Time Machine: Full System Restore On New iMac...

I currently use Time Machine on my 24" iMac with a 500GB external hardrive. If something were to happen to my current iMac (i.e. My kid knocks it off the desk and it breaks), and I was forced to buy a new one, would I be able to use Time Machine to restore the new iMac to the last Back-Up of the old iMac? If so, would it automati ally transfer all of my pictures, movies, music, etc. to the new iMac as well? Thanks for any help y'all can give me on this subject.

J Double DuBB wrote:
I currently use Time Machine on my 24" iMac with a 500GB external hardrive. If something were to happen to my current iMac (i.e. My kid knocks it off the desk and it breaks), and I was forced to buy a new one, would I be able to use Time Machine to restore the new iMac to the last Back-Up of the old iMac?
not using full system restore utility on the leopard install DVD. your current system lacks hardware drivers that would be needed for a newer computer and if you do a full system restore of your current computer onto a newer computer using the restore utility on the leopard DVD it will most likely not even boot.
however, during the original computer setup you'll be given an option to transfer user data, settings and applications from a TM backup of your old computer. that option does not transfer system files but it does transfer everything else including your pictures, movies, music etc.
You can also do the same thing later using Migration Assistant (it's in /Applications/Utilities).

Similar Messages

Unable to boot after Time Machine full system restore!!

I was having some serious slowdowns with my computer. I did multiple RAM and HD hardware tests, everything seemed to be working fine. I had recently deleted a bunch of files in order to free up some HD space, so I thought that may be the culprit. So I did a Time Machine backup and restored the Powerbook to it's original 10.3 software. All was fine. Then I upgraded back to 10.5 and all was fine. Then I did a Time Machine full system restore overnight and got the message "Your restore was successful, you must now restart your computer" (or something to that effect). Now I get the start-up chime and startup screen (apple logo) but then the computer shuts itself down. I have reset the PMU and PRAM to no effect. I have tried booting up in safe made, also no dice. I have tried starting it up with the time machine HD attached - doesn't help. I guess I'll need to hit the genius bar but wanted to ask the friendly discussion forum folks first. thanks in advance.

Hi coldengray
Did you try to start from your System-CD? Hold down C-key during startup, start DiskUtility from the menu and verify/repair disk and permissions there.
If the CD is not available you can also connect your TimeMachine-Disk, select it as startup volume in System Preferences/StartupDisk, restart and then run DiskUtility from folder Applications/Utilities
Good luck P

Lion Restore Using Time Machine (Full System Rollback)

I recently installed Lion Server to my Imac, and have decided this was not a wise move (I'll use my Mac Mini Instead)
I'm looking to restore my system in its entierty to before I instaled the server.
I have a time Machine Backup for the point in time before the install was done, but I get messages saying that some files are locked, and I need to unlock them before I can do the restore. It does not tell me which files.
Is there an easy way to do the restore?
The IMac was bought in August and has been upgraded to Lion from Snow Leopard, so I am guessing there is no recovery option as standard on the disk.
I can't find anything in knowledgebase, so what are my options?

Sounds like you're not using the right procedure (Apple doesn't make it clear, unfortunately).
See #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

I can't access my files on my old Time Machine back up on my newer iMac

Okay, so I’m in a bit of a mess here.
I did have an old Macbook running on Snow Leopard 10.6.8 which died on me.
Luckily I managed to get a few Time Machine Back Ups before I passed away . These back ups are
saved on a non-Apple external HD.
I recently inherited an iMac ( from 2009) which was also
running on Snow Leopard 10.6.8. I got very excited and hastily up graded the OS
to Yosemite.
This iMac belonged to a friend, and I did not have the Snow
Leopard disc to perform a factory restore so I decided to simple delete their
account (System Admin account) from the iMac and keep the account they made for
me with the intentions of making that the main account.
After upgrading to Yosemite and deleting the System Admin account and making
myself the main account holder on the iMac I tried to access my files on my
external HD to manually move them onto the new iMac ( such as my photos,
videos, music, logic files, documents etc).
This is where I encountered my problem. I can no longer
access my folders on my external HD. It tells me I do not have permission to do
so, with a little red stop sign on front of all of these folders and files.
Is there any way I can fix this without having to buy a Snow Leopard disc? AND
IF I do perform a factory restore will my files in my HD still be locked?
Thank you in advance.

