Time machine, Snow Leopard & Lion backups

I am currently running Snow Lepard OS and creating Time Machine backups. If I install the Lion OS, could I use Time Machine to go back to the Leopard OS if I did not like Lion. I would think I could, and it seems like a stupid question, - but I figure I better ask someone.
I realize I can not use Lion backups after I go back to Snow Leopard, -but thats OK
JP

Would suggest a Bootable Clone Backup of your current Snow Leopard Drive...
On another External Hard Drive...
By far the easiest way to make such a Backup, is to use something like
SuperDuper http://www.shirt-pocket.com/
or CCC http://www.bombich.com/
That way, should anything untoward happen during the Upgrade or you want to go back from Lion...
you will NOT LOSE ANYTHING.
(Get an EHD that is at least equal to your current Drive...)
Also, Check here for compatibility of 3rd party Software you may be using...
http://roaringapps.com/apps:table

Similar Messages

Time Machine (Snow Leopard) not appearing in Migration Assistant (Lion)

Hi there,
I have an iMac that was running Snow Leopard with a Time Machine backup on a 1TB Iomega USB2 Ext HDD.
I just Erased and Installed Lion onto the iMac, expecting to use Migration Assistant to restore my files. However, Migration Assistant does not recognise my Time Machine Ext HDD, only the iMac's HDD, and it keeps searching for other computers.
The Ext HDD is there in Finder, and I can copy files to and from it... it just won't appear in Migration Assistant. I've patched Lion to 10.7.1, but that doesn't help.
I've read elsewhere about a Snow Leopard patch, but that doesn't seem to apply for Ext HDDs, only for backups from other computers.
I can copy things over manually, but was hoping to avoid it. Besdies taking a while, I'm not entirely sure how to restore all my iPhone data to iTunes and the like.
Any one got any advice?
Thanks.

It seems that
in order for Mac OS X to realize that it's a Time Machine drive, there should be an invisible "flag file" (0 bytes in size) at the root of the drive, called com.apple.timemachine.supported - if this file is missing for some reason, Migration Assistant won't pick it up.
not sure that it's true but worth trying.

Time Machine Snow Leopard to Lion OSX

I just bought at new macbook pro and currently have a macbook running snow leopard. When i set up the new laptop will I be able to use my time machine external harddrive to move my files over to the new Lion based machine? If so how? Thanks!

When you start up your MBP you will be in Setup Assistant. After several screens of information about yourself, you will be prompted to "Migrate". Choose "from a Time Machine Backup".

Time machine snow leopard and lion

Hi,
I made a clean install of lion on my mac, and have an external hd with time machine from my old snow leopard.
Can I use that same hard drive for lion, and keep the old snow leopard backups ?
Many thanks!

Let me know if is all ok.
Regards,
Giuseppe Pignataro

Time Machine (Snow Leopard) Backup to Maverick

Last Monday, my hard drive crashed and a new 1 T was installed. I had been using Snow Leopard, so TimeMachine was my backup to an external harddrive. The Geek who installed my new harddrive, installed Maverick as the OS. Okay, so far so good... But when I returned home, I plugged in my external hard drive and attempted to access Time Machine but TM reports my last backup (April 2013, I know, I know), but does not highlight it so I can restore from it.
The "geek" spent over 2 hours trying to help me on a remote connection, but no luck. He ran a disk utility on the Verbatim HD which repaired "minor permissions" but otherwise Verbatim is fine.
The data is still there. For example, if I wanted to sit for hours, I could bring the photos into iPhoto one by one. I was able to access my purchased programs, my documents and purchased fonts. But this would mean having to do the process of re-creating folders and dropping items one at a time. I also have a hardbound book that I created/purchased from Apple iPhoto just recently and haven't a clue of what sort of file I am looking for.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.

NAS-based Time Machine, Snow Leopard and new backups

Hi all,
I have a new NAS server (Netgear ReadyNAS) and have configured my Snow Leopard MBP to use it for its Time Machine backups.
I create the first backup over gigabit ethernet, and subsequent backups occur over wifi.
This happens as normal for about a week or so, until the following error appears:
"Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.”
So, twice now, I've duly plugged in my MBP and it starts a backup from scratch, copying the usual 450ishGB over onto my NAS. I then disconnect, and the backup works fine for a week or so, until the error appears again.
The only blogpost or help article I could find relating to this is here: http://www.garth.org/archives/2011,08,27,169,fix-time-machine-sparsebundle-nas-b ased-backup-errors.html but when I follow that process, I get the ultimate error:
"** The volume Time Machine Backups could not be repaired."
The backups are perfectly sound - I do a test restore of a random file daily - but this error is very annoying.
Any ideas as to how I could repair it? Or as to what might be going wrong on my backup volume?
Thanks,
Maritn

Let me know if is all ok.
Regards,
Giuseppe Pignataro

Problems with time machine snow leopard to mountain lion

I have recently upgraded from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion now when I enter Time Machine the 'ladder side bar' will only display item from the date I went onto Mountain Lion even though the external HD has information datuing back 3 years, anyone had the same problem?

Hi,
http://pondini.org/OSX/Setup.html
http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html

Time Machine: Snow Leopard; 12 clean installs followed by restores: NOTHIN GETS RESTORED!

Ok, this looks liuke the place.
iMac Intel 10.6.8
time machine back up on ext Hard drive
Clean install Snow Leopard 10.6 from disc.
Software upgrades run (to get from 10.6 to 10.6.8).
Time Machine restore from ext HD.
Date of restore selected.
Whole thing (iMac HD folder)
2 1/2 hours later...NOTHING!!!
What am I doing wrong? Do I have to select every one of the 425, 683 files that I want installed?
I followed the instructions to the tee.
Really I'm open to suggestions

I don't know what instructions you're following, but the definitive version is here: http://pondini.org/TM/14.html
Wipe the drive again using DU from the installer, then from the same Utilities menu click the "Restore System From Backup" item.

Time Machine Snow Leopard Issues

Hello all,
I'm in need of some help.
Long story short, I just wiped out my Macbook Pro running 10.6.2...everything is fine.
I want to restore my computer using a time machine backup I did just prior to deleting the drive. The problem is, I can;t find my snow leopard disk. All I could find were the original disks that came with the computer. My question is, when I use that DVD to do the time machine restore, will my computer be restored back to Leopard, or will it remain in Snow Leopard like before. (The restore disks are from Leopard)
Thanks in advance,
Leif

Leifericson wrote:
Hello all,
I'm in need of some help.
Long story short, I just wiped out my Macbook Pro running 10.6.2...everything is fine.
I want to restore my computer using a time machine backup I did just prior to deleting the drive. The problem is, I can;t find my snow leopard disk. All I could find were the original disks that came with the computer. My question is, when I use that DVD to do the time machine restore, will my computer be restored back to Leopard, or will it remain in Snow Leopard like before. (The restore disks are from Leopard)
you can NOT use a leopard disk to do a full system restore from snow leopard backups. doing so will result in an unbootable system. you must use a snow leopard disk for that. I suggest you find yours.
Thanks in advance,
Leif

Time Machine & Snow Leopard Question

I am going to be doing a clean install of Snow Leopard and using my Time Machine backup to restore my data. The question is, after SL is installed and I have it working as intended, will it happily continue to back up to my current Leopard 10.5.8 Time Machine volume, or will it insist on erasing the volume and starting fresh again?
I don't want to lose about 10 months of backups, if SL is going to create a brand new TM archive. Perhaps those brave people who have installed SL could confirm what happens...
Many thanks
Sam.

There's nothing in the documentation about any significant changes to TM, with the single exception that initial backups will be faster. In fact, all the support articles in the Snow Leopard support area are the old Leopard articles: http://www.apple.com/support/snowleopard/
There have also been no reports of anything remotely like this from any of the Beta testers or preview articles; there's nothing about it in the SL installation guide: http://manuals.info.apple.com/enUS/Snow_Leopard_InstallationInstructions.pdf
And, of course, it would not be like Apple to intentionally blow away your backups with no warning whatsoever.
But, if you do an Erase and Install (there is no "clean install") for some reason, then TM will probably back up all your data again, just as it does under Leopard. If your TM disk isn't at least twice as large as the data it's backing-up, the backup will fail and you will have to erase the TM disk.

Time Machine Snow Leopard Error 43

I had a new Western Digital My Passport. When I plugged it in, Snow Leopard was supposed to see it and Time Machine was supposed to work. The My Passport icon did indeed come up, but when I clicked Time Machine it said..."and error has occurred....error 43".
So after reading a couple of posts, I found that you can open up System Preferences...look for Time Machine...then select the hard drive....which should be "My Passport". I did this, and now it appears that Time Machine is backing up my files.
Gbird

Thank you so much. This helped!

