Lost RAID 5 array on upgrade to Leopard

I have a Highpoint RocketRAID 2314 controller connected to an external 4 drive RAID 5 array (1.5 terabytes). This device was working just fine with 10.4.10, and disappeared right after my upgrade to Leopard.
When I go in to Disk Utility, it says the partition map scheme is "Unformatted", it's locked, not writable, not ejectable, but does show 1.4 terabytes of total capacity. All options on this drive in Disk Utility are greyed out. I can't erase, partition, repair, etc... nothing.
I have the latest driver from Highpoint for the 2314 card, and it IS Leopard compatible.
Any idea how I can make my 1.5 terabyte array readable again? I have a lot of data on it, and dearly hope I haven't lost anything. I also tried moving the card to another slot to no avail. Anyone who has an ideas, I would very much welcome the help. I really don't care what my options are provided that I can get my data back. Thanks!

I've had terrible experiences with Highpoint. Their technical support is pretty bad and they don't go out of their way to help. I've completely lost confidence with their drivers and their software development. I've had to rebuild my RAID 5 a couple of times even though all the drives are fine. I'm constantly worrying that something like this is going to happen to me. Are there any other solutions for external drives and eSATA connectors for RAID 5??

Similar Messages

Lost RAID 5 Array...

I have, er... had, a RAID 5 array comprised of six 180GB Apple Drive modules. The Xserve RAID had cache battery backups installed and was on a UPS, but I had disabled the drive cache for all drives quite some time ago as I wasn't sure how reliable the cache battery backups were anymore. This wasn't performance intensive, it was mainly a second repository for backups.
Unfortunately, I came in to work Friday morning to find the RAID powered down (in standby mode). I powered it back up (it was still shown as being mounted on the file server which is running Mac OS X Server 10.3.9, but the volume was empty and listed the correct amount free). Of course, that didn't bring up and data, so I rebooted both the Xserve and the Xserve RAID.
Disk Utility showed no array and neither did RAID Admin.
No luck. I've swapped controllers, upgraded the controllers to the latest firmware. Nothing.
I've searched through this discussion forum's history and tried everything I ran across (power up order of the Xserve and Xserve RAID, powering down the RAID, pulling the cache battery backups, and waiting five minutes, the "Recognize Array" feature in RAID Admin, DiskWarrior, etc). Nada.
Any additional suggestions? Most of the "lost array" discussions are from last year, so I'm surprised this happened to me (maybe because the Xserve RAID was still running old firmware). Also, what is the "Recognize Array" feature really for if it won't allow you to select drives to try to recognize?
I still have not tracked down how the RAID was powered down (it's in a private server room and I'm the only admin that manages the servers in there).
Thanks for any help or insight anyone can provide.
Dual 1.33Ghz Xserve G4 w/Xserve RAID Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Shane: Yes. I tried Disk Warrior, but as there's no RAID Set, there's no volume even available to try to repair.
Dave: Unfortunately, I came to the same conclusion that you have. Very odd that this issue seems so prevalent on the pre-1.5 firmware.
I've kissed my data goodbye (it was all backups, so not vital, but I would have liked to keep it), recreated the set and we'll see how it goes with the new firmware. I'm also setting up a second RAID to mirror the data to for more redundancy in the future.
Andrew: I'm sorry to hear you're having the same issue, but glad you've got a backup. This issue definitely is a big time waster in the least.
Unfortunately, it appears (from my experience, unless I too was missing some undocumented modifier key combo) that you have to have atleast one drive that still remembers what set it belongs to in order to use the "Recognize Array" feature.
From past discussions, I've gained that Apple can actually recover/rebuild the RAID set from drives sent to them, but in my case it wasn't worth spending any additional amount of money on getting the RAID set back up (my time was costly enough).