I managed to get a few Time Machine Back Ups before I passed away
I'm not sure whether a ghost can do this, but if you were still alive, you could do as follows.
First make sure you have read & write access to the folder you're trying to restore to. You should be able to see its contents in the Finder, and to move files in and out of it.
This is an exception to the rule that you should never make any changes to backup data. I've tested this procedure in OS X 10.8 only. It should work with later versions, but I don't know whether it works in earlier versions. Use it only for files that were backed up from your home folder, or a folder on another volume created by you, and would normally be writable by you. Do not touch backups of system or application files.
In the Finder (not in the time-travel view), navigate to the backup volume, then to the folder named "Backups.backupdb", and then to the snapshot you want to restore from. The snapshots are folders labeled with the date when they were created. Inside each of those folders is a file hierarchy like the one on the volume that was backed up. Descend through the hierarchy until you come to a folder named "Users," and inside that, a folder with your user name. The procedure will be different if you're trying to restore files on another volume.
Select the folder and open the Info dialog (command-I). Click the padlock icon in the lower right corner of the window and authenticate. In the Sharing & Permissions section, give your account Read & Write access. You may have to close the dialog and repeat this step in order for the change to show up. Then click the gear icon and select
Apply to Enclosed Items
from the popup menu.
Try the restore operation again, in the time-travel interface.

Problem with Time Capsule full system restore

I just had a calamity....dropped my new MacBook Pro and it's inoperable. I had my old MacBook Pro and to get going again tried to do a system restore to that from Time Capsule. Followed the Install disc instructions. Restored form the last full Time Machine backup seemed to go OK but I was unable to login to my user account.....said that FileVault could not be accessed. I have tried everything I can think of...even using the Master password to try to change my login password...it won't take anything I put in as a new password although it recognizes the Master Password. It seems that the Keychain access is corrupted and I can't fix it. I've tried to do a full restore two more times with the same problem. Can't get access to my files. Any thoughts appreciated.

thamill,
Welcome to the Apple discussions!
You can't do a "Restore System From Backup..." from one Mac to another. You need to use your Mac OS DVD for the MacBook Pro and do an Erase & Install and during the installation you will be able to Migrate your user data over form the TC.
*Erase, Install, & Migrate*
A final option, reserved for last resort, is to erase the hard disk, install a fresh copy of the Mac OS, and then use Migration Assistant during the installation to restore your user accounts. This is the Mac equivalent of ‘Slash and Burn’, and really should only be necessary if you require a completely fresh start.
Procedure:
Verify that your Mac has uninterrupted AC power.
For faster migration of user data, Time Capsule/AirDisk users should connect their Macs directly to their Airport device via ethernet.
Insert your original Mac OS 10.5 Leopard DVD and reboot while holding down the “C” key.
At the “Welcome” screen click “Continue”.
Click “Agree” to the user agreement.
Select you Macs internal hard disk and click “Options”.
Select “Erase and Install”.
Select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” for disk format. (Avoid selecting “Case-sensitive” unless you know what you are doing.)
Click “OK”.
Click “Continue”.
At “Install Summary” click “Customize” if you would like to eliminate certain Print Drivers, Fonts, or Language packages from being installed. Otherwise, click “Install”.
If you wish, you can click “Skip” when the DVD integrity check begins.
After the initial installation completes, your Mac will restart and you will see the video introduction.
At “Welcome” select your country and then preferred keyboard.
At “Do You Already Own a Mac?” you are asked “Would you like to transfer your information?”
+from another Mac+
+from another volume on this Mac+
+from a Time Machine backup+
+Do not transfer my information now+
Select “from a Time Machine backup” and click “Continue”.
At “Select a Backup Volume” choose your Time Machine backup disk and click “Continue”. (If you are attempting the migration wirelessly, then click “Join...” and select your network first.)
At “Transfer Your Information” check all the categories you wish to migrate over. If you wish your Mac to be in the same state as your last backup, then check everything. Give the installer time to calculate sizes.
Once that is complete, the “Transfer” button will become active and you can click it.
After the install, verify the registration information, click “Connect” and you are done.
After logging in, immediately go to System Preferences --> Time Machine, and turn “OFF” backups, even if a backup attempted has begun.
Next, Launch Disk Utility, select your Macs’ internal disk on the left, and click “Repair Disk Permissions”.
Interestingly, no Spotlight indexing appears necessary, so, once the permission repair is complete, turn Time Machine back “ON” in the Preferences. Time Machine should continue to backup to the same set of backups that it did prior to the restore. However, due to event logs being out of sync, the first backup will require a lengthy session of “Preparing...” as Time Machine performs a “deep traversal”. Allow this to proceed uninterrupted. Naturally, the first backup after a significant installation like this will be quite large so don’t be alarmed.
Cheers!

