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I want a fresh machine, but I am freaking out!

J

jshelton

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 4, 2008
528
8
I have been trying to do this off and on for a while now. I have my MBP backed up on an external using Time Machine. I want to start over completely by reinstalling OS X. I don't want to use Migration Assistant to transfer anything. I don't want to transfer settings, users, etc. I want to start brand new. The ONLY files I need from the backup are my iTunes Library and my iPhoto Library.

So, I went through the process last night and installed Leopard, created a new user account, and then did the Snow Leopard upgrade. I thought I could hook the external up, go back and find my iTunes and iPhoto folders, and bring them to the new account. I opened Time Machine and located the iTunes and iPhoto folders from the external. All of the previous files had a red (-) next to them and when I clicked them it said I didn't have permission to view the files.

Can someone please help me out here?

I just want to reinstall OS X, start a new account, and then bring my iTunes and iPhoto libraries over. I am willing to reinstall all of the applications I need like Transmission, Labtick, Handbrake, etc.
 
I'm confused.... If you backed up your files using Time Machine, then they are located in the sparsebundle file that is located on the drive. So, you will have to get Time Machine to mount that file and retrieve your files via Time Machine.
 
calderone said:
You do not have permissions to the Time Machine backups, hence the read X, this is how it is supposed to be. What you should have done is used Migration Assistant to restore from your Time Machine backup.

I am felling lazy, so here is an article that covers this: http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/29/6-easy-steps-to-migrate-your-mac-using-time-machine/
Click to expand...

To add to this if you are going to re-install Snow Leopard then you should boot from the Snow Leopard disk, wipe the drive using disk utility, then install the OS as usual from the disk. No need to install Leopard before hand. It's just a waste of time.
 
calderone said:
You do not have permissions to the Time Machine backups, hence the read X, this is how it is supposed to be. What you should have done is used Migration Assistant to restore from your Time Machine backup.

I am felling lazy, so here is an article that covers this: http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/29/6-easy-steps-to-migrate-your-mac-using-time-machine/
Click to expand...

True, I totally forgot about that...

FYI, you can tell Migration Assistant not to migrate the programs and only pull the files over I believe. I've only done it once so I don't remember what my options were.
 
smknSRT8 said:
Is this basically doing an erase and install?
Click to expand...

No, it is basically restoring from a Time Machine backup. You can do an erase and install and do this, which is what the OP did.

Reading over the OP again, it seems he only wants his iTunes Library and iPhone Library. If that is the case, you should have copied those over to another volume, reinstalled and copied them back over to your new user account.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. I don't think I am explaining this correctly. Let's see...

I have used Migration Assistant in the past. It gives you 4 options: Applications, Users, Other Files and Folders, and Settings.

As far as I know, you can't choose which applications or which files and folders.

Basically, the ONLY backup I have of my music and photos is on this external drive. I want to do a clean install and transfer nothing over EXCEPT the iTunes folder and iPhoto folder.
 
jshelton said:
Basically, the ONLY backup I have of my music and photos is on this external drive. I want to do a clean install and transfer nothing over EXCEPT the iTunes folder and iPhoto folder.
Click to expand...

Read what I added above. You should have manually copied your iTunes Library and iPhoto Library.
 
So here is what I will do. I will just erase the external drive and not use Time Machine anymore. I will just manually backup important files and folders. It seems that backing up via Time Machine sort of limits what you can do.
 
miles01110 said:
In addition, you should have used something like CCC or SuperDuper, both of which would have allowed you to just drag and drop unlike TM.
Click to expand...

So I can download CCC and use it instead of Time Machine? What are other advantages/disadvantages?
 
jshelton said:
So I can download CCC and use it instead of Time Machine? What are other advantages/disadvantages?
Click to expand...

No. I meant that instead of using Time Machine to begin with you should have realized or at least asked if what you wanted to do was possible (which I don't think it is). CCC/SD, if you had used it to backup your stuff from square one, would have allowed you to browse your file heirarchy in the Finder as if your external drive was your internal drive and select the individual files you wanted to copy over.
 
Use BatCHmod to reset the access privileges to the files on the TM backup and then you can copy over exactly what you want and leave what you don't need. When you are done. Wipe your TM drive and set it up again from your clean system so that you do get incremental backups.
 
miles01110 said:
No. I meant that instead of using Time Machine to begin with
Click to expand...

That is what I am saying. I can just erase my current TM backup, start with an empty external HD, and use CCC or SD from now on instead of TM.
 
jshelton said:
So here is what I will do. I will just erase the external drive and not use Time Machine anymore. I will just manually backup important files and folders. It seems that backing up via Time Machine sort of limits what you can do.
Click to expand...
Manually backing up is, for most people, a loser. You'll forget to to backup your files and will have a catastrophic loss in case of hard drive failure. And sadly, I'm "most people" and have been through this.

If Time Machine doesn't give you everything you need, don't discard it. Rather, add a second drive and backup additionally with SuperDuper! or other.

Drives are cheap. SuperDuper is cheap and CCC is free. But data can be priceless. You don't want to lose it because of one annoyance with TimeMachine.
 
miles01110 said:
No. I meant that instead of using Time Machine to begin with you should have realized or at least asked if what you wanted to do was possible (which I don't think it is). CCC/SD, if you had used it to backup your stuff from square one, would have allowed you to browse your file heirarchy in the Finder as if your external drive was your internal drive and select the individual files you wanted to copy over.
Click to expand...
I don't understand. You can do the same thing with files on a TM drive that you can with a clone. You just need to work through Time Machine to selectively restore any file/folder you want - to any destination on your drive.

Sure, it's not working directly through the Finder but it works just fine.
 
Thanks everyone. I got my computer restored back to where I want it. I am just going to erase my external drive, partition it, and use TM as well as manually back up my media like some of you have suggested. That seems like the best option.

I appreciate the help!
 
jshelton said:
I have been trying to do this off and on for a while now. I have my MBP backed up on an external using Time Machine. I want to start over completely by reinstalling OS X. I don't want to use Migration Assistant to transfer anything. I don't want to transfer settings, users, etc. I want to start brand new. The ONLY files I need from the backup are my iTunes Library and my iPhoto Library.

So, I went through the process last night and installed Leopard, created a new user account, and then did the Snow Leopard upgrade. I thought I could hook the external up, go back and find my iTunes and iPhoto folders, and bring them to the new account. I opened Time Machine and located the iTunes and iPhoto folders from the external. All of the previous files had a red (-) next to them and when I clicked them it said I didn't have permission to view the files.

Can someone please help me out here?

I just want to reinstall OS X, start a new account, and then bring my iTunes and iPhoto libraries over. I am willing to reinstall all of the applications I need like Transmission, Labtick, Handbrake, etc.
Click to expand...

I did exactly the same when I installed Snow Leopard (well, more files except just iTunes & iPhoto libraries, but this is irrelevant). However I had differently set permissions - I could read the files but not modify them.

The solution was to use chown if I recall correctly (it took a few tries, I don't remember exactly). You are always able to override permissions if you've got the drive attached to a system with root privileges, since TM backup isn't encrypted or anything.
 
I don't get this at all.

I have a drive called "data" with 2 sparsebundle files. My time machine sees nothing and I can't access these backups at all. All I want is one app.

Since it's not working, I'd like to delete it but it won't let me.

Edit: Nevermind. :)
 
Just change the permissions on the folders in your Time Machine drive and you can copy all you want.
 
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