Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Because Macs running 10.7 Lion or later can use Recovery mode, the
process is simpler than it once was:
1. Make sure the drive containing your Time Machine backup is
attached to your Mac:
‣
If you normally back up to a drive connected to another Mac, I
suggest disconnecting the drive from that computer and plugging
it directly into the Mac you want to restore.
‣
If you back up to a Time Capsule, I suggest connecting to it with
an Ethernet cable, rather than a Wi-Fi connection, during this
process, as that'll speed it up.
2. Restart your Mac, holding down Command-R until the gray Apple
logo appears. A few moments later, a Mac OS X Utilities window
should appear.
3. Select Restore from Time Machine Backup and click Continue. Read
the instructions, and then click Continue again.
4. Select your Time Machine backup disk. (If you selected a Time
Capsule, click Connect. You may be prompted to enter its Disk
password; do so, and click Connect again. Then select the volume
you want to restore.) Click Continue once more.
5. If the Time Machine disk contains backups for more than one
volume, select the one you want from the Restore From pop-up
menu. Then select the particular backup you want to restore—likely
the most recent one (the first one in the list). Click Continue.
6. On the Select a Destination screen, select your internal disk. Click
Restore. If prompted, confirm that you want to restore your data.
Time Machine restores your data. When it finishes, follow the
instructions to restart your computer.
Note:
When setting up a new Mac, or when installing Mac OS X on
a blank disk, the Setup Assistant that runs automatically gives you
the option to restore files from a Time Machine backup. You can also
do this after the fact if you run the Migration Assistant utility.
