The Time Machine backup is from a hard drive that had Mountain Lion: 10.8.2
However, I do have the Snow Leopard disk (I upgraded along the way to Mountain Lion). I stuck the Snow Leopard disk in and began the process of installing it. However, when it asks which disk I want to install the OS on, I do not see the newly installed SSD. Since that's the only disk I have in the machine, there are no other options.
Suggestions on how to proceed?
(Update: I went ahead and hooked up the external Firewire disk with my Time Machine backup. Then, from the Utilities window in the start up screen on the iMac, I chose to restore from Time Machine. I selected the external hard drive with the TM backup. However, I still have the same problem of the iMac startup screen not being able to 'see' the newly installed SSD. It was a pretty simple internal hookup of the SSD; I know I got all the connections (all 2 of them) hooked securely.) Any ideas why the SSD is not being shown as an option to put the TM backup onto it?
(Second Update: In the System Profiler, I see that the newly installed SSD is recognized. I must be using the wrong selection from the Utilities drop down box to install from the TM backup)
(Third Update: (sheesh!) I think I have it. I used Disk Utilities from the Utilities drop down menu and then saw the Time Machine backup, which I selected as the source drive. Then I put the newly installed SSD as the destination drive. It seems to be copying now. I guess I will know if about 30 minutes or so if this whole thing worked or if I really screwed things up).
OK, here's the latest. Any help is greatly appreciated: The backup seemed to take place without issue. I restarted the iMac and, after a little while, the gray screen had a question mark in the middle of it. What did I do wrong? Before bringing the TM backup onto the newly installed SSD, did I need to 'partition' the drive. It didn't give me an option to format, so I thought that the TM backup would have formatted it. Anyway, I still have a problem.
Thoughts?
Update: Still have a problem. Used the Snow Leopard startup disk to get to Disk Utilities. Chose to partition the newly installed SSD. Afterward, I restored from the external hard drive to the new SSD. Everything seemed to go fine. Just to test this, I continued in the Snow Leopard install to see if I could now 'see' my newly installed SSD as the Snow Leopard's instillation destination. Bingo - yes, it was there. So, I restarted and held down the Option key and chose EFI as the boot drive (that was the only option to choose, so I thought it MUST be my new SSD drive). Hit Enter, and . . . gray screen.
Still need help!!!