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Level 1

0 points

Can't fully restore my Time Machine/Time Capsule Backup to my newly-wiped SSD/HDD

On receiving my leased, Bootcamp-enabled MacBook Pro, I saw that there were no installation discs for Windows or OSX, and that there were 2 partitions (or so I thought) for Mac and Windows: 375GB each. As I produce music using software in both OSs, I wanted to create a 185GB FAT-32 partition to store my sound samples, projects etc. I attempted to create this partition by resizing (halving) my Bootcamp partition in OSX Disc Utility. The first time I attempted it, resizing was possible, but after the new partition was created, I had problems booting and so had to edit my GPT in order to boot again. Once ‘fixed,’ (by deleting the new partition) I couldn’t resize the Bootcamp partition to fill the 185GB gap, and that 185GB was ‘lost.’ The Bootcamp partition was 375GB but its used space + free space added up to 190GB
So the other day, I tried to follow what I thought was a more logical approach, which I was *sure* would work. My plan was to:
- Use Windows Backup (and/or Clonezilla, or Disk Utility) to store an image of my Windows partition.
- Uninstall/wipe the Windows partition using BootCamp Assistant, creating 1 big OSX partition
- Use BootCamp Assistant to re-partition the HDD for Windows, OSX and ‘shared,’ and then re-install Windows, leaving 175GB for shared music production files
- Restore the image/backups (approx 70GB) and carry on as before.
During the process, I deemed that this wasn't possible on my system for a variety of reasons: My laptop already had 4 partitions (Windows Recovery, Bootcamp/Windows, Mac Recovery HD, and Mac) and my understanding is that the MBR of my SSD only supports 4 partitions in its Bootcamp + OSX-compatible state. I have never got this '5 partition' strategy working.
I was unable to restore my Windows partition after re-installing Windows via Bootcamp. As a solution, I then decided to wipe the OSX partition (at that point the only 'visible' partition on the disk) and in-place re-install Mac OS X, with a view to installing Windows after OSX.
Once I wiped my hard drive, however, restoring my files and settings, didn't work as expected. Time Machine backups etc were inaccessible after a normal re-install. Re-installing with file transfer at setup froze at the 10% mark, with an estimated 200 hrs to go. The option to try a full-system restore via Time Machine is greyed-out. Even the Migration Assistant failed at a similar point. On the occasions where it claimed to complete successful (most recent situation) it seemed to neglect files, etc., and I'm now stuck at this stage.

I can view files/backups in Time Machine but I can't completely restore my computer to the state it was on 18th May...and 11 days without a fully-functioning laptop is really annoying. I wasn't able to ‘clean’ *or* ‘in-place’ re-install OSX using my existing settings and so I'm frustrated that Time Machine isn't a flawless backup & restore process. Migration Assistant didn’t transfer everything. Can I get things back to the way they were?

Things that haven’t restored correctly:

None of my icon customisations at the top of the screen were there (DropBox, Evernote, Google Drive, Kuvva, the way battery icon was displayed

Safari: Top Sites, History, Plugins

Logic Pro: Downloaded sounds, presets (10+GB), recent items, plugin settings/AU manager

Mail: Settings (and I’m assuming, the downloaded/cached mail: 7GB)

Trash can: Empty

All recent item lists apart from cloud-based services like Evernote, Notes, contacts

iTunes library

Dock view and settings

Settings for most programs

And I'm sure there are more!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3), June 2012/768SSD/Bootcamp/TCaps 2TB

Posted on May 29, 2013 4:24 PM

Best reply

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Posted on May 29, 2013 4:55 PM

AkaraE wrote:

. . .

Time Machine backups etc were inaccessible after a normal re-install.

If you mean you installed OSX and created a user account, then couldn't find the backups, that's because they're treated as being from a different disk, until you either transfer your data or do a manual "associatedisk". See the blue box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #19 for details.

Re-installing with file transfer at setup froze at the 10% mark, with an estimated 200 hrs to go

That sounds like damaged/corrupted backups. Try to Repair them, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

The option to try a full-system restore via Time Machine is greyed-out.

You mean, on the Mac OS X Utilities menu on the Recovery HD? I've never heard of that. That should always be selectable, so you can specify where the backups you want are located. Nothing happens when you click it? Can you click the other options there?

Even the Migration Assistant failed at a similar point. On the occasions where it claimed to complete successful (most recent situation) it seemed to neglect files, etc., and I'm now stuck at this stage.

