk?
(Effectively stop using it as the Power Mac's backup disk & continue using it as the MacBook Pro's backup disk).
Backing up new files on the MacBook Pro to the disk, but still be able to 'go back in time' & restore files from the Time Machine disk (backup up over time on the Power Mac).

Restoring Time Machine backup from Time Capsule. Very slow times solved

For me at least . .
Like many people it seems, I have had enormous problems trying to restore data using Time Machine on a Time Capsule. The data had been backed up fine. The problem was the time for restore which initially was projected at 125 hours for 235GB. Reality suggested that (after 24 hours) this estimate was going to be about right and clearly unacceptable.
I cancelled the backup and read as much as I could across bulleting boards.
The main impression was of a howl of frustration from the many people who had experienced the same problem.
The collected actions below were assembled from many threads and ultimately ended in success. I hope they help.
My initial setup was as follows:
PowerMac G5 Power PC (2005) with 8GB DDR SDRAM (1000BaseT Ethernet connector). Mac OSX 10.5.8
1TB Time Capsule on Ethernet network via a 100BaseT Hub.
I was restoring to a 1TB USB 2.0 Seagate External Desktop Drive (ST3100005EXD101-RK) attached via a USB Hub to the G5.
Having read some threads, I did all of the following:
• I brought the TC into my home office and connected it directly to the Ethernet Port of the G5 to allow the most direct connection from TC to G5
• As suggested in one thread, I replaced the Cat5 ethernet cable I was using with a Cat5e cable (Cat6 is better) to allow 1000BaseT connection to the G5.
• I turned off Time Machine backups and MobileMe Sync.
• I terminated all unnecessary applications the computer
I restarted the restore and the result was the same.
I read more widely and then did the following:
• I reformatted the Seagate target drive using GUID and Mac OS Extended (Journaled). (Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility>choose top level of target drive>Partition>choose number of partitions under Volume Scheme (1 for me)>Options (button under partition window)>GUID Partition Table>Apply and wait quite a while. I had originally had it as Apple Partition Map and GUID was recommended on one particular thread.
• I plugged the target USB drive directly into the USB port on the front of the G5 to eliminate the hub as a potential cause of the slow data transfer.
• Readings suggested that Spotlight might be trying to index one or both of the TC and the target drive. To prevent this the author suggested adding the TC unit and the target drive to the Privacy tab of Spotlight (System Preferences>Spotlight>Privacy. Click + at bottom of window and navigate to target drive/s to add). Activity monitor showed as much data being sent as received so this seemed a likely contributor to the problem. I added both drives as described.
• Somewhere it was mentioned that IPv6 might be causing the problem. I turned it off (System Settings>Network>Built-In Ethernet>Advanced (bottom right of window)>choose “Off” in Configure IPv6 drop box.
• I unplugged the Internet connection from the TC to ensure no chance of this being a factor.
• My G5 doesn’t have an Airport but if you do you should also turn this off. You want to be quite certain that there are no connections that either the computer or the airport can channel data through other than the Ethernet cable.
• I don’t have anti virus software but this should also be turned off as it seems this was slowing down data transfer for many people.
• I shut down the G5, the USB target drive and the TC and restarted them all. After start up, I once again shut down all unnecessary programmes.
I restarted the Restore and, after the customary long wait as it added up all the files to transfer, it announced that the restore would take 4 hours (as opposed to the five days it had suggested previously).
Activity Monitor now shows data transfer rates of 17mb – 18mb per second and it looks like 4 hours is going to be about right. It also shows large amounts of data being received but now with negligible amounts being sent.
I’m afraid I don’t know which of the above is the bit that solved the problem. It could be a combination but I believe that if you do all the above, your restores / backups will all go at an acceptable speed.
A last note to thank all those individuals whose wise words I scoured for these instructions. I hope their collected suggestions are of some use to others.

The migration assistant or the original backup?
I tried WiFi, Ethernet and on the second attempt with a fresh backup on a USB drive.

Making a Time Machine Backup from a networked computer

I have two identical macbook pro laptops with identical os Mac OS X 10.6.7 (10J869)
Macbook one has a frozen screen from a bad logic card. This macbook never had time machine implimented.
Macbook two is now tied to Macbook one via firewire and I can access all of macbook one's files.
My question is, can I make a time machine backup of macbook one using the current firewire connection and then reinstall that to macbook two?
Thanks in advance for any help.

