Restoring after archive and install

after using 'archive and install', what is the proper procedure for restoring applications, plugins, etc?
1. manually copy?
2. migration assistant?
3. reinstall using disks/installers?

If they are only in the former system you forgot to to preserve your user settings.
How to Archive & Install:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120

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Recover mail after archive and install

Hey there good mac people,
I recently archived and installed on my ibook g4. It was successful, my problem is that I forgot to backup all the mail I had in my osx mail app.
The previous system folder (library<mail<mail accounts<com.mac.mailaccounts<English.lproj< file, but I don't know if this will help restore or not?
Some of the mail is still on the server, but it is set to delete from the server once a week, and thus only a weeks worth at best is still on the server.
Does anybody have any suggestions?
In the future, what's the best way to back up mail?

Hello art-is-work.
I don't understand your problem. Archive and Install should have preserved all your data, unless you told it to do otherwise. Did you?
Mail stores most preferences and all account settings in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist. Everything else, including all your messages and mailboxes, is stored within the ~/Library/Mail/ folder.
If the problem is that you told the installer to not Preserve Users and Network Settings, then Archive and Install should still have saved a copy of your entire home folder in /Previous Systems/Previous System N/Users/, where N is a number. The old Mail folder and preferences file should be there. You can just copy them to the appropriate location of your current home folder, or follow the somewhat convoluted procedure described in the following article to safely restore them:
How to get files from a previous home directory after Archive and Install (Mac OS X)
Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user's home folder.

Finder not responding after Archive and install

I recently encountered my first problem ever with my mac(new in '05) This is the first mac I have owned; I have worked on G3's and G4's in the past. After reading through many message boards and support pages I don't believe my problem to be similar but different to previous posts.
My problem started off with an OS problem that I was able to diagnose in the "help" book I purchased when Leopard came out. It said I should Archive and Install to remedy the problem and keep my files. I ran the archive the install (it gave me no options to preserve user or network settings). After Archive and install my computer started up alright, but I got the permanent beachball and the finder does not work. it is constantly non responsive. I can relaunch finder, but after it restarts it goes non responsive immediately once again. So I can't actually access my "previous system" folder to move anything over. I checked my dock items and finder, they opened, but my itunes asked for an update. I list of update items came up; I did the non-restart items first. they updated fine, (my itunes old itunes playlists are viewable but not playable now) then I did the items that required a restart. That is when I found out that I could not shut down or restart my computer with std. procedures.
Currently I can only access my spotlight or apple pull down menu if I am in a functioning dock program (safari or itunes, quicktime. etc.) after reading some more support pages it looked like the common thing to do was check permissions and verify disk. I did, I repaired two permissions and the disk was OK. I did look at the HD files, they were as I remembered, but unaccessible (greyed out) and the "previous system" folder was present. +It didn't look like I would expect. The HD looked same as it used to just with a previous system folder.+ After checking the permissions and verified the disk I tried a hard restart. It came back the same as before, unresponsive finder and only the few dock items worked along with spotlight. I checked permissions and disk verify again and everything was OK.
Sorry to be long winded I am trying to be thorough...In short, My finder does not work after doing an Archive and Install to fix my original problem (which has been fixed)...the remedy for an unresponsive finder is to do an archive and install. Is another archive and install really going to fix my problem? Can I archive and install OSX 10.4 and work my way back up to 10.5.6?
Secondly is there a way to restart my computer without doing another hard restart?

It won't let me add a new account. I am locked out and when I try to unlock it gives me the beachball and becomes non responsive after it tries to authenticate.
I looked at the log file, I am not sure what exactly to look for. I am no programer. I see an awful lot of negative wording. I see some errors like "error (-4956) locating menu extra but they are mostly under system preferences...I see some stuff in the loginwindow that says is not a full path... Otherwise, the only reference I see to the finder is when I have force quit the finder.
2/8/09 8:59:55 PM com.apple.launchd[114] ([0x0-0x4d04d].com.apple.finder[304]) Exited: Terminated
2/8/09 11:10:17 PM com.apple.launchd[114] ([0x0-0x57057].com.apple.finder[321]) Exited: Terminated

Where is mail stored after archive and install?

