Time Machine in an Emergency

Comments

• Reply 1 of 4

  karelia Posts: 525member

  June 22, 2007 11:59PM

  Quote:
  

  Originally Posted by Merovingian
  
  
  I haven't been able to find the answer on Apple's website.
  
  
  
  Say you're running Leopard with Time Machine enabled, using an external HDD connected via USB. If your primary HDD fails, but the backup one is safe and sound, is it possible to grab data from the backup drive as you would normally, or does it have to be "linked" up to a new OS X install?
  
  
  
  Just wondering how easy it is for emergency data recovery in freakish circumstances.
  
  
  
  Thanks.
  

  
  

  
  
  1) Replace internal hard drive.
  
  
  
  2) Boot holding Option (or Menu on the remote), and choose the external drive.
  
  
  
  3) Download Carbon Copy Cloner while booted from the external drive.
  
  
  
  4) CCC will clone every file to the new, blank drive. Restart and boot normally.
• Reply 2 of 4

  Marvin Posts: 15,320moderator

  June 23, 2007 5:49AM

  Quote:
  

  Originally Posted by Karelia
  
  
  4) CCC will clone every file to the new, blank drive. Restart and boot normally.
  

  
  

  
  
  Sure but that would also copy all the duplicate files too wouldn't it? Like all the older versions of files. I reckon there must be a way to boot from the Time Machine HD and restore just the latest files.
• Reply 3 of 4

  amorya Posts: 1,103member

  June 23, 2007 6:51AM

  The files on the backup drive are stored in normal folders by date. In each date folder is the contents of your main drive as of that date. (Think hard linking.)
• Reply 4 of 4

  karl kuehn Posts: 756member

  June 23, 2007 6:58PM

  I would imagine that the filesystem on the TimeMachine backup dore will not be bootable, but that Apple will solve the problem of recovering from a drive failure.