Why is my backup not showing when I try to migrate from Time Machine?

Question

Why is my backup not showing when I try to migrate from Time Machine?

Trying to restore from a time machine backup from my 2009 MacBook to a new iMac.

Things are not ideal. While the new iMac was on order the old MacBook have up the ghost. It looks like a problem with the disk. Rather than reformat the hard drive and restore to there I chose to wait until the new iMac arrived and just restore from my external hard drive to the new iMac.

Problem is I also spradically back up my wife's MacBook Air to this drive so when I enter the migration assistant on the iMac it only offers me the MacBook Air backup.

If I look on the disk the MacBook Air backup appears as a Sparse Disk Image Bundle. However, the MacBook backups appear to be in an older format and are all in a directory called Backups.backupdb. I have read that Time Machine only allows you to restore the most recent backup but the last sucessful MacBook backup is more recent that the last MacBook Air backup which doesn't follow.

Is there any way of accessing the MacBook backups and restoring from them?

Many thanks,

Tom

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Feb 14, 2014 7:05 AM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,550 points

Feb 14, 2014 8:00 AM in response to Thomas R Jenner

Are you using either Migration Assistant or did you use Setup Assistant to restore the TM data to the new iMac? If not please use Migration Assistant and choose the Time Machine option. Apple explains how to do this in http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5872

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Answer 2

Feb 14, 2014 8:25 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Was trying to use the setup assistant. The problem is it only seems to see the backup from my wife's MacBook Air rather than the one I want which is from my MacBook.

Going to try and remove the sparse bundle for the wife's MacBook Air from the external drive to see if that makes any difference.

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,550 points

Feb 14, 2014 8:44 AM in response to Thomas R Jenner

Are you saying you have 2 EHD's with 2 seperate TM backups connected to 1 machine. If so please temporarilty remove the one you do not intend to use to restore. Also, one thing I forgot is you have 90 days of AppleCare telephone support, I'd suggest you use that before using a help forum.

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Answer 4

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Feb 14, 2014 12:30 PM in response to Thomas R Jenner

Most likely, some folders were excluded from your backups as the result of a failed or aborted software installation.

Starting from a clean installation of OS X, set up a new administrator account and log in. Enter Time Machine and 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 your home folder (in the Users folder at the top level of the old startup volume.)

You should now be able to restore your user data. I suggest you do this in two stages. Quit all applications except the Finder before you begin.

Restore all the visible items at the top level of your home folder.
Hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar. Enter Time Machine and restore all items in the Library folder. Log out and log back in as soon as the restore is complete.

Any other invisible folders or files at the top level of your home folder that you want to preserve will have to be restored separately. For most users, that isn't necessary.

You'll have to reinstall all third-party applications from scratch, or restore them from another kind of backup, if you have one.

You'll have another problem if this is a new computer, or if you erased the startup volume: The next time you back up, Time Machine won't recognize any files as being the same as they were before, and will make a full copy of all files. There might not be enough space on one or more of your backup volumes for that. There are different ways of dealing with that situation, depending on your needs. The easiest way is to set your backup drives aside, if possible, until you're sure you'll no longer need the data on them, then erase them and start over. Meanwhile start a new backup on one or more empty storage devices. If that solution isn't workable for you, ask for instructions.

*If you don't see any snapshots in Time Machine, exit the time-travel view and then hold down the option key while selecting

Browse Other Backup Disks...

from the Time Machine menu, which has an icon that looks like a clock running backwards. Select the backups of your computer by its previous name. If you don't have the Time Machine menu, open the Time Machine preference pane in System Preferences and check the box marked

Show Time Machine in menu bar

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Answer 5

Feb 15, 2014 6:09 AM in response to Linc Davis

OK, that seems to have done the trick. I think you may be right when you say that it was due to a failed or aborted backup becuase there is an 'incomplete' directory on the external hard drive. Did need to hold the option key in order to select the backup for the old machines but the computer finally recognised it and given that that was what I was most worried about it was a great load off my mind to see it finally appear and confirm that the old machine had been backing up correctly.

Actually, as I think I mentioned before, I can view the files directly on the external HDD. There is a 'Latest' alias fodler which seems to link to a complete copy of all the files in the latest snap shot. I'm wondering if I could just manually copy over selected files as I needed them (there is a lot of stuff I'd probably rather 'archive' and leave off the new install) rather than take the whole lot over? Or is this just the same as using the restore technique described above but without Time Machine?

The point regarding the space on the backup voulme is very valid. My drive should be big enough for a fresh backup but I may just restore the bits I need rather than everything in order to keep the size down and avoid clogging up my new machine with stuff I arguably don't need. Then I can just archive off the old stuff once I'm sure I have everything.

Many thanks for the detailed response.

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Answer 6

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Feb 15, 2014 7:37 AM in response to Thomas R Jenner

If you're running OS X 10.6 as your profile shows, don't copy files from the backup volume in the Finder, Use the time-travel view. You can be as selective as you like in restoring.

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