OS X :: Wipe HDD / Reinstall SL And Browse Other Time Machine Disks
May 31, 2010
I want to wipe my system and only restore certain files to keep my system uncluttered and fresh. I use Time Machine so I thought I don't have anything to do now that everything is backed up. Someone told me once that Time Machine files can only be accessed by the user that created them (me). If I wipe my hard drive, that user will no longer exist. When I reinstall OS X, it will be a new user, so would that new user still be able to easily access and copy back the files from the Time Machine drive onto the internal drive?
I know there's a feature called "Browse other Time Machine Disks" but I don't know if that allows me to do anything I want and whether it will conflict with the new system. I also know about Migration Assistant but I don't want to use such automatic methods since I'm afraid it will restore problems from my old system. So in short, will I be able to easily get my files back one by one (not "all or nothing" like with Migration Assistant) from Time Machine when I will have my clean, freshly reinstalled OS X, with possibly a different username? Or does this only work if I type in the exact same user name as I am using now?
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Sep 4, 2014
My dad's iMac was stolen this weekend and am now trying to restore his iPhoto Library from Time Machine backup.Â
The Mavericks iMac was dutifully backed up over the network to a Mavericks OSX Server Mac Pro Time Machine Server's Drobo for months. I am now attempting to restore the iPhoto library at the Finder level to a Mavericks Macbook Pro.Â
I have connected to the server's backup disk via Finder and see his "Alan's iMac" listed there without the red minus circle. I then click on the Time Machine icon in the Menu bar and hold down the option key and select "browse other backup disks". I then select "Alan's iMac" and then Time Machine starts up, but it is not showing his files prior to Tuesday, the day I setup the Macbook Pro.Â
I need to be able to access iPhoto Library from August 30th which came from his now stolen iMac in order to restore to the Macbook Pro.Â
Info:
MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9), 8,1, 16gb ram, 2.3 I5, Intel HD3000
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Apr 21, 2012
I just installed a fresh copy of Lion OSX on my iMac. I used the Migration Assistant to restore my last backup, but can't "see" the Time Machine. As I have the time machine folder inside another folder in an external hd (external drive:iomegabackup/backups.backupdb), is this the reason? Should I put in the root ? I tried to copy the TM folder (228Gb) to the root of another external hd, but after a long wait of "preparing to copy x items" I get a message that I have not enough space, and I have about 641Gb of free space.
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2)
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Dec 2, 2014
Problem started after updating to Yosemite. I am running 10.10.1. I can find all my backups, going back to 2010 in fact, when browsing my external FW800 hard drive directly in the Finder. But if I click the menubar icon and choose "Enter Time Machine," I can see some recent backups for some folders, but I cannot access some older backups that I know are there on that same drive. The window title bars in the TM interface are totally grayed out for those older backups. But again, there are all on the same FW800 external HD, and I can search them just fine and extract the files just fine using the Finder. Â
Is the Time Machine interface totally broken in Yosemite? Â
Clearly there is nothing wrong with my external FW800 HD, otherwise I wouldn't be able to manually browse and extract files via the Finder. And yes, it makes regular TM backups every day too. It's only the "Enter Time Machine" UI that is partly broken. I say "partly" because some backups (very recent) display, but I cannot access all the backups. It's very strange.Â
Info:
iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10), March 2009 DuoCore, 8GB RAM, 1TB HD
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Oct 1, 2010
I'm running on an iMac and my system recently crashed. I went through the whole process of trying to reboot in Safe mode, then running Disk Utility, then 'fsck'. Looks like my drive should work, but it still freezes upon startup.
So. My last option is to reinstall OS X from my install disk. Not a big deal since I've been running Time Machine backups on an external drive. Here's the problem: my install disk is 10.4.10 but my backups are from Leopard. I upgraded to Leopard online without purchasing a disk.
Is there any way to do a full system restore from my Time Machine backup without the 10.5 disk?
Can I reinstall 10.4, then upgrade to Leopard (or Snow Leopard), and then run my full restore? Would I then need to clone my system to a separate drive before restoring to my internal drive?
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Jun 25, 2014
we recently bought a new iMac with Mavericks and a Lacie 5big thunderbolt series disk. At the Lacie disk we configured as they were 2 hard dsik of 4 Tb each one and added to time machine. Today the user called saying that time machine only made 2 copies one general at 4pm and the other one at the second disk at 7pm and no more copies until 10pm.
I know that time machine makes copies every hour, every day , every month, etc; so we were thinking why it only made 3 copies in that mount of time and why it took the second disk. In the old iMac with Lion this never happened.Â
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Jan 13, 2010
Somehow I ended up with two backup folders for Time Machine: inside the Backups.backupdb folder are "Pedro's MBP" which contains backups from 2008, and "Pedro's MBP2" which contains backups from 2009. This was not intended. Now when I open Time Machine, I have to select either "MBP" or "MBP2" to read from, but if I select "MBP2", for example, I can not see the backups inside "MBP" and vice-versa.
How can I merge these two sets of backups into one common folder? ie, merge all backups from "MBP2" into "MBP", so that when I open Time Machine, ALL backups are available at the same time. I have seen posts covering how to copy/move backups to a NEW backup drive, how to make and use multiple Time Machine drives, but nothing on how to merge multiple backup folders or disks into one.
