Restoring relocated Home Directory using Time Machine (Mavericks)

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Level 1

10 points

Restoring relocated Home Directory using Time Machine (Mavericks)

Hi there. I was so unlucky to have my MacBook Pro stolen. The way I had set it up, I had replced the optical drive with a SSD (for applications and OS) and the original hjard drive served as my homefolder. Fantastic setup made my old machine purr. Sadly how ever when I bought a new machine and wanted to restore from Time Machine I have not been able to restore my user (Images, files, docs and everything I relied on Time Machine to keep safe).

Does anyone know how to solve this problem?

Lars

Time Machine-OTHER, OS X Mavericks (10.9), Restoring Relocated Home Directory

Posted on Dec 13, 2013 5:13 AM

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Answer 1

Tony T1

Level 6

10,247 points

Dec 13, 2013 5:35 AM in response to larsmarsdk

Are you selecting " Browse Other Backup Disks" when you enter Time Machine?

See: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427

Tip: You can also browse the original backup drive for past backups by using "Browse other Time Machine Disks"--to see this choice, hold the Option key then click the Time Machine menu in the Finder (to see the menu, "Show Time Machine status in the menu bar" must be selected in Time Machine preferences.

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Answer 2

larsmarsdk Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 13, 2013 5:48 AM in response to Tony T1

I actually tried this - still can't see my home folder and files in TM. - using the thirdparty "Back-In-Time" I can see all the files and I know they are there - I just wish there was a way to restore this user and the relocated home directory.

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Dec 13, 2013 8:22 AM in response to larsmarsdk

While in Time Machine, press the key combination shift-command-C. The front window will show all mounted volumes. All snapshots should now be accessible. Select the one you want and navigate to the files you want to restore.

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Answer 4

Dec 29, 2014 1:16 PM in response to larsmarsdk

Had this problem as well. What worked for me - in Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) - was to restore my Mac OS X installation from Time Machine. This (fortunately) included an admin account. From there I resized the new disk to have both partition with the exact same names as before and restored my home folder to that partition. When everything is done, I will move my home back to the standard location.

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Answer 5

forappie

Level 1

36 points

Oct 7, 2015 11:04 PM in response to Donald van de Weyer

I was getting somewhat desperate Time Machine wouldn't let me restore my relocated home folder. However, Donald's advice also worked for me. I created a home folder with the same name as the account to be restored, redirected the account to that folder (via Users & Groups), logged out and in and suddenly Time Machine was willing to restore my folders.

Thank you!

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