Time Machine restore point failure - a WARNING!

I have an iMac 21.5", Late 2012, which has spontaneously died three times, so Apple are going to replace it (and good on them for that too!). Usual question from the Genius Bar techo - 'do you have a backup you can restore from, or should we data migrate for you?'
The iMac (10.8.2) in question has had, since it was installed in December 2012, an external HDD, selected as (and exclusively so) the Time Machine backup drive. It has faithfully done its backups once a day daily (using Time Machine Editor to adjust frequency of backups). I've used it to 'go back in time' to restore various files over the past six months no problem. Looking into the mounted sparesimage you can see and access the dailies. This iMac had gone through 10.8.2 > 10.8.3 > 10.8.4 updates before it died.
So, to be able to answer the Genius Bar techo, I hooked it up to my 10.8.4 iMac, booted into the recovery partition, selected Restore from TM backup option for this drive, and found out that the last actual 'restore point' was actually months ago!!! Even though TM had been dutifully and (proven) done the TM backups, it's official 'restore point' is actually way months - so all the data accumulated/changed since then is actually not restorable through Migration Assistant, and would have to manually restored piecemeal from the retsore point!!
Bottom line: in this particular case, the HDD is OK - so a clone from the old drive to the new iMac's drive is OK. However, had the old iMac's drive failed in any way, the daily Time Machine backup would have been worthless as a 'restore-and-go' backup.
So - be warned: check the state of your Time Machine backup by looking to see what it's last 'restore point' actually is. If it isn't your last backup, as far as i can tell, deleting the current TM backup, and starting over again is the only way forward for a 'restore point' backup; if you need the incrementals, then get a new backup drive and harness that.
[Notes: I'm talking from a purely Mountain Lion perspective - I can't say for other iterations Leopard-onwards.
Also, for the record, my other iMac's external third-party backup drive recently failed and was replaced, and the (now) 10.8.3 > 10.8.4 TM backup restore point is today current from that point forward - so I can't give another historical perspective on whether it was a particular update that might have caused the restore point issue].

San Lewy wrote:
After checking 'backup folders' in TM, and a few other things, they concluded there was nothing wrong with my system.
But, I asked, what about the missing 'full backup' restore points missing when a cmd-R restart is done. And how do I get them started again? "No worries" was the response. "We have better ways of recovering a full system than by the cmd-R restart method, should you ever need it" were the exact words used.
That's outrageous! Things you didn't exclude are not being backed-up, and they think that's ok?!?!
There is a different method, not a better one. It involves erasing your HD, installing a fresh copy of OSX (4+ GB download, unless you saved the installer), then using Setup Assistant to transfer everything except OSX from your backups.
However, if you do have the bug in question, that won't work either: The hidden private folder, also at the top level, isn't backed-up either, and that prevents Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant from even recognizing the backups as backups!
Is this the problem you are seeing?
Sure sounds like it.
Here's what I'd recommend: Start up Migration Assistant (in your Applications/Utilities folder), go through the first few windows, far enough to see if the backups are recognized. See Using Migration Assistant on Mountain Lion or Lion. If your backups don't appear in the Select Your System window (in the tan box), that's what's happening.
If so, call them back and ask what their "better" method is; if they mention either Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant, tell them you've tried that. Then refer them to any or all of the following:
My thread here: UPDATED: Serious Time Machine bug on Mountain Lion.
My web page on the issue: #D10 at http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html Also tell them I have evidence of something changing the Time Machine "plist" on several other Macs running with Mountain Lion with this same problem. While I don't know how to reproduce it on my Mac, I would be GLAD to talk or e-mail with them to help get this identified.

