Time Machine Restore does NOTHING - URGENT!!!

I just got a brand new MacBook Pro 17", installed all my software and run Time Machine which successfully creates backups. But when starting the Time Machine application in the dock, nothing happens. I would expect the display with the list of backups, but the application does not seem to even get going. This is scary as I will rely on this backup process. I also installed a lot of software and do not plan to go back to factory install at all.
Anybody can help?

I've heard too many people reporting problems with Time Machine, and worse, problems with restoring from a previously functioning (or so it seemed) Time Machine backup. In the past, I've personally had trouble restoring individual files from a Backup (the app that used to come with .Mac membership) backup. For these reasons, I now use Carbon Copy Cloner to simply copy the files I want onto an external drive. Since there's no proprietary file format involved, just pure copy of files, I always know that, even if Carbon Copy Cloner for some reason stops working, I've at least got manual access to the files.
Sorry to be a pessimist, but from the reports I keep hearing, TM just isn't safe enough to trust data that you can't replace to it. Yes, I know you only hear the bad and not the good, so it could only be 2% of people having trouble... but in the event of a problem, a 2% chance of permanently losing irreplaceable pictures of my children when they were little is still too much.

Similar Messages

Clicking the Time Machine icon does nothing.

So I have backed up to an external hard-drive, and would like to confirm my backup. But clicking the Time Machine icon does nothing.
Is anyone else experiencing this?

Thanks all. I had used my external hard-drive on a PC previously, and thought that Time Machine would reformat it correctly, but erasing the external hard-drive with Disk Utility seems to have addressed the issue. I can now open Time Machine by clicking the icon in the dock, just as I was trying to do before... in vain.
So that problem being solved, I now have a question: If I have a Boot Camp partition (I do), will it be backed up by Time Machine as well? How can I check? I.e. how can I open that partition from Mac OS / Time Machine?

Time Machine restore does not recognize sparsebundle password

I am trying to do a time machine system restore from an encrypted sparse bundle. I have a mac with OS X 10.10.2 and the sparse bundle is on a time capsule. I rebooted with cmd+R and selected “Restore from a Time Machine Backup”. I was asked for the time machine password and then selected the sparse bundle I wanted to restore. At that point I was asked for the sparse bundle password, which however the system keeps rejecting. I am 100% sure the password is instead correct. To double check I restarted the mac and checked in the keychain, and the password is in fact correct. Also I could restore specific files from time machine without any problem. But when I try the system restore the way I just described, the system does not recognise that password as the correct one.
Can anybody suggest a solution? thanks
john

I think you will have to ring apple support and see if they can help you.. there is no easy way around this .. TM is simply buggy in Yosemite.. although encrypted TM bugs are not new. I think the same thing happens on earlier ones..
Re: Clean Install Problems With Encrypted Time Machine
The fix might be fairly long.. use setup assistant and use a different target drive eg USB and do a full install of the entire backup there. And then pick and choose the files..
For now I would avoid using encrypted backup.

Time Machine restore does not restore (completely)

Hi there,
lately I did a "clean" re-install and later I restored all applications (only the applications, because I clicked "do not restore this user account" or something) backed up earlier via Time Machine.
Today I wanted to do a full restore of everything I backed up in the past, including photo's movies, documents, etc.
I tried to do that but it only restored my applications again and that's it...
I just try to restore the backup from my iMac where I backed it up from, so...
I used the Migration Assistant.
What did I do wrong?
Any tips/comments are welcome!
Grtz,
Peter.

