AI doing something wrong with Time Machine?..HELP!

cu3ed · 25 Jul 2010 at 10:55

So, over the weekend somthing went a buggery with my iMac, and thought stuff it Ill just clean it and reinstall...did that...then reinstalled Snow Lep.

Now, my understanding was as I had Time Machine fully up to date, tht I could simply turn on my External drive, let it connect,...I then went to the Time Machine icon at the top and "Browse Other Time Machine Disks", went into the previous restore point and hit "Restore"...and left it for the night (takes about 3 hours on mine).

Came back this morning, and nothing.....restarted, nothing, just the usual initial Mac stuff, then found a "Previous system" folder with all my stuff and Software in it (which is asking me for manners of serials etc I don't think I have).

Have I done something wrong, or have I really got TIme Machine wrong, my impression was it just put everything back exactly, Programmes and all back .

Please help! :confused:

cu3ed · 25 Jul 2010 at 11:11

Well then I guess im asking ....what DO I do now?

But am I right in thinking that I should be able to come back to it and it was just like it was before....programmes and all..photoshop etc

cu3ed · 25 Jul 2010 at 11:23

Yes, thats it.

cu3ed · 25 Jul 2010 at 11:28

Ok, so use my Original OSX Disk, or my Snow Lep one?

cu3ed · 25 Jul 2010 at 12:02

No I didnt exclude anything...I bought a 1TB External just for it, its running now, so in two and a half hours, ill either be very happy or hanging from a rope!

cu3ed · 25 Jul 2010 at 14:44

Well it said it was successful, but it's f'd it even more, i restarted, then you get the chime, the spell logo come up, then the black curtain defends and it tells me to hold he power button down and hit it on again, done it three times now and the same thing over and over.

cu3ed · 25 Jul 2010 at 15:16

Well, yea, like theirs on earlier in the daym sommin like that?

Can i ask, just what's the point of this system if i have to go back to a point that misses anything that a been updated?

Basically this doesn't work then?

cu3ed · 25 Jul 2010 at 15:21

Well i don't have a working mac in anyway right now, so how do i run a test, i assume of the first and most recent TM went in saying it ass successful it would have been fine.

Just gone Into the boot to the OSX disc again, just running the HD diagnostic in the Mac.

cu3ed · 25 Jul 2010 at 18:59

Tried the older one, thats has yielded the same results...I really have no clue as to what to do now.

cu3ed · 25 Jul 2010 at 20:53

Ive just thought of somthing...when I was doing the restore within OSX, that made the "previous SYStem" folder, it worked ok, tho programmes and such wouldnt work, so is that not a good indication that the TM backup is ok?

So, just tried the 3rd TM date that was about 2 weeks old, and still the exact same problem.

cu3ed · 26 Jul 2010 at 00:19

SO long at I know the backup is working, but its seems to bring everything in, so now I just have enough time to reinstall OSX (its found somthing tho as it gave me the option to Archive, BUT...and its a big BUT it will not allow me to tick the Preserve Users and Network Settings, option, so had to go with the Archive, I Wanna se WHAT it archives, AND if OSX will boot jsut running its own clean install...tho it did yesterday.

cu3ed · 26 Jul 2010 at 15:34

But programmes won't work.

Friend of mine said somthing about a target boot to see if I can run the time machine backup. Also to try and hole down shift during boot up for a soft mode.

And it wont even boot into safe mode.