Time Machine Backup Crash - HELP!!!! Everything wiped out.

After reinstalling my time machine back-up, at restart I receive the following error:
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x5591cb: "Unable to find driver for this platform: \"ACPI\".\n"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1504.7.4/iokit/Kernal/IOPlatformExpert.cpp:13 89
Dbugger called <panic>
Backtrace (CPU 0), Freame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: Unknown
Mac OS version:
Not yet set
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 10.4.0 ....
Can anyone help??? Obviously, this is reinstalling over the old, so everything is wiped out. The reinstall took 16 hours. I have tried reinstalling several older versions all with the same results. I verified the hard drive and everything is fine. I am at a loss.

This does not answer the question, and your wording is vague enough that it's hard to be sure exactly what's going on. Did you do exactly what is said here:
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/14.html
If not, tell us step-by-step what you did, as if you were trying to explain how to duplicate it to someone who knows nothing about computers.

Similar Messages

Lion's Time Machine backup crashes Mountain Lion

I have a OS X Lion's Time Machine backup with a few user accounts. Now I need to restore one user account and its data to a MacBook Pro with a replaced hard drive installed with OS X Lion and nothing else. I was told by Apple guys to:
1) upgrade to Mountain Lion first;
2) connect the OS X Lion Time Machine backup, then run the Migration Assistant (Mountain Lion).
The first time I did it, I migrated everything to the MacBook Pro. Then the user accounts and home folders all mixed up. The Lion's applications replaced Mountain Lion's applications of the same names, so and so... Problems gradually surface in two days, that I spent. The Mountain Lion crashed and the MacBook Pro had to reinstall the OS X Lion, then repeat 1) and 2) above.
The second time I did it, I told Apple of my experience, and they told me to uncheck everything else except the user account I wanted to migrate. Then after doing 1) above, and at 2) above, I found that nothing could be unchecked. I told Apple, and they told me to go ahead. After migrated everything, including Applications and the user accounts and data, The Mountain Lion crashed in many native applications, again. (Long story cuts short!)
Now, the thrid time, after wasting my week's time. Apple still tells me to upgrade to Mountain Lion before recovering the user from the TM backup drive. And I have again spent 6 hours in such things as wiping out everything (I guess Apple used Disk Utility to create 1-partition, quickest), install OS X Lion, and I installed Mountain Lion (less than 2 hours inlcuding download and install), then manually "copy" the one user account needed from the last completed (not the "Latest" and not the one with .InProgress) Time Machine dated backup/Machintosh HD/Users to the new INTERNAL Machintosh HD/Users. (The current logged-on account is "test" which is different from the one I need to migrate.)
What next? I shall create a new user account and assign the migrated user as the home folder of the new user account. Does it work? I don't know.
Why not simply restore the user account and data from OS X Lion's Migration Assistant, then upgrade to Mountain Lion? Why?
What about other applications? (e.g. Microsoft Office for Mac 2011), native iPhoto, iTunes....?)
Scenario: If my Time Machine backup was started a year or 2 years ago from Snow Leopard or Lion, and all the way to Mountain Lion. Then one day the drive crashes. Can Time Machine / Migration Assistant give me a one-click-done restoration? Or I need to go through this teasing process again?
Is Time Machine serving its purpose? (Who's purpose? Increase Apple's sales? or Recovering everything for the Mac user with a crashed drive?)

Try the following:
Restore Lion to your HDD. During setup, use setup-assistant to restore your data from TM-Backup.
When this is done upgrade to ML.

Concerns ALL Time Machine Users. HOW TO MOVE Time Machine backups. Help !