Hello All,
I need to know where my old mails are stored after archive and install. To give a bit of background... This is a work computer. Its a MacMini which came with 10.4 installed. Before I joined the company boss upgraded to Leopard and thats what I have been using all this time. Recently it blue screened and I had to do an archive and install after trying various other options.
I only had the original install discs with 10.4 in them and not the Leopard discs. Since I needed to my computer up and running, I used those discs and did an archive and install.
I have all my old documents, etc but I couldn't open mail from the previous systems folder because its a different OS.
Is it possible to retrieve my old emails without having to install Leopard again?
Any help is appreciated.

When I started the computer up, instead of the login page with the account names coming up, there was just a blue screen. There are lots of articles that gave suggestions to try but nothing worked so I had to archive and install.

Cd inserted but unrecognized after "archive and install"

After "archive and install" OS X.2 and clicking on "save settings", everything works fine, except sound cds are not recognized when inserted. iTunes works fine with the original files on hard disk, but doesnt see the cd (it did before).
I repaired permissions. I deleted the "previous systems" folder. still nothing.
I did notice that the "previous systems" folder has an "audio" file in it but the current "system" folder doesnt. I tried copying this audio file into the current "system" folder but I get the notice that it cant be changed.
I need to hear cds on this computer. Any ideas?
(It isnt a speaker problem as the itunes files play fine).
John in Vancouver

Hi John in Vancouver! And Welcome To
Discussions!
Open System Preferences > CDs & DVDs.
Adjust the appropriate setting there, and see if it
helps.
Good Luck!
ali b
Thanks, ali, but I did that early on. Didnt put it in the post. On insertion of a CD I have it set to open iTUnes.
I found a further problem which is that the midi set-up no longer locates my external keyboard. I will check the discussions under audio for this one, however. (I did check about the CD problem in the audio discussion but nothing there.)
John

How do I restore previous settings after archive and install?

I had to do an archive and install (with the box unchecked about users) on Friday after I had a kernel panic issue, but now I don't know if there is a way to restore my previous settings and access my previous files. I found the "previous system" folders, but it restricts my access to almost all of the folders, and I can't even find all of my music (iTunes) files or my stickies. I also can't find all of my bookmarks and internet settings. I'm totally panicked...there is a lot of information for my business that I really can't afford to lose. Please help me!

See the following:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107297.
The following can also apply to locating and moving data from a Previous System Folder. The "Home" folder will be /Users/shortname/ where "shortname" is the user account name you created.
Because you did not transfer the users accounts when you did the Archive and Install you may have created a new user account and password that is not the same as the one you previously used. This means the PSF has different permissions associated with it.
<font "size=+1">Folders You Can Move to Your new Mac
From the Home folder copy the contents of Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Sites.
In your /Home/Library/ folder:
/Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Application Support/iCal (copy the whole folder)
Also in /Home/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need including folders for any third-party applications)
/Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist (* This is a very important file which contains all email account settings and general mail preferences.)
/Home/Library/Preferences/ copy any preferences needed for third-party applications
/Home /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)
If you want cookies:
/Home/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist
/Home/Library/Application Support/WebFoundation/HTTPCookies.plist
For Entourage users:
Entourage is in /Home/Documents/Microsoft User Data
Also in /Home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft
Credit goes to another forum user for this information.
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Help! Restore Display Preferences after Archive and Install

Hi there, Tiger was acting up, so I did an Archive and install, but now have lost my display preferences. Any idea how I can restore them?
I have all my old preferences saved in the Previous System folder the Archive and Install creates, I'm just not sure what file to pull out and where to put it to restore my display preferences. The wife is a graphic designer, so she needs the display prefs the way she had set them up. Thanks!

