Restoring data

[Edward]

Before sending my powerbook back to Apple for some repairs I created a Sparse Image of the hard drive. I just got my computer back from Apple. They nuked everything I had on my drive and I am now trying to recover the data I saved in the Sparse Image, which I have copied over from an external drive. In Disk Utility I constantly get the message that the hard drive is full.

Can I safely select "Erase Destination Disk" and have all contents of the Sparse Image copied on to the hard drive? Or will the Erase Destination also erase the Sparse Image itself? One more question, is it safer to restore using the Saprse Image on the Powerbook or the one on my external drive?

[dnanian]

To recover the data, you don't want to copy the image file itself to the drive. Rather, you want to copy its contents.

See the "Recovering from a disaster" section of the User's Guide, Edward. It goes into detail about exactly how to do this, and I think will prove useful.

Hope that helps!

[Edward]

Dave,

Thanks for the clarification. I have two follow-up questions: when I go into Disk Utility to restore the Sparse Image on my hard drive, should I click "erase destination"? What I want to accomplish is removing the OS 10.2 with the OS 10.4.6 which resides in the Sparse Image. I just want to make sure that "erase destination" will let me reach this goal without messing up the hard drive. I assume that the Sparse Image has all of the libraries and "invisible files" that were on the original hard drive before i sent it to Apple.

Second: in the User's Guide you say that I should restart the computer with the OPTION key held down. If I use "erase destination," do I still need to hold down this key? I'd think that the restored data would simply replace the OS 10.2 data and just let me log in as usual, withou any special key commands.

Thanks in advance for your patience!

[dnanian]

You won't need to use Option in this case. You'll need to use Tiger's Disk Utility to do it, using the "alternate" restore method described there.

And, yes, you'll want to erase...

[Edward]

Dave,

I've followed all instructions for both a restoration with "erase destination" and without. With either option I get this message:

An error (16) occurred while copying. (Resource busy)

I have no programs, files, or folders open when I attempt the resoration aside from Disk Utility

Any idea what could be causing this problem?

[dnanian]

Are you booted from the drive you're trying to restore to? Have you booted from the Tiger install DVD?

[Edward]

Dave,

Here's the situation: I just installed Tiger 10.4 from my own installation disk. My Powerwbook G4 is now running independently on OS 10.4; the installation disk is no longer in the machine. I am trying to restore my original programs and files in OS 10.4.6 from my external drive, which houses the Sparse Image.

I am booting from the hard rive of the PowerBook. Are you indicating that I need to book from the 10.4 installation disk?

[dnanian]

Yes, as indicated in the User's Guide. You can't do a full restore to an active drive...

[Edward]

Geez, It would help if I read instruction carefully, wouldn't it?

[dnanian]

It would!

[Edward]

I now have a fully operational, updated hard drive! Great product! And your support was quick and helpful. May others follow your lead!

[dnanian]

Hey, Edward, that's great. Congratulations!

[merkur]

Another iBook woe...

My local Authorized Apple Dealer / Repair backup my HD on my iBook recently, after the logic board had failed . The dealer made a backup for me onto a windows formatted external HD using Super Duper prior to sending the laptop out for service. They had reported to me that they weren't able to get all the files over but did copy most of the files.

With iBook repaired, external HD connected, any attempts to launch and open the spareseimage file ( 1 gig) on the external HD or a copied of it on the iBook resulted in the error message saying that the image is corrupted. I took the problem back to the dealer, who simply double-click on the spareimage icon with the same result and then said they could not fix the problem and were of no further help ...is there any way to fix the corrupted image, as I no longer have the original HD and desperately need to get the information out of this file. Any utility or viewer that I could use to crack open or repair this file, etc.?

Any hints or suggestions are welcome, thanks.
Merkur

[dnanian]

The dealer wrote the image to a Windows formatted drive? We clearly document that you can't really do that, as FAT32 doesn't support single files larger than 4GB, so your image would be truncated and fail.

It sounds like they didn't pay any attention to the fact that it failed (or did, which is why they said "weren't able to get all the files").

Unfortunately, the image is likely extremely corrupt. But, you can try to repair it: drag it into Disk Utility's sidebar, select it, then use the Disk First Aid tab to repair...

[merkur]

I'd copied the image onto my iBook and attempted to place it in the Disk Utility's sidebar - but, it will not go there (icon will not stay in sidebar). Ideas? Anything I can do on the Unix side?

ps I'm running OSX.3.