Unable to restore from Time Machine

Hi
I'm having some problem restoring from Time Machine. Here are the steps i've taken to do that but it won't boot after restoration.
Macbook Pro, 2011 Model with 10.7.3.
1. My Mac have 3 partitions (MacHD, Drive A, Drive B) - MacHD has Lion and all other apps, A & B are for my stuff like music, movies etc...
2. I backed it up using Time Machine but in the option I only back up MacHD (A & B) are not backed up.
3. Restarted and Command-R into Disk Utility
4. Erase MacHD using DU. Note: I enabled FileVault so once that's done, its locked but it can be unlock from Disk Utility
5. Restore from TimeMachine, now here's the problem
Once time machine is finished, it reboots my Macbook but keeps going back to the set up screen.
I tried to change the start up disk but this is the error i have is this “you can’t change the startup disk to the selected disk. Building boot caches on boot helper partition failed”
Now i've tried these steps
6. Tried to use  http://d43.me/blog/126/building-boot-caches-error-when-changing-startup-disk/ --> by going into Terminal but still doesn't work
the command in that help doesn't work, sudo nano /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
7. Tried Reinstall Mac OS X but the screen come up and said 103days 40hrs to dl the god darn Lion (note I have Lion installESD.dmg stored on Drive B, is it possible to access that and install from drive B?)
8. Can't seem to find the Lion Recovery partition, how can i boot into that? When hold Command-R, it boots into Internet Recovery for 15 misn then go back to the choose languague and the 4 options (restore from TM, Reinstall OSX, Disk Util and somethign else I can't remember)
Basically I want to either restore from my TM back up to current state or re-install new OS X to the MacHD without wiping out the whole drive.
Thanks for your help.

Yes, but you would need to erase/reformat the hard drive to re-install Snow Leopard.
Star with Section E in the first linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

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    Message was edited by: matappassamy

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    Your broken Mac is no longer broken and now needs a new OS. But you don't have the discs, right? Well get this... you can clone your donor mac on to your machine, even if they are totally different i.e. a laptop on to a tower.
    *Again using Disc Utility, click on your donor Mac's hard drive. The restore tab appears as an option.
    *Click on restore and drag the donor Mac's hard drive that contains the operating system in to the Source box.
    *Drag the newly formatted hard drive on the broken Mac in to the Destination box.
    *Click restore. Your donor Mac's hard drive will now be 'cloned' on to your no-longer-broken Mac. Once this is done, eject the first Mac's hard drive from your donor Mac's desktop. You no longer need the donor Mac.
    Ta daa! Your machine now starts up happy and smily again. Time to restore all that stuff that's been sat on your Time Machine drive...
    STEP 3: Restore from Time Machine using Migration Assistant
    This is the really clever part that prompted me to write this piece in the first place. Time Machine IS accessible without those Leopard install discs you don't have. You need to use something called 'Migration Assistant'.
    *Start up your machine as normal and you'll see it is an exact clone of the donor machine. Weird huh?
    *Attach your Time Machine hard drive. It will show up as an icon on the desktop and because of it's size, you'll be asked if you want to use it as a Time Machine backup. Err, NO YOU DON'T! Click 'cancel'.
    *Open Migration Assistant (if you can't find it just type it in to Finder and click). There are three options, the middle one being to restore from TM or another disc. Yup, you want that one.
    *Migration Assistant will now ask you what you want to restore in stages, firstly User Accounts, then folders, Apps etc. It will even import internet settings
    And that's you done. Let Migration Assistant do it's thang... altogether I had about 140gb to restore, so it wasn't exactly speedy. This wasn't helped by the fact that my TM hard drive is connected via USB (yes, I know). Just leave it alone and it'll whirr happily away...
    Before I go - you don't have an option of when to restore from, and will restore from the last Time Machine save. At least then you should be able to access TM and go 'backwards' if you need to.
    Also - for a Mac expert, the above will be up there with 'Spot Goes To The Farm' in terms of complexity. However, for the rest of us the above is only available in fragments all over the net. By far the most common response to 'how do I restore from Time Machine without install discs' is 'you can't'. If I'd found the above information in one place I could have saved a lot of hair pulling and swearing over the last couple of days, so forgive me for sharing this workaround with the rest of the world. Meanwhile your expertise will come in very handy for the inevitable questions that will get posted below, so please feel free to help those people that won't be sure if this solution is the right one for them. I'm no expert, I just want to help people that were stuck in the same situation (and looking at the web, there's a LOT of them).
    Hope this is of use to someone, thanks and *good luck*!

