Access to backup of discarded hard disk?

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Level 1

5 points

Access to backup of discarded hard disk?

I'd been using Time Machine to back up a hard disk, which wound up going south. I replaced the hard disk (and did a new system installation). I would very, very much like to get access to those old files.

Is there a way that I can do it?

-Lofty

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.4)

Posted on Sep 6, 2008 8:15 AM

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Answer 1

VA2020

Level 4

3,455 points

Sep 6, 2008 2:13 PM in response to Lofty Becker

Are you talking about accessing a back up that Time Machine that backed up as an external HDD attached to a Mac? Or are you talking about the Mac's internal HDD? If the latter, how did you restore the system so far?

It sounds like you didn't restore from the TM back up.

You can access the old TM back up by invoking 'browse other TM disks' as well.

Message was edited by: -(.)^(.)-

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Answer 2

Sep 6, 2008 10:10 PM in response to VA2020

How can I browse other TM disks ? I have a similar issue : after having re-installed Leopard from scratch I didn't restore from my previous TM backup for some reasons, but I do want to recover some of the files part of the old backup. TM is now backing up under the "new" account and when I open TM I see (on the right side of the screen) all the days, but that are dimmed and not accessible, while remain accessible only days after I have re-installed Leopard.

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Answer 3

Lofty Becker Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 7, 2008 4:14 AM in response to VA2020

Thanks; I didn't know there was an option to "browse other Time Machine disks" but I googled the phrase and found out how. I'd never control-clicked on the icon before. That did it.

(What I did was copy my home directory to another disk, then erase and reinstall the system. Turned out that a few things I needed weren't in the home directory.)

Even later discovery: when I erased and reinstalled the system, the name of the Mac got changed. When I changed it back to the old name, the old backup appeared automatically.

-Lofty

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Answer 4

Sep 7, 2008 2:18 PM in response to Lofty Becker

Lofty,
thanks.

I changed the computer name as per your suggestion and my old backup became available once again !

Ciao.

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Answer 5

Nov 16, 2008 8:45 PM in response to VA2020

When I click on "Browse Other Time Machine Disks...", nothing shows up.

I did something similar - I bought a new harddrive for my MacbookPro and, rather than restoring everything, I transfered data directly from the old harddrive. I'd also like to have access to my many months of Time Capsule backups, and I don't know how to do it.

Thanks!
Rachel

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