Xserve RAID lost RAID 5 array on right/bottom controller

I cleanly shut down an Xserve G5 with an Xserve RAID attached and then powered off the Xserve RAID this morning. I replaced a failing memory module in the Xserve and moved the rack 6". I then powered on the Xserve RAID, waited for a couple minutes until it was fully booted, and then booted the Xserve. When it came up, my RAID 50 volume failed to mount. Upon further investigation, it appears that the RAID 5 array on the right hand disks is "gone". In RAID Admin (Disks and Drives tab), the left side array is visible, but all disks on the right side list status as "OK" and Type: as "Spare".
Configuration: Xserve RAID with 14 250 GB disks. Each side was configured with 6 disks in a RAID 5 array and one spare. These were striped using Software RAID on the Xserve into RAID 50 and mounted as a single volume. The RAID firmware is currently 1.5 and the Xserve is running OS X Server 10.4.3.
To summarize today's activities: under Apple's guidance (as this entire system is covered under a Premium Support contract), I swapped the (bottom) controller for the right side, updated firmware (from v1.3/1.20a to 1.5/1.50), multiple resets of both controllers, repeated forced firmware updates, etc.
Also, I swapped the left set of disks for the right set, and the array from the left set now shows up on the right side, and the missing array from the right is still missing with the disks on the left side. I replaced the disks to their original positions with the same results.
RAID Admin's Utility "Recognize Array" will not perform any operations on the rigth side disks and Apple tells me that there's nothing further that I can do with it.
None of this has solved the problem or substantially changed the issue, and the disks on the right side are still missing their associated array. Apple is unable/unwilling to offer any further help except to refer me to 3rd party data recovery services.
Does anyone have any suggestion at all that might possibly recover the missing array? Is anyone aware of any tools that I might use to recreate the RAID 5 array on the right controller? I was hoping that there might exist some low-level tools with which the disks could be recreated into an array by hand? Are there any commercial products that would work on this? Any other ideas?
Many thanks for any suggestions.
- Martin
Xserve RAID (14 250GB disks) on Xserve G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Not sure why you swapped the controllers back and forth
William, I don't think I was clear on this. I swapped the controller with a new controller that I had in a spare parts kit. This was at Apple's request.
really, RAID is not a backup...
I'm well aware, but despite my incessant warnings, users will become lulled in to a false sense of security when something "just works" for a very long time. This array wasn't intended to store valuable data that couldn't be lost, but...
It may be possible for Apple to re-create the RAID set, did you ask AppleCare about the possibility?
Apple has told me more than once that there's nothing else that they can do for me...and yet I keep calling back.
I was surprised that this array was lost when there were absolutely no prior signs of a problem and the system was merely shutdown and restarted cleanly. I'm more surprised and quite disappointed to learn that Apple will do nothing else for me (under a Premium Support contract) to attempt to repair a damaged array. When I asked questions about where the RAID information is stored, I received the answers: "I can't tell you that" and "Apple doesn't release that information". I did not get the feeling that they were working with me, but rather holding my hand while they walked me through published documentation.
I expected that there would be utilities (analagous to filesystem repair utilities) such as RAID Admin's "Recognize Array" that could help repair and recover damaged array data. I think that the lesson that I've leanred today is that I was naive to have expected such a thing without actually having investigated it ahead of time.
Anyway, thanks for your input, William.

Lost Bridge CS3 keywords after upgrade to Leopard

So I have have spent many, many man hours assigning keywords to images in Bridge CS3. I then recently upgraded the computer from OSX Tiger to Leopard (not Snow Leopard).
I use Filters to get at the exact images that I am interested in previewing. The first indication that something is wrong is there is far too few hits for the filter I am executing. So I go into the whole image gallery and notice that the images that should have keywords no longer have them.
Also, attempting to add keywords now fails. I assign one, go to another image, come back and no keyword assignment, gone.
During the OS upgrade I saved all support files, including preferences. Those are there including some keywords from before but not all.
Does anyone know how I can recover the other keyowords and how I can get the new ones to stick?
Thanks so much, I am really shut down until I figure this out. My image Library is somewhere north of 35,000 images.

