Unique Problem That Needs Time Machine

The title of this post may very well be misleading, but nevertheless i am in a predicament. I recently installed the 10.5.3 update, but some errors occurred. Since these errors are not the problem, i won't go into it.
Suffice it to say, i used my brothers recently bought MacBook's install CD to try and revert back using my external HDD with Time Machine. My original Leopard install CD is in storage 2000 miles away (college student home for summer). My MacBook was purchased in August of '06 and I installed Leopard on it in Jan '08. My brother's MacBook was bought only a couple weeks ago, if that long.
Looking back now, i would assume the newer Install CD isn't compatible with the older Mac. I get the error message "Mac OSX cannot be installed on this computer." and given the options "OK" and "Restart".
I was hoping that i could use this newer CD to tap into the Time Machine "archives" on my external HDD and restore my Mac to the way it was.
Please help me...

You can call any Apple number if you don't have AppleCare. Tell them what you need and give them your serial number. If you registered your 10.5 install disc when you installed it, they can pull it up and verify.
I just went through this a few weeks ago when I thought I lost my install disc. As soon as I received the replacement and went to put it away, I found the original.
EDIT: I made a point to ask them if this service had anything to do with my having AppleCare and they said it did not)
-mj
Message was edited by: macjack

Similar Messages

My Intel iMac with 4 ext, daisy chained drives freezes up sometimes. If I unplug all drives there is no problem. Also Disk Warrior gives me the error msg,that in Time Machine, (which is on a lg. (1TB ext. HD) error msg me that there is not enough memory

My Intel iMac with 4 ext daisy chained drives freezes up sometimes. If I unplug all drives there is no problem. Also Disk Warrior gives me the error msg (2154) that in Time Machine, (which is on a lg.(1TB ext. HD only 1/4 used space) error msg me that there is not enough memory. I am using Lion 10.7.2.

My Intel iMac with 4 ext daisy chained drives freezes up sometimes. If I unplug all drives there is no problem. Also Disk Warrior gives me the error msg (2154) that in Time Machine, (which is on a lg.(1TB ext. HD only 1/4 used space) error msg me that there is not enough memory. I am using Lion 10.7.2.

My Time Machine says there is no backup disk available. I've never had any problems with my time machine. I'm not technologically savvy, so if anyone can help, I'd appreciate it!

My Time Machine says there is no backup disk available. I've never had any problems with my time machine completing backups. I was away from house with my laptop for about 9 days so I'm wondering if there is something I need to do now that I'm home to get it working again. I'm not technologically savvy, so if anyone can help, I'd appreciate it!
Thanks,
Jana

You can lose your ability to backup through TM for any number of reasons, but the most common is what happens after a update. If your drive still works, your best approach is to read this:
http://www.chriscolotti.us/technology/how-to-fix-osx-mountain-lion-time-machine/
The attached link contains helpful graphics, so don't worry if you're not tech savvy.

HT201250 Unexpected problem with Mac time machine!

Hi every one!
I'm having an unexpected problem with my time machine! the moment I hook up the back up drive my Mac crashes and the only thing I can do is to force restart. I'm not sure if the problem is with the back up disk or the Time Machine itself. I've successfully used the app since now and this just happens! I can neither access the disk in finder nor fix it by disk utility... would you please help me?
PS. the disk is encrypted, I doubt that might be causing the problem?!
Thank you!
chargar

Launch the Console application by entering the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Enter the name of the crashed process in the “Filter” text field. Post the messages from the time of the last crash, if any -- the text, please, not a screenshot.
Then, still in the Console window, look under User Diagnostic Reports for crash logs related to the process. Select the most recent one and post the contents -- again, not a screenshot. For privacy’s sake, I suggest you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.)

What is the best USB powered portable 1TB hard drive for a macbook pro that allows Time machine to work, windows (thru Parallels software) and mac storage and is available in Australia?

What is the best USB powered portable 1TB hard drive for a macbook pro that allows Time machine to work, windows (thru Parallels software) and mac storage and is available in Australia?

