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Recovering Mac user files like documents after reinstall

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(@zul22)
Posts: 53
Trusted Member
Topic starter
 

Hi,

I have the following issue an iMac with defective drive was freshly reinstalled in an Apple store with a new drive.

Prior to the problem, backups had been done on a daily basis to a 3 TB Time Capsule drive, using Time Machine.

The customer told me that he could recover most folders from the backups, excepted the personal folders like the Documents, Pictures, Music, a.s.o.
The customer told me that on his Mac, some small red mark was displayed together with those folders.

I assumed that the issue was related to restrictions in accessing the folders if the user was not detected the same as before.
So I suggested my customer to ask its defective drive at the Apple store, with the hope to clone it and temporarily reinstall it in the computer. He could got it.
Unfortunately, the drive is truely defective, that is mechanical (or at least firmware) problem.

Using Ubuntu, I could access the Time Machine backups, including the user personal folders like Documents, a.s.o.

Unfortunately, when I try to copy some of them to an USB key, I get this error "Error splicing file Input/output error", even if the file or folder looks much smaller than the capacity of the USB key.

Another issue is that Time Machine Backups are incremental and this splits the locations where files were saved amongst many backup folders.

Which would be the easiest way to perform such file recovery?
Would it suffice to create a new user on the reinstalled Mac with the user name that was found in Time Machine backups and using the same hardware (excepted drive) ?

Are there other useful tools to access user files and maybe "merge" the contents of the different backups?

I have some Apple computer at the office if it can help.

Thanks for your suggestions.

 
Posted : 18/11/2014 8:13 pm
jaclaz
(@jaclaz)
Posts: 5133
Illustrious Member
 

Are you sure that the Time Machine Time Capsule drive is fully functional/data is fully accessible?
?

AFAIK it is perfectly possible to get an "as before" system using either Migration Assistant or Recovery mode
http//www.macworld.com/article/1165784/how_to_restore_data_from_time_machine.html
if a Time Machine backup is available.

?

jaclaz

 
Posted : 18/11/2014 8:24 pm
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