Restore too large to fit on new MBPr

[noreception]

Hey.

So I am having some issues with restoring a new MBPr from an older back-up.

I recently traded down from a 512g to a 256g and the back up I have is too large.

I want to delete needless info from the back up but I cannot seem to be able to find a way into the data that will allow for me to do so.

I tried accessing it from the TIMEMACHINE logo but it wont show me the old data. I also went through the disk utility and I cannot delete data.

Can anyone assist me?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Try migration assistant...

you can then choose which bits to move accross...

 

[maflynn]

Obviously you cannot do a full time machine restore since you're going from a larger drive to a smaller drive.

In TM, you can select what you want to restore, so just selecting the data piece by piece.

 

[leman]

You can open the TM volume in Finder — its just a bunch of files and you can 'restore' what you need manually by copying the files back.

 

[noreception]

You cannot restore individual files from a TM back up that belong to a different Mac.

I used migration assistant to select units of files to restore.

It was sluggish and annoying but it worked.

I appreciate the assistance guys.

 

[leman]

You cannot restore individual files from a TM back up that belong to a different Mac.

Of course you can. You just copy them over. As I said before, a TM backup is just a collection of time-stamped directories with your backed up files. You don't need to use the TM interface at all to restore your files.

 

[noreception]

The directory for TM came up empty through the interface. When I tried to restore directly from the drive itself it told me that I cannot restore!

 

[leman]

When I tried to restore directly from the drive itself it told me that I cannot restore!

Can you explain what you mean by 'trying to restore directly from the drive'? What do you see if you just open the drive with Finder?