I agree with teh OWC sggestion above, but why must it be USB powered? I find that far more unreliable, and the low power devices slow.
I'd frankly get a good external enclosure and buy a bare drive. But the OWC stuff is quite good - vastly better than some of the majors (WD being aprime example of stuff that's boderline quality and often not compatible)
Grant

I am using iphone 4s in India. I am facing a problem that some times when I got a call, my iphone got stuck and unable to unlock and I lost that call unattended. Then I have to reboot my iphone.

I am using iphone 4s in India. I am facing a problem that some times when I got a call, my iphone got stuck and unable to unlock and I lost that call unattended. Then I have to reboot my iphone. There after it starts working. And in another incidence my iphone home page automatically shows extra large fonts. Plz help to encounter these problems. Sunil

Restore the phone from backup. If this does not work, restore the Phone as a new device not using backup at all.

Is there any way to back up my Macbook Pro without using the heap of crap that is Time Machine? It is telling me it will take 3 days to back up 100Gb. I am in my 60s and I am worried that I might not live that long

s there any way to back up my Macbook Pro without using the heap of crap that is Time Machine? It is telling me it will take 3 days to back up 100Gb. I am in my 60s and I am worried that I might not live that long

If you aren't going to live that long maybe you should give up with computers and start enjoying the few remaining hours.
Suggested Backup Software
1. Carbon Copy Cloner
2. Data Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. Synk Pro
6. Tri-Backup
Others may be found at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
You may obtain trials of the utilities via VersionTracker or MacUpdate.

My Apple ID showed security problem that needs to reset my password. But I forget my resue email and scecurity questions' answers. So what can I do?

My Apple ID showed security problem that needs to reset my password. But I forget my resue email and scecurity questions' answers. So what can I do?

If you are on Lion or newer, follow directions here:
Reset the user password in OS X Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks
Reset 10.5 Leopard & 10.6 Snow Leopard password
1. Power on or restart your Mac.
2. At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
3. This step is optional, but it’s a good idea because it checks the consistency of the hard disk before moving on. At the prompt, type fsck -fy and press Enter/Return. Wait for the checks to complete before going to the next step.
4. Type mount -uw / and press Enter.
5. Type launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plistand press Enter.
6. Type ls /Users and press Enter. This lists all of the usernames on the computer – helpful if you don’t know or remember what these are.
7. Type dscl . -passwd /Users/username password and replace “username” with one of the users displayed in the previous step. Replace “password” with a new password of your choice. Press Enter.
8. Type reboot and press Enter.

HT1338 I'm getting a message that my time machine couldn't back up. I need to reformat and try again. Any ideas?

I need help with my time machine and reformatting.

Radiation Mac wrote:
Open your Applications folder and click on the "Utilities" icon>click on "Disk Utility". Go into Disk Utility, highlight the external hard drive you are going to use for Time Machine backups in the left hand column by clicking on it and select the "Erase" tab, up and over to the right. Then select the Format, below, that will be installed, as "Mac OS Extended (Journeled)". THEN, OK the erasure. That should clear things up.
Hope this helps
Of course this will erase all previous backups.

Problems setting up Time Machine using a network drive

I am having problems setting up TimeMachine on my Mac Mini to work with a WD MyBookLive network drive. The network drive came with a TimeMachineBackup shared folder preconfigured. When I first connected the drive to the router and turned on TimeMachine, the TimeMachineBackups appeared as an option when I did "Select Backup Disk" from TimeMachine Preferences.
I managed to successfully connect to the drive and start a backup running. However the backup hit a problem and I started getting an error that the "disk was already in use". I therefore tried to remove the disk to try and start again. Hoever when I now do go into "Select Backup Disk" from TimeMachine Preferences the shared folder on the drive no longer apperas and I only get the option to serach for an Time Capsule.
If I go into Finder, the MyBookLive shows up as a connected Device with all its shared folders showing (including the TimeMachineBackup folder) and my Mac is definitely connected to the drive. How do I get the Drive & TimeCapsuleBackup shared folder to reappear in TimeMachine Preferences so that I can select it as the destination for my backups?

Check around the forum, you are one of very very many. It doesn't matter what WD say, do you see a Certified by Apple notice on it?
Go here, most authoritative site about Time Machine you can find. http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
Specific info on Network Drives are here http://pondini.org/TM/2.html
Post back here and ask for Pondini if you need more.
You can also read some tales of woe here

When is Apple going to fix the problem with slow Time Machine backups with Mavericks?

I have been with Apple tech support and they got my Time Machine working by doing a spotlight re-indexing and a safe boot. This worked for about three days and I am back to very slow backups. It is impossible for Time Machine to back up every hour when it takes six hours to do the back up. I don't want to take hours to re-index with spotlight all the time. I think taking six hours to do an incremental backup is a bit much. I see that there are many people that have this trouble and it all started with an upgrade to Mavericks. The question is when is Apple going to fix this problem of slow backups with Time Machine for Mavericks. I have wasted more time than I care to. I am think of going back to Windows. I need good solid backups of my machine and Apple has taken it away with the new Mavericks. Oh, I am using the UBS 3.0 connection so the drive should not be the problem. Also this has occurred in about the last five months, so I am not sure this problem was in the original Marvericks.

Allen Thanks for your reply. All I can say is several months ago Time Machine quit working in a reasonable manner. Right now I have a Time Machine backup that has been running all night and still has three hours to go to backup 6 GB of data. I am using a OWC 1.5 TB drive connected directly to my MacBook with a USB 3.0 connection. In the resent past I have added Dropbox, GoogleDrive and a MAMP server on which I am using a program called Learning With Text from Sourceforge. There have been a lot of questions on the forum about people having very slow Time Machine back ups, so it appears to be a general problem. I should also state I am getting this very slow backup after doing the Spotlight re-indexing and the Safe Restart procedure that was told to me by apple support. I have a 750 GB drive in my MacBook Pro which I am constantly trying to keep at a 5% level of free space. This might be a problem also. However, I am working on a lot of things and like to have a lot of things on my drive. Also the heavily loaded drive has not be a problem in the past. This slow backup business started about three months ago, so something has happen in a very short time period. Now it seems even the procedure that Apple support gave me is not working. Currently I am in China and it is difficult to interact with Apple support to solve this problem, but because I am in China having my computer backed up is critical. I have run the EtreCheck and am attaching the results below. I would appreciate any suggestions. If necessary I will clear out more of my hard drive if that appears to be a solution. The Time Machine drive was recently reformed so I only have a few backups on it. I also don't run the Time Machine all the time as I don't want multi-hour backups running all the time. I run it every few days.
Here is the info from EtreCheck:
Hardware Information:
          MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012)
          MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,1
          1 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores
          8 GB RAM
Video Information:
          Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: 1024 MB
          NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M - VRAM: 1024 MB
System Software:
          OS X 10.9.2 (13C1021) - Uptime: 0 days 10:18:59
Disk Information:
          APPLE HDD HTS727575A9E362 disk0 : (750.16 GB)
                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                    Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 749.3 GB (54.06 GB free)
                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
          HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS31N
USB Information:
          VIA Labs, Inc.    USB3.0 Hub
                    OWC Elite Pro mini C 1.5 TB
                              EFI (disk1s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                              NewMBP-TimeMachine-1.1 (disk1s2) /Volumes/NewMBP-TimeMachine-1.1: 1.5 TB (691.6 GB free)
          Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
          Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
                    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
          Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
          Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
          Logitech USB Receiver
Thunderbolt Information:
          Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper:
          Mac App Store and identified developers
Kernel Extensions:
          [not loaded] com.LaCie.ScsiType00 (1.2.2) Support
          [not loaded] com.lacie.driver.LaCie_RemoteComms (1.0.1) Support
          [not loaded] com.oxsemi.driver.OxsemiDeviceType00 (1.28.0) Support
          [not loaded] com.roxio.BluRaySupport (1.1.6) Support
          [not loaded] com.roxio.TDIXController (2.0) Support
          [not loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecDriverCore (5.0.1) Support
          [not loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecLeafDriver_10_4 (5.0.1) Support
          [not loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecLeafDriver_10_5 (5.0.1) Support
          [not loaded] com.seagate.driver.SeagateDriveIcons (5.0.1) Support
          [kext loaded] com.symantec.kext.SymAPComm (11.2.2f3) Support
          [not loaded] com.symantec.kext.confidentialData (1.4f5) Support
          [not loaded] com.symantec.kext.filesecurity (1.4.3f19) Support
          [kext loaded] com.symantec.kext.fw (1.0.3f5) Support
          [kext loaded] com.symantec.kext.internetSecurity (1.3.2f5) Support
          [kext loaded] com.symantec.kext.ips (1.3.1f7) Support
          [kext loaded] com.symantec.kext.pf (4.2.1f7) Support
          [not loaded] com.wacom.driver.HIDTablet (5.0.1) Support
Startup Items:
          cma: Path: /Library/StartupItems/cma
          MySQLCOM: Path: /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM
          ParallelsDesktopTransporter: Path: /Library/StartupItems/ParallelsDesktopTransporter
          ParallelsTransporter: Path: /Library/StartupItems/ParallelsTransporter
          Tablet: Path: /Library/StartupItems/Tablet
Launch Daemons:
          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
          [loaded] com.adobe.versioncueCS4.plist Support
          [loaded] com.barebones.authd.plist Support
          [not loaded] com.barebones.textwrangler.plist Support
          [loaded] com.bombich.ccc.plist Support
          [loaded] com.mcafee.virusscan.eupdate.plist Support
          [running] com.micromat.TechToolProDaemon.plist Support
          [loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support
          [loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist Support
          [loaded] com.prosofteng.DriveGenius.locum.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.avscandaemon.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.deepsight-extractor.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.diskMountNotify.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.MissedTasks.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.navapd.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.navapdaemonsl.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.Sched501-1.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.Sched501-2.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.Sched503-3.plist Support
          [loaded] com.symantec.Sched503-4.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.sharedsettings.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.symdaemon.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.symSchedDaemon.plist Support
          [loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist Support
Launch Agents:
          [loaded] com.adobe.CS4ServiceManager.plist Support
          [running] com.lacie.safemanager.daemon.plist Support
          [running] com.micromat.TechToolProAgent.plist Support
          [loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support
          [running] com.seagate.SeagateStorageGauge.plist Support
          [failed] com.sogou.SogouServices.plist Support
          [running] com.symantec.uiagent.application.plist Support
          [running] net.culater.SIMBL.Agent.plist Support
          [loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist Support
User Launch Agents:
          [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support
          [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support
          [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support
          [running] com.wondershare.mobilegodaemon.plist Support
User Login Items:
          GeekTool
          SIMBL Agent
          QQ
          Safari
          Calendar
          Google Drive
          Dropbox
          Day One
          Dictionary
          SymSecondaryLaunch
Internet Plug-ins:
          Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 2.2.1.11 Support
          FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 13.0.0.182 - SDK 10.6 Support
          iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0
          Flash Player: Version: 13.0.0.182 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update
          AdobePDFViewer: Version: 9.5.5 Support
          Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
          QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
          OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin: Version: 12.3.6 Support
          RealPlayer Plugin: Version: (null) Support
          Silverlight: Version: 4.0.51204.0 Support
          JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 55 Check version
Safari Extensions:
          Video Converter: Version: 4.0.0
          AllMyTube: Version: 4.1.0.0
          Open in Internet Explorer: Version: 1.0
Audio Plug-ins:
          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9
          AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9
          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9
          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9
iTunes Plug-ins:
          Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9
User Internet Plug-ins:
          QQMail: Version: 1.0.2.0 - SDK 10.7 Support
          txftn: Version: 1.0.0.6 Support
3rd Party Preference Panes:
          Adobe Version Cue CS4 Support
          Flash Player Support
          GeekTool Support
          Growl Support
          Java Support
          MacFUSE Support
          MenuMeters Support
          MySQL Support
          Norton\nQuickMenu Support
          Paragon NTFS for Mac ® OS X Support
          Pen Tablet Support
          Perian Support
          TechTool Protection Support
Time Machine:
          Skip System Files: NO
          Mobile backups: OFF
          Auto backup: YES
          Volumes being backed up:
                    Macintosh HD: Disk size: 697.84 GB Disk used: 647.49 GB
          Destinations:
                    NewMBP-TimeMachine-1.1 [Local] (Last used)
                    Total size: 1
                    Total number of backups: 11
                    Oldest backup: 2014-03-18 15:09:46 +0000
                    Last backup: 2014-04-29 23:24:28 +0000
                    Size of backup disk: Too small
                              Backup size 1 < (Disk used 647.49 GB X 3)
          Time Machine details may not be accurate.
          All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
Top Processes by CPU:
              47%          SymAVScanDaemon
               7%          Finder
               7%          WindowServer
               2%          mds
               1%          NortonAutoProtect
Top Processes by Memory:
          385 MB          NortonAutoProtect
          262 MB          mds_stores
          180 MB          Safari
          139 MB          WindowServer
          115 MB          Finder
Virtual Memory Information:
          1.15 GB          Free RAM
          2.87 GB          Active RAM
          1.83 GB          Inactive RAM
          1.05 GB          Wired RAM
          1.02 GB          Page-ins
          380 MB          Page-outs
I hope you can see something that can be fixed.

Restoring Problem iMac from Time Machine

I have been having problems with my iMac pretty much since it was new. It takes several minutes to restart, hanging on the blue screen before the login window comes up (see this thread http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=13362863#13362863). I have several programs that crash on a regular basis and need a force quit, after which I cannot restart the computer and must manually shut it down. The permissions seem to get messed up quickly and require extensive repairs. I suspect that something went wrong during the migration from my MacBook Pro back in February. If I do a restore from Time Machine, will this just restore the corrupt data and leave me with the same problems? What is the best way to clear out any corrupt data and restore my applications and data? I am getting to the point where I want to return the iMac to a brand new clean state and start all over, but I need to be able to recover my data. I will try to provide any information that might be useful. Thanks for any help you can provide.

radaines wrote:
If I do a restore from Time Machine, will this just restore the corrupt data and leave me with the same problems?
Probably.
First, the permissions messages may not really be problems; see [Mac OS X: Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions messages that you can safely ignore|http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448].
Also, be sure you're running +Repair Permissions+ while booted from Mac, not the Startup Disk. See [About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1452].
If you suspect your installation of OSX is damaged, install a fresh copy (that won't affect anything else), then the "combo" update. See [Installing the ''combo'' update and/or Reinstalling OSX|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Combo.html].
Try a Safe Boot: [Starting up in safe mode|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/21245.html].
Also see: [Multiple applications quit unexpectedly or fail to launch|http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/multipleappsquit.html]. You've already done some of the things there, but not all. Note that it hasn't been updated for a while, but there aren't that many differences between Leopard and Snow Leopard.

Privilege problem with old Time Machine backup

There are all kinds of posts about privilage problems, but I can't find my answer. I did a clean install of Snow Leopard, and now I want to only drag my iTunes library and iPad backup files from my time machine backup onto the computer. I can access all the files on the backup drive, including MobileSync and my iTunes folder, but when I try to pull them off the drive I get the terrible message "The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access “MobileSync”." The sharing & permissions for the folder say "read & write" for my user, and the "Locked" box isn't checked in the Get Info window. When I click on the settings gear in the Sharing & Permissions window, the "Make me the owner" option is grayed out even after I unlock the options. I tried resolution for issue 1 here. And I also tried those terminal commands to no avail. When I access Time Machine from the dock, all the backups prior to my reinstall are listed, but I can't access them. Anyone have any other ideas? This is extremely frustrating. Note: I am able to copy over files from the backups created after I reinstalled Snow Leopard.
sudo chflags 0 /Volumes/Volumename
sudo chown 0:80 /Volumes/Volumename
sudo chmod 775 /Volumes/Volumename
sudo chmod -N /Volumes/Volumename

I personally think that Time Machine is a magical process run by unicorns.
I just moved from a MacBook Pro to a brand spanking new iMac 27". My iPad just does everything that I need a laptop to do, and an iMac is so much more powerful than a MBP.
Anyways, I setup my new iMac with the MBP Time Machine backup, as I usually do with new Macs. As I was going to sell my MBP, I was just going to use my 3TB Time Machine drive on my new iMac, thinking that I'd lose 9 months of backups, as I usually do with a new Mac. Except, apparently with Mountain Lion, the unicorns and wizards have decided that the old Time Machine backups are now transferred to the new iMac. So, even though my iMac is only 15 days old, it shows 9 months of backups. Which was a lifesaver, because an important photo got corrupted in the restore process, and I found it in the Wayback Machine.
Cool stuff.

