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:

box · 25 Jul 2010 at 11:08

As far as I understand, Time Machine keeps a backup of the entirety of your system, OSX included, with the intention of doing a full recovery from a blank disk. When you insert the Snow Leopard disk, I believe there is an option to restore from time machine (which is what you probably should have done) instead of installing OSX first.

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

box · 25 Jul 2010 at 11:22

So you want to revert back to a previous system state, correct? And you have a backup taken on the date you want to revert back to?

cu3ed · 25 Jul 2010 at 11:23

Yes, thats it.

box · 25 Jul 2010 at 11:25

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15638.html

cu3ed · 25 Jul 2010 at 11:28

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

box · 25 Jul 2010 at 11:47

I'd use the Snow Leopard one, although in reality it won't matter. All the disk is used for is a restore utility that pulls everything from time machine. Don't think anything from the OSX disc is actually installed.

Blackhawk47 · 25 Jul 2010 at 11:53

Provided that all your files are still on your Time Machine HD then I'd follow what tim80bwi said.

box · 25 Jul 2010 at 11:58

Blackhawk47 said:
Provided that all your files are still on your Time Machine HD then I'd follow what tim80bwi said.

Good point. If you previously marked anything on your HD for time machine to ignore and not backup, bear in mind that these will not be restored.

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!

box · 25 Jul 2010 at 12:29

Keep us updated

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.

MagicBoy · 25 Jul 2010 at 15:07

That's kernel panic then. Can you not restore back to an earlier time?

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?

MagicBoy · 25 Jul 2010 at 15:17

Depends. If the Mac has a bad stick of RAM for example it could corrupt the backup. Does the Mac being recovered pass the diagnostics test?

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.

box · 26 Jul 2010 at 00:08

What an odd problem. No idea if it'd help, but maybe you could try wiping the HD from disc utility on the OSX disc right before you restore from TM. Just get rid of the partitions and let it build from scratch. Like I said, don't know if that will work, but maybe worth a try. It doesn't sound like the backup itself it ok though from your previous experience so I wouldn't worry about that.