Time Machine Full HDD Restore not recognizing Login Password

Hi, my old G5 had Leopard running on it, the Logic Board failed so I got another, I decided to upgrade the HDD, Installed Leopard, connected my Lacie Firewire 800 External Drive to install the previous files/settings from Time Machine, All went fine until the Login password shook around saying it was incorrect. Its without a doubt the right password, no question about it. Tried another keyboard incase it was faulty, it wasn't. Had to put old HDD back in, works fine but I'm concerned, if this HDD fails, are my hourly backups rendered useless as I cant access them on a new install??
Please help, Im still a little out of my comfort zone as fairly new to Mac.

richeyf wrote:
Hi, thanks for your post, so I can assume from this that, if my current HDD failed, if I followed the instructions in item #14 of the Frequently Asked Questions, all would be well.
Yes, it should, unless you'd excluded important things from TM, and as long as your backups aren't corrupted.
Also, since I started backing up using TM on my new machine, my external drive now has 2 sets of back ups, one from the old machine and one from my current one.
TM started a whole new "sequence" of backups, since it thinks you got a new Mac. It uses the +Ethernet Address+ of your Mac, not it's name or serial number, to distinguish one from another. Unfortunately, that address is embedded in the hardware of the logic board. (Small consolation: in Snow Leopard, you get a prompt allowing TM to continue using the old set of backups.)
Should I just delete the old one to create more space as Im rapidly running out, or will it mess things up?
If you're going to try a full restore, obviously not until it's complete and everything checks out. So, as mentioned in #14, immediately turn TM off until you're sure. Then erase the TM disk with Disk Utility.
If you're not going to do the full restore, then you have two unattractive choices:
Manually delete backups from the old set, but *+not via the Finder+*. Use the +*Browse . . .+* option (see #17 of the FAQ Tip), then delete them one at a time via #12 there.
Erase the drive with Disk Utility and let TM start fresh.

Using Time Machine to migrate to a new iMac, can I keep my old backups?

I've done a lot of searching on this and I'm having trouble finding an answer. I just got a new iMac to replace my existing one. I know the process of migrating either Mac-to-Mac or from my TM backup is straightforward and fairly simple. I'm just trying to figure out if, after migrating all my data to my new Mac, what will happen to my Time Machine disk. Will it want to re-baseline the new Mac and erase my historic backup data? Or will I still have access to the older incremental backups?
Thanks,
Matt

Matt in VA wrote:
I'm just trying to figure out if, after migrating all my data to my new Mac, what will happen to my Time Machine disk.
If you use either Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant to transfer your stuff, you'll be offered a choice. See #B5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
You might also want to see How do I set up a new Mac from my old Mac or its backups?

Time machine full after restore

Hi all
I recently suffered the 'pleasure' of a HD failure in my 2008 24". An apple engineer replaced the drive and reinstated my data from time machine - all good so far. However, my mac doesnt want to relink with my existing backups and continue the save/delete old entries like before. I can still access my old backups, but It seems to want to create a new time machine on the very little space i have left on the drive for new backups.
Is there a way of relinking to the previous backup or is it a case of wipe/restart, which i'd like to avoid.
Ta.
Dezza.

Hllo:
Time machine will try to make a complete new backup as a result of the new drive.
I would (I am not you) erase and format the external drive and let Time Machine make the new backup.
Barry

How to access root apps folder again in Time Machine after a restore?