peterimac wrote:
What I already did before I got your answer is restoring my complete system using the install DVD that came with the iMac. I didn't re-install OS X, but restored my system from the TM backup, via the Utilities>restore from TM backup, or whatever it says.
Good. (That's the procedure in #14 of the FAQ Tip, and step #1 of the second option I suggested.)
It seems that it indeed restored my complete system this time.
Ah, so your system is now complete, with all your apps, data, etc.?
If so, now it's fairly quick and easy to get a fresh version of OSX. Do an +Archive and Install,+ being certain to select the +Preserve users and settings+ option, per the *Archive & Install* section of the Glenn Carter - Restoring Your Entire System / Time Machine *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
Then either use Software Update (as in that article), or download and install the "combo" update, to get back to 10.5.8. That's a combination (thus the clever name) of all the updates to Leopard since it was first released. 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.
If this sounds familiar, it's step #2 of the second option in my previous post.
I forgot to switch of TM, so it directly made a new backup from the "new" system, which is normal of course.
Should I have switched TM off, instead, so it didn't make the backup or is that no problem?
No, not a problem. It's suggested there mostly to save space on the TM drive since TM will usually new a full backup.
At the end of your answer you mention NOT to setup TM, so, did I do something wrong again?
Again, no, you're ok, since you did the full restore and don't need to use Migration Assistant.
Well to check wether I still/again had the shut down problem I, as a test, selected Disk Utility (via GO>... in Finder And guess what: it shut down on me... Again! Aaagghhhhrrr!
Not surprising, since the full restore has you back to the same condition as before you started trying to fix that. The full restore was step #1. Step #2 is to get a new version of OSX via +Archive and Install.+ I can't promise the +Archive and Install+ will fix the problem, but it will get a fresh copy of OSX, preserving all your apps and data.
Can the LaCie d2 quadra drive have something to do with. I didn't format it like you suggest in point 5 of Frequently Asked Questions User Tip. Should I perform a re-format (and partition it in the mean time which indeed will be better)? Maybe, as you say in the Freq Asked Questions: it might conflict with Mac (???).
Doubtful, since you were able to do the compete reinstall successfully.
In any event, I'd wait until the +Archive and Install+ is done before addressing that.
Don't worry about your answer being late. My question was extremely early because I'm in the Chinese Time Zone (I work/live in China as an expat)
Ah, that explains it!
You might ask yourself why I didn't go to an Apple Support shop here in China (the closest one for me is in Shanghai), but I don't really trust them... I've been in China for quite some time now, if you know what I mean. Probably I shouldn't worried, but there is also something like a language problem, too.
Even in the U.S., many of the Geniuses aren't very familiar with Time Machine, unfortunately.
I think you're well down the road to recovery . . . good luck!

HT3275 Time Machine backup does nothing

Question: Is there a magic fix I can apply? or do I need to format the backup disk and make a new backup from scratch? or do I need to replace the backup disk with a new one? Or am I asking the wrong questions?
After a mysterious freeze yesterday, followed by a shutdown and restart, Time Machine claims it is "Preparing backup ... Finishing backup" and is done very quickly. It does not spend its usual long time looking through a couple of hundred megabytes of files, nor does it do the subsequent stage of actually transferring data to the backup disk. "Entering" Time Machine seems to show it's at least a little confused: a test file created on the desktop fails to show in backups, while old files that have been moved appear on some backups, vanish on others.
I'm not much good with log files, but they show something like this:
12-02-29 10:54:49.260 AM com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup
12-02-29 10:54:49.287 AM com.apple.backupd: Backing up to: /Volumes/Jim Clarke backup/Backups.backupdb
12-02-29 10:54:50.247 AM com.apple.backupd: 3.11 GB required (including padding), 334.62 GB available
12-02-29 10:54:50.726 AM com.apple.backupd: Copied 29 files (153 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
12-02-29 10:54:51.329 AM com.apple.backupd: Starting post-backup thinning
12-02-29 10:54:51.330 AM com.apple.backupd: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
12-02-29 10:54:51.459 AM com.apple.backupd: Backup completed successfully.
The "29 files(153 bytes)" part is always the same, except for once when it said "21 KB" instead of 153 bytes.
I'll be very grateful for guidance. There's lots of advice on Time Machine out there, but I can't find anything relevant to this situation.
Jim Clarke