First, did you Repair Persions since the install, then reboot... they really sould still be there, but it looks like it's here on mine...
Machintosh HD/Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist
Of course you'll need to look in Prevoius Systems.
Also, ColorSync and others may hold mor info.

Recovery of lost printers after Archive and Install

Hi,
I just finished an Archive and Install of Leopard, and I discovered that one of the side-effects of doing this is that my printers are all gone. I sort of expected this, and I have a full system backup of the system I rebuilt, so if all else fails, I can boot off the backup, and print or take notes on the printer settings, and then go back to my active installation of Leopard and re-enter them all. But I'm wondering if there's an easier way. Would anyone know if all of the printer info might be contained in a few discrete sections of the "Previous System" folder that I could just drag into the current system folder to get all of my printers back? I do consulting work at a number of companies, so I have about ten printers that I routinely print to, so it's a bit of a bother to rebuild the list by hand.
Thanks,
Ken

Usually, when no additional printer software had been installed into the Mac
(assuming the printers are among the many supported printers already in it)
all you'd have to do in order to use one of those attached or available printers
would be to have them turned on and attached to the computer or the network
they'd normally be accessed through. Unless they require newer driver software.
At times, the choices of available printers would appear in the print setup in an
open application; at others, you may have to go into the setup utility to see if
the printers could be added to the list - pulling drivers from the installed OS X
and putting them into a position to be used, if compatible with the printers there.
The system's installer and updated files available to it include many drivers,
and these are not all turned on by default.
So, if there is no chance of the printers being recognized by the OS X version
you have (assuming archive & install and update) even after being given any
new drivers available through Software Update, you may have to seek out the
latest drivers from the printer manufacturers web site downloads pages.
There may be some other way to make the printers work through the OS; if
they otherwise should appear and be available. Some of the printer setups
& CUPS printing options or settings should be explored if they haven't been.
Although I don't have OS X 10.5.x running in my computers now, I have tried
it and decided to stay awhile longer in 10.4.11; some of the same kinds of
issues can occur, between these slightly different systems. You may be able
to re-use the printer drivers from the Previous System, unless their installer
had an instruction set to put various parts for the printer software in different
locations, in which case, the drag-n-drop may not be suitable to reinstall them.
Hopefully someone with more restore experience (short of manually reinstalling
drivers, if these are not already a part of the OSX and its 10.5 install/updates)
will contribute a bit more and direct you as per the specific demands of Leopard.
PS:
When you get your system back in order, you may wish to consider making a
full computer drive clone on an externally enclosed FireWire drive unit capable
of booting Mac OS X and running your PPC-based Mac (and also Intel-based)
so that unit may be something in the way of a FW400/800 + USB2.0 drive with
its own AC power adapter. OWC sells a mercury drive enclosure with HDD in it.
That may be a way to avoid doing Archive & Installs + updates; just restore from
a full drive clone and be on your way. And do other backups if needed, too.
Good luck & happy computing!
{ edited 2x }

Lost MPEG-2 after archive and install

I bought and used the MPEG-2 playback component but MPEG Streamclip no longer believes it is installed after a recent archive and install of Leopard.
I still have my confirmation email of purchase, but there's no indication as to how to reinstall or repair MPEG-2.
What do I need to do to restore Quicktime and especially MPEG-2?

I'd recommend saving your (paid-for) QuickTimeMPEG2.dmg file on your local disk. This would go for any software you pay for and then download online, especially if it can be accidentally wiped out by an OS upgrade.

Running Time Machine after 'Archive and Install'

I had a strange problem with my iMac with finder and dock crashing on booting and not being able to open any files. It's been off to an Apple centre for repair, they've done an archive and install to replace the OS, and I apparently now need to run Time Machine to restore my system (don't have the computer back yet).
Am I right in thinking I'll just plug in Time Machine hard drive, insert my Leopard CD and then use Utilities > Restore System?
What's worrying me is I'm going to reintroduce the problem that was fixed by the Archive and Install in the first place! Any help or thoughts very much appreciated,
Andrew

AndyAsb wrote:
I had a strange problem with my iMac with finder and dock crashing on booting and not being able to open any files. It's been off to an Apple centre for repair, they've done an archive and install to replace the OS, and I apparently now need to run Time Machine to restore my system (don't have the computer back yet).
as mentioned you don't have to do that after an archive and install.
Am I right in thinking I'll just plug in Time Machine hard drive, insert my Leopard CD and then use Utilities > Restore System?
What's worrying me is I'm going to reintroduce the problem that was fixed by the Archive and Install in the first place!
that's very likely to happen if the problem was not hardware. did they do anything with the computer besides doing an archive and install? if not, you most definitely should NOT do a full system restore from TM as this would bring your problems back.
Any help or thoughts very much appreciated,
Andrew

Re-Syncing iPhone after Archive and Install

I recently did an Archive and install on the computer that my iphone was synced with. After I did the re-install, it does not recognize the iphone and wants me to restore it from scratch. Is there any way around this??
Thanks in advance

I pluged my iphone into my new computer to get the new update and this pop up came up.
It said:
itunes could not back up the iphone lauren friedl's iphone because the iphone disconnected.
that was the itunes error i got

No User accounts after Archive and Install ?

Today I tried to salvage a 20" iMac G5 for a friend. He had done something that screwed up his hard drive. Disk Utility Disk Repair run of the startup partition always failed. Using an external FW disk, I was able to use Disk Utility Repair successfully, but drive would still not boot. Decided Archive and Install was the right way to go, did that and everything seemed OK but I found I could not log in to his account. Thought it was just a lost password, so tried using the OSX Tiger Install DVD to Reset Password. His *Macintosh HD* Startup drive shows only the "root" user available, neither of the two previous user account names appear.
I can think of nothing to do to recover except an Erase & Install (I have his User files saved). Is there an alternative?
I would assume performing another Archive & Install would yield the same result.

I continued work on this issue today. First, I checked and the three User account folders were present in the Users folder along with the one new account created as part of the Mac OSX Tiger A&I. For some reason, not one of these 4 was accessible from the Login screen; it acted exactly if there were no user accounts.
Purchased and installed DiskWarrior 4 on the FW drive and rebuilt the directory of the iMac's internal drive. Ran all other tests available w/ DW. Still no joy on logging in. I should NOT have had to see the Login screen at all if the new user had been created properly.
Punted. Copied everything I thought I would need to the external drive, then did an Erase & Install of OS X Tiger. Applied all updates, no problems logging in. Copied all the original User/username files and folders and restored a few apps.
Finally, after much wasted time, I have all but one App running and all data files, folders, pics, music restored.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 fails because I apparently failed to save a .plist file somewhere and now I learn too late that PE 3.0 will not install on a 10.4.x system. Sigh.

Can't open Virtual Machines after "Archive and Install" of Snow Leopard OS

Hi all,
Please bear with me while I provide a bit of background info for my issue:
I just installed a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS5, during which I was actually forced to archive and install my Snow Leopard because of an installation error. So, I inserted my Snow Leopard disc and let the OS X installer do its thing. I remember, somewhere along the way, an admonishment that this process may somehow corrupt any virtual machines that may be installed, but throwing caution to the wind, I went ahead anyway.
Well, turns out it did indeed corrupt my installation of Parallels 6 somehow, and now none of my VMs work. When I open Parallels, and select File -> Open, then select whichever VM I want, a screen flashes so quickly I can't see it (I assume it says something like "Opening XYZ Virtual Machine"), and then.......nothing.
Thus far, I have tried to uninstall and reinstall Parallels 6 (using the KB article that directs you to delete a bunch of files via Terminal after running the packaged uninstaller) and I deleted my VMs and restored backup copies of them from several months ago.
I'm now at a loss - any ideas what I can do to get Parallels to function again? I don't know if somehow permissions were modified, or if there are any other particulars that the reinstall of Snow Leopard may have made to cause parallels to be unable to open my VMs.
Appreciate any advice in advance!

