Restoring from Time Machine when the OS had a problem.

Here's the short of it. MBP 2009 was beginning to go very slow, almost freezing, especially when TM was working. The log indicated a problem that Disk Utility also found: Invalid node structure.
After trying a number of approaches and apps, I finally reformatted the boot drive. I plan to use the Install disk to restore from the TM backup.
My question - with the "Invalid node structure" type of error, will this also be on the backup and thus be reintroduced to the boot drive? Or should I use migrate assistant to get the user and app files back but not the OS files/folders (where I think the problem was, in the /Library structure.

in principle file system problems like that are not inherited by TM backups which after all are just file level copies of your system. therefore you may try a full system restore. however, when there are problems with the file system TM often behaves in very unpredictable fashion. in particular it can miss some files while backing up. to minimize a risk of something like that you can choose a restore point from a while back before the problems started.
another option is to use migration assistant as you say. that should most likely work fine.

Similar Messages

IPhoto6 - after a full reistall of Snow Leopard, iphoto does not display thumbnails. I've restored from time machine, rebuilt the library and run through the rebuild thumbnails function with no success. The files are there, I just get a dotted outline.

iPhoto6 on iMac running SL - after a full reistall of Snow Leopard, iphoto does not display thumbnails. I've restored the library from time machine, rebuilt the library from iPhoto and run through the rebuild thumbnails function with no success. The files are there, I just get a dotted outline instead of the thumbnails. Does anyone have any other ideas on how to restore the thumbnails?

Try the following:
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
OT

I am having major problems restoring from Time Machine. The computer tells me I have completely restored but no data is available in the various applications.

I had backed up all my data to Time Machine, then securely deleted all data on my MacBook Pro and reinstalled Snow Leopard, prior to having Apple replace a faulty Airport card. I went through the normal restoration process from Time Machine, which took quite some time (about 2.5 hours for 240 Gb of data, including applications) without giving any indication of a problem. However, although the computer indicates that 240 Gb has been reinstalled on the hard drive, data such as photos, music, documents, IOS apps, movies, etc , is not showing up in the relevent application i.e. photos in iPhoto or mobile apps in iTunes. Even though application icons were visible in the dock, they would not open. I spent two days (one hour one day and five hours the next) at the Apple Genius Bar trying to find out what the problem was, without any success. No matter what was tried, no clear solution was evident so I was given a manual workaround to bring back banks of files one at a time, which has given me some workability. All data is obviously stored on the external hard drive, but restoration has not been successful. I have successfully used Time Machine to restore all data from a previous MacBook to my current MacBook Pro without any hitches whatsoever. The only difference this time is that I have two separate accounts on the Pro, which may be causing the problem. I can restore items manually from either account but they all go into one account. Also, when manually restoring photos or music from Time Machine, I am unable to select the relevent location for this data, i.e. iPhoto or iTunes. The only way I got these into the relevent application was by putting them into a burn folder or onto a thumb drive and then dragging them into the dock application. I am not very computer savvy and feel totally out of my depth to manually restore everything back to where it was before the clean install, particularly the two user accounts, which I would loke to have back again. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Rob.

Your post is too difficult to read. Please repost using paragraphs.
In the interim... For All things TM... See Pondini's Excellent information here...
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
In particular... FAQs and Troubleshooting.

How to restore from Time Machine when backup is larger than HDD

In an attempt to upgrade my 13 inch, 8GB 2010 MacBook Pro (750 GB HDD) from Mavericks to Yosemite, the Yosemite install was stuck at "about a minute remaining" for hours (overnight). So I cancelled the install and tried again only to be stuck at the same spot. I took the mac to an Apple Genius Bar to have it looked at while it was stuck at that install step. They couldn't fix it and did a fresh install of Yosemite. Luckily, I had backed it up about a week before, so I wasn't losing a whole lot. I attempted to restore from the Time Machine backup using Migration Assistant (2TB external USB 3.0) of the latest backup but the estimated time to restore from backup kept climbing to more than 150 hours. Eventually it had an error message that there wasn't enough free space on the HDD (the same 750 GB drive that my backups were from). There was less than 100GB of free space on the HDD before attempting the upgrade.
How can I restore at least a portion of my Time Machine backup, like my Documents and Apps? I don't even mind going back to Mavericks so that I can use my computer again! For example, I need MS Office but I cannot use it on Yosemite if I do not first get my original backup working again so that I can unregister the current version (the product key is "lost" with my inaccessible backups!).
Most of the information I can find online is how to prepare for a proper backup, but at this point since Apple Genius did a fresh install, Time Machine has my only backup!
Any advice would be great!
p.s. This may be useful to know: I had several virtual machines from Parallels: Windows, Ubuntu, etc before I upgraded to Mavericks from Snow Leopard. Mavericks required an updated Parallels that I never got but I'm sure those VMs are hiding in my backup drive.