Time Machine uses the modification times of folders to determine whether their contents need to be scanned for changes made since the time of the last snapshot. For some reason, that criterion occasionally fails, and TM doesn’t scan folders with contents that have changed. You may be able to get backups to resume by updating the modification times of all your folders.
Important: This procedure will change the modification times of all folders on the startup volume. It won’t affect anything that’s not a folder, and it won’t change your existing backups at all. If you have a reason to want to keep the modification times of folders as they are, STOP.
Before proceeding, you must have a current backup of all data. Since your existing Time Machine backups may not be current, you’ll have to back up in some other way; for example, by starting a new TM backup set on another external drive. It’s a good idea to do this anyway, as you need more than one backup.
Launch the Terminal application by entering the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. If that doesn’t work, then in the Finder, press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens. Another way to launch Terminal (if you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later) is from LaunchPad: click the Utilities icon, then Terminal in the page that opens.
Drag or copy – do not type – the following line into the Terminal window, then press return:
sudo find / -xdev -type d -exec touch {} \;
You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up.
The command may take several minutes to run. When a line ending in a dollar sign ($) appears below what you entered, quit Terminal.
The next snapshot will take longer than usual, because all folders will be scanned for changes. When it’s complete, check the results to see how much data has been backed up.
This procedure will only affect the backups of your startup volume. If you back up other source volumes with Time Machine and are having the same problem with those, you’ll need to take additional steps.

HT3275 Does Time Machine restore iWeb projects?

I was working in iWeb when it suddenly quit. When it restarted, everything I had done this morning was gone.
Does Time Machine restore this? If so, how do I do it?

Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

FCP X does not recognize projects and events on USB drive after a time machine restore of the MBP macintosh disk

FCP X does not recognize projects and events on USB drive after a time machine restore of the MBP macintosh disk.
I upgraded from an i5 to an i7 15" MBP and restored my files using my time machine backup. All seemed to go ok, except I had to use the migration assistant because on the initial boot the MAC didn't recognize the backup database on the USB device. MAybe this is a hint.
Since when I start FCPX it too cannot finnd the project or event directories.
Before my upgrade, I had a choice of files either on the Macintosh disk or the 2TB USB disk.
Now only files on the Macintosh are accessible to FCPX. The USB drive is visible under events and project but it finds no projects or events.
Please help if you can.
Thanks
Barry

Thanks... alas no one has responded.
I think I have the structure that you are recommending.
I have a root level directory (Final Cut Events) with the files in them.
The puzzling thing is that it used to work before the migration!.
Anyway I'm going to move the contents to the root and see what happens.
On a slightly different note...
I also posted a question about CPU utilization. Can I ask a question or two?
While rendering a short clip, I noticed burst of disk activity when the render started (likely loading the media files into ram since I have about 4Gigs available, then almost no activity while the render is happening, then more disk activity when its done.
However the cpu activity is not as high as I would have expected since rendering requires a lot of cpu.
What is your experience? I know some render is done by the GPU, but in my older i5 the CPU was about 100%, now in my i7 its about 50%.
Please look at the attached utilization for CPU and disk activity.
Thanks for any thoughts... Barry

My phone has gone into recovery mode on its own. says to connect to itunes. i have restored it 10 times and it does nothing please help me i am out of the country and desparate

my phone has gone into recovery mode on its own. says to connect to itunes. i have restored it 10 times and it does nothing please help me i am out of the country and desparate

Open iTunes on computer. Connect iPhone to computer. If the iPhone is recognized in Recovery Mode, then Restore the Firmware. If not recognized, then hold both Home and Power Buttons until the iPhone is recognized in Recovery Mode. Usually takes about 20 seconds of holding both buttons. Restore the iPhone Firmware.

HT1212 I have restored my ipad numerous times and it does nothing to re-enable it. Keeps saying to enter a passcode on my device yet I cannot do this.....

I have restored my ipad numerous times and it does nothing to re-enable it. Keeps saying to enter a passcode on my device yet I cannot do this.....