Similar Messages

Time Machine Restore (Mavericks) - failure

Hey community! Question for you... I have a 2010 MBP (unibody) and I had swapped out my HD for an SSD a year ago. 2 weeks ago I was backing up my machine (via an external HD) with Time Machine and headed to bed. Woke up to the ol' grey screen of death, after talking to a few Geniuses at the Apple Bar they determined my SSD was dead. I sadly went back and found my original HD (which still had versions of my old HD from last year) formatted it and cleared it to try to restore it from Time Machine. After a number of errors (wouldn't work), I tried to install Mavericks (from a USB drive) and then used Setup Assistant to try to restore from my latest backup. It got about 10% of the way through and said "an error occurred while restoring from the backup" - I have tried a few times since but with no luck. I wasn't sure if this was due to my time machine backup being a slightly different version of Mavericks (maybe I missed a minor update, but I definitely had Mavericks on my machine) or if the final snapshot on Time Machine was corrupted in some way (since my HD died in the middle of the night I'm not sure if the backup was complete or not).
What is strange is, after giving up on Setup Assistant, I tried to use Migration Assistant and that seemed to work ok (my files are all there as are my apps, but all the permissions are a bit weird, and my iMessages didn't come over etc.) - my ideal would be to clear this HD again and try to get it all restored so that all my settings are kept (from my setup 2 weeks ago before my HD died). The reason I bring up the Migration Assistant point is to suggest that all my files are there so it seems like that last Time Machine snapshot was effective.
Thoughts?! (Really appreciate it)

Hey community! Question for you... I have a 2010 MBP (unibody) and I had swapped out my HD for an SSD a year ago. 2 weeks ago I was backing up my machine (via an external HD) with Time Machine and headed to bed. Woke up to the ol' grey screen of death, after talking to a few Geniuses at the Apple Bar they determined my SSD was dead. I sadly went back and found my original HD (which still had versions of my old HD from last year) formatted it and cleared it to try to restore it from Time Machine. After a number of errors (wouldn't work), I tried to install Mavericks (from a USB drive) and then used Setup Assistant to try to restore from my latest backup. It got about 10% of the way through and said "an error occurred while restoring from the backup" - I have tried a few times since but with no luck. I wasn't sure if this was due to my time machine backup being a slightly different version of Mavericks (maybe I missed a minor update, but I definitely had Mavericks on my machine) or if the final snapshot on Time Machine was corrupted in some way (since my HD died in the middle of the night I'm not sure if the backup was complete or not).
What is strange is, after giving up on Setup Assistant, I tried to use Migration Assistant and that seemed to work ok (my files are all there as are my apps, but all the permissions are a bit weird, and my iMessages didn't come over etc.) - my ideal would be to clear this HD again and try to get it all restored so that all my settings are kept (from my setup 2 weeks ago before my HD died). The reason I bring up the Migration Assistant point is to suggest that all my files are there so it seems like that last Time Machine snapshot was effective.
Thoughts?! (Really appreciate it)

HT201250 When restoring Time Machine after a failure, does it also restore the files to the same order, for example - within iPhoto I have pics/ videos in folders and sub folders organised as family/events etc - will it go back to this exact order after a

When restoring Time Machine after a failure, does it also restore the files to the same order, for example - within iPhoto I have pics/ videos in folders and sub folders organised as family/events etc - will it go back to this exact order after a restore?

Hi Stavros0203,
When restoring your entire system from a Time Machine backup, it is restored to the state it was when that backup was made. See this article for reference -
OS X Yosemite: Recover your entire system
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

Older MB (Core Duo [not '2']) Time Machine restore issues

The hard drive in a family-member's MacBook died and I'm trying to find the path to restoration. Regular Time Machine backups were made right up to the point of failure. I've installed a "new" drive in the MacBook (an Apple-sourced drive which formerly lived in a Mac Mini) and attempted to use the utility functions on the Snow Leopard install disk but have had no luck.
Note that this is a "Core Duo" MacBook. Not a "Core 2 Duo" machine. It cannot run Lion due to the hardware limitations enforced by Apple.
The MacBook had been updated to the latest versions of software on a regular basis. I think that the O/S version may have reached the point where the TIme Machine backups are in the "new" format where the Snow Leopard disk utilities cannot be used to restore the backup and only the Lion utilities work. (I just went through this with my MB Air.)
I have tried using a Lion install disk to run the restore but receive the "No Entry"/"Banned" symbol at boot. This makes sense as the MB is beneath the minimum hardware requirements for Lion.
When I first tried the old Mini drive in the MacBook, it booted up just fine to the Mini's condition 3 years ago. Surprising and encouraging.
I then booted from the Snow Leopard DVD and ran the Time Machine restore utility to restore the most recent backup to the newly-installed HD. All seemed to go well. The restore completed but on restart, the system hung in the gray-screen/apple-logo/spinning-gear in perpetuity. I tried restoring the second and third eldest backups with the same result.
In order to verify the health of the HD, I used the Snow Leopard disk to erase the drive. Then I installed a fresh copy of Snow Leopard. And then I patched it up to current standards.
So. Now I have a squeaky-clean new install of Snow Leopard on a MacBook (Core Duo, which cannot run Lion), a dated Snow Leopard installation DVD in hand, a solid series of dutifully-recorded Time Machine backups on a Time Capsule, and no freaking clue of where to go from here.
Everything I've read online seems to be based on the assumptions that I can a) use the older utilities on the Snow Leopard disk to install Time Machine backups made under a version of Snow Leopard compatible with the disk utility, or b) I can boot up using Lion installation media (USB or DVD pulled from the DMG in the downloaded Lion app-store installation app) and restore the "late model" Time Machine backup to the hard drive.
Has Apple just f'd me over? This computer is used by my college-student child and I would appreciate any suggestions.
A bit about me: I'm an IT professional -- a DBA -- who is by no means a Mac expert. After years of Windows machines, I returned to the Mac fold 4 years ago after a 14-year absence.
I could really use a good piece of solid advice at this point.
Thanks,
- Eric