OS X Yosemite: Restore items backed up with Time Machine
While in Time Machine, press the key combination shift-command-C. The front window will show all mounted volumes. All snapshots should now be accessible. Select the one you want and navigate to the files you want to restore.
If you need to restore from a backup of the hidden user Library folder, first select a snapshot, then press shift-command-G. A Go to Folder dialog will open. In it, you'll enter the path to the folder. The dialog will help you by automatically completing the parts of the path when you start to type them.
The path begins with slash character ("/"). Enter that. The rest of the parts will be separated by slashes.
The next part is the date and time of the current snapshot. Enter a "2", and the rest of the date should be filled in automatically. Press the right-arrow key to jump to the end of the path. Enter a slash to start the next part.
Next is the name of the volume (usually "Macintosh HD" unless you gave it a different name.) Start to type that, then jump to the end and enter a slash.
The next part is "Users", followed by a slash.
Next is your (short) user name, which is also the name of your home folder.
Finally, enter "Library", then press return. You should now be in the Library folder. From there you can get around as in the Finder.

How do I retrieve iphoto library from Time Machine when the Mac doesn't have enough memory

Is there a way to retrieve (or view) specific photos from iphoto library when it resides in Time Machine? The iphoto library file is much bigger than the free space available on the Mac; erasing unneeded files may not free up enough space if the library must be restored as one entire transfer. It would be easier if I could restore only pieces of it. Is there a way to do this?

Not from Time Machine which is backing up only a file, not its individual contents. Either you restore iPhoto Library or not.
Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Get an external hard drive on which to store some of your files after which you can
erase the data from your internal drive to free up space.
5. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
6. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
7. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.

Will a Restore from Time Machine upgrade the OS

My MBP OS running is Leopard, and in my Time Machine is Snow Leopard, when I "restore" in my MBP will it give me Snow Leopard?

During the install of the original OS there should of been an option to Restaore from TM backup. That is IF that original OS allowed that feature.
If at one time you had Snow Leopard installed then you have a DVD disc for it.
Try starting the system from that disc and then there should be an option to restore from TM backup.
Good Luck.

Restore from Time Machine fails

I just got a new HD from the apple store and had them flash 10.5.8 onto it so that I could restore my MacBook right when I got home.
The problem is that when I get through to the "Restore from Time Machine" screen, the mac only finds one backup available and even then it won't transfer the files to the new HD, the TM external sits and spins and then the macbook goes through the welcome video again and starts me all over again.
what did I do wrong and did I lose everything?
I just plugged in the TM external to another mac in the house and it sees every thing in TM fine.
Message was edited by: MrBackpack

