Restoring from Time Machine AFTER install

My hard drive crashed, so i had to buy a new one (WD scorpio blue). I replaced it, then reinstalled from the install disk (10.4.10, Tiger). That was mistake one. What I meant to do was to restore from my time machine backups on an external HD. I also have the leapord disk that came with, which i forgot to install from, my second mistake. so my question is -- do i have to erase the hard drive and start back over to install from my TM back up, or can i do it either during the upgrade to Leopard or from Tiger?
Thanks.

Matt Clifton wrote:
Boot from your Leopard disk (with your TM drive connected), and go to Utilities - Restore from Time Machine Backup.
So, using this procedure will restore my MB onto a totally new hard drive with all my programs back intact along with any files?
If so, this looks like a great way to replace/upgrade a hard drive. Re "go to Utilities", is this folder or option from the Leopard disk?

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How to restore from Time Machine WITHOUT install discs using a second Mac

It's a question that is asked repeatedly all over the web by Mac users like me that bought in to Time Machine (TM) on the assumption that if their computer died one day it would be a piece of cake to restore from it, only for that day to come and then to be told "ahh, okay the first thing is to get your computers install discs..." (loud crashing sound of world falling around ears).
I've never been able to afford a new Mac and both of my machines were bought second-hand. Neither came with Leopard (both have Tiger and have been upgraded to Leopard via the net). This was never supposed to be a problem as I've been backing up with TM. However it appears that Tiger discs are as much use as an inflatable dart board when it comes to using TM. So I've been faced with the possibility of having to spend £130 (about two hundred Pres Sheets, Yankees) on the Leopard install discs just so that I can have the option of restoring from TM. Bonkers.
However after much nashing of teeth, a very long weekend learning all sorts of things about 'Target Mode', 'Single User Mode', 'Verbose Mode', 'Open Source 9' etc the following solution has worked without the need to go out and buy those over-priced discs...
What you will need:
1 broken Mac requiring restoration
1 second donor Mac running Leopard (or Snow Leopard so long as the broken Mac can run it)
1 firewire cable with the correct fitting at either end to attach both Macs together
1 Time Machine backup
Note: The following is for when you have given up trying to boot from your hard drive. In my case I couldn't boot in to Safe Mode etc. so was forced to format my drive and re-import everything. If you've read this far I'm assuming your at the same point as well and have tried everything else that's out there first.
Also - both my Macs are Power PC's so can't run Snow Leopard, so I can't say 100% this will work with SL (Intel) machines. From what I've read Snow Leopard will work with this procedure too, but if you've found differently please feel free to add your experiences below...
STEP ONE: Format the corrupt Hard Drive or replace with a fresh HDD
*Link the two computers with a firewire.
*If you're replacing your HDD, remove your corrupted hard drive from the 'broken' machine and insert a new one.
*Power up the broken Mac whilst holding down the 'T' key. This will start it up in Target Mode and you'll get a nice firewire symbol floating around that machine's screen.
*Power up the second 'healthy' Mac. This will be our 'donor' machine. When it starts up after a few seconds you will see the hard drive of the broken Mac appear on the donor Mac's desktop.
*Using your donor Mac's 'Disc Utility', format the broken Mac's hard drive (now's the time to partition it etc. if you want to).
STEP TWO: Clone your donor Mac
Your broken Mac is no longer broken and now needs a new OS. But you don't have the discs, right? Well get this... you can clone your donor mac on to your machine, even if they are totally different i.e. a laptop on to a tower.
*Again using Disc Utility, click on your donor Mac's hard drive. The restore tab appears as an option.
*Click on restore and drag the donor Mac's hard drive that contains the operating system in to the Source box.
*Drag the newly formatted hard drive on the broken Mac in to the Destination box.
*Click restore. Your donor Mac's hard drive will now be 'cloned' on to your no-longer-broken Mac. Once this is done, eject the first Mac's hard drive from your donor Mac's desktop. You no longer need the donor Mac.
Ta daa! Your machine now starts up happy and smily again. Time to restore all that stuff that's been sat on your Time Machine drive...
STEP 3: Restore from Time Machine using Migration Assistant
This is the really clever part that prompted me to write this piece in the first place. Time Machine IS accessible without those Leopard install discs you don't have. You need to use something called 'Migration Assistant'.
*Start up your machine as normal and you'll see it is an exact clone of the donor machine. Weird huh?
*Attach your Time Machine hard drive. It will show up as an icon on the desktop and because of it's size, you'll be asked if you want to use it as a Time Machine backup. Err, NO YOU DON'T! Click 'cancel'.
*Open Migration Assistant (if you can't find it just type it in to Finder and click). There are three options, the middle one being to restore from TM or another disc. Yup, you want that one.
*Migration Assistant will now ask you what you want to restore in stages, firstly User Accounts, then folders, Apps etc. It will even import internet settings
And that's you done. Let Migration Assistant do it's thang... altogether I had about 140gb to restore, so it wasn't exactly speedy. This wasn't helped by the fact that my TM hard drive is connected via USB (yes, I know). Just leave it alone and it'll whirr happily away...
Before I go - you don't have an option of when to restore from, and will restore from the last Time Machine save. At least then you should be able to access TM and go 'backwards' if you need to.
Also - for a Mac expert, the above will be up there with 'Spot Goes To The Farm' in terms of complexity. However, for the rest of us the above is only available in fragments all over the net. By far the most common response to 'how do I restore from Time Machine without install discs' is 'you can't'. If I'd found the above information in one place I could have saved a lot of hair pulling and swearing over the last couple of days, so forgive me for sharing this workaround with the rest of the world. Meanwhile your expertise will come in very handy for the inevitable questions that will get posted below, so please feel free to help those people that won't be sure if this solution is the right one for them. I'm no expert, I just want to help people that were stuck in the same situation (and looking at the web, there's a LOT of them).
Hope this is of use to someone, thanks and *good luck*!