Try this:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4097

Update from 10.7.2 to 10.7.3 blown - Time Machine Restore blown

Hello,
summary of events:
Update form 10.7.02 to 10.7.3 went wrong
After Time Machine Restore no more Recovery Partion
Lost about what to do
On Saturday, I startet to update 10.7.2 to 10.7.3 on my MB Pro 15" (2007) Apples Software Update showed the combo update, and so I started download and installation. Just before that, I had run Time Machine on an external USB drive, so I was relaxed.
After about 2 hours, the update was still running with no progress. After another hour, I forced a restart. Not very suprisingly, after the login, the wheel beneath the Apple logo kept on running.
So I restarted from the Recovery Partition, selected my Time Machine-Backup from the external USB drive, selected my internal HD as target and clicked on "go".
While the progress bar showed progress, I waited. Then it seemed to be complete and the MBP restarted. Now I got a folder with a question mark. My heart rate did not yet accelerate, since I had a back up, right?
So I restarted again trying to boot from Recovery Partition - BUT, there was no longer a Recovery Partition. Or at least, nothing I could boot from.
What options do I have? I could get my hands on a DVD that contains an Lion installation from the app store, but that is not the most recent version, as far as I can tell. If I would go that way:
Does the version of the Lion-app matter?
Will it create a Recovery Partition?
If not, how else could I restore a complete Time-Machine backup?
Any help and suggestions are very welcome :-)
Regards
Jimbo
Naturally, I a am mad as **** at Apple. First, that they abandoned physical media for Mac OS distribution, and secondly that some not so bright lad thought it not necessary to secure the availability of the Recovery Partition under any circumstances short of phyical damage. This really *****, guys!

Ok... I'm not sure if the following suggestions will work with Filevault 2 enabled. I guess you can try after you create a backup for safety.
You can recreate the Recovery HD two ways. One is to reinstall Lion using a bootable USB thumb drive of the Recovery HD created with the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. Or from a bootable USB thumb drive with the Lion installer restored to it.
A second way, which I have used many times, is to follow the instuctions at this site using Terminal commands. Step 3 is what you want to follow. The instructions use the RecoveryHDUpdate.dmg file downloaded from Apple to recreate the Recovery HD. It works great!

Can't Boot After New HD + Time Machine Restore

So a couple days ago my 27" iMac running Snow Leopard started making some weird noises and stalling out. Annoyed, I talked for a couple hours with apple tech support which eventually lead me to run an Apple Hardware Test. This test returned the error
"Alert! Apple Hardware Test has detected an error.
4HDD/11/40000000 SATA(0,0)"
I scheduled an appointment at the Genius Bar, and they replaced the hard drive.
After that I got it home and did a System restore from my time machine backup. It finished fine, but when I restarted it got stuck on the grey apple screen with the spinning dial thing.
I called apple back and they had me do a couple things like repair disk, verify disk, and one person had me reboot into this command line mode and type some stuff in. Nothing worked. After that They had me try to reinstall the OS first from archive, and next by erasing the hard drive and doing it. Both times the install fails with a big yellow exclamation point saying that it couldn't install support files and the OS couldn't be installed.
Any ideas how to fix this?
I'm currently trying to restore from my time machine backup again, but I'm not hopeful.