It sounds like it's working perfectly. With Fusion I don't believe it is backed up, I know for sure Windows isn't. You may want to contact Pondini to ask about Fusion. As for your Adobe apps you can thank Adobe for that, you will need to re-install the apps, I believe this is one way Adobe ensures users aren't violating their licensing. I believe you will need to manually install the Adobe apps which shouldn't be a big deal as long as you have licensed software. Your data should have come over smoothly and frankly that's the most critical part. Reinstalling some apps should not be a problem.
I'd recommend looking over Pondini Time Machine Tips and if need be contacting Pondini directly (he has a contact section on the page) he has a lot of experience with TM and as you have already seen migrating Macs. He can provide much more information than me.

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).

Lots of permission errors after a full time machine restore.

So I replaced my hard drive in my MacBook Pro with a 500GB and when in reinstalled leopard i jest did a time machine restore, now if I check the permission i have this long list that it jest can not seam to fix. Here is the list. What should i do about it?
Reading permissions database.
Reading the permissions database can take several minutes.
Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/DVD.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/FRSettings.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/FRSources.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/Movies.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/Music.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/Photos.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/Podcasts.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/TV.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/BackRow.framework/Versions/A/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-rw-r-- , they are lrw-rw-r-- .
Permissions differ on "Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Frameworks/InternetUtilities.bundle/Contents/ CodeResources", should be -rw-rw-r-- , they are lrw-rw-r-- .
Permissions differ on "Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/iTunesHelper.app/Contents/CodeResou rces", should be -rw-rw-r-- , they are lrw-rw-r-- .
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/Filesystems/AppleShare/afpLoad" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "usr/bin/setregion" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Install.framework/Versions/A/Resources/runner " has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/Printers/IOMs/LPRIOM.plugin/Contents/MacOS/LPRIOMHelper" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iLifeMediaBrowser.framework/Versions/A/CodeRe sources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/CodeResourc es", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/BlackAndWhiteEffect.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/CubeTransition.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/DissolveTransition.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/DropletTransition.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/FadeThroughBlackTransition.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/FlipTransition.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/MosaicFlipTransition.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/MosaicFlipTransitionSmall.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/PageFlipTransition.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/PushTransition.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/RevealTransition.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/SepiaEffect.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/TwirlTransition.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework/Versions/A/Resources/P lugins/WipeTransition.IAPlugin/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
ACL found but not expected on "Applications".
Permissions repair complete

This has been reported elsewhere in these forums.
They are not errors, they are warnings and informative statements, but not real errors and they can be ignored as you will find when you search
for the other posts about this exact same topic.
If you uncheck the Show Details" box in DU, you will only see real errors and these will not show up.
Yes they are annoying, and if you read my other post you get more information.

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

Is it possible to boot or Time Machine restore from an external Thunderbolt disk drive?