    Most maintenance and repair, restore and install procedures require the use
    of the correct OS X install DVD; be it an original machine-specific restore/install
    disc set or a later retail non-specific general install disc set.
    By having an unsupported system, perhaps installed via an illegal download or
    other file-sharing scheme, where no retail official discs are involved and the
    initial upgrade was done by other means outside of the License Agreements,
    you are asking us to discuss a matter of illegal installation and use of a product.
    There are no legal complete OS X system download upgrades online; only bits
    that are update segments to a retail or as-shipped machine's original OS X install.
    +{Or an installation where a previous owner had correct retail upgrade discs, &+
    +chose to not include them with the re-sale of the computer it was installed in.}+
    However, to answer the initial question. To get and use an externally enclosed
    hard drive in suitable boot-capable housing, and get a free-running Clone
    Utility (download online; often a donation-ware product, runs free) you can
    make a bootable backup of everything in your computer to an external HDD.
    This is the way to make a complete backup to restore all functions to the computer.
    The Time Machine has some limits, in that it can restore only that which it saves.
    It does not make a bootable clone of your entire computer system with apps and
    your files, to an external drive device. A clone can. And some of the clone utility's
    settings can also backup changes to an external drive's system; if that other drive
    is attached to the computer correctly.
    Carbon Copy Cloner, from Bombich Software; and also SuperDuper, another of
    the most known software names you can download and use to clone boot-capable
    system backups of your computer's hard disk drive contents, are often cited.
    However you resolve the matter of the running OS X system in your computer,
    derived from what appears to be questionable means, is part of the initial issue.
    Since you do need to be able to fix an existing installation by unmounting the
    computer's hard disk drive and run the computer from the other (install disc or
    system clone) while it is Unmounted; and use the correct Disk Utility version to
    help diagnose and perhaps be able to fix it. You can't use a Tiger version Disk
    Utility to fix a Leopard installation, and so on.
    So, the situation and replies as far as they can go (since the matter does
    constitute an illegal system, if it was arrived at without correct discs) is a
    limited one. And file sharing of copied Mac OS X (and other) software is
    also considered illegal.
    And, one way to get odd malware and unusual stuff, is to get an unauthorized
    system upgrade from an illegal source online. You never know what's inside it.
    The other reply was not a personal attack; the matter is of legal status and as
    you have a product with a questionable system, the answer is to correct it.
    And if you want to save everything in your computer, make a clone to a suitable
    externally enclosed self-powered boot capable hard disk drive. With older PPC
    Macs, that would best be to one with FireWire and the Oxford-type control chips.
    However that works out...
    Good luck & happy computing!

  • Imac won't restore from time machine backup after HD (hard drive) recall replacement