This happened to me too. I spent hours keywording my images, and now almost all of them are gone! Oddly enough some pictures still have keywords left on them, but most does not. I can still find images with keywords through spotlight, but Bridge seems to not notice that they are there.
Is there a way to manually make Bridge aware that these images does in fact have keywords?
Edit: I forgot to say that I just upgraded to Snow Leopard.

Lost Raid after upgrade to Leopard

I have an 8 HHD enclosure working with a Sonnet Tempo e4P controller. Under Tiger it worked fine, but after installing Leopard-pffft-one of my arrays disappeared. I have it set up in two different arrays-Array 1 and Array 2. Array 2 is still visible under disk utilities however, while all the drive used in Array 1 are visible in Disk Utilities, the Array 1 no longer exists.
I upgrade drives and firmware from Sonnet and still no luck. Can I get the Raid Array back? It was set up as a Raid 0 with no mirroring so I may be scr----! But before I try anything like resetting a new Raid, I'd like to know if there is anyway to reset my old array and save my data!
Thanks for any help

Turns out that finally Disk Utilities "saw" my Raid 1 array but saw it as "Unknown". I used Disk Warrior to rebuild the array and all my footage is there.

Snow Leopard Installer Not Seeing RAID 5 Array

I currently have a Mac Pro with Leopard installed on an internal RAID 5 array. When I run the 10.6 installer to upgrade the only install disk choices I see are two external USB drives. The RAID 5 array is not in the list of possible install drives. Any idea what might be wrong here?

The fact it asked if you want to create RAID5 = Apple Pro RAID card was BTO and is present. Open it up, Apple's RAID card is there likely. And uses iPass so that your drive sleds connect to the controller rather than the motherboard Intel AHCI.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1346
http://www.apple.com/support/macpro/
Photo: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3514
RAID5 capacity - http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24883
RAID5 discussion from before (myself, mbean, poster)
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8446960
MaxConnect SAS/SATA Link for Mac Pro (iPass)
http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category _id=332
Apple Mac Pro RAID Card is an SAS controller
http://blogs.computerworld.com/applemac_pro_raid_card_is_an_sascontroller

Lost mail after upgrade to Leopard OS X 10.5.1

I upgraded to Leopard 10.5.1 from Panther 10.3.x. Everything opened as before except all the mail in all my folders between March 2006 and the date of the upgrade. Bookmarks, applications, address books, files, settings, desktop, etc. Absolutely everything is exactly as before, but all my saved mail is gone.
Apple support (phone) wasn't much help, except to tell me that I should have done an "Archive Install". It would have been nice to know that ahead of time...there's nothing in the booklet that came with the software to suggest that, or warn you to do that. All it tells you to do is load the disc and click "Install". I'm not a techie, but a 60 year old barely computer literate soul who's very frustrated.
Given that all the mail before 2006 is still there, I have a feeling that the missing stuff is lurking somewhere. Apple suggested looking in Library>Mail>Messages, but it wasn't there.
Any help out there? Thanks.

Hello, and welcome to the Discussions.
This is a problem of incomplete and flawed conversion of mailboxes that changed in structure after 10.3.x. Most people encountered the problem converting from 10.3 to 10.4, but converting from 10.3 to 10.5 has all the same issues. Typically the data is not really lost, but considerable work must be sometimes be done to recover full functionality. Read the discussions at the following links, that while written for conversion to 10.4 and Mail 2.x, and nearly the same for your path:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=413196
and
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2685531&#2685531
The primary thing is to look for mbox files of size within xxxx.mbox folders, and not lose them before checking for what has successfully been converted into Messages folders within xxxx.mbox folders.
Ernie

Lost all autofill usernames & password after migration & upgrade to leopard

I recently got a new imac, migrated all my old info to the new machine, then upgraded to leopard. now safari has none of my previous usernames & passwords stored in autofill preferences. can i go back to my old machine and find a prefernce list or something to put on my new imac so i don't have to go refigure all my usermanes & passwords?
i transferred from the old half-dome imac to a new 24" imac, which i LOVE!!

