Recovering File Vault Data from Back-up

Question

Hello wonderful Apple people:
My hard disk crashed this weekend and I had it replaced (same day service) at the Apple store. I had my computer backed-up on a Maxtor External Hard Drive using their Retrospect software. I thought I was all set, however...
I'm having trouble restoring my data due to what I think are security issues. I had File Vault turned on for my computer (and old hard drive). I have not been able to restore using Retrospect because it wants the back-up sets that were on the old harddrive and doesn't seem to be able to rebuild them. I was able to mount the back-up and transfer all of the data, however I could not log-in with my old user name. I put my password in and it shook it's head at me, until I got to the master password, then it would let me change the password and log in to the abysmal Blue Screen. My back-up is also bootable and when I try to login there, it doens't recognize my password, I reset the password and I get the darned Blue Screen. I can see the files on the External drive and on the new hard drive, but... no accress
I reset my computer in safe mode and established a new user. Now I can log in, use all the applications, but not access any files. The files are locked under the old user name and when I log in under the old user name I get the Blue Screen. I don't know if it is File Vault issue or a missing file somewhere.
The sad story here is that my dissertation is due in three weeks. I have most of what I need backed up in other places, but my actual data is in the files that I can't access.
Oh, one other thing to take into consideration...my combo drive doesn't work so using the Install disk is not an option.
Any help would be appreciated. I havent found this issue yet on the boards.
PowerBook G4, 12   Mac OS X (10.4)  

Answer 1

Since you're backing up to an external drive...IMHO Retrospect is overkill. Retrospect's strength is that you can make multiple copies of a file. In other words, you can recover a version of a file a few changes back. You can make these backups across sets of backup media, so that only your most recent backup needs to be on-site. Also, you can easily automate backups. If you don't need multiple copies of files, and you're not storing backup media off-site, and you can survive without automation, diskutility can clone your HD as often as you need/remember to do it. SuperDuper can aotomate this. Again. Retrospect is a good app, but it requires careful planning and implementation.
So there's my rant.l Clone your HD to an external as often as you need/remember and but a second external to alternate backups and keep off-site if that's necessary or desired for your particular situation. Use retrospect if you need its extra functionality.
Glad you had a good backup to rely on.
Jeff