How to install from TM without a Leapord DVD.

[Spiral21x]

So here's the situation. I bought an awesome new SSD. The Vertex 2e 180GB, one of the fastest new drives out there today and also a good value. (Newegg, $360 after rebate)

So, last night I do the hardware install. My machine is a late 2008 MBP Penryn. Lots of screws, but otherwise not too tough. After getting it in there and closing up the machine, I come to the realization that I let my friend borrow my Snow Leopard DVD a few months ago and never got it back. I have a full backup on my Time Machine hard drive which I was planning on using to install on the SSD. My understanding is that I needed to boot with the SL DVD and then I can restore from the Time Machine.

So my question is... well, what are my options here, if any? I don't want to wait a week for my friend to fed ex the DVD to me. I want to get this machine running tonight. I am at work today on my iMac work machine. Is there some sort of BootCD I can create here that will let me boot the MB? Or maybe on a usb drive? Any help would be much appreciated.

thanks

 

[chrismacguy]

So here's the situation. I bought an awesome new SSD. The Vertex 2e 180GB, one of the fastest new drives out there today and also a good value. (Newegg, $360 after rebate)

So, last night I do the hardware install. My machine is a late 2008 MBP Penryn. Lots of screws, but otherwise not too tough. After getting it in there and closing up the machine, I come to the realization that I let my friend borrow my Snow Leopard DVD a few months ago and never got it back. I have a full backup on my Time Machine hard drive which I was planning on using to install on the SSD. My understanding is that I needed to boot with the SL DVD and then I can restore from the Time Machine.

So my question is... well, what are my options here, if any? I don't want to wait a week for my friend to fed ex the DVD to me. I want to get this machine running tonight. I am at work today on my iMac work machine. Is there some sort of BootCD I can create here that will let me boot the MB? Or maybe on a usb drive? Any help would be much appreciated.

thanks

Unfortunately your only options are to get a OS DVD copy somehow, because Time Machine doesnt back up the system files, only applications, user and library files (No System Files are copied across, certainly not the OS). And AFAIK there is no BootCD for that very reason.

 

[Mal]

Unfortunately your only options are to get a OS DVD copy somehow, because Time Machine doesnt back up the system files, only applications, user and library files (No System Files are copied across, certainly not the OS). And AFAIK there is no BootCD for that very reason.

Not true. By default, Time Machine backs up all System Files, and can restore without reinstalling the OS first.

That said, you do have to boot from an OS install disk in order to restore, or at least load up the Migration Assistant as if it was a fresh boot.

OP, the only thing I can think is if you had a way to mount the old drive via USB or Firewire, then you could use Disk Utility to copy to the new one, which would give you a working system.

Otherwise, you either need to get back your disk or borrow one from someone else.

jW

 

[res1233]

So here's the situation. I bought an awesome new SSD. The Vertex 2e 180GB, one of the fastest new drives out there today and also a good value. (Newegg, $360 after rebate)

So, last night I do the hardware install. My machine is a late 2008 MBP Penryn. Lots of screws, but otherwise not too tough. After getting it in there and closing up the machine, I come to the realization that I let my friend borrow my Snow Leopard DVD a few months ago and never got it back. I have a full backup on my Time Machine hard drive which I was planning on using to install on the SSD. My understanding is that I needed to boot with the SL DVD and then I can restore from the Time Machine.

So my question is... well, what are my options here, if any? I don't want to wait a week for my friend to fed ex the DVD to me. I want to get this machine running tonight. I am at work today on my iMac work machine. Is there some sort of BootCD I can create here that will let me boot the MB? Or maybe on a usb drive? Any help would be much appreciated.

thanks

Do you have a leopard disk? That would work too. Although it's a bit more risky seeing as it's a snow leopard time machine backup, but the underlying technology is the same, so it should work. Unless you went from tiger to SL.
The issue is HFS Compression. Leopard can't read files compressed using HFS compression, and AFAIK SL's system files are compressed using this, although I could be wrong about that, so it's worth a shot.
It wouldn't know what version of OS X is installed on the backup if i'm right, so see if it knows. When it asks you which backup to use, it should say it's SL.