Using Time Machine backup from one mac to another

I had a Mac book pro running 10.7.5 and used Time Machine to backup the system. The macbook died and I want to restore the Time Machine backup to my iMac running 10.7.5.
Question 1: Is this possible and how is it done?
Question 2: Will it restore all the software and files from the macbook pro to my iMac?

It can be done without any problem and everything will be restored from the Time Machine backup.
If you want to replace the actual content of the hard drive of your iMac with the content of the Time Machine backup, press Command and R keys while your Mac is starting, choose the option to restore the Time Machine backup and follow the steps.
If you want to keep both content, use Migration Assistant to create a new user with the data of the MacBook Pro. Open Migration Assistant and follow the steps. Then, open  > Log Out, and log in the new user to access to the migrated data

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HT201250 Can I copy a time machine backup from one mac to another?

I have two Mac Book Pros that I use for work - I have one at home and one at work. I'd like to copy the contents and setup from my work Mac to my home Mac using a time machine backup, and then continue to use the time machine backup back at work. I.e. the time machine would only be used with the home Mac to copy over the contents and setup of my work Mac.
Can I just do a straight time machine back up in my 2nd (home) mac, or will this override the back up I have from the 1st (work) machine?
Thanks!

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Of course. Note that you can restore a Time Machine backup on all the Macs you want, always that the Mac uses the same or a newer OS X version than the one that had the Mac you used to make this backup.
Also, you can back up different computers to the same Time Machine drive. In this case, Time Machine will create different folders in your Time Machine drive for each computer, so one Mac backup won't conflict with the other computer backup.
To restore a backup, use Migration Assistant. Just connect the Time Machine drive, open Migration Assistant (it's in /Applications/Utilities) and follow the steps to restore the backup onto the computer

Transfering time machine backup from one HD to another

Got a time machine question
Say i have HD #1 that i have been using to backup files for january-april. I purchase HD #2 and would like to use it as my new time machine HD. how can i transfer the backups from january-april to HD #2?

Thanks for giving me that tidbit of information Scott. I'm not sure if this will work, so try this at your own risk, but this should allow you to change the UID of time machine in the preferences manually. You can open the preferences file with the following editor. However the UUID stored in the "BackupAlias" property is not the same UUID that disk utility returns. Does anyone know where you can get the correctly formatted UUID for the new drive? If you can get that, you may be able to manually change the settings after copying over your data with the following instructions.
1. Copy the backup database from your old drive to your new drive. (The Backups.backupdb directory)
2. Get the Universal ID for the new drive in a format time machine understands.
4. Copy/paste the Universal Unique Identifier into a temporary text file
5. Open up the Property List application from Applications -> Utilities
6. Select Open from the menu, then open the file "Root HD"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
7. Expand the root drop down and change the "Backup Alias" property

How can I copy a time machine backup from one Time Capsule to another ?

How can I copy a time machine backup from one Time Capsule to another ? I bought a 1 Tb Time Capsule to replace my 512Mb Time Capsule. Now, I like to copy my time machine backup from the old Time Capsule to the new one so I can keep using my backup.

from this support article:
(click on image to enlarge)

When I get to the select disk page it says that the HD is uesd as time machine drive. How can I remove time machine backup from my Mac.

I am tring to installe OS X Mavericks. When I get to the select disk page it says that the HD is uesd as time machine drive. How can I remove time machine backup from my Mac.

Open up your Finder and click on Go on the top menu bar. Select Computer and then double click Macintosh HD. In here delete the backup folder. Might be called backups.backupdb.

Cannot transfer Time Machine backups from one external drive to another

Since I bought my 13 inch MacBook Pro in September 2014 I've been keeping Time Machine backups on an external 1TB Lacie Rugged. This is partitioned into three and one of the partitions contains my iPhoto library.
Last weekend I left my MBP disconnected from the power source but with the external hard drive still plugged in. Long story short - the battery level fell below the minimum needed to operate so it turned itself off and 'disconnected' the external hard drive. This resulted in a corrupted iPhoto library which is no longer accessible.
In order to restore my iPhoto Library from another backup I needed to buy a second external hard drive. Yesterday I bought a 2TB Lacie Rugged which I've now partitioned into 5.
I want to move my Time Machine backups from the 1TB Lacie Rugged to a partition on the 2TB Lacie Rugged (to take advantage of the new Lacie's Thunderbolt connection).
I read the Apple article -
HT202380: Time Machine: How to transfer backups from the current backup drive to a new backup drive
and followed the instructions precisely. About 2 hours into the transfer I came back to my MacBook Pro and saw a message saying that it was not possible to complete the transfer because I did not have the correct permissions. The only option was to click the OK button which stopped the transfer.
Can anyone advise what I should do next?
Cheers
Tricia

