Will Time Machine erase newer files?

Question

trident44 Author

Level 1

5 points

Will Time Machine erase newer files?

Hello,

I'm running 10.8.2 on a 7 year old iMac with 4gb and a 1 tb drive.

On boot I just get a gray screen, Apple logo, and spinning wheel.

Ran utilities, verify, repair, reset nv and pram - all utitilities say the drive is fine.

Tried to boot into safe mode but after the gray progress bar disappeared nothing further happened.

Now I'm thinking about doing a restor from a Time Machine backup taken in August. I've never used TM before

and I'm wondering, because I'm at the screen where it says "Select a destination" and the "restore" button is

highlighted, are there no options to select what to restore?

Will doing a restore wipe my drive and restore it exactly as it was on the day the restore was created?

Is there a way that only those files, in my restore, will get wiped/overwritten and any new docs/movies/spreadsheets, etc...

that I created after the last backup, will still be there after I do the restore?

Thanks!!!

imac, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Dec 9, 2013 10:31 AM

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Answer 1

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Dec 9, 2013 1:19 PM in response to trident44

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for details.

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Dec 10, 2013 11:33 AM in response to trident44

Startup - Gray, Blue or White screen at boot, w/spinner/progress bar

Startup - Gray Screen

Startup Issues - Resolve

Startup Issues - Resolve (2)

You might want to update your profile. Shows 10.5.6.

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Answer 3

Jan 24, 2014 12:26 PM in response to baltwo

I have the same question as trident44 and couldn’t find the right answer on TM FAQs (great site though!) nore on the linked TM troubleshooting site … Don’t know if I'm just blind but could someone please either just post the answer to trident44’s question here (a short “yes” or “no” would already help a lot for the beginning), or reveal where I can find the exact article on TM FAQs?

Thanks in advance!

Feels a bit weird anyway that we kinda seem to be the only two persons on the web who want to know this. Isn't it quite an interesting point wheter you can or can’t keep all your files you've produced since your last backup? … Or am I missing something here?

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Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Jan 24, 2014 1:31 PM in response to Theo Schusterjunge

If you restore everything, it will likely wipe out anything new as all the folders will be overwritten. You can select certain items and restore only that item.

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Answer 5

Jan 24, 2014 1:36 PM in response to Eric Root

Thank you.

Can the items I select to restore also be system settings and basic stuff like that? Or can I only restore files and apps that way?

(Sorry, I’m not very familiar with Time Machine)

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Answer 6

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Jan 24, 2014 1:38 PM in response to Theo Schusterjunge

http://Pondini.org/TM/14.html describes how to restore the entire system. If you're worried about losing stuff, then restore to an empty volume or another disk. That'll preserve your current volume.

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Answer 7

Jan 27, 2014 1:14 PM in response to baltwo

Ok, now I’ve found quite a simple way: I wanted to reboot the operating system and keep my files, and learned I can do so by holding command + R while starting the computer to get to the Mac OS X Utilities where I could reinstall OS X. And that was just it.

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