[SR310]

I just had my MBP repaired, requiring a new logic board. This resulted in a new MAC address. Now I can't access my prior Time Machine backups. Here's a link to a Mac OS X Hints thread on this topic http://tinylink.com/?S3FRpR5lGh

The short story is that if your MAC address changes Time Machine doesn't recognize Time Machine backups made prior to the MAC address change and you have to create a new backup volume (Sparsebundle). Not a problem to do, but access to the old backups is lost. The Mac OS X Hints describes a method to restore access to the old backup volume. It requires the use of Terminal, judging from the comments the steps given may be in error, although some got it to work. I didn't try.

Interestingly if you create the backup volume using a cable (which is one MAC address) it will allow you to access and update it using AirPort (a different MAC address). But if your logic board is changed, you can no longer access prior backups. This of course means that you couldn't restore Time Machine backups to a new computer either. Sort of puts a crimp in the value of a backup.

Mac forums are silent on this, as near as I can discover. Except there was one link to this same Mac OS X Hints discussion.

Using TIme Machine to restore files to a new machine, or with the old machine and a changed MAC address would seem highly desirable. Does anyone know of an easier method than messing around with Terminal?

Also is there anyway to archive Time Machine backup files? I'd like to keep an off-premisses copy of my time machine backups in case of failure of my Time Capsule (or other Time Machine backup drive). If they are copied to a USB drive will Time Machine recognize them and restore files from the copy OK?

Any recommendations of reference sources that cover Time Machine in detail?