How to Do a Complete System Restore From a Time Machine Backup

These are instructions on how to do a complete system restore from a Time Machine backup. This is useful if you have had a complete hard drive failure and would like to restore to exactly the same system you were running before the crash.

Step One
Ensure your Time Machine backup drive is connected to the computer.

Insert your system installation disc and hold down the c key while starting your computer to boot from the CD.


Step Two
Select your language then click the arrow button to continue.


Step Three
Click to select Utilities from the menu bar then select Restore System from Backup from the dropdown menu.


Step Four
Click the Continue button to begin the restore setup.


Step Five
Select the volume that contains the Time Machine backup you want to restore then click the Continue button.


Step Six
Select a Time Machine backup date to restore from then click the Continue button.


Step Seven
Select a destination volume to restore backup to then click the Restore button.


Note*: It may take some time for Time Machine to calculate the space needed to restore your system. Once it finishes the Restore button will be enabled.


Step Eight
From the popup that appears click the Continue button to begin the Time Machine restore. Please note that you will loose all the existing information on the target volume.


Step Nine
Time Machine will begin restoring your backed up files to the new hard drive. Depending on how much information you have this could take a long time.


Step Ten
Once the restore has completed click the Restart button to reboot your system. You will now be able to use the recovered volume as your normally did.



NOTE***: The first time I booted into OSX none of my programs would launch. A simple reboot corrected this issue. There possibly were some permissions that needed to be reset.