Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Time Machine Restore

thuchu1

thuchu1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 16, 2010
155
22
Auburn Hills, MI
Hello,

I will be purchasing a new computer soon, and was wondering how my time machine backup restore would work. I currently have a MacBook Pro with an optibay hard drive and an ssd. I know time machine will fill these drives up according to the backup, but if I move to a new computer with only one drive will it merge these, or will I have to do this myself?
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,137
15,600
California
dontpannic said:
No, he's got two drives being backed up in Time Machine. Asking what will happen when he restores a backup of two drives onto a mac with one drive.
Click to expand...

Good question. I have not done this myself with the two drive scenario but it is difficult to imagine how TM would or could restore anything but the main drive to the main drive in the new machine. I would think the data in TM from the second drive would need to be manually copied in from TM to whatever destination you want.
 
Dweez

Dweez

macrumors 65816
Jun 13, 2011
1,248
10
Down by the river
Aah - got it. Note to self: have the morning coffee before posting anything. :)

As far as restoring from multiple drives onto a single drive, I'm of no help. Have you googled time machine tutorial or similar?
 
rhoydotp

rhoydotp

macrumors 6502
Sep 28, 2006
467
75
quick question to OP, how does Time Machine see the drive(s) right now? Is it just one drive or two separate drives (which I don't think even possible to start with)?

thanks
 
thuchu1

thuchu1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 16, 2010
155
22
Auburn Hills, MI
Weaselboy said:
Good question. I have not done this myself with the two drive scenario but it is difficult to imagine how TM would or could restore anything but the main drive to the main drive in the new machine. I would think the data in TM from the second drive would need to be manually copied in from TM to whatever destination you want.
Click to expand...

This is what I was thinking. It shouldn't be a big deal since I'm just using symbolic links to attach the paths. I was just wondering if anyone had experience with this. Thanks a lot.
 
rhoydotp

rhoydotp

macrumors 6502
Sep 28, 2006
467
75
thuchu1 said:
This is what I was thinking. It shouldn't be a big deal since I'm just using symbolic links to attach the paths. I was just wondering if anyone had experience with this. Thanks a lot.
Click to expand...

well, that should work if it's a symlink. TM doesn't see you using 2 drives but 1. You just fooled it by creating a symlink to a path that actually goes to another drive. as long as the directory structure is not changed, I believe you should be ok without copying anything over manually.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom