Apple Intelligence is now available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac!

📢 Newsroom Update

Apple unveils the new iMac with M4, supercharged by Apple Intelligence and available in fresh colors. Learn more >

📢 Newsroom Update

Apple introduces M4 Pro and M4 Max. Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Restore files from failed drive

I have a failed external drive. I have a backup on my TM

drive. When I try to restore it tells me it will erase the internal drive. If I

try to restore just one file I get:   “” can’t be modified or deleted because it’s

required by macOS.” How do I recover my files?



iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 23, 2021 12:32 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 23, 2021 1:55 PM

Restore your Mac from a backup

"Learn how to transfer all files from your Time Machine backup to your Mac.

If you used Time Machine to create a backup of your Mac, you can restore your files from that backup." Either just data files, or all files including the operating system.

https://support.apple.com/HT203981

Similar questions

8 replies

Mar 24, 2021 1:15 PM in response to byomtov

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac

http://support.apple.com/HT201262


See if starting in Safe Mode helps, though I am not sure if that will also disable Time Machine too.


If you know which service is using the file you may be able to kill the process in Activity Monitor. Hopefully it isn't something critical in keeping you system running though. :-/

Mar 24, 2021 1:42 PM in response to Limnos

Safe mode didn't help.


My fundamental question is this:


Is it possible to restore files from a Time Machine backup and direct them someplace other than the boot drive?


It seems that that should be easy but there doesn't seem to be a way o do it. The files were on an external disk that failed and I don't want them on the boot drive for several reasons, not least that I have limited space there.

Restore files from failed drive

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.