My Mac has failed, and I need a new machine. I have a full Time Machine backup. I'd like to switch to Ubuntu (or some other Linux distro) rather than buying another Mac. If I do so, will I be able to recover my files? Where can I find instructions?

2

1 Answer

Manual method:

Mount the drive with the backup using the -t hfsplus option.

If you mount it in media you will have something like this:

/media/{mountpoint}/

{date}: the newest data obviously has the newest backup. ls -l will show a list of directories with a number behind the permissions. The data is actually stored in a hidden dir and with that number like this:

cd /media/{mountpoint}/.HFS+ Private Directory Data/dir_{the number you found}/ 

and you can use cp to copy your data to a Ubuntu partition.

Some scripts others made to automate it:

• Script fuse-time-machine (2012).
• Script copy-from-time-machine.sh (2014).
• Script tmfuse (2014).
• Script restoretmbackup.py (2009).

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Sign up using Google Sign up using Facebook Sign up using Email and Password Submit

Post as a guest

Post Your Answer Discard

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy