Time Machine cant restore data

I had a problem with track pad and service centre suggested to reinstal the OS by formatting the disk. I took the backup by using TM. After formatting, unable to restore the valuable data from TM indicating issues with TM stored hard drive.
Can anyone suggest some solution/software to reinstal or recover the data?

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.

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Time machine cant restore my old files

I erased my hard-drive 2 days ago and i have been unable to restore my old files backed up with time machine. Every time i tried to restore the Address book or i Cal, it always says that i already have the same file and if i want to keep both or replace the old one. And if i do replace it, it seems to work but my Address book remain empty.
When i go through my backed files with the time machine machine, i can see some of my old data but i just dont how to restore them. Can anybody tell the right way of restoring the i Cal and the address book??
thanks

I had something simlar and discovered that the permissions on my backup disk we're completely and remarkably (in that the new owner or the entire backup was a non-administrator user on my system) changed.
My symptoms were like yours: backups from before a certain date not highlighted in white (i.e. not available for browsing via Time Machine).
My restore became a nightmare of knife-and-fork work. Very disappointing.
Please try this:
Browse your backup disk (i.e. the disk you pointed Tome Machine at) with Finder or Terminal. Down a couple of levels you'll come to a folder containing one subfolder for every backup taken. Go to one of the backups you cannot open via Time Machine (so any 12th Jan backup name will start with "2008-01-12...", and so forth).
Browse into the backup folder. The sub folders to open are:
1. the name of your hard drive
2. Users
In the ./Users folder there'll be a folder in there with your username. I f if, like mine, the permissions have been hosed then you'll be able to tell pretty easily.
If you're using Finder then do a Get Info on the "yourusername" folder and tell us what permissions are set. If you're using Terminal, do an ls -la on the same directory and report back.

Time machine: partially restoring data after reinstallation

I want to reinstall my macbook pro. With this new install I want to restore some information from my time machine backup, but not all. Is it possible to "go back in time" from the fresh installation and collect some of the the files from the last installation (read: time machine backups from my previous installation)?
The best way would be to continue the time machine "timeline". That way I could collect files when in need them.

Arend-Jan wrote:
I want to reinstall my macbook pro. With this new install I want to restore some information from my time machine backup, but not all. Is it possible to "go back in time" from the fresh installation and collect some of the the files from the last installation (read: time machine backups from my previous installation)?
it's possible but you'd have to do it by hand. you can use any automated migration tools if you want to do that.
a fresh install will start its own backup sequence but you can always access your old backups in browse mode. control-click on TM in the dock and choose "browse other disks". this will let you browse you old backups and restore what you want.
BTW, this question is posted in the printing and faxing forum. you should have posted it in the Time Machine forum.
Message was edited by: V.K.

I used time machine to restore on a formatted MAC. Now the HDD space has reduced by 100GB but I cannot see any of the files. How do I find and delete those 100GB data from the HDD?

I used time machine to restore on a formatted MAC. Now the HDD space has reduced by 100GB but I cannot see any of the files. How do I find and delete those 100GB data from the HDD?

dglenn9000 wrote:
I created a new user account just to see if it was my user Library or if there was something wrong with my system. And the new user account is doing most of the same things so I will need to do a full restore anyway.
Not necessarily. I'd suggest downloading and installing the "combo" update. That's a combination (thus the clever name) of all the updates to Leopard since it was first released, so installing it should fix anything that's gone wrong since then, such as with one of the normal "point" updates. Info and download available at: http://support.apple.com/downloads/MacOS_X_10_5_8_ComboUpdate Be sure to do a +Repair Permissions+ via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) afterwards.

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

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

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

Ok. Add me to the moron list. I guess I am an over zealous trash emptier. Can I retrieve those images from the vastness by entering my time machine and restore the library from a previous date (when I wasn't a moron?)

Ok. Add me to the moron list. I guess I am an over zealous trash emptier. Can I retrieve those images by entering my time machine and restoring the Iphoto library from a previous date (when I wasn't a moron?)

Masters is where you want to be. They'll be in there in folders based on the date and time they were imported.
Regards
TD

I have a powerbook G4 with macosx10.5.8 (as far as I know the latest possible OS with powerPC). Can I use Time Machine to restore my data on an Intel Macbook?

I have a powerbook G4 with macosx10.5.8 (as far as I know the latest possible OS with powerPC). Can I use Time Machine to restore my data on an Intel Macbook?

Well the newer TimeMachine model as stated in current Support pages isn't directly compatible on OS X 10.5 now, as noted in above link provided.
What OS X does your newer MacBook have running in it? (Not linux?)
With the current setup you have there may be a way -among other details in the support page- to do the migration of data from Mac, including a subnote on Time Machine, in a section below the main article with triangle by it, from links here:
•OS X: How to migrate data from another Mac using Mavericks 10.9:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5872
•OS X: How to migrate data from another Mac using Mountain Lion 10.8 and Earlier:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4889
In the support articles there are various troubleshooting and help items about the technology, some data back some time and whatever still stands would be there. Some archives are no longer current and say so.
Perhaps someoone still using older PPC Macs and Leopard 10.5, will say how to backup into a G4 PowerBook, from a Time Machine.
Unless the TimeMachine backup from the older PPC G4 PowerBook is used in the migration process of transferring personal account files from there to a new MacBook running (?) OS X. This probably could be done. You may be able to access older libraries, such as iPhoto, iTunes, etc and import them from the archive, to a newer Intel-based MacBook.
Sorry for any confusion.
I'll more carefully reply in the future.
Good luck & happy computing!
PS: a different direction on archives, time machine, clones, and other devices:
•About Time Machine - Time Machine vs. Clones and Archives:
http://pondini.org/TM/Clones.html
•Apple OS X and Time Machine Tips:
http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
{edited to add link details}

Time machine backup restoring problem

i recently restored my mac. i saved everything through time machine on a hd. i want to restore some notes from the inbuilt notes app from mac. i know the folder is hidden and sandboxed and all and i followed the procedure, but MY PROBLEM IS that i dont have a containers folder in the backup folder. i typed in search box and everything but dint come. now the peculiar part is that when i typed com.apple.notes there was a folder. but when i opened it it dint have the data-library-core data folders. the other thing is that when i looked for the folder on my mac, it was there but the end instruction said that there should be a p18.notesexternalrecord thing in the 0 folder, which wasnt there either. somebody plz help because my very important documents are there and my job may be at stake. please help.

Quit Notes and temporarily disable iCloud synchronization, if applicable.
Triple-click the line below to select it:
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Reveal
from the contextual menu. A Finder window should open with an item selected. Enter Time Machine and restore the selected item.

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

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

Booting From Snow Leopard Installer Disc
1. Insert Snow Leopard Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.
Drive Preparation and Installation
1. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
7. After formatting is complete quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.

Using Time Machine to restore an *older* BackUp drive

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

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

When using Time Machine to restore some Mac Mails, after clicking restore, a message shows "restoring 480 mesages. They are supposed to appear on Mac Mail sidebar in a special folder. They are not there and I have no idea where they are? Would apprecia

I am having a problem with the Time Machine in restoring Mac Mail back to a certain date. Everything works fine, with Mac Mail the active application and entering Time Machine, and I have found the mail file after the location process is done, then I hit Restore and there is a messages "restoring 480 messages", but I cannot locate them anywhere. What is suppose to happen is that a special file should appear in the sidebar of Mac Mail in the section On My Mac. Any suggestion would be appreciated.
I use Mountain Lion.

Although you can restore messages from a Time Machine snapshot within the Mail application, it generally won't work with messages that were saved by an older version of Mail. In that case, you have to use an alternative method.
Triple-click the line below to select it:
~/Library/Mail/V2
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Reveal
from the contextual menu. A Finder window should open with a folder selected. Inside that folder are subfolders representing your Mail accounts. The names refer to the email addresses you use. Decide which ones you want to restore messages from.
Enter Time Machine and scroll back to the snapshot you want. Select the account folders you want and then selectRestore ... to... from the action menu (gear icon) in the toolbar of the snapshot window. Restore the folders to the Desktop, not to their original location.
From the Mail menu bar, select
File ▹ Import Mailboxes...
Import from the mailboxes in the folders you restored to the Desktop. The imported messages will appear in a new mailbox. Move the ones you want to keep wherever you like and delete the rest. Then delete the folders on the Desktop.

Time Machine System Restore Help

I need help with the following problem with Time Machine.
I am attempting to restore a OS 10.5.8 system on a G5 Tower.
When I startup the G5 Tower from the startup disks, I goto the RESTORE SYSTEM FROM BACKUP utility in the Utilities menu. From there the Time Machine system restore does nothing at all.
The TIME MACHINE back up is on a USB external drive. This is a backup of the G5 Tower time machine backups - not another system.
As a testing procedurre, I take the Time Machine external USB drive, plug it into my Mac Mini 1.83 Ghz, start up the mini from the startup disks, select the RESTORE SYSTEM FROM BACKUP utility, and TIME MACHINE goes through the prompts fine checking what date you want to restore from.
Does anybody have any experience with this problem - any info helps.
Thanks.

I have never heard of this - it does sound unsettling. I'm not sure how to fix it so that the G5 sees it, but you might try this:
-Boot your G5 while holding down T
-Hook the G5 up to the Mini with a FireWire cable
-Boot the Mini up from your Leopard DVD
-Select Restore from Backup from the menu
-Pick which backup you want restored
-When it asks you for a destination disk for the restore, choose the G5's disk

Use Time Machine to restore my iTunes library ?

I installed this plug-in into iTunes which is supposed to organize your music collection by filling in the dates, genre and any missing album artwork, but I was not satisfied with the results. I uninstalled the plug-in, but now I was wondering if I could use Time Machine to restore my iTunes library back to the way it was before running the plugin. I tried using Time Machine to revert my music library in my Home folder, but that did not seem to restore the data back to the way it was. Perhaps there is another folder in which iTunes stores information that I need to revert? The plug-in's documentation offered no assistance in this matter.

I was thinking I might wipe my macbook then reinstall it from the disks in my Macbook box.
Yes, you can retore your iTunes Library using Time Machine but since you are running Lion you need to use Lion Recovery to reinstall the Mac OS X, not the install discs that came with your Mac.
Not enough free space on the startup disk can slow the system down.
Right or control click the MacintoshHD icon. Click Get Info. In the Get Info window you will see Capacity and Available. Make sure there's a minimum of 15% free disk space.
Freeing Up Hard Disk Space - Mac Guides

Mac enters a deep sleep during Time Machine full restore

I have the problem listed in the subject. Here is my configuration:
Mac Pro (early 2008), dual quad-core Xenon 2.8 GHz, 10 GBs of RAM, hard disks as follows:
Bay 1: 1 TB HD System, running OS X 10.6.2, ~500 gigs used, ~400 gigs free, small Bootcamp partition
Bay 2: 1.5 TB hard disk, used exclusively for backing up the drive in Bay 1
Bay 3: 1 TB spare drive, currently contains only OS X 10.6.2 plus some utilities. This drive is not backed up.
Bay 4: empty
OK, so now for what happened. Recently, I had an issue with my main drive (bay 1); rather than attempt to fix it, I decided to reformat the drive and restore from a Time Machine backup. I booted off the Snow Leopard DVD, chose the Restore option from the Utilities menu, and started the restore.
When I returned to the Mac after a couple of hours to see how things were going, the Mac was asleep and could not be woken up by moving the mouse, clicking its buttons, or hitting any key on the keyboard. The (wired) keyboard was totally inactive (no caps lock light, etc.). Pressing the Power button on the Mac Pro didn't do anything, nor could I connect to it from my MacBook Pro by means of screen or file sharing. The only thing I could do was to hold the power button in until the machine turned off completely. Restarting from the DVD worked fine.
I looked for answers on the web, and I found a couple of posts here. One of them suggested setting the sleep parameter to "Never" (if one still had a boot partition); I did that by booting from the disk in bay 3, not quite believing it would work since I was booting from the DVD to do the restore.
Once booted from the DVD, I tried the other answer I had found, and that is executing the command "pmset sleep 0" in the terminal before launching the restore. I got an error to the effect that the write operation failed (duh!), but I thought that maybe the parameter would be held in memory. I started the restore operation again and went to sleep.
Needless to say, the same thing happened again. The only way I was finally able to perform the restore was by sitting next to the machine and moving the mouse every few minutes to keep the system awake. This process took a little over two and a half hours (which is not bad considering the amount of data involved). The operation was successful, and I was able to boot from the restored drive. Everything is now back to normal. However, I am puzzled by the apparent necessity to babysit the Mac while it is restoring from a Time Machine backup.
This clearly did NOT happen with the Leopard (10.5) DVD. I suspect (but don't know for sure) that the 10.5 DVD's system included a never sleep setting that Apple forgot to include on the 10.6 DVD.
Is anybody able to perform lengthy restores by booting from the Snow Leopard DVD? If so, how do they get around the sleep issue? Or doesn't it happen in the first place? I would also like to know what state my Mac is in when it stops in the middle of a restore operation; it is clearly not a normal sleep mode since I haven't actually found any way of waking it up.
Finally, I would love to be able to boot from my Bay 3 drive and launch a system restore operation from there since both the Time Machine drive and the target drive would be available. Is there any way at all that this can be done? Has anyone succeeded in using the Time Machine full restore from any location other than the OS DVD? This would obviously be interesting since one could continue to use the Mac while the restore operation is ongoing.
Thanks for any info anyone can provide.
Daniel

something is wrong with your system. changing energy saver settings while booted normally from an external should have taken care of this issue. I suggest you reset SMC
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
and you are right, using "pmset sleep 0" from terminal while booted from the DVD does not work. I think it was me who recommended that. that was very dumb of me. thanks for pointing that out. but it should not be necessary as i mentioned.
all that said, in response to your last question yes it is perfectly possible to run the installer and the restore utility while booted normally from another drive. beeing quite impatient (and having a mac pro with several internal bays ) this is the only way I ever install or restore. also, I don't use the DVD itself. I made a small partition on one of my internals and cloned the SL install DVD to that. it works much quicker from there.
anyway, to start the installer while booted normally from another drive run the following terminal command
sudo /Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Installation/CDIS/Mac OS X Installer.app/Contents/MacOS/Mac OS X Installer
this will let you use the mac and do other things while the restore is going on.

Backup contents not showing during Time Machine system restore

I just installed a new hard drive on my Macbook Pro so I'm trying to restore a backup of my old hard drive that was saved on a USB-connected external drive (model: LaCie Minimus). However, when I try to transfer the information during system setup, my backup is not showing as part of the external drive's contents. Only the backup information of two other computers are showing up, but not mine (my computer is called 'Hannah Mercader's Macbook Pro'):
However, if I plug the external drive into another laptop to view its contents, my computer's backup information is clearly in the external drive:
I am positive that I have been backing up my laptop properly using Time Machine. However, the last time that I did try backing up my laptop, it didn't work because my hard drive had failed in the middle of the process (hence the reason for needing to install a new hard drive). I've already tried to Repair the external drive using Disk Utility... everything seems OK but my backups still aren't showing when I try to set up my laptop.
Please help me to restore my last proper backup's contents!

Most likely, some folders were excluded from your backups as the result of a failed or aborted software installation.
Starting from a clean installation of OS X, set up a new administrator account and log in. Enter Time Machine and 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 your home folder (in the Users folder at the top level of the old startup volume.)
You should now be able to restore your user data. I suggest you do this in two stages. Quit all applications except the Finder before you begin.
Restore all the visible items at the top level of your home folder.
Hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar. Enter Time Machine and restore all items in the Library folder. Log out and log back in as soon as the restore is complete.
Any other invisible folders or files at the top level of your home folder that you want to preserve will have to be restored separately. For most users, that isn't necessary.
You'll have to reinstall all third-party applications from scratch, or restore them from another kind of backup, if you have one.
You'll have another problem if this is a new computer, or if you erased the startup volume: The next time you back up, Time Machine won't recognize any files as being the same as they were before, and will make a full copy of all files. There might not be enough space on one or more of your backup volumes for that. There are different ways of dealing with that situation, depending on your needs. The easiest way is to set your backup drives aside, if possible, until you're sure you'll no longer need the data on them, then erase them and start over. Meanwhile start a new backup on one or more empty storage devices. If that solution isn't workable for you, ask for instructions.
*If you don't see any snapshots in Time Machine, exit the time-travel view and then hold down the option key while selecting
Browse Other Backup Disks...
from the Time Machine menu, which has an icon that looks like a clock running backwards. Select the backups of your computer by its previous name. If you don't have the Time Machine menu, open the Time Machine preference pane in System Preferences and check the box marked
Show Time Machine in menu bar

Time Machine cant restore data

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