Here's what I got - apologies for any formatting peculiarities.
The problem: 10.6.6 mac won't boot after time machine restore to disk.
Further symptoms: Booting with Command-v shows several errors: usually blued and loginwindow collapse with errors from launchd. Errors will be of the style "dyld: Symbol not found: CSSMOID_APPLE_TP_MACAPPSTORERECEIPT" and other CommerceKit / CommerceCore framework errors.
A solution: Your Framework Security library may be an older version (possible cause with Time Machine below). The easiest way to fix this is to find another, working 10.6.6 Mac, and update the Security library on the broken machine.
Identifying if you're affected:
1) Boot the broken machine into "target" mode - hold "Command-t" during boot until the [Firewire|http://itunesu.utah.edu/terms/images/Firewire_Icon.png] icon appears.
2) Connect the broken machine to the working 10.6.6 machine with a firewire cable.
3) On the working machine, the disk of the broken machine should mount.
4) Open Terminal
5) Run "ls /Volumes" - the name of disk you mounted should be there (in this example, we'll use "Macintosh HD".)
6) Typing in the path of the broken machine, run:
<pre>
nm /Volumes/Macintosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Security | grep random_fd | cut -d. -f2
</pre>
(this does a dump of the library, looking for the version value)
If this comes back with the value 22457 (or less?), your Mac is not booting because it does not have the updated version of the Security library, which is required in 10.6.6 since Snow Leopard added the Appstore / Commerce framework.
Fixing if you're affected:
1) First, make sure the working 10.6.6 Mac has a correct version of the framework:
<pre>
nm /System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Security | grep random_fd | cut -d. -f2
</pre>
For 10.6.6, this should be at least "22458"
2) *Be extremely careful at this point* - Make sure on the mounted disk (not the machine you are working on!) run the following
<pre></pre>
2a) Make a backup of the broken library
<pre>
mkdir /Volumes/Macintosh HD/savedLibrary
cp /Volumes/Macintosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Security /Volumes/Macintosh HD/savedLibrary
</pre>
2b) Copy the working version over the non-working version:
<pre>
cp /System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Security /Volumes/Macintosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Security
</pre>
3) Eject the mounted disk from the working Mac, disconnect the firewire cable, and reboot the "broken" Mac. It should come up.
If it doesn't, you have problem(s) that are probably outside the scope of this. I'd also suggest restoring your original security library that you saved off.
Suspected cause:
It appears that Time Machine never recorded the change to the Security library after the update. If the library hadn't changed, the machine should have failed to boot like it did after restore the moment a 10.6.6 update was applied.
Inspecting the contents of my Time Machine backups before and after updating shows that Time Machine never updated the Security Framework library - why is still not 100% determined, but restoring from it is definitely broken. Combing through the backup databases on my Time Machine disk:
(I upgraded to 10.6.6 on January 6)
<pre>
for name in 2010-12-30-093337 2011*
do
echo -n "In backup on ${name}, version of Security library is: "
nm "${name}/Macintosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Security" | grep random_fd | cut -d. -f2
done
</pre>
In backup on 2010-12-30-093337, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-04-100707, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-05-082402, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-06-092846, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-07-094827, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-10-093559, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-11-110542, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-12-094137, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-13-103238, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-14-113145, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-18-112856, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-20-114953, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-21-103642, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-24-102321, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-27-002508, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-27-011931, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-27-104406, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-27-114322, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-27-123928, version of Security library is: 22457
In backup on 2011-01-27-134523, version of Security library is: 22457

Time Machine restore from WD my book live duo

Dear all and especially anyone out there who may be able to help me.
I have a MacBook Pro with Mountain Lion, a WD mybook live duo 3/6tb on the LAN, all wired.
It has been backing up through Time Machine fine until my MacBook crashed earlier this week so I have a fairly
recent snapshot of my MacBook before the crash.
I wanted to restore, after a Hard Disk erase which seemed necessary, from Time Machine but I couldn't make it work
as it kept asking me for user names and passwords of the NAS (which I entered of course) only
to result in error meesages saying the 'share' didn't exist. (Despite the fact that it does immediately
recognise the backup and location on the NAS.)
WD support advised me to first reinstall OSX ML and then use the regular Time Machine
functionality to restore my Mac.
- there is no option to fully restore your Mac through the wonderful TimeMachine time travel
functionality. I tried to restore my Macintosh HD back to a recent time point but that resulted in
nothing much (or nothing at all, I don't know). I don't see my old stuff, I still see a kind of vanilla
OSX ML installation.
- using the restore functionality (CMD-R during startup) and the time machine restore option,
results in the same nagging for names and passwords and error messages that the share
doesn't exist.
WD support couldn't tell me what the share name (and possibly password) would be for where it stores Time Machine backup
files (it doesn't show up in the list of shares when you look in the WD dashboard) and that makes sense to me as when you
tell Time Machine to use the NAS, it doesn't ask you for anything in terms of shares or passwords either.
So here I am: with probably a very good and recent complete backup at my disposal but no way of restoring it to my Mac.
So all I had and trusted to Time Machine is lost.
Is anyone out here who can help me? Anyone with a similar experience and hopefully solution? (That I can understand....I am a Mac user! :-) )
I would be enormously grateful!
Greetings from Amsterdam,
Eric

