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Time Machine - what happens if your main HD dies? (not the backup drive)

R

RoboCop001

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 4, 2005
1,576
454
Toronto, Canada
So I was just wondering.... say one day, I'm at my MacBook Pro... when suddenly! Oh no! The hard drive dies! After I bury it in my backyard and get a new one, how do I restore my files using the Time Machine backup HD?

Is that even possible? I hope Time Machine can do that.
 
Boot up on the Leopard install DVD. There is a Time Machine Restore utility which will do a full restore.
 
Yup, when you put in a Leopard install DVD one of the install options is to restore from a Time Machine backup. Simple.
 
What if you do not have TM backup system files? Do you have to install OS X, and then restore your files? Or will it just sort of do all that for you?
 
I would imagine you do a fresh install, then let TM do the rest.

The best situation, of course, would be to let it backup everything (with some exclusions like Parallels virtual disks and some cache files).
 
If you don't backup your system files then all you have to do is a fresh install and in a final stage of this install you can choose a location where your old timemachine backup is. Leopard will import all programs, profiles and other settings.
 
PROBLEM, HD is DYING!!!!!!!

ok, suppose i use time machine right now and backup EVERYTHING on my system, and one day later, my internal HD dies, broken, and unusable, can i bring in my imac to the store so that they can replace it? and after they replace it, my HD has absolutely nothing on it. can i boot up my imac to the leopard install DVD, by doing this, pressing the power button on my imac, push in the leopard drop in that came with my imac, and press and hold down the C key? or the Option key? after that, there will be an icon saying restore Time Machine, and after that, my computer will work fine again? is that how it works?
 
bluedoggiant said:
ok, suppose i use time machine right now and backup EVERYTHING on my system, and one day later, my internal HD dies, broken, and unusable, can i bring in my imac to the store so that they can replace it? and after they replace it, my HD has absolutely nothing on it. can i boot up my imac to the leopard install DVD, by doing this, pressing the power button on my imac, push in the leopard drop in that came with my imac, and press and hold down the C key? or the Option key? after that, there will be an icon saying restore Time Machine, and after that, my computer will work fine again? is that how it works?
Click to expand...
go to your user library and roll it back i would imagine
 
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