Buying a replacement Mac and restoring data via Time Machine.

Recently, the hard disk in my 2008 iMac failed and I'm planning on just buying a new Mac altogether. Luckily, I've backed up everything with Time Machine for the entire life of the machine and I also have most of my important files backed up separately on flash drives, so loss of data isn't an issue. My question is once I get the new Mac, will I be able to only restore the files and apps I need and not do a complete restore to save time and disk space? I have a tendency to hoard files and was planning to use this situation to make a clean start. If it is possible (I've never even attempted this before), would not doing a complete restore effect the license or configuration of any software not installed via the App Store? How do I go about this?


David Lones

You can do a TM restore but it will have to be before creating an account on the new machine. In other words, the first time you boot the new machine and it asks you if you wish to restore from another Mac, reply yes. Attach your external hard drive with the TM backups and press OK. System files and kexts will not be overwritten, only data such as documents, photos, iTunes media files, and other data will be copied over.

I am beginning to think we need a sticky of some sort about Time Machine. There seems to be a great deal of confusion over exactly what it does and how it gets that done.

Slydude said:

I am beginning to think we need a sticky of some sort about Time Machine. There seems to be a great deal of confusion over exactly what it does and how it gets that done.

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Or people can search on Youtube. Many, many "how-to" videos there that explain much better than text can.

I agree but apparently that's not happening given the number of questions recently that are so similar.

Accessing the backup from Windows???

How do I access my backed-up files from a Windows machine? Attempting to seems impossible...
Will my files be accessible in the way I'm attempting from a Mac?

How do I access my backed-up files from a Windows machine? Attempting to seems impossible...
Will my files be accessible in the way I'm attempting from a Mac?

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Not impossible provided you have another working Mac? Windows by default can not read or write to a HFS+ drive or partition without third party software.

And plus the fact that without the Time Machine application (which will not run on Windows) you will be unable to restore anything from the sparse image.

...well, recent "YouTube" and google searches led me to believe that simply digging around in some kind of "Backups.backupd" dierctory would uncover my files. Evident from my screenshots, said directory does not exist and I have MacDrive installed on the PC. (Not that that would make a difference. I'm using a Time Capsule, which is accessible from Windows machines anyway). Also, no, I do not have access to any other Mac's at this time.

I have my backups on a drive attached to a Time Capsule. The "Backups.backupd" folder should be the first one inside that sparse bundle. Inside that folder will be another one that matches the name of your computer. Inside that folder will be the rest of the contents of the backup. The directory structure will match that of the original drive.

Good for now...

Yesterday, I was able to gain access to a Mac and retrieve the few files I needed for now.
I think I'll just do the same whenever I get a new Mac and skip dong an actual restore. Again, clean start.

To bad I couldn't access the backup from a PC. It would have been a lot easier given most all of my friends and family don't own Mac's. Although, it does seem more secure...