Concerns ALL Time Machine Users :
MOVE (or COPY) Time Machine backups from a "x"To Disk to an "y"To greater disk.
Hello and thank you all for reading me,
First, excuse me if I make language errors (I'm French).
Secundo, I don't know if you'll find something interesting for you
in what I write about Time Machine and my own problems,
but there's a possibility also that YOU could perhaps help me.
I'm talking about Time Machine and his **** Backups.backupdb folder,
containing "*Name of your Mac*" folder,
this folder containing Time Machine backups, format : YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS
Time Machine doesn't recognize the backups it made *IF YOU MOVE THEM*.
I have perhaps a solution in this message.
You'll see below what kind of problem I (and you could) have.
Since 12/01/10, an Apple Adviser Level Two (and me)
are trying to understand how to move backups from TM1To Disk to, let's say, a bigger one.
My case is TM1,5To.
*Purpose :* Move 19 backups from Time Machine X disk to Time Machine Y disk.
Delete TMX disk Time Machine backups after that.
Make TMY disk the current used Time Machine Disk.
I don't remember exactly what we did before
(we even created a "root" account with password (dangerous to do),
but it didn't solve the problem),
but we finally copied :
TM1To > Backups.backupdb > *MacBook Pro* folder (containing 19 backups) into :
TM1,5To > Backups.backupdb folder.
The Copy application announced *16 hours !* (without antivirus, to remove absolutely).
So I said goodbye and thank you to my Apple Adviser. After *8 hours*, Copy failed.
BUT it had succeeded to copy *4 backups ONLY* (why ?) in TM1,5To.
I immediately verified and checked each of these with Get Info.
They had EXACTLY the same size (Byte to Byte) as in TM1To.
➔ BUT HERE IS MY OBSERVATION :
After designing TM1,5To as Time Machine Disk, I ordered it to Backup (now).
And what did Time Machine do in TM1,5To > Backups.backupdb ?
It created a *NEW folder*, named *MacBook Pro 2* !
➔ *I HAVE NO ACCESS* to TM1,5To > Backups.backupdb > *MacBook Pro* (4 backups copied from TM1To, remember) ;
➔ while I still *HAVE ACCESS* to TM1To > Backups.backupdb > *MacBook Pro* (19 backups) ;
➔ *AND I HAVE ACCESS* to TM1,5To > Backups.backupdb > *MacBook Pro 2*,
where Time Machine makes actually his backups.
*NOTE :* If you *change the name* of your computer,
Time Machine *changes automatically the name* of the folder who is in Backups.backupdb folder.
➔ ① I have *never seen* such protections (Sharing and Permissions).
You are not allowed to do anything. I've tried to change permissions,
first : "R+W", after that : "Make (Me) the owner", I can tell you : DON'T DO IT !
➔ ② It's impossible to install an OS on a Time Machine disk
(I thought it would allow better permissions).
OS Installer detects the existence of a Backups.backupdb folder
and refuses to install on this disk or partition.
I have now the bad intent to install minimal OS X
1) after deleting (how ?) this folder (but not its contents, how to move it ?)
and 2) declare *after that* the disk as Time Machine disk.
➔ ③ Time Machine doesn't backup OTHER Time Machine backups
(who are in an ancient-not-choosed-for-backups Time Machine disk) NOR backups this disk
(detects, once again, the existence of a Backups.backupdb folder).
AND you can't *absolutely not remove backups from the folder the're in*
(for me, *MacBook Pro* or *MacBook Pro 2*).
➔ ④ I didn't have time to do it, but I think there would perhaps be a solution
in restoring backups in partitions specially created to receive them (having the same name,
that sort of thing) and then re-backup these partitions (vicious and complicated).
There is a function on Mac OS X Install DVD : start with it, and then (do not install)
choose "*restore from Time Machine backup*" from the menu bar (it's called "Utilities", I believe).
➔ ⑤ I *absolutely don't understand* what follows :
— If I add (in my TM1To disk) the bytes of the 19 backups
in Backups.backupdb > *MacBook Pro* folder, I obtain about *1,8 To*.
— It's impossible (and not french).
— When I check the size used with Disk Utility (NOT with Get Info),
I find a correct (?) size : *about 750 Go*.
— What are Time Machine backups made of ?
It can't be aliases (because of their size, and because *aliases suppose originals,
and where could they be ?*), or am I wrong and becoming crazy ?
➔ ⑥ If you refer to the numbers shown at the end of this text (*4 backups*),
you'll see I could *delete duplicate elements* inside these 4 backups,
to win space (but *what kind* of space *if I delete aliases* ?).
Back-In-Time (see below) says he does it.
BUT is it really the OLDEST items I have to destroy (see ⑤),
when I don't know with what kind of ARTEFACT I'm acting ?
What does Time Machine delete to create more backup space ?
Is it REALLY the OLDEST backups it treats, or duplicates, OR ?
*What you can do :*
Find and go to Tri-Edre.fr or Tri-Edre.com/fr site (it's a french company
that creates small Mac applications since fifteen years at least,
I think I already bought them several programs in 1990) ;
Their program *Back-In-Time 1.4.4* is free (Trial) and complete to download (with PDF docs too).
