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MacBook Air Time Machine help! Please!

O

OnlyGerman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 13, 2010
182
12
Hello, I have a macbook air 2012 , when i use time machine for backup using an external backup, its backs up normally. When plugging it in and pressing Control R to into recovery and select Backup from time machine option under utilities, My drive shows up then further it says NO MAC OSX BACKUPS COULD BE FOUND. When using migration assistant , drive never appears. BUT, in finder while drive plugged in i see my backup.backup folder which means nothing is corrupted, but deeper inside that file i discover under Macintosh…User…then me… most of my info is there but it missing APPLICATIONS folder , which is obviously needed in order to complete a full backup from time machine, that is why Time machine and Migration assistant do not want to recognize it. As of now my mac is fine , but i want to know what causing it to automatically not include some important folders while doing a time machine backup, i know i can always do the manual way (drag and drop from backup.backup) but time machine should work like it has before. I have called apple senior and they sent this up to engineering and there having trouble finding the problem . I have already reinstalled OSX but did not wipe my ssd because i do not want to take the risk of using Drag and Drop manual way. Also i made sure nothing is excluded from time machine in setting. This issue is coming from this macbook air as it is something software.
thanks a lot.. sorry if it is confusing.
 
simsaladimbamba

simsaladimbamba

Guest
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
31
located
Do you use Mac OS X 10.7 Lion or OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion?

And the standard Applications folder is not located in your home directory (Macintosh HD / Users / YOU), it is located in Macintosh HD /.

For a complete backup, look at CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper!, both perform 1:1 copies of any HDD to another HDD (or SSD).

PS: Your post would be much easier to read, if you would use breaks and paragraphs.
 
O

OnlyGerman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 13, 2010
182
12
simsaladimbamba said:
Do you use Mac OS X 10.7 Lion or OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion?

And the standard Applications folder is not located in your home directory (Macintosh HD / Users / YOU), it is located in Macintosh HD /.

For a complete backup, look at CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper!, both perform 1:1 copies of any HDD to another HDD (or SSD).

PS: Your post would be much easier to read, if you would use breaks and paragraphs.
Click to expand...
Mountain Lion
By using that, will it be compatible with time machine and what is the main reason for using one of those ? thanks
 
simsaladimbamba

simsaladimbamba

Guest
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
31
located
Kushp14 said:
Mountain Lion
By using that, will it be compatible with time machine and what is the main reason for using one of those ? thanks
Click to expand...

Using CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper! will create a bootable backup on an external HDD, using Time Machine will only create a restorable backup.
A bootable backup is not really compatible with Time Machine, due to the different nature.

For instance, if you create a bootable backup and backup to it daily via a set schedule (the first backup copies everything unless excluded, subsequent backups only copy changes and put deleted or changed files into another Archive folder), restoring from it is simple.
You boot from the bootable backup, format the internal HDD*, use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper! to clone from the backup to the internal HDD and restart your Mac and boot from the internal HDD again.
That way a restoration can be done in less than 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the size of the backup.

I for instance created a bootable backup before upgrading from Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, then used OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion for half a day (second or third try with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion since its introduction), and then decided to go back to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and just booted from the Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard clone/backup and formatted the internal SSD and cloned the contents back and started from the internal SSD again with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

Would I have used Time Machine, that process would have taken several hours (backing up and restoring from the backup), while the clone process took less than 90 minutes (initial clone and booting from the clone and cloning back).

But then again, I do not like Time Machine and just use CarbonCopyCloner (version 3.4.7 is still free and works with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion) for my backup needs.


 
T

TheRealDamager

macrumors 65816
Jan 5, 2011
1,043
11
There is a Time Machine icon in the Menubar (you can turn it on in Preferences if it isn't there).

Plug in your time machine disk, and then hold "Option" while you click on the Time Machine menubar item. You will see a new choice called "Browse other Backup Disks". This will allow you to look at the backup through the time machine interface.
 
2

26139

Suspended
Dec 27, 2003
4,315
377
Huh?

Time Machine doesn't create bootable backups.

Is that the issue here?
 
W

wolfpuppies3

macrumors 6502
Jun 26, 2012
413
0
Virginia, USA
The three suggestions for the user of any digital data are: Back up, back up, and back up.

I have to one TB external drives attached to my MB Pro. #1 is a Time Machine which updates automatically hourly. #2 is a carbon copy clone drive updating automatically every morning. #2 is bootable, #1 is not.

I hate losing data.
 
O

OnlyGerman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 13, 2010
182
12
I Cloned from disk ulilty: Macintosh HD to external drive clone.
Then I will fully wipe it then set up a new user then use my home folder from the clone and exclude systems files z(library , system ). That should fully fix it since I will be a new user. I'll have to call apple on how to transfer over my home folder consisting of all my data. How does this sound ?
Thanks
 
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