Archive and Install - what now?

I installed Leopard yesterday via Archive and Install. So far everything is working great. I have never installed a Mac OS before (recent switcher...first upgrade) and Archive and Install felt like an upgrade. Everything is exactly as it was before installing Leopard. My question is what to do with the Previous System folder that was left behind. Do I need it? Do I need to sort through every folder and subfolder to find items that weren't copied over to the new system, or is there an easier way? So far, Leopard is running fine, and I see no need to keep the Previous System folder. I had also cloned my hard drive to an external hard drive. Do I still need a Tiger backup or can I delete it? Thanks in advance for your help.

badefou,
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
If the previous system folder is not on the top level of your Macintosh HD, you probably did not actually use the "Archive and Install" installation feature.
WhatSize is a shareware tool that allows the user to quickly measure the size in bytes of a given folder and all subfolders and files within it.
I noticed that you posted this question in several other threads. If my information will not provide an answer for you, I suggest opening your very own question in this forum. That will get your question noticed better than Hijacking this thread. By the way, I am not chastising you by using that word, just using the common term for adding your question to someone else's question.
;~)

Similar Messages

Installing FCS2. Did Archive and Install. Now what?

I got studio 2 today and didn't like the idea of installing it over Studio. I searched and the gurus say don't do it. I'm confused about archive and install. If I do it do I just drag all the Studio apps in the trash after I do the Archive and Install or do I drag the apps in the trash before then install FCS2.
Any help would be appreciated.
Erik

You got that right. I cloned my drive with SuperDuper then used Migration Assistant to move all my settings and users files over. No applications where moved. It was pretty easy. I'm still loading all my programs which is a drag but everything else is already been moved and that would have been a whole lot harder to deal with. I have three users on this Mac. Lots of files and folders. This was the first time I have done this and I did learn a few things. I have been making images of all my software and the updates keeping them all in a folder on a separate drive. next time I have to do this I will just open the image and sit back. No sticking disks in. And its faster. I have Leopard sitting on my desk but not brave enough to try it out just yet. I need a stable edit bay right now. I wish I could get a Intel mac just for FCP. Now that would be sweet. The G5 is still kicken but il bet this Studio 2 upgrade will be the last one for a G5.

If I archive and install, what else needs to be reinstalled?

Hi
I am considering the Archive and Install option. I performed the upgrade option when originally installing Leopard. Everything in Leopard is working fine and I have NO MAJOR ISSUES. Just a few things: Mouse jumps a little. Performance slows down over time. Etc....ACL Permission issue for ONE FOLDER.
My question is this: I have Aperture, Carrara 3d pro, the usual iLife stuff, TurboCad and a couple of other programs and was wondering what has to be reinstalled after the archive/install to insure the installation is "fresh"
For example, can I take my backed up files and programs from Time Machine into the new install, or do I really need to install EVERYTHING fresh?
Thanks

I have found that results vary. I upgraded 3 Macs to Leopard:
20" 2.4 GHz C2D Alu iMac - about a week old. Files were transferred from older iMac G5 using Migration Assistant.
Performed an Upgrade to Leopard. After upgrade complete login panel came up. When you tried to log into any user account the login panel would disappear, a blue screen would appear for a few seconds, and then you would return to the login panel. After trying safe boot and a couple of other things with no success, I did an Archive & Install and then everything worked OK.
24" 2.4 GHz C2D Alu iMac - about a month old. Files were transferred from older iMac G5 using Migration Assistant.
Performed an Upgrade to Leopard and no problems were encountered.
1.42 GHz iBook G4.
Performed an Upgrade to Leopard and no problems were encountered.
A friend of mine has a new 24" 2.4 GHz C2D Alu iMac. He didn't transfer any files from an old Mac nor install any 3rd party applications. He encountered the same problem I encountered on the first iMac and couldn't log in. Luckily he knew about my experience and used an Archive & Install to fix the problem.

Archive and install - what to with previous system content?

hello
i updated to osx 10.5.1, i did the archive and install
when i went to open my apps foilder, only apple apps were there. all other apps were in the previous syst folder. so, i dragged those apps over to the 'new' apps folder. there were some duplicate apple apps, so i did not drag them over.
my question is, can i dump those 'old' apps?
there are also other annoying files/folders (library, mach.sym, private, system, users). they are silly, can i dump them? machine seems to be running fine withouth them
thanks
wayne

alex
very kind of you to respond
it gets a bit more confusing in the non app folders as to what i need and or do not need.
how can i determine what to keep / throw away.
thanks again
wayne

I Lost Parallels After Archive and Install

I posted this on the Parallels Forum, and although it was viewed 59 times, there were no replies. So I'm posting it here hoping that someone can/will answer my question. Here's what I posted:
My OS X (10.4.11) became a little quirky after three years so I did an Archive and Install. Now I can't get Parallels to start up my Windows XP virtual machine. I get the error message "Parallels Desktop is unable to operate properly since it cannot communicate with one of its drivers ... re-install Parallels Desktop." I have my original Parallels 3.0 installation CD so I suppose I can figure out how to do this. (My iMac was purchased with Parallels pre-installed.) Do I need to uninstall before I re-install? I have on my desktop the Parallels alias labeled "Microsoft Windows XP.pvs" plus I have in Applications an alias labeled "Parallels Desktop". If I need to uninstall, can I just drag these two to the trash? I am not adept at this sort of thing, so I need some guidance. Thanks.

Hmmm...good question, I'm not sure. I believe all you would have to do is be able to at least bring up the Parallels Window and have at least "Paralells" recognize still that there is a virtual machine there, not necessarily be able to get into it. Can you at least pull up the parallels window and/or box that you would normally pull up to list your virtual machines? If you cannot do at least this, then you're probably stuck re-installing Parallels. But please remember to back up your virtual machine file in another area like an external hard drive before you do the re-install. Installing and un-installing parallels is NOT SUPPOSE to mess with your virtual machines, but I wouldn't bank on it. If you can at least bring up that Window/Box, then you could use the are listed on the box to re-install the Tools. Hope it works out for ya.

Printer issues after archive and install

So I recently took my iMac into the Apple store and they did an archive and install.
Now I can't get either of my printers to work. I have a Samsung ML2010 and an Epson 1400. They both show up in Printers in the system prefs printer pane, with green lights saying they are idle.
When I go to print with the Samsung, it even goes to far as to sound like its starting up, it says printing when I click on the printer in the dock, then quickly switches to stopped.
From there when I press resume, it pops up an error message saying "Operation Could Not Be Completed. client-error-not-possible"
If I'm not mistaken pretty much the same thing happens when I try to print from the Epson as well.
What's wrong and how can I fix it?
I've tried deleting the printers from the printer prefs page and reinstalling the drivers to no avail.

Did you make a backup before your archive and install?
If not, you may be forced to clone everything at least twice*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
Erase and install.
Test the drivers on a simply erase and installed system updated to the operating system it was at before (down to the free download)*:
http://www.macmaps.com/upgradefaq.html
And restore just the data that is known to work with that operating system from your backup. The other consideration you'll see in my FAQ is if you migrated from PowerPC to Intel, you might have mixed drivers that don't work well together.
are all Intel iMacs, and are not G5s.
are sometimes G5, sometimes Intel. If the Mac can boot, go to Apple menu -> About This Mac to tell the difference. If it won't boot, put the machine on its back, and read the under side of the foot of the stand. The EMC# on the foot of the stand will tell you the difference. EMC#s of 2104, 2105, 2110, 2114, 2118, 2111, 2133, 2134 are Intel. All others are G5.
An archive and install may fail if the system you are archive and installing from is older than what is already installed.
- * Links to my page give me compensation.

HELP! I did an archive and install and I want my old system back

Hello,
I had a big problem that actually ended up being a small problem. Unfortunately to try to fix it I did an archive and install. Now I have come to the realization that my Postfix mail setup, my MySQL setup, my PHP setup, my web pages, my Blog are all gone. Now if I go into the "previous system" folder everything seems to be there. Is there a way to just restore the old system to get all that back without having to reconfigure and redo everything?
I tried to copy the old "Library" back out to the / folder, the problem is that this folder is constantly in use and cannot be replaced.
Any advice?
PowerMac G5 Dual 2.5 Ghz

Joshua:
You said you did an Archive and Install. You did not say whether this was an upgrade or you were re-installing Tiger.
I suggest you read the article linked above, if you have not already done so, and it will give you an idea of what happened. If you chose to preserve User Settings, it should all be there in your new Library. All you need to do it move over your data and you'll be fine. Otherwise you can just move over your entire Users Folder and it will have everything you need.
You said that you want your old system back. I am not sure if you are saying that you want to go to a previous OS, like Panther, or whether you want your computer back the way it was.
a couple of other points, if I may:
1. Re-installation, by whatever method, should always be a avenue of last resort. It is the ultimate invasive therapy and likely result in the situation you are in or worse. Every other avenue should be exhausted before resorting to this rememdy.
2. A good backup strategy is a life saver. During any major procedure, and sometimes without any procedure just of out the blues, your computer can fail and you can lose all your data, your third party apps etc. It is good practice to preferably clone your entire computer to an external Firewire Drive that can also be used as an emergency boot disk.
OK, I gave you much more information that you requested. However, I hope something I said was helpful in terms of recovering your settings and data. Please post back and let me know.
Good luck.
cornelius

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.

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

Cannot log in after archive and install

Hello, everyone. ive been searching the support pages of the apple site for an hour and i cannot seem to find a resolution to this...
I just peformed an archive and install ad now i cannot log in. i think this happened once before and i called apple support and i was told to log in as root. the problem i am having is that the login window does not give me the option to change the user field, it only allows me to type a password. every time i type my password, the login screen shakes. so even if i wanted to type root into the user field, i cant. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thank you.
p.s. i was running tiger but lost my tiger disc so i am using the disc that originally came with my g5 which has panther on it...
dayna

Hi, Dayna.
1. Be sure the Caps Lock key isn't active: passwords are case sensitive. You may see an exclamation point on the right side of the password field if the Caps Lock key is engaged.
2. There was a similar problem if one performed an Archive and Install (A&I) of Jaguar (10.2) over Panther (10.3): see "Can't log in after installing Mac OS X 10.2 over 10.3." I've not heard of a similar problem with performing and A&I of Panther over Tiger, but it may be related. However, before trying the advice therein to perform the A&I without selecting "Preserve Users and Network Settings" you'd need to have a backup of your data, otherwise you risk losing everything in your account. IMO, the most expedient solution would be to buy a replacement Mac OS X Tiger disc. If there is an Apple Retail Store in your area, that would be the quickest place to purchase one.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

Archive and Install

I installed 10.4 and followed the directions to select 'archive and install' but now everything is gone. Well, not gone, just not where I can find them. ITunes is wiped clean. All of my Safari settings. Mail. Gone. Any ideas on how I can restore these items? According to the space available on my disk, everything is still here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Drag them back from the Previous Systems folder on the hard disk; once you've retrieved everything you want from it, that folder can be deleted if desired.
(50703)

IPhoto won't open after Archive and Install

Recently, my macbook won't boot up so I had to perform and Archive and Install. Now iPhoto won't open and therefore, I have no access to iPhoto Library. Does anyone know why this is happening? I don't have iLife '08 with me and my restore CDs would have the previous version of iPhoto on it. Would it be impossible to revert to an older version of iPhoto? If I delete the Previous Systems folder, will it affect this problem more (as I have only 5 gb of free space)? (Btw, I am update to date on Tiger updates)
Thanks,
munky11
Message was edited by: munky11

My guess is that there is part of the iLife install in the Previous System Folder and you're going to need to re-install iLife 08.
Yes you can re-install v6 (or whatever is on your System Restore disks) but v6 will not open an iPhoto 08 library. You would need to create a new v6 library and that would entail losing all your edited versions, albums, books, keywords etc.
Regards
TD

Logging in after archive and install

I had a problem with the screen going dark gray at start up so I performed an archive and install but now at the log in screen it will not accept my password. I've tried restarting it but nothing. Any help would be great. Thanks

When you are booted from your install disc, go to the menu bar, it will say Tools or Utilities, I forget which, then go to "reset password" and follow instructions.

I did and Archive and Install on MBP with 10.4.11...now what?

I recently performed an "Archive and Install" on my MBP that was having odd random shutdowns (not battery related). Just prior to this I used DiskWarrior 4.0 to fix errors to try to possibly cut down on the shutoffs. All it did was f**k up my machine so bad that as soon as the grey screen and apple logo came up, it was like this grey curtain went down and an "on/off" icon came up saying I had to restart. I was never able to boot my machine off my hard drive again until i did the archive and install. Everything seems fine now.
My question is, I want to get the "old system" folder off my HD since it's taking up a lot of room. how do I know what files are critical and what ones aren't? I copied over my printers folder but all my other data seems to either be where it was before or it got moved over during the archive and install.
Any help on what i HAVE to save before i trash the old system?
Thanks!

Cool, that was my first guess as to what to do. But now the old lockup issue has returned. I had put my MBP to sleep for an hour or so. When I came back up from sleep mode, I got the black box in the middle of the screen with the "on/off" button and the message that I had to restart or shut down. On restart when I clicked "report", the following came up in the box:
panic(cpu 1 caller 0x001A49CB): Unresolved kernel trap (CPU 1, Type 14=page fault), registers:
CR0: 0x80010033, CR2: 0x017b6900, CR3: 0x00e1a000, CR4: 0x000006e0
EAX: 0x01610000, EBX: 0x017b6900, ECX: 0x00000420, EDX: 0x00000000
CR2: 0x017b6900, EBP: 0x25153c38, ESI: 0x00001000, EDI: 0x00000000
EFL: 0x00010202, EIP: 0x0017eaa9, CS: 0x00000008, DS: 0x03860010
Backtrace, Format - Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x25153a18 : 0x128d0d (0x3cc65c 0x25153a3c 0x131f95 0x0)
0x25153a58 : 0x1a49cb (0x3d2a94 0x1 0xe 0x3d22b8)
0x25153b68 : 0x19b3a4 (0x25153b80 0x18c296c 0x0 0x0)
0x25153c38 : 0x15df65 (0x423d220 0x1000 0x0 0x14185d)
0x25153c88 : 0x16214b (0x3f953e8 0x1801000 0x0 0x25153df4)
0x25153d28 : 0x16e29d (0x3f953e8 0x25153df4 0x3f909f8 0x1801000)
0x25153e78 : 0x37558d (0x1803000 0x0 0x3 0x0)
0x25153eb8 : 0x3481e9 (0x1801600 0x0 0xb88 0x0)
0x25153f58 : 0x37b300 (0x3fb67d0 0x48469a0 0x48469e4 0x0)
0x25153fc8 : 0x19b77e (0x483eea0 0x0 0x19e0b5 0x4133348) No mapping exists for frame pointer
Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0xb0080be8
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.11.1: Wed Oct 10 18:23:28 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.25.20~1/RELEASE_I386
Model: MacBookPro2,2, BootROM MBP22.00A5.B07, 2 processors, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.16 GHz, 2 GB
Graphics: ATI Radeon X1600, ATY,RadeonX1600, PCIe, 128 MB
Memory Module: BANK 0/DIMM0, 1 GB, DDR2 SDRAM, 667 MHz
Memory Module: BANK 1/DIMM1, 1 GB, DDR2 SDRAM, 667 MHz
AirPort: spairportwireless_card_type_airportextreme (0x168C, 0x87), 1.2.2
Bluetooth: Version 1.9.5f4, 2 service, 1 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: AirPort, AirPort, en1
Serial ATA Device: FUJITSU MHW2120BH, 111.79 GB
Parallel ATA Device: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857D
USB Device: Built-in iSight, Micron, Up to 480 Mb/sec, 500 mA
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, Apple, Inc., Up to 12 Mb/sec, 500 mA
USB Device: IR Receiver, Apple Computer, Inc., Up to 12 Mb/sec, 500 mA
USB Device: Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad, Apple Computer, Up to 12 Mb/sec, 500 mA
USB Device: Hub in Apple Pro Keyboard, Mitsumi Electric, Up to 12 Mb/sec, 500 mA
USB Device: Apple Optical USB Mouse, Primax Electronics, Up to 1.5 Mb/sec, 100 mA
USB Device: Apple Pro Keyboard, Mitsumi Electric, Up to 12 Mb/sec, 250 mA
Any ideas on what's causing the error, or is this the same one that i see posted all over this site with no resolution either from Apple or anyone else?

What to do after an Archive and Install operation?

Hello:
Near the end of a hard drive defrag on the laptop using Drive Genius, something (I am not sure what) caused the computer to shut down before the defrag had finished. Most of the hard drive info. ended up in a folder called Lost and Found. The Directory probably got damaged.
The only solution I could see was to do an Archive and Install operation. The laptop had been backed-up, but the backup was not very current.
DiskWarrior brought the laptop back to life. Some information and apps were manually dragged over from the backup copy. I now have the unsavory task of having to sift through a thousand folders in Lost and Found folder to see if there are any large chunks of folders/files which are salvageable. If I can determine where the files belong, I will drag them there.
Meanwhile, I have a former System Folder in the "Previous System" Folder. Inside is a file named 'mach.sym' and three folders named 'etc, tftpboot and var'.
QUESTIONS:
1. How does a person reclaim the former System Folder back into the rebuilt Hard Drive?
2. Any helpful suggestions or comments .... are we doing the right things to get the laptop back into shape?
Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the assurance note; I will go ahead and trash the former System Folder. I assume the re-installing program dumped the former System Folder into a new folder in order to get it out of the way so that a new System Folder could be installed. I did not remember that the old folder needed to be manually hauled to the trash.
As there are now quite a few folders missing their former data files, I suspect these files are gone for good. So far it does not appear that anything absolutely critical is missing......other than my sanity for being so lax in maintaining scheduled backups!

Archive and Install - what now?

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