Restore from Time Machine backup, but to a smaller hard drive.

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Level 1

5 points

Restore from Time Machine backup, but to a smaller hard drive.

I have an iMac with a 3TB hard drive that failed. I unfortunately didn't back up in the last year, but do have a hard drive I backed up to using Time Machine a year ago. So now I want to restore from that backup, but my new Mac mini that I will be using is only a 2TB drive which won't be enough space because I definitely had more that 2TB on the iMac.

Is there a way, somehow, to leverage an external hard drive plugged into the Mac mini to pull this off?

Or, if not, any advice?

iMac Pro

Posted on Apr 5, 2020 6:07 PM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

215,268 points

Apr 11, 2020 3:01 PM in response to rolynb

Don't have Migration Assistant bring over your iPhoto library. Instead after you're up and running without it restore it from your Time Machine back-ups to the external HD by entering Time Machine, Control (right) - clicking on the iPhoto library in Time machine and selecting Restore "iPhoto Library" to … from the contextual menu:

Select the external HD as the destination.

NOTE: the EHD must be formatted as shown in this screenshot and connected directly to your Mac via cable for iPhoto or Photos to work.

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Answer 2

samtenor

Level 4

2,074 points

Apr 5, 2020 7:19 PM in response to rolynb

You can use Migration assistant to decide what data you want to restore - means not all 100% to be restored.
Get an external drive, create library/data in external drive - to split the data.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Apr 6, 2020 1:03 PM in response to rolynb

Yes, great advice from Sam...

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201517

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Answer 4

Old Toad

Level 10

215,268 points

Apr 11, 2020 3:41 PM in response to rolynb

Click on the Inherit Backup History as that's where your old backups are. Then go back in time to the most recent backup. Once restored it probably will have to be converted to whatever version of iPhoto or Photos you're using.

What system were you running a year ago and what system did you just install?

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Answer 5

rolynb Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 5, 2020 8:05 PM in response to samtenor

Couple follow up questions. My iPhoto library is what is pretty huge. Might even be over 2GBs itself. Given that, will I be able to restore that to a separate drive and have the Mac mini still recognize it and open normally?

Secondly, I don't even know what operating system my iMac was operating on... But it surely wasn't the current one. Will I be able to restore to what is on this new Mac mini from the older operating system that was on the iMac?

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Answer 6

rolynb Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 11, 2020 12:36 PM in response to samtenor

Hey Sam -

In regards to "Get an external drive, create library/data in external drive - to split the data." ...

I purchased a Mac mini and am currently restoring from Time Machine back up, everything except the Photos folder which is what pushes me over the available space on the Mac mini.

I have a brand new 5TB Lacie drive plugged into the Mac mini and my intention was to restore the Photos folder onto that. But I'm not clear on how, once the Mac mini is up and running with everything else, that I restore the Photos folder directly to the external drive. I understand how to link the library once it's on that drive, but not how to move it to there in the first place.

Any help appreciated.

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Answer 7

rolynb Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 11, 2020 3:16 PM in response to Old Toad

Awesome. Will try this.

But first, I'm getting this message after starting up the mini after migration. I'm afraid to pick the wrong thing for fear of messing up my ability to access the photos library.

Can you advise?

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Answer 8

rolynb Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 11, 2020 3:47 PM in response to Old Toad

I honestly don't know. The iMac that died I had last backed up in Dec 2018.

So I lost anything from 2019, but that's not a huge concern since we've been backing up all photos from our phones to the cloud since that time.

The Mac mini is brand new, so is on Catalina.

I'm letting Time Machine do the current backup and then will try what you suggested. Thanks so much for the help!

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Answer 9

rolynb Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 12, 2020 9:58 AM in response to Old Toad

Successfully restored the library to the external drive. Then opened Photos app and selected the library off the EHD at which point it started updating. It got to about 20% and then the scrollbar went blank. The screen now looks like this. The info on the Photos library says las modified at 9:17am and it's now 9:58am.

Looking pretty stalled. Not sure what the best strategy is at this point. Any thoughts?

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Answer 10

Old Toad

Level 10

215,268 points

Apr 12, 2020 12:13 PM in response to rolynb

Control (right) - click on the library file and select Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. Once in the library package go into the Masters folder's Masters or Originals subfolders and see how the image files are named? If they are IMG_XXX.jpg or similar then you may be in luck. They will have the original file name that the camera gave them and if you import into a new library you should have the date created intact so you can identify them by date.

But if they look like this:

You'll be able to recover them but it'll be tough to identify. I'm not sure the image creation date will be intact. I've not been able to confirm that one way or the other. You'll have to identify each by looking at them in a new library.

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