How to restore your system in 53 easy steps!

[spellflower]

1. Insert Snow Leopard Disc.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Follow installation instructions.
4. When prompted, connect Time Machine backup drive.
5. Shake head in bafflement when it says that there’s not enough room even though you just installed a bigger hard drive.
6. Do research on internet and learn that backup must be restored to Leopard since that’s what was running when it was backed up.
7. Insert Leopard disc.
8. Restart the computer.
9. Follow installation instructions.
10. Read message that says that you need to have Tiger installed first.
11. Eject Leopard disc.
12. Insert Tiger disc.
13. Restart the computer.
14. Follow installation instructions.
15. Wait for Tiger to install (45 minutes).
16. Eject Tiger disc.
17. Insert Leopard disc.
18. Restart the computer.
19. Follow installation instructions.
20. Wait 40 minutes while it looks like it’s loading.
21. Read the message that says that the disc is dirty and it can't finish.
22. Search menus until you finally figure out how to eject the disc.
23. Clean the disc and reinsert it.
24. Restart the computer.
25. Follow installation instructions.
26. Wait for Leopard to install (1 hour)
27. When prompted, connect Time Machine backup drive.
28. Follow restore instructions.
29. Read message that says that it can’t install the backup because your version of Leopard is not up to date.
30. Eject disc.
31. Stare in disbelief at the blinking question mark that signifies a blank hard drive.
32. Insert Tiger disc.
33. Restart the computer.
34. Follow installation instructions.
35. Wait for Tiger to install (45 minutes).
36. Eject Tiger disc.
37. Insert Leopard disc.
38. Restart the computer.
39. Follow installation instructions.
40. Wait for Leopard to install (1 hour)
41. Install OSX updates.
42. Restart the computer.
43. Follow installation instructions.
44. Wait for OSX to update (25 minutes).
45. Restart the computer.
46. Connect the Time Machine backup drive.
47. Use Disc Utility to restore system.
48. Restart the computer.
49. Eject Leopard disc.
50. Insert Snow Leopard disc.
51. Restart the computer.
52. Follow installation instructions.
53. Wait for Snow Leopard to install (1 hour).
54. Restart the computer. (Okay, it's actually 54 steps.)

And that’s it!

 

[alust2013]

I understand your pain. I went through a similar fun process attempting to restore my computer as it had started being a bit sluggish. For some reason, something in my backup was corrupt, so that when it restored from time machine, it would refuse to boot. Then, (after changing a few things and trying this multiple times) I finally just did a clean install, and when it booted, hesitantly clicked restore from time machine, waited an hour and it actually worked. Then the really scary part: updating the OS, which forced me to restart. After 3-4 installs that refused to boot, I was about to bribe the computer to work properly. Thankfully it booted and was back to its normal speedy self.

 

[Damo01]

I don't need 54 steps to downgrade the OS and upgrade the OS to restore the OS.

 

[spellflower]

I don't need 54 steps to downgrade the OS and upgrade the OS to restore the OS.

Where were you when I needed you!

 

[the-ep]

Wow, that's a lot simpler than Windows and its 314 (or, in the case of Vista/ME, 555) steps for recovery!
But you forgot additional steps for completely wiping the hard drive via a 7-pass erase in each OS Installer's Disk Utility, as well as partitioning for the OS and installing the latest updates! </sarcasm>

This is actually excessively overkill for a system restore.

 

[dark knight]

i think thats a bit unfair, ive done this before and all you do is get on with other things and occasionally walk past to click ok or similar. compared to a windows machine this is a doddle. also, if you have a time machine backup, all those little things about your system just get put back the way they were.

surely people remember restoring a windows system and them sitting there afterwards with all the driver disks and software packs, then finding everything on the system needed personalising again.
Go Apple.

 

[spellflower]

I just wish that it had told me that I needed to update Leopard before it erased my HD.

It would also be nice if the Snow Leopard disc could install a Time Machine backup from a previous OS.

I also had the bad luck to have the update version of Leopard that shipped with machines that had Tiger installed, and requires Tiger already be on the machine to install Leopard.

Still glad I don't own a PC, though!