Time machine Restore to new mac.

I have been using Time to back up my mac. Now that I have a new Mac Tower is it possible to use Time machine to move files over to the machine.

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
You can't do a full system restore, since there are differences in OSX for the two machines -- one Mac's OS won't run on a different model.
But you can "migrate" from the old one.
If you haven't set up your new Mac yet, at the end of that procedure there's an option to migrate (I'm not sure that's the exact word) from another Mac or a backup. It's probably easiest to connect the old Mac and migrate from it; but you can use your TM backups instead.
If it's already set up, you can use the Migration Assistant (in your Applications/Utilities folder) similarly, either from the old Mac or the TM backups.
You do need to be careful, however, if your old Mac was a PPC machine, as some 3rd-party apps may not work on your new Intel Mac. Take a look at Kappy's post here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7845144#7845144

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Time Machine Restore on new Mac Book is taking up a ton of space!

My old MacBook had 120gb hard drive - it died. Just did a restore from Time Machine ext drive and it's taken up about 280gb. Any ideas on this? And how to fix? Did it add old backups? Also, my old MacBook was setup with two users (me and my wife). Weird. Help. Thanks.

Sorry to be such a moron with this, but I just don't have much experience with this iPad. I have had it for over a year and I just keep adding stuff to it and it has worked great. Now that the memory is used up, I am trying to figure out how to free up space and not lose what I have paid for.
So, Step 1 is complete, as I have "Transferred" all of the purchases.
What is Step 2? I unchecked the concert on the iTunes library, did a sync, but it's still on my iPad.
Thanks again for the help!!!

I used the Migration Assistant to move data from my Time Machine to my new Mac.   Most data has been moved successfully but none of my iPhoto pictures have been moved.   Looking at my Time Machine now I find that the earliest back-up is dated after the Mi

I used the Migration Assistant to move data from my Time Machine to my new Mac.   Most data seems to have been transferred successfully but none of my iPhoto pictures have been transferred.
My Time Machine now shows the earliest available Back-up to be after the Migration Date.   My iPhoto pictures seem to have either been lost in the migration process or are locked in my Time Machine prior to the earliest back-up date now accessible.
Any advice on recovering my old iPhoto pictures would be greatly appreciated.

First go to iPhoto Preferences, look in both General and Advanced tabs to make sure that things are set to import from camera into iPhoto.
Then if that doesn't help, connect the camera and open Image Capture in your Applications > Utilities folder and see if you can use Image Capture to reset the import path from the camera to iPhoto.
Image Capture: Free import tool on Mac OS X - Macgasm
Message was edited by: den.thed
Sorry John, I didn't see your post when I clicked the reply button. Dennis

Continue Time Machine on a new Mac

My new iMac arrived in the mail about a week ago and I've been having a hard time getting Time Machine to do what I expected would be simple. Here is a quick step by step of what I have done:
I had an existing Time Machine backup of my old iMac with a few years of history on it
I used Migration Assistant on the new iMac to restore everything
I had a second Time Machine drive from my wife's Mac from which I only restored her user account. At this point I don't care about maintaining the history of her backups.
I made a duplicate of my Time Machine drive for safety
When I turned on Time Machine on my new machine it asked me if I wanted to inherit the backup history from the drive. I chose to do this and the backup ran for several hours.
The result is that Time Machine did not pick up where is left off and only backup the changes to my files. Instead it did a completely new backup to my drive. Also, all of the permissions of the old backups are set, so I can't even read the files. Using the Time Machine interface I can see the dates for my old backups, but it will not let me see the contents of these backups (I assume this is due to the permissions issue).
Has anyone else seen this behavior? I have a backup of my Time Machine drive from before a backup was run on the new machine, so if there is something I have done wrong I can go back. Is there any way to get Time Machine to pick up where is left off with the old machine? Should I just erase the drive and start fresh? If I keep my drive in it's current state with read only permissions on the older directories will Time Machine correctly delete the old items when it runs out of space?
I have been looking around in these forums, but haven't found anyone with the same problems. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

I did search but after posting this I found that V.K. had given the answer here:
[http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9928706&#9928706]

Can time machine restore in new HDD?

if i backup my mac os in an external hdd with time machine and then ill change my mac hdd, can time machine restore my os in new hdd?(for example by Recovery Disk Assistant)

Naming it the same tends to make things easier. Time Machine can backup your entire OS as long as you haven't excluded anything in System Preferences/Time Machine/Options.
Another option is to make a bootable clone. You should have more than one backup on 2 different drives since hard drives do fail.
Clone - Carbon Copy Cloner (Often recommended as it has more features than some others)
Clone – Data Backup
Clone – Deja Vu
Clone - SuperDuper
Clone - Synk
Clone Software – 6 Applications Tested

Time Machine restore to new computer

My iMac G5 has completely failed, and I am getting a new iMac Core2Duo. As the old computer is dead, I won't be able to use migration assistant to copy my stuff from the old computer. So I will need to restore my files from the Time Machine back-up.
Slightly worried because I'm moving from a PowerPC to Intel machine.
Any tips or ideas? I know I will need to go through the install DVD to initiate the restore process.
Any help would be really useful!