Problemas con mi Time Machine

Hola, tengo un problema con mi Time Capsule, despues de hacer varias copias de seguridad, ahora me aparece este error en mi Time Machine: La imagen del disco de copia de seguridad “/Volumes/Data/Victor.sparsebundle” ya está en uso.
Ojalá alguien pueda ayudarme con esto.
Saludos...

Spanish:
Yo no hablo español así que por favor acepte mis disculpas por la mala traducción del Inglés al Español.
La barra gris que se ve en el inicio puede indicar que el sistema detectaun error de disco duro. Le sugiero que ejecuta la aplicación Utilidad de Discos que se pueden encontrar en las aplicaciones o carpeta Utilidades. Si detecta errores significativos cuando se ejecuta la opción "Verificar disco", entonces mi recomendación es realizar una copia de sus datos y tener el iMac a un proveedor de servicios para su posterior evaluación.
Si usted está interesado en el control de la unidad de disco duro SMART(Self-Monitoring, Analysis, y Presentación de Informes de Tecnología)registros de errores a continuación, descargar la aplicación SMART Utility desde:
http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php
Si los informes de utilidad para aplicaciones de Smart SMART de estadoque la unidad ha fallado o está fallando entonces es probable que necesites un nuevo disco duro.
English:
I do not speak Spanish so please accept my apologies for the poor translation from English to Spanish.
The gray bar you see at startup may indicate that your system is detecting a hard drive error. I suggest running the Disk Utility application which can be found in the Applications/Utilities folder. If you detect any significant errors when running the 'verify disk' option then my recommendation is to back up your data and take the iMac in to a service provider for further evaluation.
If you are interested in checking the hard drive SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) error logs then download the SMART Utility application from:
http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php
If the SMART Utility application SMART status reports that your drive has failed or is failing then you will probably need a new hard drive.

I am having major problems restoring from Time Machine. The computer tells me I have completely restored but no data is available in the various applications.

I had backed up all my data to Time Machine, then securely deleted all data on my MacBook Pro and reinstalled Snow Leopard, prior to having Apple replace a faulty Airport card. I went through the normal restoration process from Time Machine, which took quite some time (about 2.5 hours for 240 Gb of data, including applications) without giving any indication of a problem. However, although the computer indicates that 240 Gb has been reinstalled on the hard drive, data such as photos, music, documents, IOS apps, movies, etc , is not showing up in the relevent application i.e. photos in iPhoto or mobile apps in iTunes. Even though application icons were visible in the dock, they would not open. I spent two days (one hour one day and five hours the next) at the Apple Genius Bar trying to find out what the problem was, without any success. No matter what was tried, no clear solution was evident so I was given a manual workaround to bring back banks of files one at a time, which has given me some workability. All data is obviously stored on the external hard drive, but restoration has not been successful. I have successfully used Time Machine to restore all data from a previous MacBook to my current MacBook Pro without any hitches whatsoever. The only difference this time is that I have two separate accounts on the Pro, which may be causing the problem. I can restore items manually from either account but they all go into one account. Also, when manually restoring photos or music from Time Machine, I am unable to select the relevent location for this data, i.e. iPhoto or iTunes. The only way I got these into the relevent application was by putting them into a burn folder or onto a thumb drive and then dragging them into the dock application. I am not very computer savvy and feel totally out of my depth to manually restore everything back to where it was before the clean install, particularly the two user accounts, which I would loke to have back again. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Rob.

Your post is too difficult to read. Please repost using paragraphs.
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http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
In particular... FAQs and Troubleshooting.

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