MrBackpack wrote:
I'm trying to use the set-up assistant.
One of the problems that I am running into is that when I get to the point where is calculates the size of the files that I want to restore, it sits at calculating then it restarts the set-up assistant.
Ah, that does sound like the backups may be corrupted.
One question and three options:
Did you get a larger drive, or was there a problem with the old one, requiring a replacement? If there was a problem, it's possible something got corrupted on your internal HD before the last backup. When the last backup ran, the damage would have been backed-up, too, and could be why Time Machine is having trouble dealing with it. If so, you probably want the first option below:
Boot up from your Install disc. After selecting your language, select Utilities, then +Disk Utility+ from the menubar on the next screen. Use it to do a +*Repair Disk+* (not permissions) on your backup drive. If that finds no errors, or fixes whatever it finds, quit Disk Utility, return to the Utilities menu and select +Restore System from Backups,+ per #14 in the FAQ. The advantage here is, you'll get a list of backups to restore from. If the last one won't work, try an earlier one. Be sure to get the log window per step (h), so if it fails or hangs, you'll know where, and we can help figure out how to recover.
Boot up from your Install disc and repair the backups as above. If that finds and fixes errors, boot up normally and try +Setup Assistant+ again. Note that +Setup Assistant+ always uses the most recent backup -- you don't get a choice as with the full restore.
Skip +Setup Assistant.+ Select +Do not Transfer+ instead, and set up a temporary user account (use a different name from any that are on your backups). Then do the +*Repair Disk+* on the backups from the copy of +Disk Utility+ on your Mac. If that finds no errors, or fixes whatever it finds, use +MIgration Assistant,+ per the pink box in #19 of the FAQ. The advantage to it is, you can use it multiple times, so you can transfer one thing at a time, and perhaps bypass whatever's corrupted. But +Migration Assistant+ also uses the most recent backup -- you don't get a choice.
(p.s.: I'll be going to bed soon, so if you post back after half an hour or so, I won't answer until tomorrow.)

Old Hard drive died...automated restore from Time Machine?

Is there a way to just sort of "one click" the process for restoring from an external drive I've been using? My hard drive died on my MacBook and I had it replaced under my Apple Care warranty. Without dragging and dropping things is there an easy way to just pick up where I left off? I'm trying to search around and I'm not finding any solutions for this particular situation.

you can do a full system restore from TM.
Start from the leopard install DVD, once past the language screen go to Utilities menu and select "restore from Time machine". follow the instructions.

How to restore from time machine different OS

I am going back to snow leopard (from OS 10.8 back to 10.6) using my mac book pro (mbp). I backed up my data using time machine then loaded the orig OS from disk (leopard). This erased my HD on my mbp. I loaded the orig OS successfully (leopard). When I tried to restore data and apps from time machine, it said I could not because the time machine was backed up using 10.8 (and I needed to upgrade if I was going to restore from time machine). The point is I dont want to upgrade (I am downgrading away from 10.8 back to 10.6). Another option is restore from another mac. I have another mac (mini) running 10.6 and I transfered the time maching data from my mbp to the mac mini. Now I am trying to restore data and apps from the mini to the mpb (using a firewire). Is there any easier method??

You made a mistake: create a Time Machine backup on Mountain Lion. Doing this, you can't restore the backup on older versions, so if you want to downgrade, you will have to restore the files manually, taking so much time, and you will have to reinstall all your applications.
To transfer your files from your Mac mini to the MacBook Pro, you can use FireWire without any problem (furthermore, it's the fastest way). Connect the FireWire cable, open Migration Assistant on both computers and follow the steps

Cannot restore from Time Machine or Reinstall - MacBook Pro Yosemite

Hi all,
I recently started using a new Mac (Macbook Pro 15" with Yosemite) about 2 weeks ago. Upon startup it asked whether I wanted to encrypt and I said yes. It then froze for about 30min with the spinny wheel. After the startup was finally complete I used it normally for the next two weeks but the FileVault encryption in Security & Privacy never completed. It was stuck on "encryption paused" and underneath said "Connect to power adapter to continue encryption". Nothing I did fixed the problem. I then did a Time Machine Backup onto a USB with plans to restore from Time Machine. The backup went successfully with no issues. I put the Mac into recovery mode (command+R) and did Restore from Time Machine Backup. It was able to find my Time Machine Backup on the USB, and in the next window "Select a Destination" it found my HD. I clicked restore and there was an immediate error saying that I should restart the computer and try again. From then on in "Select a Destination" it now says "No Time Machine backups were found." This is strange because I already selected the time machine backup and should be looking for a destination now, but regardless nothing can be found.
From there I went to Disk Utility and verified. There didn't appear to be anything wrong. I did repair disk and it didn't seem to do anything.
Then I tried to do a Reinstall OS X. On "Select the disk where you want to install OS X" the only options are my USB with the backup, or "Recovery HD". If I click Recovery HD there is a pop-up saying "This disk is locked." There are no other choices for install, and leaving Recovery mode doesn't appear to be possible.
Does anyone have a solution to this? So far my experience with Yosemite on two different macs has been torture and I do not recommend.
Thanks!