I was just going to make a post myself but thought perhaps I could do it as a reply to this post.
I have had the same issue and ... Time Machine doesn't work. Apple Care has been pretty much useless in solving my problem. Background: 6 month old 24' iMac, I'm doing a software update and the OS update (10.5.6) fails. System resources are corrupted so I have to do an OS reinstall. Except that doesn't work. Bad file system. Only fix is to wipe the disk and reinstall. That doesn't work, Apple replaces the hard drive "bad firmware". Hmm.. So I go to restore from Time Machine - the restore won't work either from the new install or the migration assistant. The symptom is that the Time Machine app can see the external hard drive, knows it's a time machine disk, but says no system is present. I don't get the list of folders (dates) I'm supposed to get at the various restore points. The Time Machine disk is fine. I can use the finder and see all the files and folders. I can do the painful drag and drop restore. I'll have to reinstall apps from scratch but the data is there. I've deleted the interrupted backup, deleted the "Latest" folder, done a variety of stuff Time Machine tech support has suggested. It just doesn't work. No explanation. I've got a good Time Machine backup and essentially a new machine and no-go.
What I would do is make a back up of your time machine disk. I would get another disk and do a drag and drop copy of the data you care about. Make a backup of the backup in other words. Then use the Time Machine restore function to selectively restore folders.
What I think is happening here is that despite the assertion that Time Machine is a simple incremental backup, I think that there are ties between the source and the target at the system level. In my case I had a more complex file system than usual, multiple user accounts, and probably a corrupted OS that migrated itself onto the time machine volume. I think Time Machine is looking to the system files somewhere on the Time Machine disk and if those are corrupted your Time Machine disk as a source for a full restore is useless.
I'll probably make a separate post on this so sorry in advance on that but if anyone has any ideas on how I can solve this and help the original poster Mr. Tanner avoid this, it would be great. Maybe a Time Machine system engineer is reading and can offer some help. I live in San Jose and I'm happy to bring my Mac and Time Machine disk over to Cupertino....

Issue trying to use old Mac Time Machine backup on new Mac

I've just got a new iMac 27" to replace my old 21" and am planning to restore files from the Time Machine backup I have. On the iMac 21" I used an external hard-drive connected to an Airport Extreme Base Station to back up using Time Machine. On the new Mac the external drive is connected directly to the USB port. The old machine is now about 10,000 miles away from me.
The issue I have is I cannot read the back-up from the old machine on the new.
During the first startup I tried to read from the Time Machine backup but the system told me I could not use it because it was from a different machine - it read all the back-up dates and let me chose, but did not allow to use it.
After startup was completed, I run a software update to make sure everything had the same version and tried Migration Assistant (with the HD still connected to the USB port), but the wheel keeps spinning not finding any disk.
I can read the .sparsebundle file on the external drive and I see it is intact. Disk Utility recognizes it and Status is Not mounted. When I try to open it with Disk Utility it says it is not mountable.
Any of you know how I can resolve this? I am thinking of a way of opening the file and reading it.
I really just need my music, my movies and my pictures, but I have 1.2T of that so it is not something I can download from the old Mac.
Thanks a lot in advance.

I've just got a new iMac 27" to replace my old 21" and am planning to restore files from the Time Machine backup I have. On the iMac 21" I used an external hard-drive connected to an Airport Extreme Base Station to back up using Time Machine. On the new Mac the external drive is connected directly to the USB port. The old machine is now about 10,000 miles away from me.
The issue I have is I cannot read the back-up from the old machine on the new.
During the first startup I tried to read from the Time Machine backup but the system told me I could not use it because it was from a different machine - it read all the back-up dates and let me chose, but did not allow to use it.
After startup was completed, I run a software update to make sure everything had the same version and tried Migration Assistant (with the HD still connected to the USB port), but the wheel keeps spinning not finding any disk.
I can read the .sparsebundle file on the external drive and I see it is intact. Disk Utility recognizes it and Status is Not mounted. When I try to open it with Disk Utility it says it is not mountable.
Any of you know how I can resolve this? I am thinking of a way of opening the file and reading it.
I really just need my music, my movies and my pictures, but I have 1.2T of that so it is not something I can download from the old Mac.
Thanks a lot in advance.

All applications were "?" On the dashboard after time machine restore to new hard drive...what went wrong?