Hello Eric, not sure if this helps or is exactly what you are looking for as I am unfamiliar with the NAS issue you have. However, I recently restored my computer from Mavericks back to Snow Leopard using my WD mybook. At first I was unable to use the WD mybook for restore, as is was not recognized by the computer after the menu came up from pressing "command R" during start up. I attributed this to the WD software requiring a password to access the drive. This is the same password that you (anyone who owns a WD mybook) have to supply each time you want to use time machine to back up files. There is a simple remedy I found. You need to go to your applcations and select "WD SmartWare," type in your password, then select the "Settings" tab at the upper right hand conner. Then select "Set up drive." On the right side of the window there is the "Set Security Options," sign in using your password in the box displayed under "password," then select "Remove Security." The last step would be to save the security setting, and you are all set to use your WD mybook without a password for full system restoration. So when you restart your computer and hold (or as I found press many times) the "command R" to access the restore window at start up, you can select restore from time machine, and have your WD mybook now appear in the timemachine device window, as the device is not password protected anymore. Once your computer is restored you can follow the same steps outlined above to reinstate your password for your WD mybook. Best of luck,
Marc

Time Machine restore password problem

I had my HDD replaced by Apple. Was running latest Lion OS version before the fault, and had fully backed up with Time Machine. Booting up the iMac with the restored Lion was going well. Had selected restore from time machine. Then i was asked for my password. I know 100% that the password i entered (several times) is correct. There isn't any possibility at all that it is wrong but my iMac will not proceed further saying the password is wrong.
As I can't get past this stage I cannot access anything including the operating system - I can't get to the desktop even without any data. So I cannot get to any Lion recovery partition either. Have tried Lion interent recovery but that simply hasn't worked. Apparently I didn't purchase Lion through my Apple ID - utter rubbish. I've tried every Apple ID that I have used and no records of Lion purchase in any of them - how the **** did I download it and use it for ages then?!!
I bought the iMac originally with Snow Leopard so have that install disk but it seems I can't go back to that.
Going back to the apple store is a real pain the proverbial.
I am happy to wipe the HDD completely and start over, with Snow Leopard then pay (again) for Lion and then copy across the data I need from Time Machine manually and/or thru migration assistant. So here's the main question: How should I do that - wipe the HDD when I have no access to the desktop? I guess I'm going to have to boot up using Cmd C or similar and then type in some code. I have no experience/knowledge of that code so any help will need to be idiot proof please!.

As I had a brand new HDD installed by the Apple store this was the sequence of events (slightly different from the original post due some new info):
1     The external HDD which was the original Time Machine back up was plugged into the firewire port.
2     Booted up (as normal) for the very first time to be met with a fresh installation process just the same as when you buy an entirely new iMac - setting up language etc.
3     During that set up sequence I was asked if I wanted to restore from Time Machine, I selected that option.
4     About 3 hours later, c450GB of data is seemingly successfully loaded from the Time Machine external HDD to the internal, new HDD
5     The only option I now have available on screen is to log in using the same password as had on my original set up (before the internal HDD replacement). The forgot password hint is available, and clearly indicates that I should be able to enter my password to move, but no matter how many times I input the correct password (and, just in case, all other possible password options each with all conceivable varieties of CAPS on and off etc.). Nothing is accepted. No option to go backwards (eg uninstall the restore or anything else), and no ability to get to the desktop.
6     Several expletives later....I decide the only option is cmd+R reboot, internet recovery....and this is the udpate from the original post....
7     I'm in the UK and I try doing internet Lion recovery at about 11pm UK time. Indications are this will take 4+ hours. The trick is, I have now discovered, instead, if based in the UK at least, is to try this at 6am (when most people in the US will be asleep) and it takes about 10 minutes!
8     That brings up a chance to recover the "OS X". Great I think, just enter my Apple ID....error: "This Apple ID did not buy Mountain Lion"...cannot proceed. Mountain Lion? Where was the Lion only option? Doesn't exist seemingly. (Q: has Lion internet recovery been withdrawn? If not how on earth does one get to it?) BTW, I cannot see any partition on the internal HDD with the Lion recovery.
9     However, with the failed internet recovery (inviting me to install Mountain Lion, if only I'd actuall bought that before, but no option to select Lion or buy Mountain Lion there an then!), what I do get is a menu option to "Choose Startup Disk". "Choose the the system disk you want to use to start up your computer". One icon is there...my internal HDD...BUT I see that says "Mac HD OS X 10.6.8" - what? That's Snow Leopard, not Lion. I bought my iMac (from new) with Snow Leopard then upgrade to Lion when that came out. On the original set up (step 2 above) there's nothing to indicate what OS is running. I just assumed that as I had Lion the Apple store would have reinstalled Lion when the swapped by HDD. Likely then this is not the case. V annoying Apple Store (Brent Cross, London!). Idiots.
I guess there's a possibility that my Time Machine restore won't work because it is a Lion based backup.
Not had time to do this next step yet but likely to be my only option before admitting defeat and driving to the store again...internet recovery, get to disk utility from there, wipe the internal HDD and load Snow Leopard from the installation CD I still have (phew). BTW have tried to cmd+C and boot from the Snow Leopard CD. No joy..just ejects. Doesn't want to know!
If you've got this far..thanks for your patience. Thanks even more if you've got any ideas.