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Apr 2, 2012
At work I back up my laptop to an external disk using time machine. I'd like have a second back up at home. When I back up to the disk at home Time Machine does not recognize the back up on the work disk and writes the whole drive instead of doing an incremental back up. Does this mean that Time Machine can only do incremental back ups to one disk?
Info:
MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.1)
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Sep 30, 2010
I have 2 hard disks which I use for Time Machine, one for the main system, and one for my data. However, whenever I backup, I have to reconfigure what it backs up, and this is quite an annoyance as Time Machine is supposed to be a simple. Is there anyway I can save a configuration file for it that I can use for each drive?
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Feb 27, 2010
What's the best way of backing up a time machine backup external hard disk? Are there any disk checking tools for the mac, I could use to keep track of the health of the drive?
I can not afford too loose data, but I don't wish to break the bank either.
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Sep 5, 2010
I have a summer 2005 14" iBook G4 that I'd like to wipe and give to a friend, but I seem to have lost my install disks somewhere in one of my moves in the last 5 years. The Apple Store employee I talked to said I should make an appointment at the Genius Bar and they'll do a wipe and reinstall for me, but I'm not interested in putting much more money into this since I'm giving it to a friend as a favor (hers just died). Any suggestions for how to get a copy of the right OS and all the iLife software, too? It has Tiger, but I could put Leopard on it, if that's easier to get a hold of.
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Dec 7, 2014
I'm having problems with Time Machine. First, I get the message that I need more space even though there is 1TB available on each and only 500GB on the boot disk being backed up. I've started fresh.Â
Second, both backup disks are shown on the "Exclude" list and are grayed out, so I can't take them off it. Nor can I add a disk I do want to exclude.Â
Info:
Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), (early 2008), 22 GB RAM, 1 TB HD -- 500 GB free
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Feb 29, 2012
I'm trying to setup a macmini server with four different firewire drives (has this working in 10.6.8 working great) however in lion server you can only have ONE timemachine backup destination.apple put an Share items/Backups folder with a .com.apple.timemachine.supported file in it. and set permissions to a group com.apple.backup_access However i can't dublicate this setup and have the system accept an extra folder on another drive.Â
Info:
Xserve, Mac OS X (10.7.3), Lion Server
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Mar 4, 2009
Say my macbook pro crashes and I lose everything. However, I have been saving everything to an external drive using the Time Machine app. Can I use my external drive to get my computer to exactly the same state it was in before it crashed? By this I mean.
1) Desktop icons in the same places
2) System preferences all the same
3) Sticky notes all still exist and are laid out on the desktop just like previously before my hard drive crashed and I lost everything
4) My dock layout is exactly the same, same apps, same locations in the dock
I have been wondering this for quite some time. Because I know you can restore the essentials (i.e. Word documents, many different saved files) but what about little things like the above mentioned items?
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Mar 24, 2009
I just reinstalled my system on a new system drive and then used the migration assistant to transfer *only* the user accounts and not the settings or applications etc. I wanted (needed) to start relatively clean. The system after all of this is very similar to the original system (same apps, same users, mostly the same settings etc.) and I would like to continue using my old Time Machine back-up if I can, but when I start Time Machine it just wants to create a new back-up and won't recognize the older back-up. I've read up about what to do if you get a new TM disk or if your have your logic board replaced, but this situation seems different. I can't figure out what would appear different to TM about my "new" system.
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Jun 14, 2009
So I've got a unibody MBP and connected to this I have a 320gb external drive I use to back up, but I only back up music, movies and documents so it's got 50 free gigabytes. I was hoping to partition off say 30gigs, install tinyxp and play games off this partition. But when I try and partition off 30, 25 or even 20 gigs Disk Utility tells me there's no free space on the hard drive.
So my questions are, how can I solve this issues, and would this idea work for playing games through windows anyway? I initially tried to get a bootcamp partition on my main Macintosh HD, but apparently there are files that cannot be moved in the way, and the only way to solve said issue is a complete reinstall of leopard, which I can't be bothered with seeing as snow leopards only a couple of months away.
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Nov 18, 2009
I need to reformat my Boot drive because Ubuntu messed up my Master Boot Record and I can not run Boot Camp. I have a time machine back up of all my applications. Can I use this once I reinstall OSX?
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May 18, 2012
I am going to replace my hard drive (and add RAM) on my Macbook Pro (mid-2009) myself. I have Lion (10.7.4) currently, and have backed up via time machine on an external drive. I don't have Lion on a usb, and from what I read, Lion Recovery via internet isn't applicable for my macbook (pre 2010). Is the time machine backup a bootable drive? If so, then am I all good so long as my backup is completed prior to replacing the hard drive? If not, how do I create a bootable drive so I can get back to "normal"?Â
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
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Oct 25, 2010
I got the fatal folder with with question mark and grinding sound of the hard drive when starting my 2008 Mac Pro this weekend. After some diagnostics it was obvious the Hard Drive is dead, of course its the main drive that runs the OS and all my apps. I am picking up a new drive today and was wondering the best approach to get it up and running again. Everying it is backed-up on my external drive through Time Machine. Since the drive is dead I can't use a copy cloner to the new drive. Would I install the the hardrive and start the Mac Pro to boot off the Leopard CD, intall that and then try to run the backup from Time Machine?