Hi folks
I used the cmd R option on booting the MBP and did a disk scan and it reported errors that could not be fixed/repaired.
So I opted to install a brand new 1Tbyte Seagate hybrid hard drive and restore from my time machine backup.
So I installed the new drive in the MBP...it stated that it needed to restore from the internet and I was treated with a rotating globe for about 10 minutes.
It then gave the normal restore options and I opened to format the new drive as a mac drive etc...
Selected the most recent TM backup from USB drive and pointed it to the new formatted HD in the MBP.
So far so good I thought....it said it was restoring....
waited about 4.5 hours and apparently it completed when I was out so I did not see any messages just a normal looking mavericks desktop BUT with "?" In the dashboard where all the applications icons should be?????
I assume something went wrong somewhere so I reinstalled the old HD and restarted TM and it's not starting to backup all 493Gbyte of disk whichI. Understand is normal after a full restore.
So...what to do now??? I'll wait for the 7 odd hours of TM to complete but how best should I proceed with the new HD etc...should I reinstall and copy mavericks to it from a memory stick and then attempt a new restore from the recent TMS backup? Or will this cause issues....
I also have an Inateck hard drive cloning device (brand new never used) so I had wondered if I should simply install the old drive and new drives into this and start the cloning mechanism? OR will this simply clone the errors that were reported on the old drive when it was in the MBP?
In short I'm not sure what to do for the best now and would welcome helpful suggestions as to how to proceed.
thanks
Nick

<<<<UPDATE>>>>
If at first you don't succeed...
Last night after the new 493 Gbyte time machine completed. I once again installed the new drive and restarted the MBP ...waited 10 min for the internet to download the basic disk utilities...restarted the restore from TM and waited 6 hours...Happy days it worked perfectly and like a rocket...the old disk had a read write speed of approx 50-60 Mb/s the new one (hybrid drive) measures at 100-110 Mb/s...programmes open and close noticeably faster and it's better than when the MBP was new...
Apparently this new hybrid drive "learns" frequently used programmes and caches parts that improves start up time etc as time progresses etc...the MBP now starts from cold boot in less than 1 minute compared to 2 plus before...I know minutes should not really matter but it does improve the user experience. I should add I have 16G of RAM installed which does make a difference with Photoshop and Aperture etc.
Hope this helps others or at least encourages people to try hybrid drives over the much more expensive SSD option.

Time Machine backup on new Mac - but too big?

Hi,
I am the current owner of a Macbook and i use 160GB of my harddrive. I am contemplating on buying a Macbook Air 11" with 128GB "HD", but I am hesitant, since I don't know how the computer would handle having to start up from a Time Machine-back up made from my Macbook, that would of course be larger than the Macbook Air has capacity for.
Is it even possible?

firemandan900 wrote:
I just had to replace my 13" Macbook Pro through warranty. When I first turned it on I selected to restore the computer from my time machine backup and after several hours it finished successfully with the exception of Ilife which on the restore had to be updated before it would open the restored databases. The other issue I am having is that timemachine is no longer working. I would prefer to have timemachine backup to the existing archive structure it created on the old machine but right now it just says it can not find the volume. Is there a way to keep using the existing backup
If there's room, TM can start a new set of backups for the new Mac on the same disk or Time Capsule. But it will make a new, full backup of the new Mac, so if your TM disk/partition isn't at well over twice the size of the data it's backing-up, your best bet will be to erase the drive with Disk Utility and let TM start over.
There's a downside to that, though. TM on the new Mac won't delete the oldest backups from the old Mac when it needs room for new backups.
Instead, it will delete the oldest backups from the new Mac, leaving the old backups "stranded." Without erasing the TM disk/partition, you'll have to delete the old backups one at a time, via the TM interface, which is quite tedious and time consuming. See the instructions in item #12 of the Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of this forum.
or do I need to delate the archives and start a new archive?
That's probably your best option.

Can't open iWeb 09 even after Time Machine restore to new

Well I broke it!
I tried to open a saved iWeb html file that was saved from my old Intel Mac Mini running iWeb 08 that I Migrated over via Firewire. I even tried to restore iWeb using Time Machine, from when it worked new out of the box, no luck. When I click on the iWeb icon a small window pops up:
Can't open file "~/Desktop/WebSite/About_Me.html."
Locked up. So is there a file that I can modify back to where I had it? Thanks

iWeb can't open html files. It can't import them, either.

