Restoring Time Machine backup to older version of OS X

Hello all,
I'm fairly sure I know the answer to this, but I'm not finding anything definitive so I thought I'd turn to the experts here. I accidentally posted this to the Mac Pro forum and I'm not sure how to delete it there. Figured I'd post it to the correct place anyway.
I support a school district using MacBook Pro laptops. We are licensed for OS X 10.6 on these machines. A teacher upgraded on his own to 10.8, so I have to wipe his drive and start over with 10.6. He's doing a Time Machine backup to restore his files once he's back on the correct version of the OS, but I'm thinking that because the Time Machine backup was done on 10.8, it won't restore files to an older version of the OS. Is this correct? Thanks for the help.

MacBook Pro
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os
http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro
A, why or where is the master system restore image?
B, Wipe and install
C. Clone the system once installed for future restore
D, support for 10.6.8 for some security updates continue but for how long
E. 10.6.8 can be run in a Parallels or other VM under Lion or later (if it has the processing and RAM to handle a guest VM)
F. TimeMachine - moving between versions and backward does have some challenges, and once it was updated for ML I assume no go
G. Don't have just one backup drive - they could have pulled the old (and probably is old by now) and start fresh with a new backup set and drive.
http://www.apple.com/support/timemachine - best bet would be the FAQs there and the actual subforum for Mac OS. This forum? is for workstations rather than notebook line.

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So, You're saying I can do this from a different computer with its own Time Machine?
In other words, I have my Time Machinedrive from the dead iMac and a fresh, formatted drive both hooked up to an unrelated computer with its own Time Machine.
If I enter Time Machine on that computer won't it show me the data it backs up for that computer only?
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Restoring from Time Machine backup with older OS

I was having difficulties upgrading from OS X 10.5.8 to 10.6 so I decided to backup my entire system via Time Machine and then do a clean install of 10.6. The upgrade was successful, however this being a clean installation none of my files were restored. I intended to restore from the Time Machine backup but I'm hesitant to do so because the backup was with 10.5.8 and I'm not sure if I'll run into conflicts with restoring from the old OS. I'm looking to see if the community has had experience with doing this and if it is safe do so. Can I restore from the 10.5.8 backup and maintain my 10.6 OS?

i'm also curious for the answer on this one :-)

Restore Time Machine backup to newly-formatted Macintosh HD

I recently had to erase and re-format my internal start-up drive ("Macintosh HD," formatted GUID Partition Table) while troubleshooting. Turned out it was a failed main logic board, display and display LED backligh, so it was in the Apple Store for 2-3 weeks (long story). I have my Time Machine backups on an external 2TB USB drive, which has its own system, and is bootable. The newest Time Machine backup I have is from 11/13/11, but I thought I'd be safe and do a belt and braces backup, so I used Carbon Copy Cloner to backup Macintosh HD to a disk image. Somehow, I royally screwed it up, and I have THREE CCCloner backups on my 2TB drive (as well as the Time Machine backups). The three CCCloner backups are:
2011-10-26 (October 26) 15-52-21, total 14.18 GB (no System or Users folders)
2011-11-13 (November 13) 21-47-17, total 16.86 GB (System folder = 136.1 MB; Users folder = 1.54 GB)
2011-11-20 (November 20) 18-58-00, total 12.84 GB (System folder = 27.6 MB; Users folder = 1.05 GB)
It would seem I somehow invoked an incremental backup in CCCloner, and I do manual Time Machine backups.
The problem here is two-fold:
1. Between 11/13/11 (last Time Machine backup) and 11/20/11 (last CCCloner backup), I did a LOT of work, that I don't want to lose, but I don't know how to reconcile the three CCCloner backups. I've been in communication with the developer of CCC, but apparently he's taken the weekend off, and we have not yet worked out a way to cleanly reconcile the three CCCloner backups, which is what I would MOST like to do, as it contains the whole week's work between 11/13/11 and 11/20/11.
2. When I erased and reformatted my startup Macintosh HD, I, of course, severed any link between it and the Time Machine backups on the 2TB USB drive.
I suppose the quick and dirty way to get back to my Macintosh HD status is to do the following (found in an Apple Support Archived document):
"Once the drive has been formatted, quit Disk Utility to return to the installer. Go back to the "Utilities" menu again, and choose "Restore From a Time Machine Backup." Connect your Time Machine backup drive, and allow it to be scanned for valid backups. Choose your latest backup from the list provided, choose the destination for the restoration (the newly formatted "Macintosh HD"), then let it do its thing."
Then cherry-pick the new-to-11/20/11 items out of the CCCloner folders. Not an elegant solution, but I can't think of any other. I don't mind reformatting the Macintosh HD again, but then having to pick through the CCCloner dustbin is a big PITA
Anyone have any ideas?
Bart

<< Are the backups in a separate partition? If not, that may be a problem.
How about the CCC backups? >>
Nope to both.
<< That doesn't make sense. A CCC clone should contain the most recent version of everything (unless you omitted things). Where are you getting those sizes? >>
Individual folder "Get infos."
<< Yes, that's how you do a full system restore from your Time Machine backups. >>
Which I did last night, needing to move on with a number of projects.
<< You should be able to use the Finder to find files on the CCC backup from your home folder with Last Modified Dates since 11/13 (or, perhaps better, the free Find Any File app, which will let you pick any folder), and copy them. >>
<< May I ask why, with an iMac, you're doing all your backups manually, rather than letting at least some of them, especially Time Machine, run automatically? >>
The discussion below with Mike Bombich, of CCC, to which I replied just a couple minutes ago, may help explain some things (it will NOT explain my stupidity -- my only excuse is that I was pressed for time after a long and pointless search in all the wrong places for a very severe problem I was having, as you'll see). Why I didn't do a Time Machine backup just before I took my iMac in for service is a question I can only answer by saying "Duhhhh..."
Email from Mike Bombich and my reply between dotted lines
December 3, 2011 8:04:33 PM EST
Hi Bart:
<blockquote>Choosing the "2TB" drive as the "source" in CCCloner would give me the actual, bootable 2TB's system, which has few, if any, of the permissions, settings, etc. that were part of the the original Macintosh HD System files, which is what I'm trying to recover.</blockquote>
Unless you backed up another system to the 2TB volume since November 20, then that volume definitely has everything from your Macintosh HD as of Nov 20. You ran this task at that time:
2011-11-20 18:57:58 -0500
Task: Copying selected files (-psn_0_106522)
Source: Macintosh HD
Mount point: /
Destination: 2TB
Destination path: /Volumes/2TB
Settings
Archive deleted items, owner: bartonbrown
Archive modified items
Do not automatically prune archives
Which means that everything from your Macintosh HD volume was copied to the 2TB volume, and anything that was already on the 2TB volume was moved aside to the _CCC Archives folder. With the exception of the presence of the _CCC Archives folder, the 2TB volume was an *exact* replica of your Macintosh HD volume when that backup task finished on Nov 20.
I think this actually means that the restore process should be really easy. CCC won't copy the contents of the _CCC Archives folder (unless you choose it as a source folder explicitly), so if you choose the 2TB volume as the source and Macintosh HD as the destination, your Macintosh HD volume should be back to the state it was in on Nov 20. I don't see any need to exclude anything from the restore -- anything that wasn't on the Macintosh HD volume was moved to the _CCC Archives folder.
As an aside, you aren't going to find the bulk of your (most recent) Macintosh HD items in the _CCC Archives folder, that folder contains items that were on the 2TB volume when you started that backup task (which means there probably are some pretty important items in the _CCC Archives/2011-11-20 (November 20) 18-58-00 folder). You will find some items from Macintosh HD in there, but they're older versions of files from previous backups, and items that you have since deleted from Macintosh HD.
<blockquote>is there any way to back up onto an already bootable drive with CCCloner and STILL be able to choose the INDIVIDUAL CCC backup I want to restore the Macintosh HD drive.</blockquote>
Yes:
1. Create a new folder at the root level of the destination volume (e.g. "Macintosh HD 12-03-11")
2. Choose "Macintosh HD" from the Source menu
3. Choose "Choose a folder..." from the Destination menu and select the new folder that you created on the destination
When you want to restore from that, you'd boot from the 2TB volume, then in CCC choose "Choose a folder" from the Source menu and select that folder as the source.
You could also choose the "Create a new disk image" option, but I personally prefer backing up to a folder if the destination volume is formatted as HFS+.
Lastly, one thing to keep in mind with either of these solutions is that subsequent backups directly to the 2TB volume (with default settings) will cause the unique backup folder on the destination to be archived. You can avoid that by using CCC's "Protect root-level items on the destination" option. That's the setup I alluded to earlier, in the "I want to back up my startup disk and a data volume to the same backup disk" article.
Mike
To which I replied:
December 4, 2011 1:13:45 PM EST
Hi Mike --
"Unless you backed up another system to the 2TB volume since November 20, then that volume definitely has everything from your Macintosh HD as of Nov 20 ...and anything that was already on the 2TB volume was moved aside to the _CCC Archives folder. With the exception of the presence of the _CCC Archives folder, the 2TB volume was an *exact* replica of your Macintosh HD volume when that backup task finished on Nov 20.
Oddly enough, it wasn't: for one example, the Time Machine backups, which were NEVER on the Macintosh HD volume, are still on the 2TB backup volume, untouched, and so are literally thousands of files and folders I had backed up directly to the 2TB backup volume -- and thousands more I'm pretty sure weren't -- that DIDN'T end up in the _CCC Archives folder, but at the root level of the 2TB volume.
I wish I'd done a window grab of the 2TB backup volume's window before I did my 11/20/11 backup, and before I restored Macintosh HD from Time Machine, but I was so caught up in testing -- 60 hours worth, and all to no purpose -- for what a senior advisor fromr a company whose name is associated with the pomaceous fruit of the species M. domestica (genus Malus, family Rosaceae) was positive was a problem with third-party memory, just before we finally set up the FOURTH Malus domestica store appointment and I had to bundle the iMac up and drag it 40 miles to discover that the "Senior Advisor" was wrong and I was right -- for a change -- that it was a failed main logic board, well... I was working against time, I finally ran OUT of time, and all I can come up with to account for the current state of 2TB is that didn't do the CCCloner backup correctly. (I know that sentence is really poor grammatically, but when one has to tiptoe around landmines, circumlocution is better than circumambulation.
Last night, I had to restore Macintosh HD from Time Machine, which worked fine, except I now have literally hundreds of gigabytes of duplicate files (better than lost ones!) spread over 3 drives. The only recourse I can think of now is to use TidyUp! to winnow out the duplicates and try to understand better how to use CCCloner for backups, or surrender and use Time Machine.
Thanks for all your help. I have a couple other projects I wanted to finish up today, but I can see the day is going to be devoted to salvage operations...
I will just add this: The 2TB USB drive I use as a backup for Time Machine has been bootable since before I started using it as a backup, as is my 1TB USB drive, and all three -- Macintosh HD, 1TB, 2TB -- are at OS X 10.6.8. I also manually back up individual items to both 1TB and 2 TB drives.
Bottom line is, I obviously don't quite know how CCC works, and I thought I could back up -- at the last minute -- my internal, regular start-up drive, "Macintosh HD," to a Disk Image with CCC.
As for Time Machine, its constant and unfathomable-to-me backing up drove me nuts, so I turned it off, and used it to back up, manually, about once a week. Stupid? Yes.
Mea culpa
Bart

Restore time machine backups folder or iPhoto library to get album data?

Simply said, can I use Data Rescue or Disk Drill to restore old Time Machine backups instead of just the entire glob of files? I'm specifically looking for an iPhoto backup with albums and metadata, instead of just restoring the photos themselves. See below for more details.
I am an amateur or hobbyist photographer. Recently I noted that I have over 70,000 photos in iPhoto and it was really dragging. Kept telling myself to clean it up but never found the time. The other day, it said this version needs to be upgraded. Clicked ok, and when done, all my photos were gone. I have the iPhoto Library on an external and I could see that "it" was still there (almost 700gb) so I went to work trying to find a solution. Went through all of the rebuilding options with no luck and then got my stupid, "I got this" hat on. I said, no problem, I have Time Machine and I'll just restore the iPhoto Library from a few days ago when I know it was working fine. Deleted that "corrupted" library first, went to Time Machine and didn't realize that TM, at the VERY same time, must've run out of room and reset itself - it only had a brand new backup with the now-empty iPhoto Library in it. Luckily, I found all of my photos and have them safe on an external. I've also decided to backup to a cloud site (should've done a long time ago!!) and I'm researching which photo-management software will be best to catalog my pix going forward (likely Lightroom) as the Apple peeps said iPhoto isn't really built to handle that type of load.
I know I can just re-import my found photos but have I lost all of my album and event data forever? When I go to the iPhoto Library and Show Package Contents, it looks like all that data is still there. Will that just "reset" once I bring back my photos? Otherwise, I have run both Data Rescue and Disk Drill and can see all of the files - either those deleted from the external, or the deleted files that were being backed up by TM on my other external TM disk. However, the reconstructed files don't seem to include an "iPhoto Library" or a backups.backupdb by name and I'm afraid if I do all the work to restore either of those, I'm stuck in the same situation I have now - all of the photos but no album data. Went through these posts extensively and tried all of Pondini's recommendations too.
In the end, do I chalk this up as a learning experience and spend 2-3 days recreating albums and organizing my photos? Or, is there a way that I can get all that organizational data back - from the iPhoto package contents, restoring from the external, or restoring an old TM backup?

What I would do is restore the older version to a different location. Then first try the following on it:
1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down to open the First Aid window. Be sure to follow the circled recommendation in the screenshot.
2 - run Option #4, Rebuild Database.
If that doesn't do the trick continue with
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 - download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.>Click on the Add Library button,
2 - select the library you want to add from those in the selection window.
3 - make sure that in the rebuild window the checkbox "Scavange orphaned photos" is checked.
4 - now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the Library ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
5 - in the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed. Click on the Create button.
Note 1: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost.
Note 2: Your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.

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.

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.

Restore time machine backup

OSX would not load up for me on my iMac. I was on the latest version of Leopard. I reinstalled Leopard onto my Mac and then booted from the Leopard disc and chose the restore from backup option. I selected a Time Machine backup that I had done a couple of days ago and restored the Time Machine backup.
When the system went to restart after the restore, I now get, what I assume to be a Kernal Panic (prohibited screen/universal no sign, or whatever else it is called). Should I try to restore an earlier backup to see if that will work? I ran the Hardware test which did not point to any problems, so I am assuming that there might be something wrong with the time machine backup.
The only other thing that I can think of is that the Leopard that was installed on the system was an earlier version from when I bought the computer. But, I assume that wouldn't be an issue as I am restoring a full backup.
Any help/thoughts? Thanks in advance.

D wrote:
OSX would not load up for me on my iMac. I was on the latest version of Leopard. I reinstalled Leopard onto my Mac and then booted from the Leopard disc and chose the restore from backup option. I selected a Time Machine backup that I had done a couple of days ago and restored the Time Machine backup.
Reinstalling Leopard before you restored a full Time Machine backup was a waste of time, I'm sorry to say! The reinstall was completely erased when you subsequently restored from Time Machine.
When the system went to restart after the restore, I now get, what I assume to be a Kernal Panic (prohibited screen/universal no sign, or whatever else it is called). Should I try to restore an earlier backup to see if that will work? I ran the Hardware test which did not point to any problems, so I am assuming that there might be something wrong with the time machine backup.
While booted up from your Leopard DVD, launch Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Do a Repair Disk on both your internal hard drive, and on your Time Machine hard drive. Repairing the TM drive could take several hours. Post back if any errors were reported that it cannot fix. If everything checks out OK, just try restoring a full backup again.
The only other thing that I can think of is that the Leopard that was installed on the system was an earlier version from when I bought the computer. But, I assume that wouldn't be an issue as I am restoring a full backup.
Correct. If the TM backup was only a few days old then there should have been no problem restoring it. My guess is that some hiccup happened along the way (it happens, just try again) or your TM disk has some corruption in it that Disk Utility might be able to repair.

Time machine backup between OSX versions?

Hi,
I have a 2006 Mac Pro with OSX10.7 installed, I decided to upgrade as the newest versions of OSX aren't supported. My question is could I restore my OSX 10.7 time machine backup to OSX 10.8? Or would it change the OSX version to 10.7 on the new machine? If so is there anyway to restore the time machine backup without losing OSX 10.8 or having to buy and reinstall it?
Thanks, Tom

Once you have bought a version of Mac OS X, you may re-download and re-Install it as often as you like without paying again -- provided you use the same Apple-ID to do so.
A 2006 Mac Pro cannot run 10.8, so I do not understand the rest of your query. That Mac is stuck at 10.7 as the highest it can run. If you attempt to download 10.8 to it, it should refuse to do so, offering instead the highest purchased version that can actually run on that machine.

Restored Time Machine Backup, now can't find files

So, after a wipe of my computer and a reinstall of Snow Leopard, I encountered a couple problems restoring my data.
1) Migration Assistant wouldn't find my user in my time machine (which was only used for this computer)
2) I resorted to the "browse other time machine disks" feature by right clicking the Time Machine icon in the dock. From this I was easily able to find my backup and restore it.
After the files finished copying (approx. 254 gb), I was unable to find them anywhere on the drive. Finder and Disk Utility both told me that there was 254 gigs being used (that wasn't being used before, this is a clean snow Leopard install), I just can't find them anywhere.
I went to disk utility do verify permissions, it looks like there was some problems, so I repaired them, still no luck. I also logged in as root to see if I could spot them anywhere, no luck.
Can anybody out there point me in the right direction?
I really would not like to re copy all of those again, as 250 gb over USB 2.0 takes quite a while...

m-avila wrote:
Used these forums a lot for questions since my iMac is my first Apple computer. This is my first post though. My hard drive went bad so I brought it to an authorized Apple service center and had it replaced under AppleCare. My computer is back and ready for action with a newer OS (had OSX 10.5.7 I believe and now have 10.6.3).
Do you mean they installed Snow Leopard, and didn't give you a Snow Leopard disc? If so, that's a violation of the license, but worse, it means you can't do some things you may need to do, including a full system restore of a Snow Leopard Time Machine backup. Either make them put Leopard back on it, or buy a retail Snow Leopard disc ($29).
They also installed iLife '09 and I believe I actually had '08 on there.
That's also not good.
I did exactly what happened above - tried restoring from my Time Machine backup and ended up using 320GB that I now can't find. When I try to restore individual files I get the message that a file with the same name already exists. Is it possible to restore my files but KEEP this later version of OSX and iLife?
No.
If I do the "Restore From Backup" the way I'm supposed to (as outlined in #14 Time Machine FAQ), will I erase the newer versions of iLife and OSX?
Yes.
How can I get these files back
You can't, and shouldn't, without the necessary discs. Those versions of iLife probably won't work on Leopard anyway.
free up the 320GB that is now tied up
The full restore will do that. The first thing it does, after your final confirmation, is to erase the internal HD. Then it copies everything from your backups.
and keep iLife '09?
No.

Impossible to restore time machine backup?

How in the world can I restore a Time Machine backup to my MacBook Air???
I have a full time machine backup on an external USB drive. I can't however connect that USB drive and the external CD drive at the same time.
I also have no idea to get the shared disc on my Mac Mini to show up in the boot window (can connect to my wifi network, but nothing shows)...
I accidentally erased my drive while trying to erase my free space, now I can't figure out any possible way to ever restore the data...

This really *****, the 92.5% seems like it will be my best attempt...
There are 2 files that time machine restore doesn't seem to like... There part of an older program, Hemera Photo Objects, Volumes 1 & 2...
There's a data file for each of the 2 programs... Vol1Thumb.hta & Vol2Thumbs.hta... For some reason these 2 files come up with an error (something along the lines of:
Cannot restore the file /Volumes/[....]/Vol1Thumbs.hta to (null)
Cannot restore the file /Volumes/[....]/Vol2Thumbs.hta to (null)
I don't believe the files are corrupt (the likelihood that these 2 separate files installed at 2 separate times both ending up in a bad sector seem unlikely, especially when the app has several other files that don't generate this error)... Unfortuantly modifying a backup seems impossible (I've tried everything, including "sudo rm Vol1Thumbs.hta" but I get an error stating that its not possible to modify a backup...
I'm running out of options... Still wondering why things can't just work like they're supposed to...