How do I safely stop a Time Machine Restore midway through?

I started a Time Machine restore from backup at about 1pm this afternoon.
After about 15 minutes of estimating the size of the files to be transferred, it gave me a 19hr estimate for transfer time. I had heard that it could take awhile, so I wasn't totally blown away by the number.
I'm backing up about 200 GB. Well, I'm about 2 hours into it, and the time remaining has been fluctuating from 19+ hours to 14 hours. I'm at about 18 hours right now.
I'm beginning to question the ethernet cable I'm using to transfer the data, and wishing I used a USB 2.0. I've also read up on a bunch of other threads about how painfully slow Time Machine can be, and there seems to be little rhyme or reason as to when it's slow vs when it's somewhat reasonable.
So, I guess there are two questions.
Question 1) Can I safely power down, swap cables, and retry? What happens to the data that's already been pulled over?
Question 2) Should I just let it run for the next 18 hrs? I've also read other horror stories where people return to their machines after the time estimated, and it's hardly budged.
Any help would be AWESOME! If i could give you a billion help points, i would!

majmanMac wrote:
Was doing a full restore from scratch - I lost a hard drive on Monday, and just got a new one put in. Turns out the estimate was about right, as I'm now writing this from my restored machine.
Yay!
I was restoring from a Time Capsule. For some reason I just assumed it had a USB port.
Ah, yes, it does, but it's for connecting a printer or USB drive, not a Mac.
My concern that i would come back to it this morning and find it still updating has been put to rest. Phew!
Glad it's sorted out, but it does seem like there may be a problem -- that's awfully slow. See #D2 in [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).
And be forewarned: since you have a new drive, Time Machine's next backup will almost certainly be a full one, so remain connected via Ethernet. If there isn't enough free space for that, it will take an extremely long time for Time Machine to delete a lot of old backups to make room. You might consider manually deleting a lot of them, per #12 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

My Macbook Pro was stolen, and I have replaced it with a Macbook Air. New hard drive is too small for a Time Machine restore. How do I restore my more-expensive apps (ie iWorks) on my new Macbook without repurchasing them?

My Macbook Pro was recently stolen, and I have replaced it with a Macbook Air. I attempted to simply do a restore from the Macbook Pro's Time Machine backup, but since the new Macbook Air's hard drive is significantly smaller, a Time Machine restore was not possible. I even tried to choose only settings or only my User Profile (option) when restoring, but the backup was still too large to do a restore onto the new machine. How do I restore my more-expensive apps (ie iWorks) onto my new Macbook without repurchasing them? Also, I reaad somewhere that if you went to the Mac App Store and attempted to repurchase the app and clicked BUY, it would simply alert you that you have already purchased the app (and trigger a re-download)... NOT THE CASE... So I just dropped another $19.99 for a second copy of Pages... Not my intention....
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
LM

you should get a usb backup drive as well. time machine has limited use in my eyes. it saves things. but older things can be errased ad space drops without telling you
nothing beats data redundancy. 2 saves is. 1. and 1 is none
im personally not fond of time machne though i use it only for a recovery parameter for a mac
id never ever myself consider time machine a genuine data backup tool. though most do consider it as such
drive clones such as superduper and carbon copy cloner can clone your entire drive for emergency recovery. and you can boot from them as well o. another mac

Time Machine Restore does NOTHING - URGENT!!!

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