You have a warranty. Take it back and ask the store to fix it for you. You do not need to encrypt the drive, but the Yosemite installation does so automatically unless you select the option not to do so during the install process. You need to look for that carefully. As of now you would need to turn off FV2 to decrypt the drive which takes about as much time as encryption does - quite a while unless you have a small capacity SSD.

HT1379 I had to restart by resetting the NVRAM/PRAM. Now I have a window showing OS X Utilities. My options are restore from Time Machine Backup (which I could do), Disk Utility to repair or erase, get help online or reinstall OS X. What should I do?

I had to restart by resetting the NVRAM/PRAM. Now I have a window showing OS X Utilities. My options are restore from Time Machine Backup (which I could do), Disk Utility to repair or erase, get help online or reinstall OS X. What should I do? The problem began when I tried to restart my computer and the only thing I saw was the grey screen, Apple logo, and the timer; the computer wouldn't restart from there.

I searched through trouble shooting options on the Apple Support page and was able to make it this far.

HT201250 Can I restore photo files from Time Machine without the use of an external drive? I'm trying to restore lost photo files and I see them listed in Time Machine (without use of an external drive), but when I try to restore I get a error code 36.

Can I restore photo files from Time Machine without the use of an external drive? While I was transferring photos back and forth from a thumb drive something went haywire and my IPhoto was wiped clean! When I click on Time Machine I see all the dated pages (without an external storage drive connected), go back to a date where all my photo files are there, click "restore", and I get the message: "The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in file cant be read or written (error code - 36)"

Thanks so much Terence. I tried some of the fixes from that page, but then discovered the suggestion to compress the Time Machine Back up of the original library and transfer it as a zip back to my computer as detailed here:
http://pondini.org/TM/E9.html
That worked like a charm. I really appreciate it.

HT201250 I recently replaced my 2009 Macbook Pro's hard drive. I had the Apple store upgrade the OS to Mountain Lion while it was being repaired. I want to restore all of my old files and data, if I restore from Time Machine, will it revert to the old O

I recently had to replace my 2009 Macbook Pro's hard drive. I had the apple store upgrade the OS to Mountain Lion while it was in being repaired. I want to restore all of my old data and files. If I perform a restore from Time Machine, with a date prior to having the hard drive replaced, will it revert back to the old OS?

No, it won't revert to the prior OS X but you you may have third party apps installed that were compatible with Lion that may not be compatible with Mountain Lion.
App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps - App compatibility and feature support for OS X & iOS
After you restore from TM, check HD > Incompatible Software

I tried to instal 10.8.3 to my MBP and it crashed. I then tried to restore from Time machine but when it is about 50% through a message comes up "the files cannot be restored"

I tried to instal 10.8.3 to my MBP and it crashed. I then tried to restore from Time machine but when it is about 50% through a message comes up "the files cannot be restored" Can anyone help me to get out of this mess?

Back up all data.
Boot into Recovery by holding down the key combination command-R at the startup chime. Release the keys when you see a gray screen with a spinning dial.
Note: You need an always-on Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection to the Internet to use Recovery. It won’t work with USB or PPPoE modems, or with proxy servers, or with networks that require a certificate for authentication.
When the OS X Utilities screen appears, follow the prompts to reinstall the OS. You don't need to erase the boot volume, and you won't need your backup unless something goes wrong. If your Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade, so make a note of those before you begin.

Will a system restore from Time Machine erase any of the data that is currently on the Mac and not in the Time Machine?

We had a lot of data on our Mac (i.e. photos, iTunes libraries etc) which we backed up via Time Machine. The hard disk corrupted so we had to get it wiped. When we got it back, my parents started using the mac as per usual but they didn't do a full System Restore from Time Machine. So, if I do a full restore now, will it erase any of the new photos, musc etc that is currently on the mac?

The Time Machine restore will only restore what is on Time Machine. Making a clone is probably a better means of ensuring whatever data you want recovered gets recovered together with Time Machine.
Generally speaking, applications that are newer than the operating system from Apple that are included with the operating system are not supported. So in your data recovery process from your clone, you'll have to be careful what data you choose to copy back.

Restoring from Time Machine when the OS had a problem.

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