scf2817
Level 1 (4 points)
Mac OS X

Q: External Hard Drive - Time Machine


Hello.  I have been using Time Machine to back up my Mac Book Air onto an external hard drive.  I have the latest OS- El Capitan 10.11.  Last night, I had to wipe my hard drive clean due to a non-working third party program that was preventing me from logging into my job's network.  I reinstalled the program today, and I was able to get into my job's network, but I am unable to restore any of the backups from my external hard drive onto my laptop.  Time Machine does not give me the option to view any of the backups that I know are there although I can see the backups when I use Finder to view the external drive.  I do not want to do a complete restore because I don't want to restore the non-working third party program.  I am primarily interested on restoring my personal files, iPhoto, and iMovies.  Please help!

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Aug 2, 2016 11:28 AM

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scf2817

Q: External Hard Drive - Time Machine

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Keith Barkley,

    Keith Barkley Keith Barkley Aug 2, 2016 11:34 AM in response to scf2817
    Level 5 (6,382 points)
    Aug 2, 2016 11:34 AM in response to scf2817

    It is unclear to me what the problem is, but I bet the answer is here:

    http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

  • by Glenn Leblanc,

    Glenn Leblanc Glenn Leblanc Aug 2, 2016 11:41 AM in response to scf2817
    Level 6 (11,016 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 2, 2016 11:41 AM in response to scf2817

    First off, you probably need to open TM preferences and re select the external drive for TM backup.

    You can also try to right click (control click) on the TM icon in the dock and choose Browse Other TM disks, and select the correct drive.

  • by Bakhtina,Helpful

    Bakhtina Bakhtina Aug 2, 2016 7:28 PM in response to scf2817
    Level 3 (721 points)
    iCloud
    Aug 2, 2016 7:28 PM in response to scf2817

    Hi scf2817,

     

    From what I understand, you are trying to restore your files from a Time Machine backup but are not able to. You already stated you do not want to restore the entire system, so I assume you are not in recovery mode, and you say you do see the backups in Finder, which leaves two possibilities :

     

    1. You are using the Time Machine feature to "enter Time Machine".

    2. You are using the Migration Assistant to try and restore your files.

     

    If 1 is true, try what Glenn said. If it doesn't help, I advise you to try 2 (see Move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support).

     

    If neither works, you can actually enter the backup in Finder and locate your files. They are typically there :

     

    (backups folder)/(specific backup)/(name of your hard drive, typically "Macintosh HD")/Users/(your name)

  • by Eric Root,Helpful

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 2, 2016 7:28 PM in response to scf2817
    Level 9 (70,068 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 2, 2016 7:28 PM in response to scf2817

    While in Time Machine, to see all mounted volumes shift - command - c.    Information learned from Linc Davis.

  • by scf2817,

    scf2817 scf2817 Aug 2, 2016 7:28 PM in response to scf2817
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 2, 2016 7:28 PM in response to scf2817

    Thank you everyone for your input.  I was able to manually copy and paste files and photos from the external hard drive onto my Mac.  After that was done, I had to set up Time Machine again but the only way to do this was by erasing all of my previous backups and starting anew- I actually didn't mind doing this because I had a lot of junk in the backups that I didn't need.