Be sure to use software update to get the latest version of Leopard 10.5.1. Then, if the passwords still do not appear, try this:
I found this answer on another discussion question.
Open Utilities:Keychain Access
Click on Passwords in left column
Scroll down to "Safari Forms Autofill" and double-click
Open access control window
Click radio button that says "Allow all applications to access this item"
Close window--you will be prompted for your password.
Note: this works for other items in the password window.

Final Cut Pro 5.1.4 - upgraded to Leopard, lost serial!!! Options???

I had Final Cut Pro installed on Tiger before upgrading to Leopard. I did an 'archive and install' and now when I open the program (or any other program like Soundtrack) it asks me for the serial again.
The software was a gift and I don't have the serial anymore. Any way for me to not have to buy another version? Help!!!

Jason
Read Jon's reply to you here: http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=5615750&messageID=6500028
If you did an "Archive and Install" then this file should still be accessible in your archived system.
Andy

Can I set up a RAID 1 Array by adding a drive to an existing install?

Hi All:
I have a K8N Neo2 with a 160GB Seagate SATA drive on it, and just bought an identical drive that I want to use for a RAID 1 array. My question is this: Do I need to do a complete reformat with the OS in order to setup RAID 1? With my old system and Ultra ATA drives, you could always add a drive, but I don't see any way to load the nVidia RAID driver after Windows has already been loaded.
Is this possible, and if so, what are the steps? I've enabled RAID for both SATA drives and can get into the RAID Bios, but beyond that, I'm lost. Also, I must have inadvertently setup an array, because it shows that I have one. I can boot into Windows if I turn off RAID in the BIOS, but would love to be able to install without a clean format.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Michael Tschirret

Michael,
You can create a RAID 1 Array, just make sure that the Drive with the Data is the Master and not the Mirror. You can have the RAID Controller build the image (Sync the Drives), and then you should be mirrored before you even boot back into Windows. The OS will not know the difference.
Take Care,
Richard

[Solved] Move Software RAID 5 Array From NAS To Arch

Edit: I probably never had a problem at all, the error in dmesg probably just scared me, because after I disconnected it I noticed that /dev/d127 was 8.1 TB, the exact size of my RAID array node in my NAS which was /dev/md0, I just overlooked it. I reconnected it to my pc and mounted /dev/md127 to /mnt/raid and got this wonderful sight!
[bran@ra ~]$ ls /mnt/raid
data lost+found meta sys
[bran@ra ~]$ ls /mnt/raid/data/
data ftproot module _NAS_Media _NAS_Piczza_ _NAS_Recycle_RAID _P2P_DownLoad_ stackable _SYS_TMP TV USBHDD
download htdocs Movies _NAS_NFS_Exports_ NAS_Public nzbget-downloads PLEX_CONFIG sys tmp USBCopy
I bought a Thecus N4520 a few months ago and it's ok but programs crash a lot and they're hard to debug, apps have to be updated manually and the whole thing is moderately underpowered. I'm trying to move the software RAID 5 array from the NAS to my desktop, the kernel seems to detect that there is a RAID array but all these drives aren't part of it. I'm pretty new to RAID and I'm just getting my feet wet with it.
When I try to assemble the RAID array, it just tells me that it isn't an md array. How can I get it to build my array?
[bran@ra ~]$ sudo mdadm --assemble /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sdd /dev/sde
mdadm: device /dev/sdb exists but is not an md array.
Found this little chunk of info in dmesg, it says that the md devices have unknown partition tables.
[ 3.262225] md: raid1 personality registered for level 1
[ 3.262483] iTCO_wdt: Intel TCO WatchDog Timer Driver v1.10
[ 3.262508] iTCO_wdt: Found a Patsburg TCO device (Version=2, TCOBASE=0x0460)
[ 3.262585] iTCO_wdt: initialized. heartbeat=30 sec (nowayout=0)
[ 3.262933] md/raid1:md126: active with 4 out of 4 mirrors
[ 3.262961] md126: detected capacity change from 0 to 536850432
[ 3.263272] RAID1 conf printout:
[ 3.263274] --- wd:4 rd:4
[ 3.263276] disk 0, wo:0, o:1, dev:sdc3
[ 3.263276] disk 1, wo:0, o:1, dev:sdb3
[ 3.263277] disk 2, wo:0, o:1, dev:sdd3
[ 3.263278] disk 3, wo:0, o:1, dev:sde3
[ 3.263501] md: bind<sde4>
[ 3.264810] md: bind<sdb2>
[ 3.268262] async_tx: api initialized (async)
[ 3.272632] md: raid6 personality registered for level 6
[ 3.272636] md: raid5 personality registered for level 5
[ 3.272637] md: raid4 personality registered for level 4
[ 3.272905] md/raid:md127: device sdb2 operational as raid disk 1
[ 3.272908] md/raid:md127: device sde2 operational as raid disk 3
[ 3.272910] md/raid:md127: device sdd2 operational as raid disk 2
[ 3.272911] md/raid:md127: device sdc2 operational as raid disk 0
[ 3.273211] md/raid:md127: allocated 0kB
[ 3.273241] md/raid:md127: raid level 5 active with 4 out of 4 devices, algorithm 2
[ 3.273243] RAID conf printout:
[ 3.273244] --- level:5 rd:4 wd:4
[ 3.273245] disk 0, o:1, dev:sdc2
[ 3.273246] disk 1, o:1, dev:sdb2
[ 3.273247] disk 2, o:1, dev:sdd2
[ 3.273248] disk 3, o:1, dev:sde2
[ 3.273273] md127: detected capacity change from 0 to 8929230716928
[ 3.273322] RAID conf printout:
[ 3.273326] --- level:5 rd:4 wd:4
[ 3.273329] disk 0, o:1, dev:sdc2
[ 3.273331] disk 1, o:1, dev:sdb2
[ 3.273332] disk 2, o:1, dev:sdd2
[ 3.273360] disk 3, o:1, dev:sde2
[ 3.283617] md126: unknown partition table
[ 3.309239] md127: unknown partition table
[ 3.312660] md: bind<sdb4>
[ 3.318291] md/raid1:md124: not clean -- starting background reconstruction
[ 3.318296] md/raid1:md124: active with 4 out of 4 mirrors
[ 3.318333] md124: detected capacity change from 0 to 10736291840
[ 3.318385] RAID1 conf printout:
[ 3.318391] --- wd:4 rd:4
[ 3.318395] disk 0, wo:0, o:1, dev:sdc4
[ 3.318398] disk 1, wo:0, o:1, dev:sdb4
[ 3.318402] disk 2, wo:0, o:1, dev:sdd4
[ 3.318405] disk 3, wo:0, o:1, dev:sde4
[ 3.319890] md124: unknown partition table
[ 3.323462] md: bind<sde1>
[ 3.338094] md/raid1:md125: active with 4 out of 4 mirrors
[ 3.338225] md125: detected capacity change from 0 to 2146414592
[ 3.338253] RAID1 conf printout:
[ 3.338258] --- wd:4 rd:4
[ 3.338262] disk 0, wo:0, o:1, dev:sdc1
[ 3.338266] disk 1, wo:0, o:1, dev:sdb1
[ 3.338268] disk 2, wo:0, o:1, dev:sdd1
[ 3.338271] disk 3, wo:0, o:1, dev:sde1
Here's my full dmesg
mdadm.conf
# The designation "partitions" will scan all partitions found in /proc/partitions
DEVICE partitions
ARRAY /dev/md127 metadata=1.2 name=(none):0 UUID=d1d14afc:23490940:a0f7f996:d7b87dfb
ARRAY /dev/md126 metadata=1.2 name=(none):50 UUID=d43d5dd6:9446766e:1a7486f4:b811e16d
ARRAY /dev/md125 metadata=1.2 name=(none):10 UUID=f502437a:d27d335a:d11578d5:6e119d58
ARRAY /dev/md124 metadata=1.2 name=(none):70 UUID=ea980643:5c1b79e8:64f1b4cb:2462799b
Last edited by brando56894 (2014-04-21 22:51:01)

Sorry I numbered them to show the flow of information, this was also just a place for me to store info as I worked through it. I managed to get it to work by creating a partition that takes up the whole drive and is actually 22 GB larger than all the other drives (since I found out that the had root, swap and home partitions that are no longer needed).
I should be able to resize the other partitions without a problem, correct? They're EXT4. Should I unmount the raid array and do them individually, remount the array, let it sync and do the next? Or just unmount the array, resize all of them, mount it and let it sync?