Most maintenance and repair, restore and install procedures require the use
of the correct OS X install DVD; be it an original machine-specific restore/install
disc set or a later retail non-specific general install disc set.
By having an unsupported system, perhaps installed via an illegal download or
other file-sharing scheme, where no retail official discs are involved and the
initial upgrade was done by other means outside of the License Agreements,
you are asking us to discuss a matter of illegal installation and use of a product.
There are no legal complete OS X system download upgrades online; only bits
that are update segments to a retail or as-shipped machine's original OS X install.
+{Or an installation where a previous owner had correct retail upgrade discs, &+
+chose to not include them with the re-sale of the computer it was installed in.}+
However, to answer the initial question. To get and use an externally enclosed
hard drive in suitable boot-capable housing, and get a free-running Clone
Utility (download online; often a donation-ware product, runs free) you can
make a bootable backup of everything in your computer to an external HDD.
This is the way to make a complete backup to restore all functions to the computer.
The Time Machine has some limits, in that it can restore only that which it saves.
It does not make a bootable clone of your entire computer system with apps and
your files, to an external drive device. A clone can. And some of the clone utility's
settings can also backup changes to an external drive's system; if that other drive
is attached to the computer correctly.
Carbon Copy Cloner, from Bombich Software; and also SuperDuper, another of
the most known software names you can download and use to clone boot-capable
system backups of your computer's hard disk drive contents, are often cited.
However you resolve the matter of the running OS X system in your computer,
derived from what appears to be questionable means, is part of the initial issue.
Since you do need to be able to fix an existing installation by unmounting the
computer's hard disk drive and run the computer from the other (install disc or
system clone) while it is Unmounted; and use the correct Disk Utility version to
help diagnose and perhaps be able to fix it. You can't use a Tiger version Disk
Utility to fix a Leopard installation, and so on.
So, the situation and replies as far as they can go (since the matter does
constitute an illegal system, if it was arrived at without correct discs) is a
limited one. And file sharing of copied Mac OS X (and other) software is
also considered illegal.
And, one way to get odd malware and unusual stuff, is to get an unauthorized
system upgrade from an illegal source online. You never know what's inside it.
The other reply was not a personal attack; the matter is of legal status and as
you have a product with a questionable system, the answer is to correct it.
And if you want to save everything in your computer, make a clone to a suitable
externally enclosed self-powered boot capable hard disk drive. With older PPC
Macs, that would best be to one with FireWire and the Oxford-type control chips.
However that works out...
Good luck & happy computing!

Can't restore from time machine after SSD upgrade

Macbook Pro 13" mid-2009, 10.7.5 Lion
I just swapped out my 160GB HDD with a 250GB SSD on my MBP. When I booted up, I pressed Command-R to try to get into recovery mode but all it does was showing a gray folder with a question mark on it.
I had previously backed up my HDD with time machine. My original HDD is no longer available because I tried to upgrade to Mavericks (since the command-R was not working) and upon restarting my MBP was locked with system pin code (that is another nightmare all by itself)
What are my options besides getting a 10.7 Lion CD from the apple store and try to boot it up that way? and then restore from time machine?
Any other way I can get into receovery mode?
Thanks (My MBP is now a brick sitting on my desk)

It's a bare drive so it isn't formatted and it doesn't yet have a Recovery HD installed on it.
Your computer originally came with a version of Leopard installed. You can reinstall it if you still have the original discs that came with the computer. Or, if you have a retail Snow Leopard DVD you can reinstall Snow Leopard from which you can then upgrade to Mavericks (Lion is no longer available for re-download.) It's unlikely your local Apple Store has a Lion USB flash drive or DVD although you can certainly make an appointment and ask for their help.
You should see if you can boot from the Recovery HD invisible image in your Time Machine backup drive. Connect it to the computer and use OPTION boot to get the boot manager. If you see a Recovery HD on your backup drive displayed, then boot from it.