    I have an imac bought in 2011, running Snow Leopard.  It required an HD replacement due to the 1 TB Seagate recall - the replacement was done by a certified Apple repair station yesterday.  Before the guy left he started a backup/restore from my latest time machine backup set.  It failed.  I attempted it two times and got error messages that it failed and the computer needed to be restarted to try it again.  No luck.  I called the guy back and he told me to call Apple Care.  Not thrilled about that response since the guy had just left my house I did what he told me to do.  (A quick sideline here:  I recognize that a time machine backup should be no big deal and SHOULD work everytime, but it doesn't.  It irks me that Apple is replacing my HD through no fault of mine and yet they don't allow the restore of data to be a "covered" expense in this process - this isn't just because this was an authorized repair guy - the Apple store would have done the same). 
    Back to the issue.  When I called apple care they pretty much had me try the same thing again with an earlier back up set.  To my knowledge, it didn't work.  I say this because it looked like it was working and when I came back to the imac later, it had restarted and once again booted to the OSX install.  (The boot disc is still in the imac).  When I tried to boot from another location, one did not show up to boot from so I assumed that the data didn't transfer and it forced another restart.  So, I tried something else.  I tried to re-install the snow leopard OSX without using the restore function.  That appeared to work and then when the machine restarted it asked if I had another mac and I chose the option to get the files/apps/etc. from my time machine backup.  The computer chose what I can only assume is the most recent backup set (It chose what I know to be a subfolder that appears under the dated backup folder - Macintosh HD--which btw is confusing seeing as that's always the name of the HD on the imac).  I again stepped away from the computer so it could do its thing for two hours.  When I returned, I was back to the MAC OSX screen that asks you to choose a language.  There were no more options to choose DISK UTILITY or RESTORE FROM BACKUP, etc.  When I clicked on English it took me right back into the screen where you say whether you have another Apple that you want to transfer data from.  I realized that the imac must have restarted and I assumed maybe it was because the boot disk was still in - except how do you get the disc to eject?  I also initially assumed that the backup had somehow failed again and triggered a restart.  I tried to choose the option to just set up the machine without transferring data and when I got to the choose a name for your HOME folder message I tried to enter the same name I had it as before and it wouldn't allow me to do so, saying that that name was already in use.  I also tried a different name and that didn't work either - got the same message (I assume if it is not the same name that it won't sync up with the time machine data from the backup set).  So, I almost tried the "select time machine backup" option again until I looked at my HD space.  Clearly, there is space that has been used.  HD space was 997 at the start and now it's 636. My initial thought is to somehow get back into the setup area where I can use disc utility and erase the whole thing and then start over but 1) I don't think it's going to work even if I could get back there 2) I have no idea how to get this thing to reboot into that mode 3) I can't get the boot CD out to even try to restart to see if this thing did what it was supposed to, SO NOW I AM TOTALLY STUCK!  I have not called Apple Care back because quite frankly they were useless the first time.  I have a call into the repair guy but who knows how much help he will be.  In the mean time, I have a million things to do and a computer that isn't working - Whoever said Apples never have issues needs to be seriously censored!
    A few other notes:  I use Time Machine Editor to run my backups weekly.  It was set up that way from the get go by an Apple rep who came to my house to get us up and running.  Editor should not effect the way that time machine does its work, so I doubt there is relevance but thought it worth mentioning. 
    One other note is that the Apple Care agent tried to have me do something called a "Source" something or other from the disk utility screen but when she realized that my backup file (shown by date) contained many other sub files (11-27-12/MacintoshHD/MyNamesIMAC/etc.), it was not possible to run this operation - thus we aborted.  Sorry I don't remember the name of the process and unfortunately now can't access that option to go find it. 
    If you can help me, I would be eternally grateful!  I am open to having a phone conversation if you are willing to give me your email to mail you my number. I have so much work to do this week and this was the last thing I needed.  Did I mention this was supposed to be EASY?
    I used to be quite the geek with my PC - still on the learning curve with the mac but not enjoying it.  I am fairly tech savvy and I can follow instructions for a step by step solution if you've got one. 

