Catastrophic OSX Failure + Unable See Time Machine Backups

long rant of osx / time machine fail of epic proportions. in short, can see time machine backups, can't macbook air restore backups.

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after 3 years of ownership macbook air decided flip **** , catastrophically fail - essential osx files got corrupted (i surfing yahoo.com @ time, , bam, instafreeze; upon reboot, system flash awfully mysterious blinking-question-mark-folder , refuse go osx).

no worries thought, pop osx install disc usb-plugged superdrive , run hd repair utilities. total fail, utilities couldn't repair hd. ah well, no worries thought again, i'll erase hd , reinstall osx, since religiously keep time machine backups can restore system - possibly go wrong? hd erase went fine (the hardware works).

well, wanted restore time machine right there , osx disk utilities / reinstall hey, macbook air has 1 ****ing usb, couldn't have both superdrive osx install / utilities disc , external hd time machine backup going @ same time. (yes, tried dvd/hd-sharing remote disc software, macbook air refused see disc - fail.)

no worries thought again, i'll use migration assistant post-osx-reinstall old stuff time machine backups. go in, update os-stuff (so both reinstalled osx , backups in same hardware/os state), , go migration assistant. lo , behold, refuses see time machine backup on external hd - keep spinning 'thinking' animation on-and-on-and-on. check external hd itself, , of course time machine backup files in there. enter time machine (the 'star wars' view) , of course backup files in there. migration assistant can't see @ all. try click on hd in time machine , click "restore". moves 60 gb of backups macbook air, it's not restore - no, new os , account doesn't see of it. 60 gb of hd space gone, backup copied/restored somewhere - not anywhere can access. fail fail fail. totally confusing piece of software design.

, cherry on top while trying restore system, time machine had bright idea make new backup - freshly installed os. (why, time machine, why? it's new os install. there's nothing there. tried cancel there's no easy way schedule/disable automatic backups - option delay few minutes. **** lack of options apple.) anyway new backup made time machine thoroughly confuses migration assistant, point can see time machine backup! can see useless new backup of new os install... still can't see real backups want restore.

so, in short, can see time machine backups can't access them, since time machine and/or migration assistant appear total pieces of ****. salvage music , photos had resort pulling them off of ipad (using 3rd party software had pay - **** itunes not allowing option pull photos , music off ipad) - of photos on macbook air , external hd time machine backups, i'm wondering how pull them off. (to add long list of fails, apparently can't access own time machine backups manually photos, since they're protected folders deny me access own backups, though i'm still looking ways around this.)

i'll replacing time machine else. people recommend? carboncopy seems may trick nicely. i'm eternally thankful dropbox, since that's had important files - in cloud. i'll looking move music , photos there now.

 

i have had success, 100% of time, pulling files directly time machine backups directories without entering tm. maybe try installing fresh os, hooking drive, dragging , dropping docs , music library.
worth try.

 

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