Restoring files to their original place

[stevenbrand]

Is there a way to restore files, folders, applications, and such like, to their original place (ie put emails back into the mail program, events back into the calendar, tunes back into iTunes, or photos back into iPhoto)? So, if my hard drive dies, will a restore onto a new drive put everything (operating system, applications, folders, files, everything) back where it came from or does this all have to be done manually?

Thanks,

Brando

[stevenbrand]

Let me be more specific. I use CarbonCopyCloner to create a bootable version of my hard drive, WITHOUT the Users Folder containing all my stuff. I use Retrospect to incrementally backup my Users Folder every night. The CCC is held on a disk of it's own and the Retrospect Backup on a disk of it's own. Am I fully covered security-wise and, should my HD fail, will I be able to simply copy the CCC of my original HD onto the new replacement HD and then restore my Users Folder onto it, AND will everything be in the right place?

Thanks again,

Brando

[natew]

Hi

 

Yes but I would suggest one thing:

 

When you backup with Retrospect select the root of your hard drive as the source but use a selector so that only the users folder is actually backed up. That way you have all of the OSX disk permissions backed up properly as well.

 

Not entirely necessary but it may be helpful in a pinch.

 

Nate

[stevenbrand]

Thanks Nate,

 

So, I select MAC HD as the source and then from the file selector I simply choose "users folder and prefs (OSX)". Would you be good enough to confirm this?

 

Thanks.

[natew]

Hi

 

That should do it.

 

You can confirm that this is working they way you want it to by going to the special->selectors page in Retrospect, clicking "edit" on the selector and then choosing "check selector" from the selector menu at the top of the screen.

 

This will allow you to check the selector against any disk you like.

 

Thanks

Nate