Download and install SuperDuper on MBP1's hard drive.
With MBP1 in FireWire Target Disk Mode, connect your external USB drive to MBP2 and open SuperDuper. Select MBP1's drive as the source and the external drive as the target for the clone, and select "Backup — all files". Click the Copy Now button and enter your admin password. This will make the external drive an exact, bootable replica (clone) of MBP1's hard drive, erasing anything that was on the external drive previously. It may take anywhere from half an hour to several hours, depending on how much is stored on the drive, and it will show you a progress bar to indicate how far along it is. It's a very good idea not to use the computer for anything else while this process is going on. Plan to leave it alone until the cloning is finished.
Once that's done, restart MBP2 while holding down the Option key to invoke the Startup Manager, and select the external drive to start up from. If the startup goes normally (it may be slower than normal, but otherwise should be about the same) and the computer seems to run the way you would have expected MBP1 to run if it were working, you're ready to clone the external drive onto MBP2's internal drive. This will erase everything that's now on MBP2, so make sure anything that you need to back up is taken care of before proceeding. You'll need to back that stuff up to a different external drive from the one that contains the clone of MBP1, or to burned CDs or DVDs.( In a pinch, you can back it up to the drive in MBP1 if there's room for it there, but if you do so, keep it separate from the stuff that was on MBP1 before you cloned it, so you won't have trouble finding and identifying the MBP2 backed-up data again. And don't overwrite or erase any of the stuff that was already on MBP1 until it has been safely installed on MBP2.)
When you're satisfied that everything from MBP2 that needs backing up has been attended to, open the copy of SuperDuper that now resides on the external drive. Designate that drive as the source and MBP2's drive as the target, and repeat the cloning process. When that's finished, MBP2's drive too will be an exact, bootable replica of MBP1's drive (and of the external drive, of course), and you will need only to copy back onto it whatever data you backed up from it before the second cloning operation.
The success of this procedure in producing a bootable copy of MBP1's drive on MBP2's drive relies very heavily on your statement that the two MBPs are exactly the same model. If that isn't true, all bets are off.

Restore Time Machine backup from WD My Could (a network drive)

Good morning. I recently had my hard drive replaced on my iMac. I had been using My Cloud as the repository for my Time Machine backups. When I started my iMac when I got it home, it is not recognizing where the Time Machine backups are and it does not allow me to navigate to a location to find it. It seems as if the utility is looking for the backups to be directly connected to the machine and not over my network.
Has any encountered this same issue and successfully resolved it? If so, how?
I was on Mountain Lion and now I am on Yosemite.
Thank you,
Jay

Time Machine does not support the use of a 3rd party NAS.
Try taking a look here for possible help. Pondini

Migration assistant crashes when restoring time machine backup from mountain lion

Hi
I installed a new HDD in my MacBook Pro Mid 2009, installed the original OS again and tried to import using the Setup/Migration Assistant. It told me that since the time machine backup is newer, this can't be done. So I first upgraded to Mountain Lion (suspecting that I can install my SnowLeopard TM-backup there) and tried the same. The migration assistant started, found the image (on Tiime Capsule) and started to calculate the items that need to be transferred. After 17hours, I interrupted it.
Next thing was to upgrade the old HDD with mountain lion, create a fresh TM backup of this on an external USB drive and try the same. It finds the image, identifies the files (about 420GB), I can see the users, all fine. When I hit Next, it starts to calculatate of locate the files. I assumed that my drives were not the fastest ones so I did expect it to take a while. This time I interrupted it after 34hours as it was still giving me the "progress" bar.
For all I know, I have a TM-Backup of Mountaion Lion and a freshly installed Mountain Lion and I am using the Apple software for transfer - perfect world, no?
Any ideas?
Thanks
patPfe

The migration assistant or the original backup?
I tried WiFi, Ethernet and on the second attempt with a fresh backup on a USB drive.

Restoring Time Machine backup from different computer

Last night my iMac hard drive crashed. I couldn't retreive any data as the Hard Disk was just not reading anything. I have since then reformatted the disk and have reloaded the OS.
Since the iMac is used primarily for home I don't backup the files on it. Most of my work is on my Macbook pro and I would like to keep the iMac like a mirror image of the Macbook. I am trying to restore a backup from my Mackbook Pro but there seems to be some problem.
I tried 'Browse other Time Machine' last night but after leaving the machine to restore the files overnight I have woken to find that nothing has been restored. Now I am trying to restore just the 'Users" and it's been 1 hour or so and all I am getting is 'Zero KB of 81.5gb - Estimating time remaining'.
What am I doing wrong? Why isn't any data transfering to my iMac? I ran the disk utility to check my disk and it was fine.