Restore Time Machine backup after hard drive crash

My hard drive on the mac book crashed, so I replaced it. Now I need to get my time machine back up on the new drive. I've already started using the computer and reinstalled lion, so I'm not getting the original "backup" screen. How do I find my old time machine backups?

Your best bet is to do a full restore from your backups. See #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Restoring Time Machine Backup on new SSD

Using STOCK HDD 500GB 5400RPM, Have a Time Machine backup on an external Seagate USB 3.0 drive, about 140GB used on my disk, if I restore to a 240GB SSD will it work smoothly or will there be problems due to the lower capacity on the 240GB SSD?

Andyl1980 wrote:
I am wondering if restoring the time machine backup that i currently have on to the new SSD after i have installed it by holding down the OPTION key at restart and selecting RESTORE FROM TIME MACHINE....
This is the best option if you want to keep everything you had on your old hard drive.
Another option you have is to reinstall OS X through OS X Recovery (hold Command and R keys while your Mac is starting up) and then, restore the backup during Setup Assistant, so you can choose what you want to restore. This may give you better performance, as OS X will be cleaner

Restoring time machine backup stuck at end

Hello!
I recently suffered a random filesystem failure and had to reinstall the OS. I was running 10.7, in fact, I turned on my MBP to install 10.7.1.
After a lengthy download, the installer prompted me to restore from a Time Machine backup, which I'm keeping since my last hardware HD failure. I chose to restore, and the installer detected my Time Capsule, loaded the backup, and started restoring.
I left it overnight and, come the following morning, the restore hadn't finished yet. Again, I left it while I was at work, and came back 8 hours later to find the screen in the exact same way I left it in the morning.
After some tests trying to restore the backup (including a failed back-to-Snow Leopard attempted recovery, couldn't connect to my TC), I figured I would reinstall Lion from scratch and use Console.app to check the progress using the system log when restoring using Migration Assistant.
My first surprise was when I tried to run Migration Assistant using the root user, which made Migration Assistant crash, so I had to create a second administrator user in order to restore my original administrator account.
After leaving it run its course, I started noticing that the Migration Assistant was trying to restart opendirectoryd, and that it was failing to start, citing error 71 "profile could not be found" (or opened, instead of found, I really don't remember and don't have the log here with me).
I then went into the terminal to check if the restored data was on disk, which it was, so, after a couple of attempts of launchd to restart opendirectoryd, I pulled the plug and shut the machine down cold (no shutdown process, just held the power button).
When the computer started up again (I have verbose boot mode on), it stalled at macx_swapon (again, or something like that, I don't remember), and didn't move in the whole hour and a half I let it sit there.
I tried booting single user mode, but the only thing I got to do was check if the restored data was there (which it was), and try to create my user (which I couldn't).
I've had success restoring backups from that Time Capsule but for another Mac.
Is there any way I can restore my computer back to the exact state of the Time Machine backup? FWIW, the TM backup is a data-only backup (i.e. doesn't have the OS with it), so a disk clone is not an option.
I really would like to avoid going the "fake manual restore" option of creating the same user, moving the files manually and so on, it's a PITA
Thanks in advance,
Nico

Sorry, can'thelp. But:
I trust TM only for rescuing individual files. I tried a full restoration of my Lion system, as a test, and everything was restored and seemed OK except half my Mail messages were missing. A few months ago, on OS 10.5.8, TM suddenly told me that it had deleted some files. The files deleted were all from Jan. 2010 to four weeks before! I know that it does this if the TM disc is getting full, but I had not created any large files in the preceding few hours. Also, the TM disc had loads of space left, yet when the message came, TM's GetInfo showed the disc nearly full!. I had to erase the disc and start again.
I don't find TM reliable. I make my backups in the form of bootable clones, scheduled every day in Carbon Copy Cloner.

Restoring Time Machine backup to older version of OS X

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