I just did a Time Machine full system restore which worked, but now it doesn't look like Time Machine is backing up my root level apps folder. All of my root apps were indeed restored, but if I try to go into Time Machine with my (root) Apps folder open, it switches the folder contents to my user apps instead so I don't have access to the root apps in TM. It doesn't appear to be backing them up at the root level anymore either (nothing in the exclusions that would cause this). Any ideas on what happened here? I have just one admin level account on this machine.

cubytus wrote:
Hi everyone,
I just reformated the MacBook hard drive using Extended HFS+, journaled partition to get rid of the case-sensitiveness, which is incompatible with just ONE of my softwares. As such, TM partition is formatted as Extended HFS+, journaled and case-sensitive.
This mis-match is likely to cause trouble in the future. If you have, for example, two files named "FileA" and "filea" in the same folder on the TM drive, and try to restore them to your case-ignorant HD, TM is going to have a problem. I've never tried it, so I can't tell you whether it will overlay the first one it restores with the second, or crash, or what, but it can't be done.
And you may have some of these without realizing it -- if you ever changed a capital to lower-case, or vice-versa, after a file's initial backup, it's a possibility.
Indeed, I checked directly in the Time Machine tree on the external hard drive with Apple+I keys, and 'cubytus' was not listed in the permissions.
No, TM automatically denies everything to everybody, among other things, in it's backups, to keep us mere mortals from messing with them. The original file permissions are kept separately, and TM should restore them along with the files, as they were.
What you're probably seeing is, the user that you're signed-on as won't have those permissions, once TM restores the files. I'd suggest trying the same procedure as your other, or original user -- see if you get the same message.

Unable to boot up after full system restore

I was having some serious slowdowns with my computer. I did multiple RAM and HD hardware tests, everything seemed to be working fine. I had recently deleted a bunch of files in order to free up some HD space, so I thought that may be the culprit. So I did a Time Machine backup and restored the Powerbook to it's original 10.3 software. All was fine. Then I upgraded back to 10.5 and all was fine. Then I did a Time Machine full system restore overnight and got the message "Your restore was successful, you must now restart your computer" (or something to that effect). Now I get the start-up chime and startup screen (apple logo) but then the computer shuts itself down. I have reset the PMU and PRAM to no effect. I have tried starting it up with the time machine HD attached - doesn't help. I guess I'll need to hit the genius bar but wanted to ask the friendly discussion forum folks first. thanks in advance.

Did you sort it? Same thing happened to me and I am having to do another 8 hour restore!

Time Machine question re: full system restore

OK I am pretty sure this in the FAQ but the answer still isn't overly clear to me so I'm going to ask anyway...apologies in advance.
I recently found out that my iMac hard drive is failing, I have an appointment with the Genius Bar in two days to see what is wrong and get it fixed.
In the meantime, I am currently backing up my hard drive using Time Machine but I am hearing conflicting reports as to whether or not I can do a full restore from Time Machine should my iMac have it's hard drive or other components replaced.
So...question: Can I directly restore my iMac (with a possible new hard drive or other components) from Time Machine? If not, how can I do it.
I am most worried about my photos in iPhoto as my wife will murder me if I lose our wedding and honeymoon photos.

LSC wrote:
OK I am pretty sure this in the FAQ but the answer still isn't overly clear to me so I'm going to ask anyway...apologies in advance.
I recently found out that my iMac hard drive is failing, I have an appointment with the Genius Bar in two days to see what is wrong and get it fixed.
In the meantime, I am currently backing up my hard drive using Time Machine but I am hearing conflicting reports as to whether or not I can do a full restore from Time Machine should my iMac have it's hard drive or other components replaced.
So...question: Can I directly restore my iMac (with a possible new hard drive or other components) from Time Machine?
yes, you can. you can do it using full system restore utility on the leopard install DVD. there are no ifs or buts about it. where is that "conflicting info" coming from?
If not, how can I do it.
I am most worried about my photos in iPhoto as my wife will murder me if I lose our wedding and honeymoon photos.

After Full System Restore, Time Machine Won't Complete Back Up

I successfully did a full system restore using Time Machine. The Restore worked but Time Machine has not worked since I completed the Restore.
It says "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume.." Please help. I don't know what to do. The TM Widget Activity Log is posted below:
Starting standard backup
BStarting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
No pre-backup thinning needed: 529.6 MB requested (including padding), 30.58 GB available
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /private/var/CheckUpAgent/data.float.net.sent.ca_history to (null)
Copied 5546 files (34.6 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
No pre-backup thinning needed: 526.8 MB requested (including padding), 30.54 GB available
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /private/var/CheckUpAgent/data.float.net.sent.ca_history to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:NO Copying /private/var/CheckUpAgent/data.float.net.sent.ca_history to /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Akili Nickson’s iMac/2011-03-17-080109.inProgress/25E02D47-EB07-4E59-B2D8-0A9CF26A0042/Macintos h HD/private/var/CheckUpAgent
Stopping backup.
Error: (-8062) SrcErr:NO Copying /private/var/CheckUpAgent/data.float.net.sent.ca_history to /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Akili Nickson’s iMac/2011-03-17-080109.inProgress/25E02D47-EB07-4E59-B2D8-0A9CF26A0042/Macintos h HD/private/var/CheckUpAgent
Copied 57 files (23.1 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Copy stage failed with error:11
Backup failed with error: 11

