Time Machine didn't work - I think?

[Mugwumper]

Hi -

I just took delivery of a refurb'd 3.06GHz 24" iMac, and used my Time
Machine backup disk to download apps and files. After 2.5 hours, it was
finished, and I rebooted, expecting to find the mirror of what was on my
G5 iMac (10.5.6, iLife '09, etc.). However, it wasn't - it was a hodgepodge
of 10.5.4, no iLife '09 or iWork '09, no printers installed, etc. It's taken me
most of today to get back to the 10.5.6 world I had on the G5 . . .

My Time Machine disk (.75TB) has been keeping copies of my G5's 250GB
disk since July 2008, and has only used about half of the available disk space.

Is what I experienced a "failure"? Or "typical"?

Thanks . . .

Mugwumper

 

[BlueRevolution]

That's typical. When you use the install disks to restore, you get the version of OS X that's located on the disks, with the files and applications restored from your backup. Just patch up and you should be back where you were to begin with.

Normally when you know you're going to be changing disks, I suggest using Carbon Copy Cloner to back up rather than Time Machine.

Since Time Machine makes incremental backups, it normally takes a long time to fill a drive, even with many backups. Each subsequent backup after the first one is often quite small.

 

[BobZune]

Also note there are PPC vs Intel architectural differences. See http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=435350&tstart=0 for migration hints.

 

[Mugwumper]

Now I understand . . . ;^)

Thanks for both the responses . . . I guess I didn't even consider using
my cloned backup FW disk, based on what a Genius (or AppleCare guy?)
told me last year. Live and learn . . .

It's not a big deal, and I am up and running with just a few "gotchas"
like trying to run PPC s/w on an Intel machine. ;^) I really like this iMac -
but I also said that about my G4 and G5 in years gone by. Still, going from
17" to 20" and now 24" is amazing, plus 800MHz to 2GHz to 3.06GHz makes
things go real fast! ;^)

I'm now playing with Sun's VirtualBox - XP Pro on the iMac really seems
faster than it is on this new FoxConn PC that I'm writing this on . . .

Thanks again!

 

[BobZune]

You are welcome. Enjoy the machine. I am up for a Mac Pro soon ....