Time Machine Woes..

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Hi, I'm experiencing some serious issues with Time Machine and was hoping someone might be able to help as I can't seem to restore from a Time Machine backup following the theft of my MacBook Pro.

So, here's the situation:

1) MacBook Pro got stolen, a 2008 model.
2) In the 6 weeks that it took to replace, the hard drive with TM back up on it had a power supply issue
3) I got an authorised Mac dealer to transfer the backup folders to a new FireWire drive
4) MacBook Pro can see the drive as a normal drive and I can browse the TM backup a bit (loads of aliases, some real files, but not many it seems).
5) If I browse the TM backup using 'CTRL - browse another TM backup' option, not much seems to be there: if I click 'Documents' or 'Music' or 'Photos' it says Broken Alias - Fix? I haven't dared press 'yes' yet as I don't want to break it any further.
6) If I go to Utilities > System Restore, it simply doesn't recognise a valid TM system restore file. (I have also tried booting from Leopard DVD to fresh install the TM backup, but again, it doesn't see the system back up at all)

Am I totally screwed? What has TM done to cause this? I just switched it on and let it 'do its thing' and assumed it was backing up correctly.

I am very worried by the fact that the file is only 480 Megs....doesn't sound like there's much there at all...

Failing all else, I can see that my applications like Adobe CS2 are on there and seem to be complete. Is there any way I can just get those going again? (I don't have the install disks for complicated (non-piracy!) reasons)

Thanks for reading all this, if you've got this far, I look forward to receiving any advice you might have.
 

bobtomay

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TM hasn't done anything. You don't have a TM backup there. You have what sounds like an improperly copied TM backup to another drive. If your original drive that actually had the TM backup died, then the files that are on this new drive may be all that was salvageable from that drive (assuming you had a tech experienced and knowledgeable in this process).

Where is the original drive that has the TM backup? If it was only an issue of the enclosure having a power supply issue, that drive should be good unless it fried the drive also.
 
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Thanks...I have a feeling that it wasn't the copying that went wrong, as the drive was fine except for the dead power.

But, I guess I might have to take it back to them for more extensive investigations in case it was.

Would still appreciate knowledge of how to restore the appplications in this instance though.
 
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Unibody MacBook Pro 2.26, 4gb RAM, 500gb HD

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