Also sounds like directory or file problems on the backups.

Time Machine isn't a flawless backup & restore process.

There has never been any such thing. 😉

Trash can: Empty

Correct. Time Machine (like most backup apps) don't back up trash.

All the rest should have been backed-up and restored. Do you see them in the backups? What, if anything, was excluded from being backed-up?

If repairing the backups finds and fixes things, you might want to try again.

If not, and if you can see the missing items via the Time Machine browser (the "Star Wars" display), you should be able to restore them selectively.

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20 replies

arakrazy

Level 1

4 points

Jun 16, 2013 5:32 PM in response to Pondini

Ok...thanks so far Sabatica. You're right...I've spent far too much time on this and missed my own deadlines unfortunately.

My current state is I have a user account with some partial migration (I think?!) or at least the same UID as the account I'm trying to restore.

I've re-installed Logic (cos I had work to do), Bootcamp doesn't work and I basically wanna do this right (or the best way) and then move on. I've got loads of old Logic projects I wanna be working on, and it's annoying me that 6 months of config has gone and I have to set everything up from scratch.

So, thanks for the help so far guys.

What's your suggested methodology? I've started new projects (had work to do) on my current install so would love a smart suggestion on

What to do with current documents (way to back them up)

What to do next (add extra accounts, delete original, restore using Migration Assistant, Pondini?)

Aaargh.

Did I mention I have 2 Apple IDs?! AkaraE and arakrazy 😟

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jun 16, 2013 6:23 PM in response to arakrazy

arakrazy wrote:

. . .

What's your suggested methodology? I've started new projects (had work to do) on my current install so would love a smart suggestion on

What to do with current documents (way to back them up)

What to do next (add extra accounts, delete original, restore using Migration Assistant, Pondini?)

I'm not quite sure just what your situation is, now.

There's no automated process to "merge" two user accounts.

Migration Assistant won't do that, either. It only transfers user accounts and home folders that don't already exist (but you can omit some things).

It sounds like you may need to copy some stuff from one user to another; that can be done, but can be a bit tedious.

See if you can summarize your situation now -- what accounts you have, what (if anything) you still need to recover and from where etc., then we can work out a plan.

arakrazy

Level 1

4 points

Jun 17, 2013 10:32 AM in response to Pondini

Ok.

Currently have a user account (which I think was created by Migration assistant, but entirely not sure...could be brand new) and NO OTHER ACCOUNTS on my MacBook.

I have no current backups of this account. The most important things on it are the downloads and new music projects.

I have backups of my old Mac partition, with all music projects, settings, etc (albeit with some errors in the backup as previously stated).

I'd like to backup my new stuff and then perform the most reliable procedure to restore my old files.

After which, I'd restore my new/current projects and downloads (but to be fair, I think I could do this myself with just copying and pasting onto my TC disk. I shouldn't have problems with permissions etc, right?)

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jun 17, 2013 10:47 AM in response to arakrazy

arakrazy wrote:

Ok.

Currently have a user account (which I think was created by Migration assistant, but entirely not sure...could be brand new)

Does that account have permission to see the backups via the Time Machine browser (the "Star Wars" display), or via the Finder?

Were you able to transfer anything from the old account via Migration Assistant? If you haven't yet, try it, but exclude all the sub-folders. If that works, it will get only the ~/Library folder, but that's the hardest one to deal with any other way. If that works, don't go any farther just yet, but post back.

I'd like to backup my new stuff

Do not do that to the same set of TM backups yet. That will make it the most recent backup, and that's the only one Migration Assistant will use.

But by all means, back it up to another drive if at all possible.

and then perform the most reliable procedure to restore my old files.

If (big if) we can use Migration Assistant for at least part of it, that's best. But I don't think we know that yet.

After which, I'd restore my new/current projects and downloads (but to be fair, I think I could do this myself with just copying and pasting onto my TC disk. I shouldn't have problems with permissions etc, right?)

You may. That's why Migration Assistant will be best, if we can get it to work.

arakrazy

Level 1

4 points

Jun 25, 2013 4:01 AM in response to Pondini

Ok.

Time Machine won't open:

"An unexpected error occurred (error code -6584)."

but I can copy and paste/read the Time Machine backups from my TC.

I have to complete a couple of music projects before I'm happy to try the migration assistant. So I'll post my findings with it in the next few days.

Can't fully restore my Time Machine/Time Capsule Backup to my newly-wiped SSD/HDD