Read here on Pondini's Time Machine page on using Migration Assistant

? Restore time machine backup to a separate computer hardrive

My brand new imac (alluminum 24") 8 gb harddrive crashed. Time machine was functioning and hopefully has all my files. Question , while I'm waiting for apple to replace (thankfully I have apple care) can I restore individual files or projects to my other imac older white version (from my external hardrive) specifically imovie project or idvd files so I can continue to work with them till the new imac comes whixh may take 2 weeks so I can work with these files? If so what's the best way to do so?

I'm not sure of what would be the behavior of Time Machine if you click the icon while a "foreign" disk is connected. If you see the backups, and can browse your file, as long as the path are kept the same (i.e. the path of your home directory on the original machine is the same as the path of your home directory on this old iMac) then I guess it is ok to just click restore on your important directories.
If that does not work, you still can manually restore your files from the TM disk in your home directory, without affecting the profiles of your children, just be aware to say in your home directory.

Using Time Machine backups from US in Germany on a German MacBook Pro

I have a MacBook Pro here in the US. I have it backed up to an external HD using Time Machine. I want to take only the external HD to Germany and use it on another MacBook Pro purchased in Germany. Will there be any issues due to region differences or compatibility?

Will there be any issues due to region differences or compatibility?
No.
(57124)

Restoring Time Machine backup from Synology NAS

My got a new HD (seagate action) Now the Mac (2010) does not recognize Timemachine backup placed on a synology NAS 213. It is there, i can see it, but while using the startup utility the backup is not listed and can not be chosen to restore.
Does anyone know a solution ?

Hi Peter,
Have you tried Migration Assistant. or is that what the startip thing is?
Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Can't imaging something not being covered there.

Help with restoring from Time Machine Backup from another computer

I was required to dump my Mac OSX on my MacBook Pro and convert to a windows machine to use a testing software that did not allow boot camp. Before doing so, I backed up my hard drive to a partition of my iMac via a wireless connection. I am now using a boot disk to try to restore my system from the Time Machine backup on the iMac. I have logged onto my wireless network, but the Mac OSX Installer just keeps saying "Searching for Time Machine Backups..." My iMac is on (typing this now) and is active on the network. What do I need to do to be able to see my Time Machine backup from my MacBook Pro?

Hi m,
I don't know if this would make a difference or not, but you could try booting the iMac in FireWire Target Disk Mode.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583

I just restored my 13" MBP i5 at the apple store to the newest version of Lion after issues with a previous Time Machine backup from Snow Leopard- this time I created a new account and just ported files and folders, and now MS Office doesn't work. Help?

I just restored my 13" MBP i5 at the apple store to the newest version of Lion after issues with a previous Time Machine backup from Snow Leopard- this time I created a new account and just ported files and folders, and now MS Office doesn't work.
^^ that's the main problem. Here's the full history.
I bought a new 13" i5 MBP, early 2011 edition. I had an old white Macbook 2.14 ghz core2duo on Snow Leopard. I attempted to port over my time machine backup, but encountered problems in that my User was inaccessible from the new computer after the import finished, and I had to go in and change the root password, etc, and for some reason or another, I couldn't install any programs at all from that administrator's account. By "couldn't" I mean I could install them, but upon installation they would never boot. So, I took it to the apple store and did a clean install from the most up to date Lion OSX. Then, I created a brand new admin account, instead of trying to import the old one, and things seemed great. Then, I just imported my old files from the TM backup, but not any system settings, permissions, or user data. Just my Docs, pics, vids, apps, and itunes stuff.
Here's where things get weird again. I imported this stuff under the name "old", but all of these folders have a red negative sign on them, marking them as restricted. So, from my main admin account, I cannot even peruse these folders. Since I didn't import user data, I can't sign in to the "old" account to change permissions. I already tried to change the permissions from system preferences, but that didn't change anything. And now, for whatever reason, of all the apps that were imported then, MS Office is the only set of apps that does not work. When I click on it, it just says there was a problem and asks if I'd like to send a report to apple. I tried reinstalling it to no avail. I'm an English student, so i really need access to Word. Can anyone help? The Apple store is a major detour for me and would like to fix this issue myself.

Most likely you have Office 2004 which are PPC-only applications and will not work in Lion. Upgrade to Office 2011. Other alternatives are:
Apple's iWork suite (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.)
Open Office (Office 2007-like suite compatible with OS X.)
NeoOffice (similar to Open Office.)
LibreOffice (a new direction for the Open Office suite.)

Restore Time machine backup from a stolen computer to a different Mac Pro

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