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

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

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

Restoring on a new hard drive with time machine between leopard/snow leopard

I am about to install a new larger hard drive on my late 2007 MacBook (Going from a full 120GB to a 500GB). My MacBook came with Leopard and I upgraded to Snow Leopard when it came out. I have the original Leopard install disks and the upgrade disk from Snow Leopard. I currently have an external HD connected to my airport extreme and Time Machine is on scheduled backup to this drive over the WiFi.
From what I've read it looks like I cannot use the Leopard startup disk to restore my Snow Leopard created Time Machine backup (I've read it becomes unbootable...). I've read about cloning, which feels a little over my head, so I wondered - Can I install Leopard from the original disk, then upgrade to Snow Leopard with the upgrade disk I have, then restore my Time Machine after that? I assume it would be fastest to restore the Time Machine backup if I have the external connected directly to the USB of the MacBook rather than over the WiFi - yes?
If I can tack on a slight hardware question too - is it worth upgrading from 2 to 4GB of RAM while I'm going to be inside my computer?
Thanks!!!

Partition the drive in GUID format with one Mac OS X data partition.

Time Machine from Leopard to Snow Leopard

I made a backup of my Leopard installation in Time Machine before upgrading to Snow Leopard.
I successfully upgrade to Snow Leopard using the equivalent of Erase and Install (disk utility/erase/partition/install) and instead of running Migration Assistant, I opened my Time Machine disk and selectively copied my documents, music and videos to the appropriate folders on Snow Leopard.
Now, the question is if I set Time Machine on SL to backup to the same disk, will I be able to restore a file to the Leopard version of the Time Machine or only the Snow Leopard version?
In other words, will I lose all my previous Time Machine backups if I choose the same disk? If so, if I move the "latest" folder from Time Machine to a separate location, will I be able to restore from that copy?

rpmm wrote:
Yes I meant "from".
For the second part what I wanted to do is just copy the last version to a separate drive and use that to possibly pull files from that location if needed. And then just reformat the current TM drive and start with the first backup from SL. Is that not a good idea?
Not do-able. TM uses a very complex structure for it's backups, including multiple "hard links" at both the file and folder level. You cannot copy them with the Finder.
What you can do, however, is restore your entire system to that separate drive, from the last Leopard backup, via the instructions in item #14 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip.* Of course, select that external as the destination, not your internal HD. Once it's done, boot from the external and use some of the apps to be sure everything's there before erasing the TM drive.
The reason I did erase and install was I wanted a clean start, not having all of the apps I had, not having all the extra files I had, etc.

Time Machine deleted my old backups and crapped out midstream

I had just gotten my failing hard drive replaced, and restored from Time Machine backup. So far so good.
So a week later, I wanted to upgrade to Mountain Lion, but figured I should be responsible and run Time Machine backup again before doing the upgrade just in case something goes wrong.
The Mac has a 4TB drive, which has 2TB free. The backup drive is a 4TB external drive, which has (or had) Time Machine backups going back two years or so. It still had over a TB of space left. I clicked on Backup Now and let it run overnight. I noticed it said "Deleting old backup to make room" or something like that, which I thought was normal.
I woke up in the morning to find that Time Machine had crapped out in the middle, and said that it couldn't complete. I realized that it had deleted all my old backups. It didn't need to do that, since the only files that had changed would have been less than a GB, and it had over a TB of space to work with.
It must have thought that everything on the drive had changed since the last backup, and it wanted to backup the entire drive. As such it tried deleting all my old backups! But it failed, and stopped in the middle.
Now I have a drive that still says there is only 1.2 TB of space on the drive, but I can't see the files! Even with Tinkertool, I can't see anything beyond the one most recent backup.
Can these files be recovered? I am totally ticked that there isn't some kind of confirmation like "Are you sure you want to delete X?"
I actually need to have some of these older backups, as they include files that had been deleted before the latest backup that I may need to retrieve. Any hard drive experts out there? Any terminal commands that can make these files accessible, even if I have to retrieve them manually?

To clarify, this all happened under Snow Leopard as I had said. My profile lists Tiger, since I haven't cared to update my personal profile since using that OS, and in fact I still use Tiger among other versions. I manage a lot of users. And I never got to upgrade to Mountain Lion on this system, as explained in the post above. So I don't see the confusion.
I don't think the model of Mac makes a difference for this type of problem, but in case it does, the incident was on a 2010 Intel iMac with a 4TB hard drive and 8GB of RAM. I would have mentioned that if this was a problem with hardware specific to the model of Mac. But this is more of a universal issue.
But to stay on topic, I'm guessing my old backups are toast. But if anybody has any experience with recovering from Time Machine deleting their old backups, I would be happy to hear from them. In the meantime, I am going to try to do some old fashioned file recovery, and see what I can salvage.

Time machine, Snow Leopard & Lion backups

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