Restoring from Time Machine after 1T hard drive replacement

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Restoring from Time Machine after 1T hard drive replacement

I am a super computer novice. I picked up my computer yesterday after having the recalled Seagate hard drive replaced. I backed up my computer using Time Machine before I took it in on a Seagate "Backup Plus" portable hard drive.

Now, when I have tried to use the restore start up, the computer recognizes that my drive is connected, but says there are no files on that drive it can use to restore the system.

I can see that there are 50GB on the disk, and when I look in it, there are files called "Macintosh HD" so that makes me think that my stuff is in fact on my external drive. why can't my computer see it?

Do I need to get a FireWire cord to connect to my computer? I'm using the USB 3.0 that came with the hard drive.

My computer had Mountain Lion when I backed it up. I think it is back to whatever OS it came with originally. Do I need to update to Mountain Lion? If I do, how do I do so without having to pay for it again? My app store is empty since my computer was wiped.

Thanks for the help, I really need it!

iMac

Posted on Jan 14, 2013 5:13 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 14, 2013 5:17 AM in response to IngridM

The first thing to do is upgrade back to ML, which you can easily do. Just redownload ML from the app store with the same AppleID you used the previous time you purchased the ML upgrade. Your purchase is tied to the AppleID you used when buying, so you can download it again (as many times as you wish) without payment as long as you use the same AppleID.

Once you have upgrade it to ML, then try the restore from the backup (which I gather was made when while running ML before).

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Answer 2

IngridM Author

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Jan 14, 2013 5:20 AM in response to Michael Black

Thanks!! I'll give that a try now. I'll keep you posted!

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Answer 3

IngridM Author

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Jan 14, 2013 7:29 AM in response to Michael Black

I put Mountain Lion back on (you were correct, it remembered me) restarted the computer and did the "Command R" thing to start up in restore mode. I chose "Restore from Time Machine Backup", I picked my Seagate Backup Drive for my Backup Source but it still says "No OS X system backups were found".

What should I try next?

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Answer 4

Jan 14, 2013 7:45 AM in response to IngridM

It sounds like perhaps you did not do a full system backup originally with TM? Did you exclude system files in your backup?

What happens if you just login to your machine, and enter TM from there? Do you see your files then and can you restore them from there (now that your system is back up to ML, you don't really need to restore the system files).

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Answer 5

IngridM Author

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Jan 14, 2013 7:50 AM in response to Michael Black

I did not intentionally exclude any files with my back up. I backed it up with the default preferences.

How do I enter TM from my regular computer? When I go into it from System Preferences, it only seems to give me options to back up the computer now. I don't see any options to restore it.

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Answer 6

Jan 14, 2013 7:56 AM in response to IngridM

When logged in to your computer, up in the upper left, click on the TM menu item and choose enter time machine. You should go into the TM interface and see all your backups (most recent and incremental)

see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427 for screen shots.

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