We had a iMac machine go down this morning - (hard disc error “invalid key length”)
It will not start up, (parts of the system must be damaged), but the disc will read data from it via Firewire.
Migration Assistant will not work it cannot calculate the size on the disc, but will other programs like Carbon Copy Cloner successfully copy one user folder to another machine, and then back? and still make it usable in OSX? (assuming the data has survived that is) thats, when the new disc arrives in the post, and a new system is complied back on the machine.
No the system is dead - it will not startup. But you can attach another Mac, start up holding down “T” and attach this with firewire cable, to hook the disc only to another machine. And see the contents of the disc.
I just trying to find out if, I make a clone .dmg file of the users folder, using CCC can this be then replaced back in using CCC, when the system is back up and running correctly?
On Dec 4, 2007, at 11:44 AM, Paul Bradforth wrote:
but the disc will read data from it via Firewire.
Don’t get that bit. What disk?
He’s saying that the disk inside the dead Mac can be mounted in
Target Disk Mode over FireWire.
I just went through this with my wife’s MacBook. I was able to mount
the disk in TDM, then used CarbonCopyCloner to copy her entire user
folder into a separate FireWire disk. When the Mac came back from
sunny Austin, tanned and refreshed with a new logic board, I was able
to copy everything back, fixed permissions, and she was back in
business.
We do have a backup, but it was last Friday, using Retrospect - I’m not sure that’s too hot on OSX permissions, and restoring system folders and whole discs, so I think a new system is in order for this one. Perhaps I’ll give it a go with the new disc and see if Retrospect it works.
The data from the user folder has successfully come of the disc using CCC…
So I’m just waiting on the courier to visit with a new disc. Now where’s my screwdriver :-/
If it’s a recent version of Retrospect, then it will work, but with
the following hitch:
You have to restore the entire machine to the exact OS version that
it was at when the backup was taken, then restore the files to it
using Retrospect.
Retrospect cannot by itself restore an entire disk. CCC and
SuperDuper both can, but only if you take a complete image of the
entire disk and copy it to another mechanism.
From the sounds of things, what you have managed to do is probably
all you will be able to. And you may not have everything that the
user account once had, depending on the amount and nature of the
physical damage to the disk. But you are a whole lot closer to having
something useful than if you had not made any backups.
Walter
On Dec 4, 2007, at 12:16 PM, dwn wrote:
Good, it must work then.
We do have a backup, but it was last Friday, using Retrospect -
I’m not sure that’s too hot on OSX permissions, and restoring
system folders and whole discs, so I think a new system is in order
for this one. Perhaps I’ll give it a go with the new disc and see
if Retrospect it works.
Good, it must work then.
We do have a backup, but it was last Friday, using Retrospect - I’m
not sure that’s too hot on OSX permissions, and restoring system
folders and whole discs, so I think a new system is in order for
this one. Perhaps I’ll give it a go with the new disc and see if
Retrospect it works.
Does it boot from a Tiger/Leopard/… install DVD ? If so, changing
the disc is likely to fix it. If not, expect to dig deeper.
David
–
David Ledger - Freelance Unix Sysadmin in the UK.
HP-UX specialist of hpUG technical user group (www.hpug.org.uk)
email@hidden www.ivdcs.co.uk
The disc has a partition, with an ealier OSX on it and it runs OK, so its only the disc at fault.
Just to make things harder the machine has only a CD (its an older machine used just for the odd email and word processing and internet access - but still workable), so a bit of Firewire Target Mode is required to build up the system again.
Sometime around 4/12/07 (at 12:16 -0500) dwn said:
Good, it must work then.
We do have a backup, but it was last Friday, using Retrospect - I’m
not sure that’s too hot on OSX permissions, and restoring system
folders and whole discs
Or possibly restoring in general. Have you made a test recovery of
anything sizeable yet? It is very important to know beyond any
shadow of doubt that your backup system works reliably and that you
can restore from it. Otherwise you may be putting your faith in
something that will let you down when you can least afford it.
It is FAR better to know that you have no backup and to be paranoid
about it than to rely on something that won’t actually work.
Retrospect if fine for backup up files, and restoring them (thats been tested), as Walt said, it cannot restore a bootable OSX system onto a clean disc, so you’ve got to do a bit of work first, before the restore.
Where retrospect is good is where it does an automatic evening backup of 3 macs and one PC on the LAN.
But perhaps we should think about moving on to another product. Could anyone recommend an alternative?
Retrospect if fine for backup up files, and restoring them (thats been tested), as Walt said, it cannot restore a bootable OSX system onto a clean disc, so you’ve got to do a bit of work first, before the restore.
Where retrospect is good is where it does an automatic evening backup of 3 macs and one PC on the LAN.
But perhaps we should think about moving on to another product. Could anyone recommend an alternative?
Chronosync is what I use for Data Backups over network and to external HD or DVDRam.
I do it manually but it has scheduling.
I use SuperDuper for cloning.
It seems this time round, CCC cloner did not work. The User’s folder would not restore, i.e. be active in OSX. (Probably because I was trying to get data from an already damaged disc, and or, not getting all the required files to make the folder active)
But a disc restore from Retrospect worked first time. (to a disc with a matching system already installed) Apart from 1 day that the backups for that machine were not done (We can get any missing files from the CCC user folder last minute backup)
One thing I don’t like about using CCC or Superduper for a single backup solution, is the problem of, backing up already corrupt or incorrect files, having no history. At least with Retrospect or similar products you can roll back to a file version/ date that was hopefully good.
But this occasion does highlight the problems of getting a OX system to work. And it does argue the case of having a spare Firewire disc with a duplicate system ready to take over straight away. In which case CCC or Superduper is right up the ‘must have’ list.
Now I really understand why Apple have brought out Time Machine. We have plenty of experience of backup up and restoring broken hard discs over the years, we don’t panic, just cringe because of the hassle.
To the first timer it would be a very fraught and difficult experience.
(To settle our doubts about Retrospect once and for all, we’re doing a test today, a system disc restore to a clean firewire disc to see it is bootable afterwards.)
To settle our doubts with Retrospect, we did a test today, and you don’t need an existing matching OS X system to restore to, as Walt mentioned (I did think that was the case also).
You can restore a Retrospect backup containing an OSX system to a clean (in this case Firewire) drive and it is bootable.
(to a disc with a matching system already installed) Apart from 1 day that the backups for that machine were not done (We can get any missing files from the CCC user folder last minute backup)