(There are several questions - search for "?".)
I purchased a Seagate Backup Plus for Mac Desktop Drive 3 TByte with default USB 3.0 interface, and also acquired the Seagate Thunderbolt Adapter for Backup Plus Desktop Drives and Thunderbolt cable.
I do a redundant backup to the Seagate Drive using both Carbon Copy Cloner (nightly) and Time Machine (hourly) using its Thunderbolt adapter. BTW: One never knows when Time Machine will choke - see discussion titled, "UPDATED: Serious Time Machine bug on Mountain Lion", which I had; Rest In Peace Pondini (James Lewis Pond).
Booting from the external Seagate Backup Plus via Thunderbolt inteface from System Preferences -> Startup Disk:
I select the Time Machine OS X, 10.8.5 Startup Disk (Thunderbolt attached drive), click Restart, confirm my choice, the computer reboots, however, it reboots from the internal Macintosh HD OS X, 10.8.5, NOT the selected external Thunderbolt drive. The SSD drive was used as the Startup Drive, not the selected external Time Machine volume as indicated by the display free disk space command (df(1)) and seeing that the Macintosh HD OS X, 10.8.5 volume is mounted as root. That is very deceptive in that both the internal and external drives will appear in the same manner from a GUI point of view! OS X doesn't even inform me that it did not boot off the selected volume. This is the first half of the problem, that is, Is it possible to boot from an external Thunderbolt disk drive? In my case, the answer is deceptively No. Can anybody else boot off a Thuderbolt attached disk drive? Note that if I remove the Thunderbolt adapter, and attach the drive via its USB 3.0 cable, the MBP boots off the external Seagate Backup Plus just fine, as is expected.
Booting from the external Seagate Backup Plus via Thunderbolt inteface from boot-time "Option - Select startup disk" method:
When I restart the MBP using the startup Option key to select the startup volume, the externally connected Seagate drive ONLY SHOWS UP if it is attached with the USB 3.0 cable, not when it is attached with via the Thunderbolt interface. Can anyone else boot off a Thunderbolt drive with the startup Option key sequence? At least the MBP doesn't deceive me in this case - I know right away that the external Thunderbolt drive is not an option when connected as such.
Time Machine restore from the external Seagate Backup plus via Thunderbolt interface from the "command-R - Recovery Parition" method:
After booting from the recovery partition, I attempt to perform a Time Machine restore from the Thunderbolt connected Seagate Backup drive. When Time Machine attempts to present me with a viable backup Time Machine volume, the external Thunderbolt drive is never offered as an option. So I switch the Time Machine volume to use its USB 3.0 interface, and then Time Machine displays that drive as an option, and the MBP proceeds with the restoration as expected. The interesting thing to note is that while booted in the recovery partition via the Thuderbolt cable, the MBP Disk Utility may be selected, and the Thunderbolt attached drive may be operated on just fine. Can anybody else restore their MBP using Time Machine and the Recovery Partition via the Thunderbolt interface?
This is also a big problem for me in that I am forced to restore my MBP via Carbon Copy Cloner using the USB 3.0 interface, because I cannot even boot off that volume's Thunderbolt interface. Of course, the option may be that I could use yet another eternal USB 3.0 drive, boot from it, and then use Carbon Copy Cloner to restore the Macintosh HD via the aforementioned drive connected by a Thunderbolt cable, but that is less than ideal and not elegant, so I'm not going there.
Another side issue is that the commercially available program, TechTool Pro 7's eDrive, which I installed on the Time Machine volume, will not boot off that eDrive as advertised, but I won't got through those steps here, because that would be beyond the scope of this issue, however, I must say, It does not work either when the Time Machine volume is connected via the Thunderbolt interface, but works just fine when connected via the USB 3.0 interface.

If this helps anybody else make a decision about whether to consider Apple because of Apple's superior customer service:
Apple sells this entire line of drives right in their store, from 1TB to 4TB. I spent 1 and 1/2 hours, yesterday, confirming that the 3TB model IS NOT 100% Thunderbolt compliant. A MBP cannot boot, nor can it Time Machine restore from this drive, though EVERYTHING about the drive is normal.
Apple's South Coast Plaza store management had at least two responses to me personally about how to proceed:
1. Buy a different drive from another drive manufacturer, and to attempt to return the drive to COSTCO. A lead genius suggested going with GTech drives, for instance.
2. Wait for Seagate to fix their problem.
I told Apple management in the store that the drive is advertised as Mac Compatible (see picture) and that it is advertised as being a Thunderbolt drive (see picture). I pressed management that my purchasing decsion to get the best possible MBP Retina was based on the availablity of Inexpensive Devises (raID), and that not having this complete compatibility is a show-stopper for my needs, and that I wanted a refund. Their response? They needed to talk with "Merchendising" to see if they are on or off the hook for these kind of 3rd party assertions, and would get back to me.
I am not holding my breath.
Note: I do not hold this against the Geniuses that helped me, nor against the management I've dealt with, nor the upper level engineers that I've corresponded with through Apple Care - their problem solving skills were helpful - although I could have arrived at similar conclusions given enough $$$. (For instance, try a Lacie TB drive and see if that works - we did, and it did not work. Or, we have a different TB cable and a different TB adapter, let's try those - we did, and it did not work.) I blame myself for not doing enough homework before going with Apple's solutions.