Continue using existing Time Machine backup on new mac

I just had to replace my 13" Macbook Pro through warranty. When I first turned it on I selected to restore the computer from my time machine backup and after several hours it finished successfully with the exception of Ilife which on the restore had to be updated before it would open the restored databases. The other issue I am having is that timemachine is no longer working. I would prefer to have timemachine backup to the existing archive structure it created on the old machine but right now it just says it can not find the volume. Is there a way to keep using the existing backup or do I need to delate the archives and start a new archive?

firemandan900 wrote:
I just had to replace my 13" Macbook Pro through warranty. When I first turned it on I selected to restore the computer from my time machine backup and after several hours it finished successfully with the exception of Ilife which on the restore had to be updated before it would open the restored databases. The other issue I am having is that timemachine is no longer working. I would prefer to have timemachine backup to the existing archive structure it created on the old machine but right now it just says it can not find the volume. Is there a way to keep using the existing backup
If there's room, TM can start a new set of backups for the new Mac on the same disk or Time Capsule. But it will make a new, full backup of the new Mac, so if your TM disk/partition isn't at well over twice the size of the data it's backing-up, your best bet will be to erase the drive with Disk Utility and let TM start over.
There's a downside to that, though. TM on the new Mac won't delete the oldest backups from the old Mac when it needs room for new backups.
Instead, it will delete the oldest backups from the new Mac, leaving the old backups "stranded." Without erasing the TM disk/partition, you'll have to delete the old backups one at a time, via the TM interface, which is quite tedious and time consuming. See the instructions in item #12 of the Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of this forum.
or do I need to delate the archives and start a new archive?
That's probably your best option.

Time Machine restore to new drive not even starting

I have a Macbook that came with Tiger. I upgraded a few months ago to Leopard and started using Time Machine - last time backed up about 10d ago.
Internal hard drive crashed and I installed a new one. I don't have my original Leopard media so I borrowed from someone else, thus can't install Leopard but can boot the machine from the CD.
When I go to utilities and select "restore from backup" (i.e. Time Machine) nothing, whatsoever, happens. It's as if I didn't even hit the button. I can see the contents of the TM disk so I know it's good. The new drive formatted fine too.
Am I going to have to get my Leopard disks (which are 50 miles away, thus not handy) and do this in two steps (first get a working Leopard install, then try to restore from TM)?
Thanks- really hoping that Time Machine is more than a backup placebo.

I'm in the same situation as the original poster, the leopard DVD is at work, and on a Saturday my laptop crashed. I get this "Unable to load XIPanel_RestoreIntroduction nib file" error and I'd like to know if others have been able to:
1) understand what this message is about, e.g. are there additional checks in the nib file or is it just not found?
2) work around the issue one way or another.
Apple making computers -- deterministic creatures of all, and not casinos I'm not fully satisfied with the idea that this is a gamble to work around the issue. Unless of course there is a list of "other issues" that's been published somewhere in which case I'll be grateful to not embark on a useless and ultimately doomed effort to get my mac to work.

Time Machine Restore on New Internal Hard Drive

Hi, i just installed a new 500GB western digital scorpion blue hard drive as my original 60gb was full. I did a time machine back up, swapped the drives, an started up using my original install disk (not the snow leopard upgrade disk). I formatted the new drive to OS X journalling, and then went into utilities, chose restore system from back up, and am working my way through it. i keep getting to the point where you need to select a destination, and it stops at searching for disks. I can select my time machine back up, but it doesn't seem to find the new drive to restore to.
Am i missing any steps, or could there be something else keeping me from completing the restore?
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Kathleen

How is your new drive partitioned and formatted? See the following:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

Continuity issue after Time Machine Backup for new Mac

I restore new Mac Mini (2014) with a Time Machine backup made on MacBook Air (13', 2012). Now handoff is not working on my MacBook because iCloud thinks that Mac Mini is MacBook Air now. I disabled iCloud on all devices and Handoff and other worked well on Air before I logged into iCloud on Mac Mini. What should I do to repair this issue?

That's not how you set up a new computer.
The warranty entitles you to complimentary phone support for the first 90 days of ownership.

ITunes Time Capsule restore to new Mac (Odd setup)

Previously I had an iMac with its iTunes library loaded on an external hard drive connected via USB. I also had a Time Capsule that was backing the iMac up including the external iTunes hard drive.
Well I finally upgraded to a new MacBook Pro. About two days later, the iTunes external hard drive died. So now I'm trying to figure out how can I restore my iTunes library from the Time Capsule to a new external hard drive. I tried the Migration Assistant and selected the Time Capsule option but no luck.
So how can I get that TC iTunes library from an old iMac on an external drive no longer available to a new Mac with a new external drive?
I was thinking I could try to hookup the new external drive to the old Mac and try the Time Machine. Thoughts? Please help!!

Time Capsule forum: https://discussions.apple.com/community/wireless/time_capsule. Also, when you re-post in there it would be helpful to say what you mean by "trouble" and also let them know which iMac you are using and which version of OS X. You have iOS 5.0.1 listed, but that is not the operating system on your iMac, iOS is for iPads, iPods i.e. iDevices. Good luck.

Time machine Restore to new mac.

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