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Old time machine backup prayed out, why?

Hi Not very technically minded. I did a total erase of my HDD i was not worried because i have a 2TB WD time machine backup. When i try to go to that to restore certain files i have problems as described. When entered Time Machine i got the star wars effect but i could only go back to the start of the latest install. I then entered TM via system preferences and it states the oldest backup date but when i select disk its not there. If i then go into options my other external HD's are showing as is my old TM, however only the TM is greyed out.

Why and how to do access this? Any help would be gratefully appreciated as this is where all my music and films are stores.


Regards DaveffUser uploaded file

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1), iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), 2.9 GHz I

Posted on Mar 30, 2015 4:40 AM

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2 replies

Mar 30, 2015 7:27 AM in response to daveff

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.

If you need to restore from a backup of the hidden user Library folder, first select a snapshot, then press shift-command-G. A Go to Folder dialog will open. In it, you'll enter the path to the folder. The dialog will help you by automatically completing the parts of the path when you start to type them.

The path begins with slash character ("/"). Enter that. The rest of the parts will be separated by slashes.

The next part is the date and time of the current snapshot. Enter a "2", and the rest of the date should be filled in automatically. Press the right-arrow key to jump to the end of the path. Enter a slash to start the next part.

Next is the name of the volume (usually "Macintosh HD" unless you gave it a different name.) Start to type that, then jump to the end and enter a slash.

The next part is "Users", followed by a slash.

Next is your (short) user name, which is also the name of your home folder.

Finally, enter "Library", then press return. You should now be in the Library folder. From there you can get around as in the Finder.

Old time machine backup prayed out, why?

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