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Time Machine Help..

W

whyrichard

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 15, 2002
1,709
6
Hello all,

My '09 mac pro seems to have died. I do have an external HD with the time machine backup! Question... the file structure of Time machine is all scattered, with I believe just iterative changes. How do I assemble the time machine backup into the whole set of folders, on a new mac?

Thanks,
Richard
 
When you setup the new Mac, it will ask you if you want to restore from a Time Machine backup. You'll say yes and it's automatic after that.
 
You do this:
1. Get the new Mac.
2. Set it up but DO NOT PRESS THE POWER ON BUTTON YET
3. Connect the tm backup
4. NOW press the power on button
5. Begin setup. At the appropriate moment, setup assistant will ask if you wish to migrate from another computer or drive. YES you want to do this
6. "Aim" setup assistant at the tm backup. GIVE IT TIME TO DIGEST THE CONTENTS OF THE DRIVE. Be patient.
7. Setup assistant will present you with a list of stuff to migrate over. I suggest you migrate everything.
8. Let setup assistant do its thing. Again, be patient, it will take time.
9. When done, you should see the login screen, looking pretty much like your old one did.
 
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The time machine backup folder that I want was my media folder, itunes and dvd's. And so, will this method allow me to capture just that folder? i don't need the os to be transfered as I already set up my new laptop as a new computer...
 
I got into migration assistant (by setting up a new user and opening migration assistant) and was able to get into the time machine backup on my external hd, however I could only see the folders that were on my old startup disk... not the folders that were on my media hard drive and were backed up in time machine.

I can see the media hard drive backup on the external hd so I know they are there...

Thanks for any help,
Richard
 
Your Mac Pro died, not your external drive. There should be no need to restore it from backup.
 
Correct, but time machine scatters the folder across iterations so the folder structure is a mess.

I wish there were a way to assemble the timemachine folder structure so that it was whole and easily transferable. Is that possible?

thanks,

richard
 
OP:

Want to improve your backup situation for the future?
(I realize this doesn't help you NOW)

If so, STOP USING TIME MACHINE.
START USING either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.
If you had had backups created from either, getting to the folders you needed would be a VERY simple task. Just mount the backup drive (which is an exact copy of your source drive), then manually copy the folders/files from it.

(yes, I know I sound a like a broken record on this, but CCC/SD are such superior tools, I'll keep posting it as long as I'm living and able to do so)
 
whyrichard said:
Correct, but time machine scatters the folder across iterations so the folder structure is a mess.
Click to expand...

No, it doesn't. You can use Finder to go to <backup disk name>/Backups.backupdb/<computer name>. Choose a date and within that folder is everything that was there on that date. Just copy what you want. It is not fragmented, rather backups from different times are integrated to show the state of your file system at each point in time.

Time Machine is a very effective backup solution.
 
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It's still not clear why you think you need to restore from a backup. The computer died. Not your hard drive.

Edit: Nevermind. I thought that your media was on an external drive. After re-reading the original post I see that you never said that.
 
Last edited:
gilby101 is right. This is the beauty of Time Machine. Pick any of the time-stamped folders, and inside it will be the entire system as it looked on that date/time. Inside the time-stamped folder will be a directory for each volume (drive) that was backed up. So if you had TM configured to back up your boot drive AND an external media drive, there will a directory for each. Just click into them and drill down to what you want, then use Finder to drag a copy to your desired location on the new Mac.

Once you get into a time-stamped folder, the entire directory structure is there, navigatable with Finder. If you see only your boot drive, then you didn't have TM configured to back up any external drive. : (
 
Fishrrman said:
6. "Aim" setup assistant at the tm backup. GIVE IT TIME TO DIGEST THE CONTENTS OF THE DRIVE. Be patient.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that interesting advice.

Two questions though.

1) For "setup assistant" to do a full scan of external disk, it can take 30+ minutes sometimes. Do you still recommend waiting, even though technically the OS will allow you to proceed as long as SA has detected the drive? Have you seen problems for those people who did not wait?

2) If you select the Migration Assistant AFTER the new Mac has been booted, do you notice a different result?
 
Does Time Machine have an area on the back up drive that's set up with folders like the source drive on the computer? Not just folders by date?

Years ago I used a backup program that came with a Western Digital external hard drive. It was a simple program but what I liked is that the file structure on the external back up hard drive was exactly the same as the source(computer) hard drive.
 
crowe-t said:
Does Time Machine have an area on the back up drive that's set up with folders like the source drive on the computer? Not just folders by date?

Years ago I used a backup program that came with a Western Digital external hard drive. It was a simple program but what I liked is that the file structure on the external back up hard drive was exactly the same as the source(computer) hard drive.
Click to expand...
Yes... if you open a TM backup and drill down through the folder structure, it looks just like the source drive.
 
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