Laptop does not recognize TimeMachine backup

Machine will not recognize the backup, even though I can see it in finder and it's all there.

I'm not sure that this means.

If you installed Yosemite, when you first boot up the Mac, Setup Assistant will give you the option to restore from a Time Machine backup. That is the best way by far to set up the Mac, since you can move over your user account and all files.....basically make the new Mac look like the old Mac.

If you have already passed on the option to use Setup Assistant, the only way to use it would be to reinstall Yosemite again on the laptop and then use Setup Assistant when the Mac starts up again.

If you don't want to to do that, you can use Migration Assistant to move files from a Time Machine backup over to the laptop. You will have to create a new user account to do this, since there will be widespread permission issues if you try to use the old user account on the new Mac.

This Apple support article should provide more information on the process of using both Setup Assistant (highly recommended) and Migration Assistant.

Move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support

I really just want to cherry pick the individual files from the backup when I need them - individual documents, for example, and I'd like my Calendar and Contacts data as there's quite a bit of stuff in it. Is this possible using Migration Assistant?

Sorry, but no. Migration Assistant will move over major categories like Applications, Settings, etc., just as Setup Assistant does. You won't be able to pick and choose much at all using Migration Assistant.

There is a way to use the Finder to get into the backups and drill down to get an individual file if you want, but Apple does not officially support this. We can give you the steps, but since Apple sternly frowns upon this, the forum moderators usually pull the steps if I post them. We could try if you want.

There are no guarantees with this "method" so we cannot provide any assurance that it will help you. Your call.

I posted this same general information on another thread earlier this morning....and it is still "up", so maybe the moderators are sleeping late. This assumes that the backup was made on a Time Capsule.

If your Time Machine backups are on an external drive, skip down the step about opening up Backups.backupdb

Locate the Time Capsule icon on the left panel of any Finder window under the Shared heading

Click on the Time Capsule icon and a folder named "Data" will appear to the right

Double click on "Data".You may be asked for the Time Capsule device password when you do this.

Once "Data" is mounted on your desktop, go ahead and open up the drive.

You will see a special sparsebundle file for each Mac that has backed up to the Time Capsule with the name of Mac included in the name of the file

Double click the sparsebundle file for the Mac whose backups you want to see and that will mount another disk icon on the desktop named Time Machine Backups

Open Time Machine Backups and a normal folder named Backups.backupdb will appear.

Open that folder. You will have to drill down a number of layers all way down to User to find the files that you are looking for.

Be very careful not to change or modify a file in any way. It is OK to copy a file, then paste it elsewhere. I do not use drag and drop for this, but you could try if you want.

I don't have answers for 2 or 3. As far as 4, as mentioned above, be very careful not to change or modify a backup file.

Good luck.

The folder layers would go something like......

Backups.backupdb

Name of the Mac

List of folders with backup dates. Pick a date and keep opening things

Name of Hard Drive on the Mac....might be Macintosh HD

Users

Select your User Name

Choose a category to look at

In addition to the Time Machine backup, I just dragged and dropped my entire Home folder onto the external HD. Was this foolish?

I don't know. Have never done that.

I can't find the Calendar or the Contacts data there

More work needed to find out where the application stores the data. I don't know. Try the support forum for Calendar, Contacts, etc under the operating system forum.

Open up Migration Assistant and take a look at the options available to you. You can cancel out if you decide not to use Migration Assistant.