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Can’t restore time machine backup over Maverick. Restarts to disk utility only.

I have an external hd backup from time machine when my 2014 iMac was running Catalina. I ended up doing an internet recovery and installing Maverick (only option) thinking i would be able to upgrade to Catalina. Can’t upgrade, no option. Safari is basically unusable to download any images.


This was purchased used years ago. It (time machine restore) makes progress and finishes, restarts back to disk utilities.


Hard drive says Catalina 10.15.7 but is formatted in extended journaled and not APFS in disk utilities.


So frustrated at this point. Have all my data backed up but no usable OS.


iMac 27″

Posted on Sep 23, 2024 2:55 PM

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5 replies

Sep 25, 2024 8:48 AM in response to stonerab07


That helps. Quit Terminal, return to Disk Utility, go back to the Erase tab, rename the disk "Macintosh HD" and erase. Then, try Restore From Time Machine Backup again, selecting "Macintosh HD" as the target.


Frankly I doubt this will prove to be the solution, but I can find nothing wrong with what you're seeing. Despite the fact I have no Fusion Drive Macs to compare it to, what that picture illustrates are two physical volumes: one small solid state drive and a larger hard disk drive, which are properly combined to create the 3.1 TB logical volume that appears perfectly capable of receiving a Time Machine backup. The reason the restore didn't work the first time is a mystery, unless of course the Mac is expecting to see "Macintosh HD" as a boot device instead of the name shown. To my knowledge its name shouldn't matter... but I have never tried to do things that way.


Let us know if this helps. Otherwise perhaps someone else with a Fusion Drive can duplicate what you're doing. I was never a fan of Fusion Drive.

Sep 23, 2024 7:00 PM in response to stonerab07

It strikes me as unusual for an internal drive to be named "Internal Drive". The device name should be "WDC WDxxx..." or "APPLE SSD xxx..." or words to that effect, for a hard disk drive or solid state drive respectively. But I have never seen "Internal Drive". That just doesn't make sense.


Contrast that name with the USB drive named "640.14 GB SAMSUNG..." That does makes sense.


Hit the up arrow to select "Internal Drive" and post a photo of that.


And for simplicity please do not rename the disk. Leave the default name of "Macintosh HD" as is. Programmers make assumptions as well as mistakes. You can rename it some other time.


All of this may mean nothing. I am just trying to comprehend what you have there.

Sep 24, 2024 6:58 PM in response to stonerab07

Thanks. Bad news first, I have never had any Macs with Fusion Drive so it will be challenging at best for me to help. I expected to see an Erase button, but it's not there. Let's assume what you're seeing is normal.


Quit Disk Utility to return to the OS X Utilities screen. At the top of the screen there should be a Utilities menu. Select Terminal.


At the prompt type

diskutil cs list


... and press the Return or Enter key. Post a picture of that. Maybe I can work with it to come up with something useful, but I'm not hopeful.

Can’t restore time machine backup over Maverick. Restarts to disk utility only.

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