Hi Eric,
Thank you for your response. I came across another thread yesterday which suggested the Restore via Disk Utility method. It worked for me, too. This was after I had tried following the method suggested in the Apple article above three times but each time the message was the same ....
The operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access some of the items.
I dare say that Apple would like to have us believe that it's a simple matter of 'drag and drop' but it certainly wasn't for me. From what I've read the permission problem crops up fairly frequently. Before the second and third attempts I had already amended Permissions on the Time Machine backups so that everyone could read and write, so that mustn't have been the problem. I'm the only person who uses my computer so that's not a problem.
The next problem I have is that I decided I would use the Restore route to transfer my SuperDuper clone rather than start from scratch. Unfortunately, the partition size on my original backup disk where SuperDuper clone is is 350GB and the size of the SuperDuper clone partition on my new backup is 300GB.
Of course, Apple says you can resize partitions using Disk Utility. What they don't say is you can downsize partitions but (in my experience and that of many other frustrated users on various forums) you CANNOT upsize using Disk Utility. I have 100GB spare on my external hard drive (from downsizing two partitions by 50GB each) BUT there is no way Disk Utility will let me increase the size of SuperDuper partition to 350GB :-(((
Cheers
Tricia

Restoring a time machine backup from a Mac mini to a new Mac mini server

Hi,
I just replaced a faulty Mac mini with a Mac mini server. I have a time machine backup of my Mac mini and want to transfer it over to the Mac mini. How do I do this?

This is a bit of a guess... But I Imagine you would have to start with the workstation OS install DVD first, and go from there at the appropriate point. Any chance you have or could make a CCC backup instead? I am assuming you could boot a mini server from a backup of mini non-server. Then you could copy it over. This is probably worth a phone call to Apple TAC

How do i install time machine backup from old mac to newer one

Hi, I know how to set up a brand new imac with full info and settings from an old mac from a time machine backup on a portable drive, BUT.... this time i have a 2011 imac in my studio already in use that we want to be completly swapped with full info and settings/software etc from an older 2009 imac, which we may sell on.
I have backup up via time machine the older 2009 mac, but when i plug this into the 2011 imac how do i completly wipe it and set up with info from the time machine?? it was easy doing it on a factoryt new mac but not this.
thanks
lee

If I have understood you properly, you want to migrate the data from the 2009 iMac onto the 2011 iMac but keeping the existing files on it.
To do this, use Migration Assistant > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4889 It will create a new user with the transferred files from the old iMac.
If you want to wipe the 2011 iMac and restore everything from the 2009 iMac, the most reliable way is erasing the hard drive, reinstalling OS X and restoring the backup. If you are using the same OS X version on both iMacs, you can restore the Time Machine backup without having to reinstall OS X, just starting from the Mac OS X DVD (or Recovery HD, if you have OS X Lion or Mountain Lion)

Using time machine backup from my Macbook pro to my new IMAC 27

Hi just tried to do a system restore of my time machine back up from my macbook pro to my new Imac 27, and the imac won't boot. Can I use a time machine back up to restore all of my data to my new Imac 27? Any help would be great thanks.
Antonio Medina

It sounds like you've overwritten the new computer's installation of OS X with one that is an earlier and incompatible version. You need to erase the new computer's hard drive then reinstall OS X using the original installation discs that came with the new computer. After you complete the installation you will have the opportunity to use Migration Assistant to migrate your Home folder, third-party applications and support files, and network preferences from an external drive, another connected computer, or an attached Time Machine backup drive.
1. 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 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. 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, then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. After the above process has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Complete your OS X installation.
5. When the installation is completed the computer will restart into the Setup Assistant. When you arrive at the point of setting up an initial admin account DO NOT use the same user (short) name that you have been using on your old system. Choose a temporary name to use such as Test or Temp, for example. At the end of the setup you will have an opportunity to migrate data from your TM backup. You can then migrate the Home folder, applications, network preferences, etc. Just do not do a full system restore, again.
6. When the migration has completed open Accounts preferences. Click on the lock and authenticate. Click on the Account Options button (bottom of the sidebar with account listing.) Change the Automatic Login preferences to use your migrated account. Click on the OK button and restart the computer.
7. Your computer should restart into your old Home folder with all your data. Open Accounts preferences, click on the lock icon and authenticate, select the temporary account you created then click on the Delete [-] button to remove it. Select the last option (immediate removal) and click on the OK button.

Time Machine - Backup from One Ext HD to Another Ext HD?

I'm sure this has been asked before but my searches have come up empty.
I'm currently setup on a 27" iMac (about 18 months old) and currently using Time Machine to backup my internal hard drive to an external raid setup. However, I keep all of my media files on an external hard drive rather than take up much needed real estate on my internal HD.
My question - is there anyway thru Time Machine to backup my external media drive to another extrnal drive, which is part of my raid setup? All externals are hooked up to the iMac and the iMac is recognizing all drives.
Or is Time machine limited in nature to only allow copying/backup from the internal drive to some other peripheral drive?
Thanks!!

Time Machine can back up from multiple volumes, but only to a single volume.
Internal volumes are backed-up by default; external volumes are excluded by default. Go to Time Machine Prefs > Options. The external should be listed in the exclusions box there. If it's shown in black, just select it and click the minus sign at the bottom. It will be included on the next backup.
If it's listed in gray, however, it's not formatted HFS+ (any variation of Mac OS Extended), Time Machine can't back it up, and you can't remove it.
If there isn't room on your external, and you can't expand the partition your backups are on, you'll need a different app, such as CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.

