Restoring selected files from time machine backup of a different mac
Just Checking that you have not missed the "holding option key down in time machine" thing that I missed for ages:
Source: http://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/mac-software/complete-guide-time-machine-mac-backup-3626572/
Complete guide to Time Machine: Can I browse Time Machine backups from another Mac, or older Time Machine backups from my own Mac that I no longer use? Yes. Attach the disk, or attach the Time Capsule to your main Wi-Fi/internet router, then hold down Alt (Option on some keyboards) on your Mac and click the Time Machine menu bar icon. Select Browse Other Backup Disks. The Time Machine disk should appear in a list, and once you've selected it you'll see the standard Finder-based Time Machine view where you can move back in time to retrieve older files.
If the backup is encrypted you'll be prompted to enter the password before you can gain access.
This worked well for me so thought I would share here.
Oh Rhubarb, I do feel for you. The pains and struggles you have are a bit too common.
What makes this even tougher is the fact that you probably do need to work and create new documents on the MacBook Pro while at the same time want to recover files.
I might go and say that you have to do a bit of Terminal trickery as I suspect you have permission issues, OS issues (from the dead iMac and the old TM disk), and maybe haste issues so let's trim the fat and see if we can save your stuff.
I would say it might be necessary to set the permissions on the external drive to be read and write for every user and directory. You can speed this up by not doing it on the entire disk but just the latest folder with the date name.
Example:
$ sudo chmod -R 7777 /Volumes/old TM disk/backupsdb/2014-01-01-2350000/
Do not set up the command to running on the "Latest" folder/alias. If you aren't familiar with Terminal much then you can just type in the first portion (everything before the first "/") and then from Finder drag the latest dated folder into Terminal.
After the folder is in the prompt hit enter and you will need to enter your MacBook Pro's admin password (be aware that terminal will not print any *) so you will be typing blind.
Now this can take time, estimate that if your hard drive is healthy/ no structure or hardware issues it will be about 100GB per hour. So run this and let the system do it's thing (perhaps disable screen saver but turn brightness down so that you don't waste energy. ;)
Once the command has finished check to see if you can access the files now from Finder in that folder you dragged into Terminal. Then try and see what the Time Machine.app says when you browse the files. If that resolved things super.
If not then you might want to consider something else. If you have the space on the MacBook Pro's internal drive, consider saving just the User folder from the dated folder you chmod'd before. I prefer rsync for this and would suggest creating a temporary folder on your MacBook Pro for this action maybe Macintosh HD/Recovered TM User
Example:
$ sudo rsync -av /Volumes/old TM disk/backupsdb/2014-01-01-2350000/Users/ /Recovered TM User
Again this copy could take approximately an hour per 100 GB but speeds depend on file number and size.
Try these things out to your discretion and get back to us! Qapla'
Before going into Time Machine, open a Finder window and choose "Computer" from the Finder's Go menu. (That's the key to being able to browse another computer's backup drive.) Then hold the option key and choose "Browse Other Backup Disks".
The easiest way to do what you are looking for is
- Open Finder -> Go -> Computer
- Option Click on Time Machine Icon -> Browse other Backup Disks
At this point Time Machine will recognize the older backups and allow you to browse through history of the entire filesystem and restore files and directories as you would expect.