Problem restoring an HD copy

Question

Hi all,
i needed to use BootCamp but i had some problem and one solution was to make a copy of the hard drive to an exernal drive, formatting the hd, and then restore the copy.
I'm pretty sure to have done everything properly, coz i see on the usb hd all the directory, included my home with all the files
But i keep a kernel panic (something like "process 1 exec of /sbin/launchd failed").
Any ideas?

Answer 1

Then it's quite likely there was a problem with your source system prior to cloning it to the USB drive. Did you opt to erase the destination in Disk Utility? It's an option in the Restore panel. If not then you need to check the permissions assigned to your USB drive:
Select the drive. Press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. At the bottom is the Ownership and Sharing/Permissions section. There's a checkbox labeled "Ignore permissions on this volume." If that box is checked, then uncheck it. Look at the assignments for Owner, Group, and Everyone. Owner should be "system" with read/write privileges; Group should be "admin" with read/write privileges; Everyone should have read-only privileges. If this isn't the case then you can correct them by opening the Terminal application in your Utilities folder and entering the following command line after the prompt:
sudo chown root:admin
Put a space after "admin" then drag the disk icon for the drive into the Terminal window. Press RETURN. You will be prompted to enter your admin password which will not be echoed.
It's essential that the "ignore permissions ... " box be unchecked before using the above Terminal instructions.
After the above do the following:
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
The above is performed on the USB drive.