Can Time Machine restore to a new internal HDD?

hi all, i've got a 1tb external drive that's exclusively used by Time Machine. the 1tb drive is connected to my 500gb mac mini. i've been running time machine for 6 months now daily, i just wanted to know if it was backing up everything on my 500gb drive or not. how can i check that it's working properly?
also, does anyone know how i'd go about restoring my mac mini in case i had to replace the 500gb hdd? can time machine restore everything if i needed it to? if i bought a new HDD tomorrow for example, how could i get my system running back to where it was running today with all of the current settings and files etc? is there any way for me to check that Time Machine will actually restore OS X, all my videos, music and my work should the HDD actually die?
is there an apple link i can read?
thanks for any help.

To answer your question about replacing a hard drive and recovering what was on your old one ...
Yes, Time Machine was designed for that. You may have one of two scenarios:
(1) Your hard drive is replaced by the Apple Store or another Apple repair shop, in which case they usually restore it with the operating system you had before and configure it so it has a new system with no users set up; the first time it starts up it runs Setup Assistant. When Setup Assistant runs, you select the option to restore from a Time Machine backup. It will then automatically restore your entire hard drive to the newly installed one. Everything will be just as it was with the old drive. Exceptions: you MAY have to enter user keys for software like MS-Office and Adobe Photoshop. and you MAY have to reinstall your printers and scanners.
(2) If the hard drive is replaced but no operating system or anything is put on it, you need to boot from your Install-OS-DVD and install a new operating system on the new drive. Then, on the first reboot, Setup Assistant runs and you can follow the instructions from (1) above.
A good informational site about Time Machine is here: http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
How do you know that your Time Machine backup is a good one? You can peruse through all the backups by running Time Machine and manually inspect that the files in those key folders (photos, music etc.) are all there and have the right sizes. You can "test recover" selected folders to a scratch location just to check that it works. I suggest you obtain another external drive and use it to make a "clone" of your internal drive using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. This is like a second backup, a failsafe in case, say, your Time Machine drive were to fail. This is not unheard of, since a power failure could cause both your internal drive and Time Machine drives to crash at the same time. The "clone" should be unplugged and stored separately to avoid this issue. You can update the clone, say once a week or once a month.

Cannot view photos after a Time Machine restore.

Hello,
I am running iPhoto 09 version 8.1.2. I attempted to install the SL 10.6.3 update on 3/31 and all of my CIFS shares become slow and unresponsive to the point they were not useable. I chose to do a full Time Machine restore from the TM backup I had initiated just prior to the 10.6.3 upgrade. Now the last 40 pictures I imported on 3/28 appear in the events but when i click on them I get the screen. I selected the iPhoto Library and exposed the contents of the package and the none of the pictures are in the originals directory. Why are the thumbnails still present but the photos are missing? i thought about performing a library rebuild, but it does not make sense if i cannot find the originals.
Your help is greatly appreciated

No there's no point in making a rebuild if the originals are not present. As to why this happened? More a question for the Time Machine folks.
Regards
TD

Mountain Lion Server Web Server not working after time machine restore

Our Mountain Lion Server (mac mini) lost its drive yesterday. We got a new mac mini and did a time machine restore. Everything in the Server seems to be working (users, groups, file shares, etc) except for the web server.
Trying to connect to the server results in safari not being able to connect to the server. Even just clicking on the "view server website" link in the Server app doesn't work.
We've tried stopping / restarting the services. We have confirmed that the files in Library / Server with the web pages were restored.
Are there any gotchas, troubleshooting steps or guides anyone can point me to? I'd like to get our wiki back.
Thanks
Jeff

/var/log/apache2/error_log repeats the following lines about every 30 seconds:
[Tue May 07 18:44:15 2013] [error] Init: Pass phrase incorrect
[Tue May 07 18:44:15 2013] [error] SSL Library Error: 218710120 error:0D094068:asn1 encoding routines:d2i_ASN1_SET:bad tag
[Tue May 07 18:44:15 2013] [error] SSL Library Error: 218529960 error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_CHECK_TLEN:wrong tag
[Tue May 07 18:44:15 2013] [error] SSL Library Error: 218595386 error:0D07803A:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_ITEM_EX_D2I:nested asn1 error
[Tue May 07 18:44:15 2013] [error] SSL Library Error: 218734605 error:0D09A00D:asn1 encoding routines:d2i_PrivateKey:ASN1 lib
[Tue May 07 18:44:26 2013] [crit] (17)File exists: mod_rewrite: Parent could not create RewriteLock file /var/log/apache2/rewrite.lock
Configuration Failed

Time Machine Oldest backups deleted without warning

I have about 350GB of data on my startup drive that is backed up by Time Machine onto another internal 1TB drive. My other internal and external drives are excluded.
I have just noticed that Time Machine shows my Oldest Backup to be 16th October 2008. When I go into the Options menu in Time Machine System Preferences it has 'Warn me when old backups are deleted' ticked. My backup drive has around 160GB free.
I have not been warned that Time Machine is deleting old backups. The ONLY warning it has given me is the occasional non-specific Time Machine error where it informs me that Time Machine was unable to complete the backup (not very useful) but when this happens it always carries on apparently successful on the next scheduled backup.
The only thing that I can think of to explain this situation is that on the 16th October I replaced one of my excluded hard drives with another. As soon as I had the opportunity I excluded the new drive from Time Machine - but as I used the Disk Utility restore feature, there was inevitably a short time when a new drive full of data was present and wasn't excluded (around 1TB of content on a 1.5TB drive).
If this drive replacement, and Time Machine suddenly thinking it needed to backup that new content caused it to suddenly delete old backups, then 1) why didn't it warn me, and 2) what is the correct protocol for excluding a drive that has just been restored (ie. cloned). Should I be turning Time Machine off before performing such a function?

bilbo_baggins wrote:
I have about 350GB of data on my startup drive that is backed up by Time Machine onto another internal 1TB drive. My other internal and external drives are excluded.
I have just noticed that Time Machine shows my Oldest Backup to be 16th October 2008. When I go into the Options menu in Time Machine System Preferences it has 'Warn me when old backups are deleted' ticked. My backup drive has around 160GB free.
I have not been warned that Time Machine is deleting old backups. The ONLY warning it has given me is the occasional non-specific Time Machine error where it informs me that Time Machine was unable to complete the backup (not very useful) but when this happens it always carries on apparently successful on the next scheduled backup.
The only thing that I can think of to explain this situation is that on the 16th October I replaced one of my excluded hard drives with another. As soon as I had the opportunity I excluded the new drive from Time Machine - but as I used the Disk Utility restore feature, there was inevitably a short time when a new drive full of data was present and wasn't excluded (around 1TB of content on a 1.5TB drive).
If this drive replacement, and Time Machine suddenly thinking it needed to backup that new content caused it to suddenly delete old backups, then 1) why didn't it warn me,
because TM is buggy. it's supposed to warn you in a situation like that but it often doesn't.
and 2) what is the correct protocol for excluding a drive that has just been restored (ie. cloned).
You can either turn off TM before restoring or exclude the drive before starting the cloning procedure. when a new drive is attached TM waits for 2 minutes and then tries to back it up. in that 2 minutes period you can add the drive to the exclusion list.
Should I be turning Time Machine off before performing such a function?

Lost "Last Import" after Time Machine restore

I recently had a hard drive fail on me but was up to date on Time Machine backups. So after a rebuild of 10.6.2, I restored my system from Time Machine. But now, I noticed that the last batch of pictures I imported before the hard drive went, are gone. They are still listed in iPhoto under Last Imported. And their Events Descriptions are showing up but all pictures are just empty grey squares, leading me to believe the links were lost. So I opened up the contents of the iPhoto Library and sure enough those file folders were gone also.
Any ideas what could have happened? Maybe ways to get them back?
I'm assuming the pictures are gone at this point - about 215 including my son's 3rd Birthday. Fortunately though, I have lo-rez versions on my iPhone.