It is *ENTIRELY DEDICATED* to Time Machine and *things you can't do* with.
Price is about 30 €, I think it's worth.
The TRIAL version you will obtain can only work on the LAST Time Machine backup,
but you will see what's featured *AND :*
You will ACCESS to ANY Time Machine backup you want
(It has to be the last of a serie of backups, but the serie you want.
I've bought the application and own an activation key, but you understand I can't give it to you
(it would not be ethic) and anyway you would be obliged to disconnect AirPort, Ethernet etc.
•➔ I have bought the application because I thought (it's said in PDF FAQs) I could IN THE END move Time Machine backup files, but it cannot, (I'm afraid).
*BUT ANY ACCESS PROBLEM IS SOLVED.*
•➔ Back-In-Time 1.4.4 can *delete :* duplicate backups, complete backups,
or duplicate items inside one or several Time Machine backups,
things that I believe impossible with Time Machine itself
(I've seen it offers to delete ALL occurences of an item) ;
•➔ The application can also restore anything you want, where you want
(but I think Time Machine does it too ?)
•➔ Believe it or not, but since I've bought it on 15/01,
I've only worked about 2 hours (no, much more) on it
and didn't make sufficient progresses (enhancements ?)
to talk of it with sufficient experience (I'm a bad guy, don't you think ?)
•➔ Tri-Edre offers on-line support, e-mail support (and so on),
and I EVEN didn't manage to join them, because I did many other things,
and also somewhat have been disgusted *not to be able to move* or copy
*(accessible by Time Machine after that)* backups,
and I also didn't succeed (*another Time Machine inconvenient*) to DESTROY an ".inProgress"
Time Machine (package) which doesn't work anymore (several interruptions while active),
date (and name) 2010-01-27-164345.inProgress, but is used (*with failure results*)
by Time Machine (it's turned off till I find how to destroy its **** ".inProgress" package.
•➔ I've asked my Apple Adviser Level 2 to wait for news from me
before working himself on the problem, and I think I will send him this message
to prove I haven't forgotten him.
•➔ I'll send it to Tri-Edre too, in the same move.
I hope those remarks to be useful for somebody, tell me if it has helped.
I will also publish this in any Time Machine topics I find here, and in MacRumors site too.
As you can see, I need help too … Does anybody have an idea ?
Perhaps if I used a specific Copy software, it could work ?
You'll see below an example of some time I've spent to study my problem
(you will think I'm crazy).
With my kind regards, and good luck if you have other Time Machine problems !
Olivier Herrbach
<Edited by Host>
Le but du jeu est de transférer toutes les sauvegardes Time Machine
d'un volume/partition que nous appelerons "1 To"
sur un volume/partition que nous appelerons "1,5 To".
*Je rappelle que les 4 sauvegardes effectuées par Time Machine sur le 1 To
n'ont pas été reconnues comme siennes par Time Machine sur le 1,5 To,
bien que strictement identiques en taille après leur copie.
J'ai remarqué dans Back-In-Time des fichiers invisibles (tels que "TimeMachine.log"
ou quelque chose de genre), et je soupçonne fort qu'ils n'ont pas été copiés et que Time Machine,
ne les trouvant pas dans le 1,5 To, a ignoré à cause de leur absence les 4 sauvegardes décrites ici.*
*Sauvegardes effectuées par Time Machine sur 1 To :*
Path : MacBook Pro > Volumes > 1 To > Backups.backupdb > MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro contient 19 items (dont un alias appelé "Latest") :
1°) 2010-01-02-045758 Size : 913.207 B for 41.888 items comprenant :
• Hitachi 1 To Size : 907.664 B for 41.887 items 7 folders
Différence avec 1°) = - 5.543 B - 1 item (1 folder)
2°) 2010-01-03-001957 Size : 982.211.325 B for 67.490 items comprenant :
• Hitachi 1 To Size : 901.516 B for 41.886 items 6 folders
Différence avec 1°) = - 6.148 B - 1 item - 1 folder
• Samsung 500 Go Size : 981.302.510 B for 25.602 items 4 folders
Total • + • = Size : 982.204.026 B for 67.488 items
Différence avec 2°) = -7.209 B - 2 items (2 folders)
— *Supprimer • Hitachi 1 To* dans 2010-01-03-001957. Comparer les dossiers.
3°) 2010-01-04-222709 Size : 5.241.032.819 B for 26.509 items comprenant :
• Samsung 500 Go Size : 5.187.330.874 B for 19.392 items 8 folders
Différence avec 2°) = + 4.206.028.364 B - 6.210 items + 4 folders
• StartUp Disk Size : 53.692.703 B for 7.115 items 4 folders
Total • + • = Size : 5.241.023.577 B for 26.507 items
Différence avec 3°) = - 9.242 B - 2 items (2 folders)
— *Supprimer Samsung 500 Go* dans 2010-01-03-001957. Comparer les dossiers.
4°) 2010-01-05-125449 Size : 9.428.705.396 B for 204.915 items comprenant :
• HD 250 Go Size : 9.374.308.265 B for 181.575 items 7 folders
• Samsung 500 Go Size : 692.898 B for 16.222 items 8 folders
Différence avec 3°) = - 5.186.637.976 B - 3.170 items
• StartUp Disk Size : 53.692.703 B for 7.115 items 4 folders
Total • + • + • = Size : 9.428.693.866 B 204.912 items
Différence avec 4°) = - 11.530 B - 3 items (3 folders)
— Supprimer • StartUp Disk dans 2010-01-04-222709. IDENTIQUE.

