[SOLVED] Not everything restored from migration from TM backup

[LTX]

Update: so Migration Utility did restore my SuperDuper backup. I had to mount the TM SparseImage before I was able to restore it. All my files are here, except for Downloads, which I so foolishly excluded.

Last night I wiped my drive and reinstalled Snow Leopard, then used the Migration Utility to restore my stuff from a Time Machine backup (which had been backing up from the Mac over the network). I could not use the wizard that came up after the first-run video because it a) did not detect the TM drive over the network, presumably because I need to mount it and could not until I was logged in, and b) did not detect the backup when I plugged in the drive via USB. I had to skip the first-run wizard, create a test account, plug in the drive, and use the Migration Utility to restore my files and settings (I don't remember if I had to mount the SparseImage for the backup to be detected).

Some things are missing, however. A lot of things. The latest file in my Downloads folder was modified September 14, 2009. My latest backup was last night before formatting and installing Snow Leopard. My bookmarks toolbar folders and some bookmarks are not present in Safari.

Additionally, I don't see my files on the SparseImage like I did on my last Mac, I just see thousands of 8MB-or-so files, if that changes anything.

Also, I am now fearing that I may have excluded my Downloads folder from being backed up. But what about the bookmarks? What about some applications that are missing? AppFresh is gone, iStat Menus is gone, Paintbrush is gone. All applications I download I move to the Applications folder, and I don't leave them in Downloads, so the missing downloads can't be causing that.

Any suggestions? Should I just see if I can restore what's missing when I get home?

Thanks.


Missing:
Adium logs after September 14
Pages template
Downloads after September 14
Safari bookmarks
Other stuff in my home folder that was made after Sept. 14

 

[maflynn]

Because you were unable to restore your TM after booting up from install disk, Time Machine does not restore system files and the ~/library folder. You'll have to do that yourself manually. You may also need to reinstall your apps.

I'm still not sure why your external drive was not recognized. Is it a NAS or a usb/fw external drive. I've never had OSX (the install disk) fail to recognize any of my drives that were physically connected to my computer. To that end, if its possible did you try physically connecting the drive to your mac?

 

[LTX]

Because you were unable to restore your TM after booting up from install disk, Time Machine does not restore system files and the ~/library folder. You'll have to do that yourself manually. You may also need to reinstall your apps.

Do you mean that I should have selected Restore from Time Machine when I booted from the Snow Leopard DVD?

If I need to reinstall my apps, why are some non-default ones (like 1Password) present and others (presumably installed after Sept. 14) not?

I'm still not sure why your external drive was not recognized. Is it a NAS or a usb/fw external drive. I've never had OSX (the install disk) fail to recognize any of my drives that were physically connected to my computer. To that end, if its possible did you try physically connecting the drive to your mac?

I ended up connecting the drive via USB to migrate my data. It is not a NAS. I'd bet that the drive was recognized in first-run (didn't try from DVD's Utilities menu before installing), just that a backup wasn't found (maybe because there was a SparseImage and not a Backups.backupdb folder).

 

[LTX]

Upon further reflection, I remembered that I did a complete SuperDuper backup once on this machine, so Migration Utility may have used the SuperDuper backup to restore. I'll need to verify this when I get home.

On another note, will my complete Safari download history be in my TM backup so I can redownload things I am missing from my Downloads folder (since I think I excluded it)? What about things I download by right click -> Save Image to Downloads? I never see those in the Downloads window in Safari.