Need a little help setting up an external RAID 5 array

Hi all,
I am trying to put together a 4 disk RAID 5 array, and I think I picked up the wrong card. I have a Sans Digital TowerRAID TR4M and a Sonnet E2P (UPS just delivered). I haven't yet opened it up but the back of the box states that RAID 5 is only available with VistaUlt/XPPro. I guess I didn't notice the Windows/MacOS differences when I was doing my research. Now I'm lost....I was set on this one for months while I saved up. What kinds of options are there for RAID 5 with OSX? I suppose the E4P is just like it's little brother and doesn't support RAD5 in OSX. Will I need to go with FirmTek or HighPoint? Any advice is appreciated!
-Sean

Will I need to go with FirmTek or HighPoint? Any advice is appreciated!
Hi,
If you need RAID 5 for the Mac Pro, I would go with the SeriTek/5PM and the HighPoint RR2314. You can read more about this setup here:
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/firmtek/5pm/
http://firmtek.stores.yahoo.net/sata5pm.html
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/highpoint/2314/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000NAXGIU/
Have fun!

RAID 5 array on PERC6/i offline

Ok, so we have a 2970 with a PERC6/i. 5 drives in a RAID 5 array, and one hot spare. I apparently lost two drives today, one to a failure, and one began showing as a foreign config. I cleared the foreign config and replaced the drive, but now on my array, I'm showing 3 drives and 2 slots marked "Missing". How can I bring this array back online and good to go without deleting and creating a new VD? Thanks in advance...

IMPORT
ONLY used when an array is OFFLINE (non-functional/failed). If you have a 3-disk RAID 5 and two disks are foreign (or one foreign and one failed or missing), the RAID 5 is dead/offline. You must import in this case. If you replace a failed/foreign drive with a new one, and the new one is flagged as foreign and you import, you will corrupt your data.
CLEAR
ONLY used when an array is ONLINE (up and running, functional). If you have a 3-disk RAID 5 and one disk is showing foreign (meaning that disk is also offline), you must CLEAR it (whether it is a replacement disk or an original), then assign it as a hot-spare.
Typically once you clear the foreign configuration, you do not get a second chance - the drive is then in a Ready state.

Still run Tiger on my Dual 2.7 PowerPC. Benefits upgrading to Leopard?

Hello, I decided to put this post here, instead of in a more general hardware discussion, due to Logic Pro being my main app concern.
I am using a Dual Processor 2.7 PowerPC G5 Power Mac, with the latest version of Tiger. I have heard several mumblings about it not being entirely worth upgrading some powerpc machines to Leopard, due to Leopard not being tailored to run as beautifully, as Tiger was, on powerpc's. Is there truth to this? Is the chance of hardware failure increased? What type of performance might I expect upgrading to Leopard, with overall system usage, as well as with Logic Pro 8, when compared to Tiger? I would hate to have some of the responsiveness I currently have to be lost!
I I currently have 6.5 gigs of Ram installed.
Thanks so much for your responses! I would love to hear stories from people who have my same Power Mac model, as well as any other input!
=D

My 2¢:
I am using a Dual Processor 2.7 PowerPC G5 Power Mac
Slightly faster G5 than my old workhorse, which runs very nicely in 10.4.11
What type of performance might I expect upgrading to Leopard
If you looking for a boost, then IMO, none, or at best, very little.
Is the chance of hardware failure increased?
Very unlikely. There's no reason that an OS upgrade would affect hardware, other than any incompatibility issues which might arise.
I would hate to have some of the responsiveness I currently have to be lost!
You may.
I also have a MacPro with 10.5 and although it's a much faster machine, for me Logic is less stable. To be fair, this might be because of my external hardware.
The main question I have is why?
What advantages do you think Leopard may have for you? Time machine? Spaces?
If your system already runs well, is stable, and does everything you need, why jeopardize it?
If it ain't broke…

Upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard gone awry

Hello, I have a late 2007 MBP and decided to upgrade from Leopard 10.5.8 to Snow Leopard 10.6.8. After reading forum posts and articles I decided to attempt a clean install as opposed to just an upgrade to gain some performance on this old mac until I can afford to replace it. Here's the history of what I did and where I'm at now. Any help would be appreciated as I can't find any forum posts that address this problem directly.
12/26: Created time machine backup on external backup (mirrored raid via FW800 if it makes a difference) while still on Leopard to prepare for clean install of Snow Leopard.
12/28: Did clean install to upgrade to Snow Leopard (booted from disk, erased hd and installed SL). Then, being safety minded, created another time machine backup (a mistake in hindsight)
Restarted under new SL.
Tried to use migration assistant to migrate documents, apps, libraries, etc only to find only my latest backup SL backup is available which obviously doesn't have any of my files. Migration Asst apparently only offers access to the previous 12/26 backup. Crap. At least I have my Time Machine backup.
Go to time machine and try to restore Macintosh HD to state it was in on 12/26. It runs for a couple hours, asks me do I want to copy or replace the user profile (I choose replace) and when finished there's no sign of any change…no docs, no apps, nothing visibly different. I tried again, this time, Time Machine says my hard drive is full and I can't restore! I look at hard drive "get info" and sure enough it says I'm using 280GB out of 293GB. However when I "get info" on the individual Apps, Library, System & Users it only adds up to ~7.5GB of space. So clearly Time Machine has copied massive files (likely twice now) that are somehow invisible to me.
I'm quite frustrated at this point. I realize I took the more complicated path by not just "upgrading" and I made a couple missteps along the way. However, neither Migration Assistant or a Time Machine restore are able to help put my Documents and Apps back and now my hard drive is full. I'm tempted to just erase and reinstall clean SL again and then manually move things from my 12/26 Time Machine backup but I'm concerned about doing this right. Is there a more sensible, possibly less drastic way of untangling this mess? Thanks for any input.

Tell me you can get at the Time Machine data. That will put a smile on my face!
Yes, most importantly, my data is still very safe and I can see the 12/26 time machine data on the external drive, both by browsing to it with the finder and also when I launch Time Machine and browse back in time.
What I was unable to do is:
Migrate the 12/26 data using the "Migration Assistant" app "after" I did a backup of my new Snow Leopard install which I realize was a mistake. Now when I attempt to use the "Migration Assistant" app and point it to the Time Machine volume, all it sees is the useless 12/28 Snow Leopard backup which obviously has none of my data. I can't point Migration Assistant to the 12/26 restore point which has the real data.
Following that I attempted to launch the "Time Machine" app, go back in time to restore to the 12/26 backup. This seemed to fill my internal HDD with (I'm guessing) files and folders that I am unable to see. When I command click to get-info on the internal HDD icon it shows it being full. However browsing through the drive via Finder it seems very empty. Command clicking to get info on the 4 folders in the internal HDD, it shows a total of 7.5GB used. Perhaps my data is there but hidden, however since I tried this twice, there's likely a level of redudancy that's quite a mess now. It seemed simple but Reading the article you sent, it sounds like I should have booted with the Snow Leopard disk and done the
From what I've read, I understand there are three ways to migrate my 12/26 data:
1. Migration Assistant App (because of the above description, I think cannot work anymore)
2. Time Machine App
3. Manually browse and copy necessary files and folders from the external
What I was trying to understand was when you say "transfer," which of these options are you referring to? I'm gathering #2, using the Time Machine app to restore as opposed using Migration Assistant?
By the way, I appreciate your patience and generosity with your time. I will make sure to print and follow the tutorials you sent as well.
- Matt

Lost RAID 5 array on upgrade to Leopard

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