Experienced this myself today with the latest iPhoto on a Time Machine restore after a failed hard drive.
I would guess the cause is that iPhoto writes the 'last import' into a cache file, and not to the Originals folder on the hard drive until the next import. Since Time-Machine excludes many cache files from its backup to save time and space from meaningless change (caches should always be able to be rebuilt), the photos were never copied to the backup drive.
However, this is merely a guess, and is the only reason I could fathom as to why Time Machine did not back up photos that have been on the disk for over a month. Quick testing with local files wrote directly to the disk, which makes me think it may be only from a camera or some other device, but I am not sure exactly.
If someone happens to find a way to get back the photos, let us know. Exploring the iPhoto library in Time Machine yielded me nothing, neither did rebuilding the cache database or looking for orphaned photos.

ALL Photos missing after Time Machine restore (help)

So, I accidently formated the wrong drive while in Windows, (big oops) which gave me the opportunity to take Time Machine for a test drive.
I put the DVD in, and was able to restore from the TIme Machine drive. Very impressed! Everything came back just as I had left it except - whats this? The default Leopard wallpaper instead of a picture of my son? Huh strange, I thought. Until I noticed I had no photos in iPhoto.
There seems to be reminents of photos in the iphoto database - the size is 1.3gb instead of the 7gb it used to be. But 0 photos in iPhoto 08.
I went into iPhoto and choose File/Browse Backups. I selected Nov 8th, which was the last day of my backup and showed all 7000+ photos, and clicked "Restore All". This brought up something odd - a 2nd iPhoto icon in the dock, which showed a progress bar for the restore. Once the restore was completed, I still had a 2nd iPhoto icon the the bar, which was iPhoto running - but no photos in iphoto! I exited the 2nd iphoto, which disappeared, and launched my normal Iphoto icon. Still no photos! (That just seems odd that it would launch iPhoto with a 2nd icon)
So, I moved my iphoto database, and launch iPhoto in order to create a fresh database - thinking maybe that was the issue. I then did File/Restore again, and went through the whole processes again, including the odd 2nd icon. Still, no photos! And another 1.3gb iphoto database!
Is it normal for a Time Machine restore to not include your photos? Surely you are not supposed to restore them separately from within Iphoto?
What do I do now? At this point, everything went very well - except no photos! Which is awful and not at all expected! 7000+ family photos! At least, if I ask iPhoto/Time Machine to restore 'all photos' you would think it would restore 'all photos' - not show a progress bar, and then show me no photos!
p.s. I just tooked at the iPhoto Library. The 1.3gb is in /Data/ which contains folders 2000-2007, my Events, and thumbnails of all the photos - but no actual photos (the 'Originals' folder is missing).
I then went back in time, and found the 8gb iPhoto Library database. I supposed I could copy it over manually via Time Machine, and not iPhoto's Restore/TM - but - i'm so far off track of how this should have went I don't know what to think!
p.s.s. So I did just that - copied the 8gb iPhoto Library manually from TM, and pasted it in place. I help down option, and launch iPhoto, selecting the 8gb library - and BOOM... no photos!
Something is #$%# up here.
Message was edited by: metzen79

This is what it says in the help file:
Reverting to a previous Mac OS X version
If you’ve used Time Machine to back up your computer, you can easily revert to a previous version of Mac OS X if you’re experiencing trouble after installing an update.
IMPORTANT: Reverting to the previous version of Mac OS X will erase any additions or changes you’ve made to the files on your computer after installing the new version of Mac OS X. To save new or revised files, copy them onto a different disk or back them up using Time Machine before you follow these instructions. Use Time Machine only if you’re reverting to a previous version of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), since Time Machine is not available with Mac OS X 10.4 or earlier.
To revert to a previous version of Mac OS X:
Insert the disc you used to install the new version of Mac OS X, and double-click the Install Mac OS X icon.
In the Installer, choose Utilities > Restore System From Backup.
In the Restore Your System dialog, click Continue.
Select your Time Machine backup volume.
Select the Time Machine backup you want to restore. To restore your computer to the state it was in before you installed a new version of Mac OS X, choose the most recent backup.
Follow the onscreen instructions.
If you backed up any individual files as described under the Important message above, you can restore them now. If you backed them up using Time Machine, recover them using the Time Machine application. (You’ll find the Time Machine application in the Dock or in the Applications folder.)
Hope this helps
Denisimo

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 point failure - a WARNING!

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for