Use old Time Machine back-up after OS reinstall?

[hayduke]

Hey all - I just reinstalled my system on a new system drive and then used the migration assistant to transfer *only* the user accounts and not the settings or applications etc.

I wanted (needed...) to start relatively clean. The system after all of this is very similar to the original system (same apps, same users, mostly the same settings etc.) and I would like to continue using my old Time Machine back-up if I can, but when I start Time Machine it just wants to create a new back-up and won't recognize the older back-up. Any thoughts about getting that to work?

I've read up about what to do if you get a new TM disk or if your have your logic board replaced, but this situation seems different. I can't figure out what would appear different to TM about my "new" system. Thoughts?

 

[JediMeister]

I know that the backups are dependent on the computer's name that's set up in the Sharing preferences. However even if you were to change the computer name back to what it was before, if the computer doesn't have the same file structure, the same installed applications, etc. why would you expect it to keep writing to the same backup folder? Time Machine backups are very reliant on what it did the last time around. That's how it manages incremental backups instead of having to backup everything every hour.

 

[hayduke]

I know that the backups are dependent on the computer's name that's set up in the Sharing preferences. However even if you were to change the computer name back to what it was before, if the computer doesn't have the same file structure, the same installed applications, etc. why would you expect it to keep writing to the same backup folder? Time Machine backups are very reliant on what it did the last time around. That's how it manages incremental backups instead of having to backup everything every hour.

I did keep the machine name and drive names the same.

The file structuring is largely the same. I would expect it to work just the same as if I took the current system and deleted a few apps and folders. TM is not "reliant" on what was done before it just stores differential/incremental information. I don't understand your critique.