agerhard Posted May 2, 2003 Report Share Posted May 2, 2003 iMac 333 running OSX 10.2.5, retrospect client 5.0.540. G4 450 running OSX Server 10.1.4, retrospect 5.0.238, driver 3.4.103. Backups have been working well. Restore of individual files works wonderfully. iMac died. Restored to a replacement iMac 400, after having first reformatted and installed 10.2.2, then upgrade to .3, then upgrade to .4, then upgrade to .5 (I'll download the combo upgrade tonight!). As boot volume, ignore permissions not an issue. Logged off client, logged the client into retrospect, and restored., using replace entire disk. Post restore, rebooted the client. Reboot never got off the spinning thing just below center screen. Cycled power, and now get sad mac. This is the second time I've been through this process, the first going straight from reboot to sad mac. Extensive search of this board found reference to "bless" command. If it won't boot, it can't be blessed. I used a 10.1.5 server image on a firewire to boot. The bless command is different between 10.1 and 10.2, and I found no reference to either in Apple ( ). The man page left me wondering what the heck I was doing, and why I needed to do it. This board is full of folks that have happily restored OSX, which leaves me further dismayed. Before I try to bless my volume, can someone tell me why my retrospect restore failed to do its own blessing? Will I always need a second volume to boot from inorder to bless the boot volume? Should I have restored the machine while booted from the firewire drive? Does "bless" affect the pram on the machine, or does it do something on each disk drive? Suggestions will me much appreciated. I've 60 machines in this enterprise, with most now running OSX. This is the first time I've tried to restore an entire drive (lucky, although woefully unprepared). ... Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted May 2, 2003 Report Share Posted May 2, 2003 Quote: Should I have restored the machine while booted from the firewire drive? If just to have saved you from all the steps involved in a "live" restore you should have. - Boot from external drive (with Client) - Erase Destination volume with Disk Utility - Log client into Retrospet - Restore entire (note how quickly the matching takes, since there are no files to match) - Reboot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted May 2, 2003 Report Share Posted May 2, 2003 If this is a 'bless' issue you can bless it after the fact by booting from an external FW drive and using the StartupDisk preference pane to pick the volume; that handles the blessing commands. -d- --- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agerhard Posted May 3, 2003 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2003 Dave (can I call you Dave?), Startup disk preference didn't see the restored system for OSX. It did see the OS9 Classic, but that classic instance didn't even have a startup disk control panel. I'm thinking now that not backing up "unnecessary" files has left me with backups that aren't quite sufficient for a full restore. ... Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted May 4, 2003 Report Share Posted May 4, 2003 Quote: I'm thinking now that not backing up "unnecessary" files has left me with backups that aren't quite sufficient for a full restore. Ouch, you didn't mention that you hadn't backed up the entire boot volume! OS X has lots of parts in lots of places; it's pretty difficult to pick and choose what the system is going to need. I'd suggest you install a fesh version of Mac OS X that's the same as what's in your Backup Set, then performing a "live restore" where the Destination is this temporary install ("Replace entire disk," not "Replace corrosponding files"). Be sure to restart as soon as the Restore is complete, and you should have a working system _and_ all your data back. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeharrison Posted October 31, 2003 Report Share Posted October 31, 2003 Hi, I'm new to Retrospect but I just used it to back up/duplicate to a Mercury external firewire HD before I upgraded from OSX 10.2.6 to Panther. Luckily, Panther installed fine so I didn't have to resort to restoring 10.2.6! Retrospect worked great and I followed the directions suggested by Dr. Smoke in the Troubleshooting OSX guide. I created a duplicate of my iMAC hard drive and I backed up my "user" folder to separate partitions on the external drive. My question is what exactly is the "boot volume" that I should duplicate to the external HD? I copied my entire hard drive on the iMAC but this was about 20G and it took 2 hours to duplicate. This of course includes all of the applications and ITunes and iPhoto files etc. Is there a specific folder or set of folders that constitutes the "boot volume" that is needed to reboot from the external drive and that is smaller than copying the entire HD? Also, what would you recommend that I backup to the separate "backup" partition on the external drive? I have backed up all my "documents" folder but is it necessary each time to back up the entire "user" folder so that specific preferences are preserved? As you can tell, I'm new to MACs and Retrospect but I'm a convert! I appreciate any help you can give. Judy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted October 31, 2003 Report Share Posted October 31, 2003 Hi Welcome aboard! The boot volume is the entire drive that the computer is running from. Most likely your internal hard disk. If you are duplicating the boot drive it is probably a good idea to duplicate to a partition on the external drive. Otherwise you won't be able to use your external drive for much else. The next time you run your duplicate it will go much faster. Retrospect only copies new and changed files automatically. Backing up the users folder is a good idea as you will get most of the preferences you need. Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeharrison Posted November 1, 2003 Report Share Posted November 1, 2003 Nate, Many thanks for your prompt reply. It's good to know I'm on the right track. I've just come over from the dark side of Windows so I expect everything to be more complicated than it is! Cheers Judy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkatz42 Posted November 4, 2003 Report Share Posted November 4, 2003 I do a fair number of full restores (doing brain transplants between various machines for a variety of reasons) and the smoothest way I've come up with is to boot the machine being restored in Firewire Target mode (hold the 'T' key down) and plug it directly into the backup server as a disk. Then use Disk Utility to wipe the target disk, and do the restore. Then bless it using the Startup Disk preference pane on the server. Works every time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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