My experiences copying Time Machine backups from one external drive to another

I am reposting this. The first one was rejected because it contained 'product feedback' and I was directed to the 'Terms of Use'. The 'Terms of Use' say feedback is welcome...***?!?
My 3TB external drive started to die a few weeks ago. It was still under warranty and I just got the new one yesterday. I wanted to preserve all my backups (I had every backup for my late 2012 iMac) on it.
The short of it is that there were like 20-25 million files there or something crazy like that. Finder was going to take forever to count the files. cp and rsync would take like a week. I decided it wasn't worth the hassle, so I just securely erased the old disk and did a new initial backup on the new disk.
The old disk would only mount in read-only mode, so I couldn't prune the backups down to a manageable size. Unless you only have a handful of backups, or you can internally mount the drives to make it go faster, it's going to take forever to do this.
Regards, Patrick

Hi Eric,
Thank you for your response. I came across another thread yesterday which suggested the Restore via Disk Utility method. It worked for me, too. This was after I had tried following the method suggested in the Apple article above three times but each time the message was the same ....
The operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access some of the items.
I dare say that Apple would like to have us believe that it's a simple matter of 'drag and drop' but it certainly wasn't for me. From what I've read the permission problem crops up fairly frequently. Before the second and third attempts I had already amended Permissions on the Time Machine backups so that everyone could read and write, so that mustn't have been the problem. I'm the only person who uses my computer so that's not a problem.
The next problem I have is that I decided I would use the Restore route to transfer my SuperDuper clone rather than start from scratch. Unfortunately, the partition size on my original backup disk where SuperDuper clone is is 350GB and the size of the SuperDuper clone partition on my new backup is 300GB.
Of course, Apple says you can resize partitions using Disk Utility. What they don't say is you can downsize partitions but (in my experience and that of many other frustrated users on various forums) you CANNOT upsize using Disk Utility. I have 100GB spare on my external hard drive (from downsizing two partitions by 50GB each) BUT there is no way Disk Utility will let me increase the size of SuperDuper partition to 350GB :-(((
Cheers
Tricia

Transfer Time Machine backup from one external drive to another

Surely this has been covered, but I can't find it.
If you have your time machine backup on an external drive and get a new (larger) external drive, what is the best way to transfer the backup from one drive to the other (and define the new drive as the backup drive)? Straight copy ? Then to define the new drive, rename old drive to something else and name new drive the backup name?

I haven't tried this yet but a few other methods are described at http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071128055047339

Can I have 2 Separate Time Machine backups on one Mac?

I have a Mac running Snow leopard which I keep connected to an external USB drive. That drive is set up to automatically back my machine through Time Machine and it works great.
I would like to also do a backup of my machine and all its files onto a portable USB drive that I can then take to the office (i.e. remove it from the house) for security purposes. Once every couple of weeks I would plan on bringing the portable USB drive back home, plugging it into the Mac, doing another Time Machine backup and then removing it again.
Can I have 2 separate Time Machine backups onto 2 separate hard drives (as described above) on a single Mac?

Well I tried it, and it worked.

Using Time Machine backups from US in Germany on a German MacBook Pro

I have a MacBook Pro here in the US. I have it backed up to an external HD using Time Machine. I want to take only the external HD to Germany and use it on another MacBook Pro purchased in Germany. Will there be any issues due to region differences or compatibility?

Will there be any issues due to region differences or compatibility?
No.
(57124)

Can I transfer time machine image from one MacBook to another if both have same OS version and both have same size hard drive?

I purchased a MacBook Pro in December 2010. Got it with 500GB, 7200 RPM hard drive. Used Time Machine to create back up. Gave the computer to my son last week and just purchased a new generation MacBook Pro with the same hard drive as old Mac. I have had issues with bootcamp on new Mac so I removed the partition and now new Mac will not boot without holding down Option key. I know I can do a re-install of the OS. But, can I use the Time Machine back up from the old Mac to restore the new Mac to look just like the old Mac? Partition and all? I did have bootcamp working just fine on the old Mac. Put lots of software on it that I now don't have on the new Mac (but would like to have). So, am I just hopeful or can I use the Time Machine back up from the old Mac to restore my my Mac? If so, how do I do it. I am a recent PC convert who is pretty good on PC, but a babe in the woods on my Mac.

No. Time Machine won't get your boot camp partition back. There are excellent utilities that move entire hard drive contents among hard drives such as SuperDuper! and CCC, but as far as I know they don't work with boot camp partition. My suggestion: reinstall Mac OSX on your new Mac (you don't want to hold Option key to start it everytime anyway), partition it with boot camp exactly (or similarly) as you did to your previous Mac (install the same operating system, which should be one of the Microsoft Windows I assume). Use Migration Assistant as kaz-k suggested to move all the stuff on the Mac partition of your previous Mac. Reboot both your Macs from the boot camp partition - I assume they are all on Windows platform. Now you have two computers on Windows platform. Use Norton Ghost or similar tools to migrate all the stuff from your old machine to your new machine. Hope this helps. Backup all your data before such operation. Good luck.

Using Time Machine backup from one mac to another

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