I think I would look at if you have the latest Parallels;
clone and backup your system and files before doing anything;
boot off 2nd hard drive and run Apple First Aid + (Disk Warrior or DG3 or TechTool Pro 5).
Always be prepared to be able to restore your system to prior point, that could even mean keeping 10.6.4 around for a month until you know 10.6.5 and 3rd party software and drivers all play nice together.
Bottom line: invest in two backup sets and methods; a copy of SuperDuper or CCC; and Disk Warrior.
I've used VBox, Fusion but not Parallels, plus Windows XP Mode, VHDs and VMs under Windows Vista/7.
I'd go back to ERASE and INSTALL and then do all your updates, then start on 3rd party with main packages first (CS5 and others). Off load, save, backup everything and anything you might need first of course.
Last but actually #1: a small 30GB OS X 10.6.5 drive volume (can take the 30GB from one of your backup drive is fine) so you can run the latest DU plus other system maintenance (DVDs get old, out of date, slow to boot, can't use Finder and other programs).

I need help to recover/relink mail after archive and install

I am helping my friend fix her 15" G4 PowerBook after memory failures caused many crashes. There was no recovering short of a reinstall via "archive and install". All that worked great, but now Mail doesn't recognize the accounts, mailboxes, signatures, etc. that are still located in the user/library/mail folder.
What's up with that? I can't figure out how to relink Mail to this stuff.
Here's more detail:
1) After lots of prior debugging (Disk Utility, Disk Warrior, Apple Hardware Test, single-user commands per Apple tech notes), I did the A&I to 10.3.4 from the original disks.
2) Per Dr. Smoke and The X Lab, I ran the 10.3.9 combo installer right away so that the "older" system would not get confused by the "newer" stuff in the Previous Systems folder.
3) I Launched Mail and it started anew, i.e. didn't recognize accounts and wanted to start over.
Thanks for any help.

The account settings are stored in HOME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist. It looks like that file became corrupt -- maybe its permissions went awry (Disk Utility cannot fix that) and Mail just deleted the file to create a new one.
If your friend doesn't have a backup copy of that file, just set up the accounts from scratch all over again. If given the option to import existing mailboxes or something like that, don't. Just enter the account information and Mail will automagically rediscover the data in HOME/Library/Mail/ when done.
You'll also have to re-configure most settings in Mail > Preferences. For spam-related security reasons, the first thing you should do is go to Preferences > Viewing and disable Display remote images in HTML messages if it's enabled.

Blank iTunes library after Archive and Install

My PowerBook G4 suffered a catastrophic crash and after advice from Apple support, the only way I could restart it was to perform an Archive and Install. Before this, I couldn't start the machine and therefore couldn't back anything up. Everything seems to be all right after the Archive and Install except that my iTunes library is completely blank, and the old library is not anywhere on the hard drive. All of the songs are still on my iPod - is there any way to get them back into the library? I don't want to connect the iPod and lose everything I have now.
Thanks!
PowerBook G4 867 Mhz Mac OS X (10.2.x)

From the Keyboard Shortcuts in the iTunes Help menu:
iPod shortcuts
Prevent iPod from automatically updating when you connect it to your computer
Command-Option as you connect the iPod to your computer (hold the keys down until the iPod appears in the iTunes Source list)
After that, use an application like Senuti or iPodRip (latest versions on versiontracker.com) to transfer the contents of your iPod to the computer.
Hope this helps.
M
17' iMac fp 800 MHz 768 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.6) Several ext. HD (backup and data)

Restoring after archive and install

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