How do I Restore from Time Machine after I have reinstalled my system software (Snow Leopard and then Lion) ?, How do I Restore from Time Machine after I have reinstalled my system software (Snow Leopard and then Lion) ?

I have never done this before, so can someone explain in detail how I reintall my system software and then restore from Time Machine please ?

Your profile indicates that you currently have an older version of Snow Leopard (10.6.2). In order to install Lion, a prerequisite is the latest version of Snow Leopard (10.6.8). Perhaps a few more details would be helpfull in solving your problem. ex. If all you want to do is to upgrade to Lion, a restoration of data is unneccessary. Download the latest version of Snow Leopard and then download (purchase) and install Lion. User data will remain intact.
If I am missing something, please elaborate.
Ciao.

Selectively restore from Time Machine after reformatting

I just reformatted my drive and reinstalled Mountain Lion and then upgraded to Mavericks. I backed up to Time Machine just before the reinstall. Time Machine did combine my first new backup with the ones before the reinstall, which I can see when I browse through the Time Capsule.
I would like to restore some things from the Time Machine timeline, however when I enter the timeline, the backups prior to the reinstall are named in purple on the dateline and the Finder windows are black and inaccessible. I suspect this is because after the reinstall the computer has a new account name, so the permissions are different on the previous backups with the old account name.
Does anyone know how to get the older backups to be accessible in the timeline? I would like to just selectively restore a few things as needed, and would like to do the "restore from Time Machine" rather than drag copying files from the mounted backup.

I would like to just selectively restore a few things as needed, and would like to do the "restore from Time Machine" rather than drag copying files from the mounted backup.
For this type of activity, you might want to take a look at Migration Assistant on your Mac, located as follows:
Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Migration Assistant
More info here: OS X: How to migrate data from another Mac using Mavericks

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.

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.

Restore from time machine after hard drive install

I just had apple replace my hard drive on my Imac. I backed up everything with my external hard drive My Book. Tried to do a restore with Time Machine and it won't do it. I get a message that come up that says "Time Machine can't be modified or deleted because its required by Mac OS X. What steps am I missing to restore with Time Machine?

Hello, I personally don't use TM, but...
Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Can't imagine something not being covered there.

How to restore from Time Machine after HD change?

Hi I am having my hard drive replaced due to the issue with the Seagate hard drives. I have a Lacie NAS which is working with Time Machine. I wanted to know, once I have my iMac back with a new hard drive, how do I restore everything from Time Machine?
Thanks

Have a look at this thread I posted in earlier and the various links in Pondini's excellent Time Machine resource I linked to:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/20367932#20367932

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.

Can you restore 10.5.8 from Time Machine after installing 10.6?

After problems with Mail, I'd like to go back to 10.5.8 to get my files back. Can you use Time Machine to restore the whole system?

Yes. Check Pondini's tips in the Leopard Time Machine forum.

Restoring from Time Machine after erase & install

Hi, I have an iMac I rebuilt and when I plug in my Time Machine disk, all the UIDs are mixed up.
this is not surprising as I created users on my rebuilt iMac in a different order.
This issue is how can I correct the ownership of each of my user directories in /Users?
I tried to "sudo chown -R" but it won't let me do this on a Time Machine backup disk.
the only workaround I have right now is restore the user folder and perform a chown after it's been restored.
what I really would like to do is to continue making incremental backups to my backup disk if at all possible.

do NOT try to chown stuff on TM backups. if the UIDs don't match change the UIDs of your current users on the main drive so that they do match. go to system preferences->accounts, unlock the lock at the bottom, control-click on an account and select "advanced options". in the popup you'll see the current UID and you can change it there too. after you do that you need to run chown on that user's home directory. do that for every user involved. another thing you'll need to do afterward is chown Temporary directories for all users involved. else it will mess up various cache and temp files. log in as a user and run
sudo chown -R `id -un` $TMPDIR
do that for every user.

Restore from Time Machine after HD Crash

My Powerbook HD crashed - it had been backed up with Time Machine to an external hard drive. My new hard drive has been installed. I started up with my Leopard Upgrade install DVD. The first screen that comes up says this software can't be installed on this computer. I clicked OK. Then the tool bar is accessible. Under utilities I selected "Restore from Back up" and nothing happens no indication that it is doing anything. I checked under system profiler and my external hard drive with the back up shows up. But it does not show up on the desktop. What should I see on my screen when I choose Restore from the utilities? I just see the Leopard Purple screen desktop. Please help. I have re-started, shut down and started over several times with the same results.

Thanks for the link Pondini, all of that sounds very good, but reality hits when you read posts like this thread. The great thing here is that it worked, but as you see, it was not a straightforward process in reality. It took twists and turns and frustration and menu's that didn't say what they should have.
All in all I'm very happy to hear that TM brought home the goods and made this user's day complete.
I have partitioned 2x the size of my system hard drive on my new LaCie backup drive. That partition will be all the room I am giving to TM. I do not have any documents on my system hard drive, so it is basically a very quiet drive with little going on other than the occasional software update. I think TM will be happy with 2x the size for backup because also, I only use 1/3 of the system drive for applications, the rest is blank. I do all of my work on external drives and I use conventional means to back up my work onto other drives.
I think I am becoming well versed in TM after the OP's experience here. As added insurance, I made another partition on my backup drive and have used SuperDuper to clone the entire system drive, just as more bullet-proof protection against the day when.
Thanks to everyone here. This has been an exciting thread to say the least. Glad it's over,
Ken

Full Restore from Time Machine after new HD / OSX 10.5.6

I've been reading the forums and still haven't found a clear answer to this...
I recently received my computer back from repair with a new HD and 10.5.6 installed.
I didn't 'restore from TM backup' immediately, but would like to now.
When I go into TM, it doesn't show past backups (only 'Now' and Today'); and when I use finder to go into my dedicated TM backup HD, it says 'you do not have sufficient access privileges'. I tried to backup from the computer before restoring, thinking that might kick start TM to recognize past backups, but it crashed in the middle of backing up...twice...
I seem to understand that I can boot from the Leopard CD, and choose a 'restore' option after choosing the language...but why should I have to 'reinstall' 5.1 when I already have a clean load of 5.6???
Any advice (or smart questions that might clarify what I'm doing wrong) are greatly appreciated. I can't believe that the only option is to restore first thing, that there's no way to do so later...??? I would have, but didn't want to restore 100+GB before knowing if the problem I sent the computer in for had been fixed (buzzing screen: actually wasn't fixed at all, so this whole thing is a total waste of my time).
Thanks,
tired in California

jhartshorn,
One performs a "full restore" by booting to the Leopard install disk, choosing a language, then choosing "Restore from a Time Machine Backup" from the "Utilities" menu. The backup drive is then scanned, and you choose from listed backups.
This doesn't "install" OS X in the normal sense, from the DVD, but rather restores the entire system that is backed up. If you had 10.5.5 installed when you made your last backup prior to sending it in, that's what would be restored, along with all of the user data within that backup.
When you received your computer from repair, you made another backup. OK. That backup will have been a new full backup, and will not have been contiguous with your old one. As long as the drive was not formatted (erased) by Time Machine when the new backup was made (was it erased?), your old backup will still be there, and still be accessible to the installer.
Does this answer all your questions?
Scott

I cant restore from time machine after mountain lion update

i recentlz went to Apple Geius to get my HD formatted as i had a corrupt disk. Once cleaned and my hardware all verified as OK, i got the apple store to load Mountain Lion, previously running Snow Leopard. I came home conneted to my time machine and it restored evrything that from this mornings back up no issues.
When i try to access time machine to look at previous days back ups i get error code 6584
also time machine shows no dated back ups beyond today.
Any ideas?
thxs
Simon

First, I strongly suggest that you make another full backup to a locally-attached external hard drive. You should do that anyway. One backup isn't enough to be safe, and backing up over a network is less reliable than backing up locally. Then try each of the following steps that you haven't already taken.
1. Restart the backup device. You can do that by disconnecting and reconnecting the power cord.
2. Hold down the option key and select Verify Backups from the TM menu in the menu bar (not the Dock icon.) This operation may take a long time. If the menu-bar icon (a clock that runs backwards) isn't showing, check Show Time Machine in menu bar in the preferences.
3. Erase the backup device. With a Time Capsule, you do that from within the AirPort Utility application; see its built-in help for details. All backups will be lost, so don't do this until you've backed up to another device. After erasing, select the TC again as a backup destination in the TM preference pane. The first backup should be made over a wired connection, if possible.

Restoring from Time Machine AFTER install

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