What does Time machine save for you?

[FranklynRecords]

Hi I am now sending back my second imac for replacement - I have been using it for two weeks though and only decided to send it back at the last minute so I have all my itunes, iphoto, tabs in firefox and all other kinds of settings set up as you can imagine. I don't want to have to go through the whole setup again.

So what I want to know is - does Time machine save the system as a whole including all personal data - Photos - songs everything? So I can plug my lacie into the new machine press a button or two and wham I 'm back in business?

Cheers for the help

 

[r0k]

Hi I am now sending back my second imac for replacement - I have been using it for two weeks though and only decided to send it back at the last minute so I have all my itunes, iphoto, tabs in firefox and all other kinds of settings set up as you can imagine. I don't want to have to go through the whole setup again.

So what I want to know is - does Time machine save the system as a whole including all personal data - Photos - songs everything? So I can plug my lacie into the new machine press a button or two and wham I 'm back in business?

Cheers for the help

There are several ways to go about migrating.

1 - connect a time machine backup disk and migrate from the backup
2 - connect the two machines by firewire and migrate directly from one machine to the other

Both of the above methods bring absolutely everything over with no omissions...

3 - copy your entire "home folder" to a network drive then copy it from the network drive to your new machine. all your settings should come across, but if you made some system-wide settings on your old machine, these might not come over
4 - use backup3 (comes with .mac/mobileme) to copy your home folder to your idisk (if it fits, if your upload bandwidth allows you to get everything up there in less than a month, if, if, if) then restore from your idisk - same as option 3, some things could be omitted

 

[FranklynRecords]

There are several ways to go about migrating.

1 - connect a time machine backup disk and migrate from the backup
2 - connect the two machines by firewire and migrate directly from one machine to the other

Both of the above methods bring absolutely everything over with no omissions...

3 - copy your entire "home folder" to a network drive then copy it from the network drive to your new machine. all your settings should come across, but if you made some system-wide settings on your old machine, these might not come over
4 - use backup3 (comes with .mac/mobileme) to copy your home folder to your idisk (if it fits, if your upload bandwidth allows you to get everything up there in less than a month, if, if, if) then restore from your idisk - same as option 3, some things could be omitted

Hey thanks for the advice - I guess I will be doing option one as it sounds simple with no omissions - when I turn on the new machine I think it asks if you want to use the migration assistant straight away - doesnt it? Is this how to back up from the previous time machine data or do i just boot up and then go into time machine from the desktop?

If you could run me through a few steps of how to get the time machines backup on to the new machine It would be great.

Cheers!!

 

[iowamensan]

I have restored from a Time Machine backup two different ways, and have only had luck one of the ways.
The first way is to boot to the Leopard install disk, and install the OS from the disk. After the install, one of the first welcome screens asks you if you want to migrate, one of the choices being from a Time Machine disk. I have tried this method about 5 times, and each time it gets to the "Less than one minute remaining" part then never finishes. Everything seemed to be on the computer, but some things never worked right.

The other way, and the ONLY way I do it now is to boot to the Leopard disk, and under Utilities choose restore from Time Machine. This automatically erases and restores your hard drive.