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When I attempt to run Migration Assistant, it searches and searches but can't find the backups. When I open Finder, I can clearly see the backups and navigate around in the backups for the different dates.

It's on an external drive (attached via USB, both during backups and now for Migration Assistant). The drive is formatted as case-sensitive, journaled HFS+. The backups were made from a case-sensitive MacBook. I recently replaced the HD (the old one failed) and I'm attempting to restore my files to the new drive, which is formatted as case-insensitive.

The laptop is a late-2008 MacBook (unibody). I just upgraded the stock HD to a 7200 RPM Wester Digital w/ 750 GB. The external drive is a 1TB LaCie w/ 2 partitions (a FAT32 for wife's Windows box, and the case-sensitive, journaled HFS+ partition I'm using for Time Machine). I'm running the latest Mountain Lion (both before and after the HD crash).

Hank Gay
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  • Sometimes it is helpful to provide system (hw/sw) info. – Ruskes Aug 18 '13 at 18:37
  • @Buscar웃 I added some info. Can you think of anything else that might be useful? Thanks. – Hank Gay Aug 18 '13 at 18:46
  • Thanks,... so does the spotlight finds it ? – Ruskes Aug 18 '13 at 19:09
  • @Buscar웃 Spotlight? I can find files on the external drive if I type their name into Spotlight, so I guess so. Does Spotlight have some special TimeMachine integration? If so, I don't know how to test it (I usually use Alfred instead of Spotlight). – Hank Gay Aug 18 '13 at 20:34
  • Re-index the external drive in spotlight and lets see. – Ruskes Aug 18 '13 at 20:46
  • @Buscar웃 OK, I just re-indexed overnight and did a search for a file that I'm pretty sure only exists in one of my Time Machine backups: Spotlight didn't find it. What does that tell us? – Hank Gay Aug 19 '13 at 13:16
  • Now we know the problem :) So check your spotlight settings in Privacy making sure the drive is not excluded from spotlight. – Ruskes Aug 19 '13 at 13:54
  • @Buscar웃 It's not :-( – Hank Gay Aug 19 '13 at 14:38
  • At the time when Migration Assistant fails to find the backups, does anything appear in Console.app? 2) A work-around idea: copy the data you need manually from the backups, using the Finder. (I wouldn't expect to be able to recreate the entire machine with all settings etc this way, but documents should be easy to restore this way, and perhaps even your entire home directory.) 3) If you select your Time Machine partition on the external drive and run Disk Utility Verify Disk, does it report any problems? (I wouldn't try Repair Disk at this stage if this is your only backup.)
    • – Ashley Aug 23 '13 at 09:09
  • A just found a similar question which also mentions an inability to restore from a backup of a case-sensitive system to a case-insensitive one. So I suspect this may be the cause of the issue. A suggestion: a) reformat and reinstall your internal hard drive again, this time as case-sensitive; b) hopefully you can now restore using Migration Assistant; c) now you have recreated your original system, make a duplicate of it on another drive (using eg Carbon Copy Cloner); … – Ashley Aug 23 '13 at 09:23
  • d) reformat your internal hard drive again, now as case-insensitive; e) use CCC to copy the duplicate back again. This brief discussion at the CCC support site suggests this is possible. Or perhaps there is an easier method: I haven't deeply searched for solutions, but I suspect this is the cause. If you do steps (a) and (b) you'll know. – Ashley Aug 23 '13 at 09:23
  • @Ashley I did try the case-sensitive option, still no dice. Verify Disk said everything was fine, but it pretty much had to be corrupt files making Migration Assistant not recognize that it was a Time Machine backup. I went ahead with a manual restore approach about 4 days ago, and things have gone smoothly so far. Thanks for the help, though. I'll leave the question open in case somebody can point to something official from Apple explaining the actual cause. – Hank Gay Aug 23 '13 at 13:51
  • Glad you have sorted it. I've posted the work-around as an answer so other people can find it more easily. I haven't seen any documentation about this issue from Apple, other than TN 2096, which includes "Unfortunately, many applications do not work correctly on case-sensitive volumes". – Ashley Aug 23 '13 at 18:06
  • Probably a duplicate of or related to Migration Assistant and USB Time Machine disk (but with a more descriptive title). – Alexey Aug 28 '16 at 09:08
  • I have found a promising solution but haven't tried it yet. It is suggested that to make the Migration Assistant recognize the external drive, it may be necessary to "hack" into the computer while the Migration Assistant is running and remount the external drive manually. – Alexey Aug 28 '16 at 09:11