Time Machine issue

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fireman0174


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For a period of time I've been having "beach ball" issues of my computer becoming worse and worse. Yesterday, the iMac would not start up - period.

Ran some disk utility scans and always came up with a corrupted system.

Since I had most stuff backed up (or so I thought) I bit the bullet and reformated/reloaded the system. Currently I have El Capitan (10.11.3) up and running just fine.

I'm the process of resetting things up, but I've run into a problem I'm not certain how to handle.

I have some files in Time Machine that I can "see", but cannot restore. Everything is grayed out and not accessible. I was using El Capitan when the system crashed so I thought I would be able to retrieve them, but no luck.

Is there something I can do to be able to restore the files I want? None of the files are "system", they are either Office data files or some saved mp4 files.

Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. :)
 
chscag

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Have you done another Disk Utility check from Recovery after reformatting and reinstalling El Capitan? Your specs show a 24" iMac which is a rather old iMac and if the hard drive is original, it may need to be replaced. As to the Time Machine problem, have you tried other backup dates (assuming you have been steadily making TM backups)? Also... were you ever able to restore from any of your TM backups before? In other words, are your TM backups good? Sorry about all the questions, but it's always a good idea to test your backups before the time comes to actually having to depend on them to restore.
 
harryb2448

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Did you use TM via an external hard drive and use Migration Assistant to bring everything across?
 
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chscag said:
Have you done another Disk Utility check from Recovery after reformatting and reinstalling El Capitan? Your specs show a 24" iMac which is a rather old iMac and if the hard drive is original, it may need to be replaced. As to the Time Machine problem, have you tried other backup dates (assuming you have been steadily making TM backups)? Also... were you ever able to restore from any of your TM backups before? In other words, are your TM backups good? Sorry about all the questions, but it's always a good idea to test your backups before the time comes to actually having to depend on them to restore.
Click to expand...

* It is a 2009 model. 1 TB HD. 8meg RAM (max available)

* I thought about a corrupted HD due to its age, but the reloaded system seems to work just fine and is fast.

* Have restored items from TM before with no problems.

* The current backup I did after the reload is not grayed out. All others, and dates go back well over a year, ARE grayed out.

* I did NOT use Migration Assistant - don't even know what it really is or where it is located. But I will look.

Tks
 
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harryb2448 said:
Did you use TM via an external hard drive and use Migration Assistant to bring everything across?
Click to expand...

Never used Migration assistant before (that I'm aware of anyway).

Tks
 
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fireman0174 said:
* It is a 2009 model. 1 TB HD. 8meg RAM (max available)

* I thought about a corrupted HD due to its age, but the reloaded system seems to work just fine and is fast.

* Have restored items from TM before with no problems.

* The current backup I did after the reload is not grayed out. All others, and dates go back well over a year, ARE grayed out.

* I did NOT use Migration Assistant - don't even know what it really is or where it is located. But I will look.

Tks
Click to expand...

OK, then we have to assume that maybe it's a permissions problem preventing the older TM backups from working. Take a look at the screenshot of my Time Machine external hard drive that I selected "Get Info" for, and compare it to yours.

Screen Shot 2016-02-13 at 16.42.19.png
 
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chscag said:
OK, then we have to assume that maybe it's a permissions problem preventing the older TM backups from working. Take a look at the screenshot of my Time Machine external hard drive that I selected "Get Info" for, and compare it to yours.
Click to expand...

Uploaded a snapshot. Looks OK to me.

MyBook.jpg
 
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fireman0174 said:
For a period of time I've been having "beach ball" issues of my computer becoming worse and worse. Yesterday, the iMac would not start up - period.

Ran some disk utility scans and always came up with a corrupted system.

Since I had most stuff backed up (or so I thought) I bit the bullet and reformated/reloaded the system. Currently I have El Capitan (10.11.3) up and running just fine.

I'm the process of resetting things up, but I've run into a problem I'm not certain how to handle.

I have some files in Time Machine that I can "see", but cannot restore. Everything is grayed out and not accessible. I was using El Capitan when the system crashed so I thought I would be able to retrieve them, but no luck.

Is there something I can do to be able to restore the files I want? None of the files are "system", they are either Office data files or some saved mp4 files.

Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. :)
Click to expand...

Separate problem is that now my HP Color LaserJet isn't visible either.

HP driver files do not seem to be available for El Capitan.
 
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fireman0174


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El Capitan and printer

Two days ago I had to format my HD and reload the operating system. Reloaded Snow Leopard (original disk) then upgraded directly to El Capitan which is what I had on the iMac before it crashed.

My HP Laserjet Pro 200 Color printer was working just fine before the crash using El Capitan.

Now El Capitan either doesn't "see" the printer or always shows it off-line. I thought computers were supposed to make life easier?

Anyway, it doesn't seem that HP has a driver for this printer using El Capitan which might be the problem.

Anyone have any ideas/suggestions on my next step?

I'm going to be looking for HP forum as this gets uploaded.
 
chscag

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Did you compare your screenshot permissions with those of my screenshot? Because permissions are wrong for your Time Machine drive. "You" should only have read permissions, not read and write. Also the other permission are wrong. Use the free OnyX application to correct permissions on the drive. Make sure the permissions are the same as my screenshot.

Next: Reference your HP Color Laserjet, go to System Preferences, Print & Scan. Remove the HP Color Laserjet and install it again. If there are drivers for it in El Capitan they will be installed automatically.


Edit: Do not double post the same subject. You started another thread for the same thing.... both have been combined here and answered.
 
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harryb2448

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I wonder Charlie if fireman's pic is of his internal hard drive which o course is read and write?
 
chscag

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No, it can't be his internal drive because the name of the drive says it's "My Book Mac 4 TB" which is an external drive sold by WD. The permissions on that drive are clearly messed up.
 
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fireman0174


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chscag said:
No, it can't be his internal drive because the name of the drive says it's "My Book Mac 4 TB" which is an external drive sold by WD. The permissions on that drive are clearly messed up.
Click to expand...

OK, I see the difference where yours states "You can only read" and mine says "You can read and write". I was only looking at the box below it that has Name & Privilege columns. Those are the same.

Downloaded OnyX.

My Book Mac 4TB is my external drive

Hopefully I can fix this today as I'm traveling starting early tomorrow and not really back until Feb 28th, with the exception of a day and a half at the end of this week.

Thanks!!
 
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fireman0174


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OK, I downloaded OnyX, but I don't see how I can "select" the 4TB drive - by default the iMac HD is selected and I don't seen how the external disk in question is available.

Or to put it another way, I'm over my head. :Confused:
 
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fireman0174


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Also (to bring everything under the proper thread) I'm still having issues with El Capitam seeing and connecting to my HP Laserjet printer.
 
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Just go ahead and change permissions manually for your Time Machine drive. Make sure you copy from my screenshot. All permissions on that drive are incorrect so be sure to change all of them. You will have to click on the small lock first and enter your admin password before you can apply changes.

As to your HP printer problems, the only suggestion we gave you was to uninstall it completely and then re-attach it via USB and let OS X detect it. If drivers are available for El Capitan, they will be automatically installed.
 

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