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Dec 30, 2010
I just got a new 1tb sata 2.5in and I want to install it, but I do not have my snow leopard disk. If I use a leapord disk will it reinstall snow leapord from my time machine backup or do I need to find my snowleapord disk?
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Jan 23, 2009
I just received my refurb 1.8/SSD Air and I'm excited about getting it up and running. I'm confused about one thing. If I do a reinstall to delete printer drivers and languages, and then do a time machine migration from my MBP, would all of the drivers and languages reappear from the migration?
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May 8, 2012
With Firevault enabled, I attempted to reinstall OS X Lion from Recovery Mode. After being asked to enter the password to unlock the encrypted 'Mactinosh HD' disk, the reinstallation began. Everything seemed fine until the install process was supposedly finished, then a window popped up explaining that there was an error and to try again. I tried again and the same thing happened. I also tried to restore from Time Machine with no success (the same thing happened). I opened Disk Utility via Recovery mode and verified/repaired the 'Macintosh HD' disk and its permissions, but the reinstall/Time Machine restore still fails.
Then I erased the disk with Disc Utility, and attempted this again with no success. My computer no longer boots into OS X at all (it didn't even before I erased the disk via Disk Utility). It can only boot into Recovery Mode or Windows--I'm basically running a pretty overpriced Windows PC. I am using a 21" iMac with an Intel Core i5 processor, CPU @ 250GHz, have 4 GB of RAM and am (supposed to be) running OS X 10.7 Lion. Right now I'm using Windows 8 Consumer Preview x64 bit on a Bootcamp partition on the same computer if that matters to anyone.
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Jun 22, 2012
I had to recover my primary Macinstoh HD to a new disk from Time Machine, but somehow I now lost my Recover HD on the Macintosh HD. To do the initial recover I had to install Mac OS X Lion on a 2nd internal Hard Drive, but now I want to use Time Machine and go back to before I installed Lion, because the permissions are messed up and I can no longer use that disk 2nd disk, unless I continually enter the admin password. Now when I hold down Apple - R key during boot I no longer get to Recovery HD. I was able to see Recovery HD using the System Information app, then within the Serial-ATA section, but that Apple_Boot volume is gone.Â
Info:
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4), How to reinstall Recovery HD...
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Jun 28, 2012
I woke up, went to my late 2011 MacBook Pro and it took forever for the display to wake up, and it kept showing beach ball. After some minutes, the login prompt came up but with the beach ball still spinning. After waiting for like 3 minutes I decided to shut it down by pressing the power button. The computer restarted and it's giving me a screen to re-install Lion from a backup or from the app store. I shut it down to see if it will work fine, but I keep getting the same screen re-install screen. Now what I want to know is will re-installing from the app store wipe away my documents? And don't have a backup to re-install from.
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
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Jun 22, 2014
I just purchased a new iMac and I had to wipe the HDD and reinstall OSx because of an issue with the migration assistant. After I reinstalled OSx I noticed that I no longer had iPhoto installed. I went to the app store but there is no option to reinstall...OSx seems to think it is installed but it doesnt appear in finder!Â
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Mar 7, 2012
My MBPro is getting cranky in a number of ways that indicate a reinstall of Snow Leopard is in order. After the requisite disk first aid check I attempted to run the installer only to get a dialog box telling me that the system cannot be installed because this disk is used by time machine. The MacBook disk is of course a source for back ups but not a back up drive. Even after restarting and explicitly turning off Time machine I get the same results.What do I need to set to allow the installer to run. The installer cd is a stand alone snow leopard install cd, not a machine specific cd.
Info:A buncha Macs, IPad, iphone, iPod
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Aug 25, 2014
I recently did a complete erase of my hard drive and re-installed Mavericks. I chose to start clean rather than use any Time Machine back-ups. I used the same external hard drive for my new Time Machine back-ups. Now I cannot open any back-ups/items prior to the re-install via Time Machine. They are listed along the right hand sidebar in Time Machine (star wars view) but will not open when clicked on.Â
Some files I can access if I go to the actual backup folder - ex a Pages doc BUT ff I try to open the iPhoto library from the back-up folders stored on the external drive, I get the following error message -
I cannot open the iPhoto "package" to access individual photos from these back-ups.Â
So - how can I get Time Machine to allow access to the pre-install back-ups??Â
Info:
MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)
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Mar 16, 2010
I am going to be selling my iMac, and I want to know something. If I securely empty the trash for all my files, is it necessary to use 7 or 35 pass when wiping the hard drive?
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May 4, 2012
If I reset my macbook can I reinstall all my pics, docs etc from the timemachine backup?
Info:
macbook
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Mar 9, 2009
I had a hard drive crash as per my last post. I installed a new Drive and now need to install the OS, but dont have any disks. How can I get them and anything I need to know about installing it and are there any key codes I need to have?
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