    I got a recall and had the drive replaced. I have retored 3 timesa dn even had apple do the job and it is still not right. I still can't get a simple ghost of the data from time machineback tot he new drive. 
    This is Apple's explaination as taken from their web page.:
    Restoring your entire system from a backup
    If you are restoring a backup made by a Mac to the same Mac
    With your backup drive connected, start up your Mac from the Recovery system (Command-R at startup) or Mac OS X v10.6 installation disc. Then use the "Restore From Time Machine Backup" utility.
    Note: If "You can't restore   this backup because it was created by a different model of Mac" appears  when restoring  a backup that was  made on a different Mac, follow the onscreen instructions.
    I even posted this information on the community and apple removed it... because they don't like the:
    Off-topic or non-technical posts
    Non-constructive rants or complaints
    But here is my experieince:
    Take in 27iMac running 10.6.8, 5-7 days, what a joke, my boss will be happy to pay for a week without working. Finally get, "if you have TM back up, 3 days." Get machine back with 10.6.3, hit the R recovery, click TM back up, runs for 2 hours, reboots, looks great. Box up take back to office... update to install - OH NO, still running 10.6.3. Updates crash with no specific error on install, BUG PROBELM, nothing runs.
    Call Apple... after hours, tells me to boot using 10.6.2 disk, wipe, reinstall OS, udate to 10.6.8, THEN do the restore. GREAT! Only thing 10.6.2 DVD won't read... now back on phone... take back to the store, Genius says, he'll ix it just like it was. PROMISES it'll be fixed.
    Pick up next day, supposedly, booted to disk, wiped drive, reinstalled, updated to 10.6.8 and THEN did the RIGHT restore... Looks GREAT... apps run and 10.6.8 OS. Back to the office... NOT RUNNING right!!!... fonts messed up, drop box app needs new install, cocktail needs upgrade, Fetch not working, memorized paths gone... back ups locked out of permissions... ***!!
    4 hours on phone with apple and still no rsolution - to missing "settings". Seems there are THREE WAYS TO RESTORE (according to apply tech)... Running MIGRATE ASSISTANT and being able to choose your files, including settings, "R" RESTORE after they load a new OS... or NOW WAITING for them to send me a bootable 10.6.3 disk and then boot from disk, w/o installing OS and doing a restore from TM. I think this is done via the disk Utilties application.
    So now can't back up without doing a full 400 GB back up since permissons are screwed and possibly destroying any good back ups... can't work, like having hands tied behind back. WAITING for solution! Very upset!!!
    I did my first restore just like they said and now an 10 days without proper machine. Just FYI. I thnk I am going to make the store do the tech work so I have somthing to fall back on.

  • HT201250 I recently replaced my 2009 Macbook Pro's hard drive.  I had the Apple store upgrade the OS to Mountain Lion while it was being repaired.  I want to restore all of my old files and data, if I restore from Time Machine, will it revert to the old O

    I recently had to replace my 2009 Macbook Pro's hard drive.  I had the apple store upgrade the OS to Mountain Lion while it was in being repaired.  I want to restore all of my old data and files.  If I perform a restore from Time Machine, with a date prior to having the hard drive replaced, will it revert back to the old OS?

    No, it won't revert to the prior OS X but you you may have third party apps installed that were compatible with Lion that may not be compatible with Mountain Lion.
    App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps - App compatibility and feature support for OS X & iOS
    After you restore from TM, check HD > Incompatible Software

  • Will a system restore from Time Machine erase any of the data that is currently on the Mac and not in the Time Machine?

    We had a lot of data on our Mac (i.e. photos, iTunes libraries etc) which we backed up via Time Machine. The hard disk corrupted so we had to get it wiped. When we got it back, my parents started using the mac as per usual but they didn't do a full System Restore from Time Machine. So, if I do a full restore now, will it erase any of the new photos, musc etc that is currently on the mac?

    The Time Machine restore will only restore what is on Time Machine.  Making a clone is probably a better means of ensuring whatever data you want recovered gets recovered together with Time Machine.
    Generally speaking, applications that are newer than the operating system from Apple that are included with the operating system are not supported.  So in your data recovery process from your clone, you'll have to be careful what data you choose to copy back.

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