Time Machine...can't access pre-Hard Drive crash files

[Angle Loss]

My late 2008 unibody Macbook hard drive had a problem, which caused it to stop working when I upgraded to Mavericks. I replaced the hard drive and installed Mavericks...

I didn't migrate stuff from my previous Time Machine (1TB Time Capsule on my wireless network) backup because I needed to reload some important programs and do some work.

TM evidently backed up my new load on Mavericks. Now when I try to access the previous Mountain Lion/old hard drive files through TM, I can't access them.

symptoms:
-i can access yesterday's post hard drive upgrade
-I can see the dates of my previous backups, but when I scroll to them the Finder window becomes black

In searching online, I found the "Browse Other Backup Disks..." by holding the 'option' key and accessing the TM icon up top, but it shows no other than the one.

----
I'm really at a loss as what to do...we have many photos including our wedding photos that I need, as well as work documents from the last 10 years. Anything you can suggest would help me greatly...my most sincere thanks.

 

[niteflyr]

2 ideas.

1. Try migration assistant.
2. Restore entire system back to ML.

http://pondini.org/TM/14.html

 

[Manic Harmonic]

Are you doing it through the time machine interface? If so have you tried just navigating to the drive in finder?

 

[Bruno09]

Go to Time Machine interface.

If you see the previous backups in black (you can't access them) like here :



Then clic on the name of the computer (here Macbook Pro), and the previous backups will turn white and become accessible :

 

[Angle Loss]

Many thanks to all of you who responded...it has helped tremendously!

I first went through Migration Assistant, but had the same problem of not being able to go back beyond the post-upgrade backups.

I logged in to my apple account under preferences and user&groups and that seemed to change things a bit...I was able to pull files and see stuff under the Finder, navigating it as a drive. I could only see the documents folder (which was enough to grab work stuff and photos).

This morning, I just saw Bruno09's post. I was able to click on "Macintosh" (my hard drive name) and get into more stuff, but I think I still have some problem--it is very slow. Also, I tried to change my account(???) name, or whatever you call the name used in the Finder window, left sidebar next to the house icon. My old system had my nickname, my new system has my full name in lower case. I tried changing it in preferences/users&groups, but that didn't change it.

If that would help resolve some of the functionality, how do I change it?

The important thing is that I was able to get the photos and work docs! Again, thanks so much! I was very worried about this and appreciated all of your help! I hope this will help some who finds this thread in the future and has the same problem.

 

[Bruno09]

This morning, I just saw Bruno09's post. I was able to click on "Macintosh" (my hard drive name) and get into more stuff, but I think I still have some problem--it is very slow. Also, I tried to change my account(???) name, or whatever you call the name used in the Finder window, left sidebar next to the house icon. My old system had my nickname, my new system has my full name in lower case. I tried changing it in preferences/users&groups, but that didn't change it.

It's not the hard drive name you must click on, but the computer name.

Do not try to change the name next to the house icon (= the user name), or you will have problems.

 

[Angle Loss]

ok, thanks!