Akili wrote:
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /private/var/CheckUpAgent/data.float.net.sent.ca_history
There seems to be a problem with that file. See the blue box in #C3 of [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
Note that the /private folder is normally hidden, so you'll need to click the +Show inisible items+ box.

How can one do a full system restore from Time Machine to a Macbook Air

I recently had a major crash on my two internal disc DualG5. The system internal disk failed completely and I used Time Machine to do a full system restore to the second internal disc. It worked PERFECTLY!! I followed the instructions in support
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15638.html
This involved inserting the Leopard DVD into the optical drive and backing up from my external LaCie time machine backup.
I also have a MacBook Air. I use an external USB HD drive as Time Machine backup. The Air only has one USB port. I have an external DVD drive for the Air. Clearly, I will not be able to mount the DVD and External disk at the same time unless I use a small hub. I guess this will work but is there any other work around. Could I do a full reinstall and then connect the external HD?

Richard,
Alternatively, you could use Remote Disc Sharing (via the DualG5) to do the install and reserve the USB port for the Time Machine disk.
[http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1131]
[http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1777]
Let us know if this was helpful.
Cheers!

Ho do i restore my files from time machine after a full system restore?

I have just had a full system restore on my MAC, thanks to the genious bar in Bondi, prior to doing this i backed everything on my external hard drive using time machine, i now want to put everything back on to my MAC, including emails, music, photos, movies and important docs etc. what is the best way to do this?
cheers Colin,

See Here > How do I restore my entire system?
From Here > http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
More Info Here > http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Reimport of mail after Time Machine full restore

I did a full restore to a different machine today. That took a few hours. Then when I started up email it said it needed to import all the mail. It's been "preparing to import" for about 8 hours now. I do have tens of thousands of emails going back more than a decade, but it shouldn't take this long should it?
doug

A full system restore? Doing that to a different Mac, unless it's nearly identical both in hardware and date built, may be a problem. See: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2186 and: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3243
Apple actually recommended this as the "method of choice" for migrating to a new system if I had a full Time Machine backup. This happened In February when my MBP motherboard died. While waiting for repair I got a new iMac 21.5". I had my full TM backup and so Apple recommended I restore from that to my iMac and it worked perfectly.
This is disconcerting though. I depend really 100% on the fact that TM's backup is whole and valid. But I've noticed two problems since doing the restore to my MBP yesterday (1) this problem with the email and (2) the last few iPhoto events have missing photos - just placeholders showing where the photos are.
In this case, both machines are Core 2 Duo machines. Maybe that's why Apple recommended this method.
But if email is not going to be safely backed up this way maybe I need a combination of backup strategies, like throwing Carbon Copy Cloner (which I use for Parallel VM backups) into the mix.
What caused you to do this? Were you having problems with the other Mac? If so, perhaps something was corrupted on it, and the corruption was backed-up and restored.
There was no problem with either Mac. When my late-2006 MBP came back from Apple repair it then went out of the 3-year warranty. So I took this opportunity to upgrade the internal HD from its original 160 GB disk to a 500 GB / 7200 rpm disk. Now I can use it even more when on travel.
So all I wanted to do was take my current iMac content and move it over to the MBP. This worked fine in the other direction and was, as I mentioned above, the method Apple recommended I use.
I haven't actually lost any data at this point. Mail on my iMac is fine, as is the iPhoto library.
But I assumed the Time Machine backup was fine also. If it really isn't, it certainly adds an element of uncertainty that I didn't realize existed before.
Right now I can think of alternate ways of getting my mail over - like directly transferring the Mail library folder and preferences to the new machine.
But this sort of makes me wonder if I truly do have a good, reliable backup of important data now with TM. One purpose of TM is to be able to recover if your computer dies and you need to move to a different machine.
doug

Time Machine: Full System Restore On New iMac...

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