New hard drive cannot restore from TM backup as it's too small???

[LaunchpadBS]

I installed a new 512GB SSD in my new Mini last night, tried booting and option restoring from a backup I made with Time Machine just before swapping the drives, the issue I get is that it says there's not enough space on the new drive to restore.

The old drive was the original 1TB that comes with the mini, but that only had 300GB used on it so I don't understand why it wont let me restore to a smaller drive even though in theory there's enough free space (479GB).

Anyone had anything like this? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[philipma1957]

TM IS NOT GOOD FOR RESTORE. It is slow and it contains layers of the original drive with different dates. Tm backups file can be double or triple the size of the drive it is backing up. I boot with a 512gb ssd look right. I clone it and I use tm. look more right the boot drive is about 340 full the backup is about 270 full and the tm is about 700 full. I am due to clone my boot drive right now. as I have 70gb of last nights 121212 concert on it. after the clone I have an instant second boot drive. If I only had the tm and I tried to do what you want to do I would have the same problem you have. you can clone your oem 1tb to your new ssd with ccc or super duper.


you could do a internet recovery and make a booter with the ssd then try using migration assistant and the tm that may work. both superduper and ccc cloners are now paid software.

 

[LaunchpadBS]

I just assumed TM would restore the 'snapshot' you selected, which in this case would be of a drive with only 300GB used

I see the backup in TM is larger than the data you have but that's because it has multiple snapshots and thus additional data which is fine. I just thought it would work.

Guess I'll be making a clone, pain there is I now have to partition my 1TB drive before cloning or it'll give me the same story of the new drive being too small.
What a hack!

What gets me is, say for arguments sake my 1TB drive failed and this was my only option, I would have to buy a new 1TB drive just to do this procedure.

 

[jimbo1mcm]

Can't you do an Apple internet download of the OS, then select what you want to restore from the TM backup?

 

[LaunchpadBS]

Can't you do an Apple internet download of the OS, then select what you want to restore from the TM backup?

That's the other option, but we had a power failure yesterday and when it came back up the broadband was down so could only try a normal restore.

It's just annoying that you cant do a fresh restore of ONE snapshot that you know would fit on the target drive

 

[Fishrrman]

Too late now, but if you had used CarbonCopyCloner to create a bootable clone (instead of Time Machine), you would be up and running instead of asking for help.

Suggestion:
Once you get things back together, consider using CCC instead of TM. Backing up takes a little more input from you than TM, but in the event of a "moment of extreme need" (perhaps like the one you're having now), there is NOTHING that can help you as will having a bootable backup close-at-hand.

Suggestion #2:
Assuming you have the new drive in a bootable situation (i.e., clean system re-installation), can you use Migration Assistant instead of TM to bring over at least some of your data?

 

[LaunchpadBS]

Too late now, but if you had used CarbonCopyCloner to create a bootable clone (instead of Time Machine), you would be up and running instead of asking for help.

Suggestion:
Once you get things back together, consider using CCC instead of TM. Backing up takes a little more input from you than TM, but in the event of a "moment of extreme need" (perhaps like the one you're having now), there is NOTHING that can help you as will having a bootable backup close-at-hand.

Suggestion #2:
Assuming you have the new drive in a bootable situation (i.e., clean system re-installation), can you use Migration Assistant instead of TM to bring over at least some of your data?

Thanks, but I think for now what I'm going to do is clone the old drive as it's now in my MBP, will be much easier.

Is CCC any faster the the Disk Utility 'cloner'?

 

[Weaselboy]

I just assumed TM would restore the 'snapshot' you selected, which in this case would be of a drive with only 300GB used

I see the backup in TM is larger than the data you have but that's because it has multiple snapshots and thus additional data which is fine. I just thought it would work.

You assume correctly. If your original disk had 300GB, the restore would be 300GB. TM does not restore the "versions" of previous backups. You have something else going on here.

 

[ActionableMango]

1. Reinstall your original HDD or hook it up as an external.
2. Boot from the recovery partition on the HDD.
3. Use Disk Utility to resize the main partition to something smaller than the SSD, let's just say 350GB.
4. Use cloning software to clone the HDD to the SSD. I use Clonezilla, which is free, but not very user friendly.
5. Remove the HDD. Keep it safe as a backup for a while before you erase it to use later.
6. Boot from the SSD and test OS X and some applications.
7. If everything is fine, boot from the SSD's recovery partition.
8. Use Disk Utility to stretch the main partition from 350GB back to max.

The reason why you have to keep using the recovery partition is that Disk Utility will not resize a partition that you have booted from.

 

[philipma1957]

Thanks, but I think for now what I'm going to do is clone the old drive as it's now in my MBP, will be much easier.

Is CCC any faster the the Disk Utility 'cloner'?

DISK UTILITY CLONER IS TERRIBLE, but I have not used it in more the 3 years. so maybe it works now. I have never made a working booter with it all of them failed
some tiger osx
some leopard osx
some snow leopard osx.

So I said f this and purchased superduper.

I prefer superduper, but I also own ccc. nether are free anymore. but i think superduper will let you use it for a week or two.




http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html







below is carbon copy cloner.

http://www.bombich.com/


If you get a good booter from disk utility cloner please let us know. thanks

 

[jimbo1mcm]

Super Duper has always worked for me.