I cannot enter time machine to retrieve an earlier version of a file

Question

I cannot enter time machine to retrieve an earlier version of a file

I am trying to recover an earlier version of a file from the Time Machine back up on an external hard drive connected by USB to a MacMini server running Snow Leopard Server, but can't get the star field and time bar to come up. I am accessing the server through screen sharing. All I get every time I click on Enter Time Machine I just get another Finder window with the shared items visible on the network greyed out.

If I look at what is on the back up drive using the Finder I can see the TM back ups are there as they should be, so I should be able to access them but I can't.

Looking at the solutions on the Discussion forum I have done most of the things suggested by others with similar sounding issues but without any success. I have removed <com.apple.TimeMachine.plist> and deleted as suggested. I have repaired the External Drive Back up disk using Disk Utility. What else might I try?

Urgent help will be appreciated, please.

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Running OSX Server 10.6.8

Posted on Mar 26, 2014 8:30 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

239,219 points

Mar 27, 2014 9:39 AM in response to DougalfromHants

Open Console in Applications>Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this happens.

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Answer 2

Mar 27, 2014 9:52 AM in response to BDAqua

Looking at Console while trying to enter Time Machine does not produce any error messages. I should add that we have used this External Drive attached to the MacMin Server for quite some period of time and have been able to retrieve files in the past.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

239,219 points

Mar 27, 2014 10:06 AM in response to DougalfromHants

Hmmm,

To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...

Open System Preferences>Accounts, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.

Does Time Machine open in the new account?

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Answer 4

Mar 27, 2014 10:52 AM in response to BDAqua

I'll have to get back to you as soon as I can shut down all the other business going through the server on the exisiting admin account. I will be able to do that in an hour or so. Thanks for your attention. I will get back to you.

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Answer 5

Mar 27, 2014 12:27 PM in response to DougalfromHants

I have now done as you suggested. Even in a new Admin account as directed it is still not possible to enter Time Machine. I get the same result as before.

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Answer 6

BDAqua

Level 10

239,219 points

Mar 27, 2014 2:14 PM in response to DougalfromHants

Hmmm, have you repaired the Internal drive & then Repaired Permissions?

Might try reapplying the big 10.6.8 Server combo update...

http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1402

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Answer 7

Mar 28, 2014 12:37 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi BDAqua You're smart, I have to confess, and know your Apple kit. Disk Utilities informed me that the internal drive on which the operating system lives is failing and cannot be repaired. Without your suggestion I may well have continued until the drive failed. This probably explains some odd other behaviour expereinced by iMacs connected to the server lcoking up and experiencing permissions issues in the last few days. Anyway, I have backed up using external drives to cature all the data, I hope. I will be taking a clone of the failing system drive in Target mode. I have a new 500Gb drive lined up to have fitted early next week and hopefully will be able to restore the server software and settings to the hard drive (with a bit of help from a local certified Apple consultant). I also discovered that Time Machine had been going through the motions of backing up hourly, but had been failing after a few megabytes but not indicating this was happening. So, this appears to refelct a glitsch in the Time Machine app. Fortunately, I think I can save the whole situation and with some thanks to you. If you have any advice on how to make this recovery easier I will be pleased to hear. I can only say that you solved my question even if it did not give me the outcome I would have preferred. Dougal

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Answer 8

BDAqua

Level 10

239,219 points

Mar 28, 2014 1:00 PM in response to DougalfromHants

Whew, good work! 🙂

Clone as soon as possible, we'll have to take it from there, but when my iMac's HDD reported pending failure, it was completely dead within 48 hrs.

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