Dear James Pond,
Thank you once again, and, don't be afraid, I will be as short as possible,
but I need to use your last reply (I've cut all what was already said).
JP ➔ You can copy an entire set of backups, but you cannot copy part of it successfully. See #18 etc.
JP ➔ Read this from the first paragraph: "you cannot copy only selected backups,
or merge two (or more) sets of backups." The structure of the backups simply will not allow it.
I've read it, and found it regrettable. And I've also read, after that, what were the solutions under Leopard and Snow Leopard, and my conclusion is that it's a *dead end* for me. In short,
— I can't move (by drag and drop) the 1To's Backups.backupdb folder (containing MacBook Pro, 19 backups, access) to 1,5To, because there exists already the Backups.backupdb folder created by copy on 12/01 with Apple Assistance (containing [MacBook Pro, 4 backups of 19, no access] and [MacBook Pro 2, 15 backups, access]). I don't even know if it could be deleted by the copy (and I don't wanna do that anyway) ;
— I can't rename (and what for, I already forgot it) any Backups.backupdb folder nor delete it ;
— I can't copy any Computer'sName folder (entire set containing backups), being in a Backups.backup.db folder, into another Backups.backupdb folder ;
— I can't copy any (or all of an entire set) YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS backup(s), being in a Computer'sName folder, into another Computer'sName folder (even if it would be empty).
— Saying NONE in Time Machine Preferences and putting it to OFF is simply no use.
All is said. What I can try to do is :
— Delete (not with Finder, but with Back-In-Time) all duplicate things I find in all backups and also entire duplicate backups (I have full access to all with the software) ;
— Restore each of the reduced-to-minimum backups obtained in specially right-sized partitions wearing the YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS name of each restored backup. Time Machine doesn't backup his backups, but will backup these partitions.
I'm afraid to be actually completely running out of the target, when I read what I write … It's time to go to bed !
Reminder (OH) : Where did you find these amazing informations ?
JP➔ Some of it is detailed here: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/10/12/roadto_maco[]sx_leopard_timemachine.html
➤ Thank you ;
JP➔ and here:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2007/10/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/14
➤ Thank you too ;
JP➔ You have to understand the structure. When TM does the first backup, yes, it copies everything.
On subsequent backups, it copies what's new or changed, but also makes "hard links" (sort of like aliases) to the copies of the things that didn't change. That's how it can only back up a few things each time, but show you a complete "snapshot" of the way your entire system looked at the time of every backup.
➤ I'll do my best to understand.
JP➔ Time Machine deletes backups under two conditions. See the first part of #12 in the Frequently Asked Questions User Tip, also at the top of this forum.
Under normal circumstances, you should not have to delete any backups. See the rest of #12.
➤ I understood why Time Machine didn't delete oldest backups : they were not weeklies ones.
Reminder (OH) : How can I destroy the (corrupted ?) not working "2010-01-27-164345.inProgress" in 1,5 To, which causes Time Machine to abort any backup of any size I ask ?
JP➔ Why do you think it's corrupted? TM is designed to "recover" a partial backup.
➤ I'll verify that with the little Tools/Apps I discovered in your FAQ User Tip document and downloaded immediately.
Why didn't Apple tell me anything ? It's my fault, I'm perhaps not clear and not demanding enough more from them.
JP➔ You cannot install OSX on a disk containing TM backups. That's because they need to be on separate disks.
Technically, you could put them on separate partitions of the same disk, but that would not be a good idea.
➤ I never told you that (there would be no interest at all). I talked about the same location, to see if it would allow me more permissions, but if all works without doing it, it's really no use.
JP➔ Sorry, I don't know what that means.
➤ I'm sorry, I didn't explain : "but if all works" meant : Copy Backups.backupdb, "without doing it" meant : Install OSX.
➤ If I install an OSX BEFORE, Time Machine will REFUSE completely to backup on it, it's understood.
JP➔ Correct. The partition you're running from will not be an option in TM Preferences > Select Disk. That prevents TM from backing-up it's own backups!
➤ Would it be so absurd ? Maybe it could resolve my actual problem ?
I think you are right, but I don't know why. I trust you.
Reminder (OH) : "I will not bore you again except if I don't find a specific answer to an unknown-never-seen-incredible malfuction."
JP➔ Don't worry about that -- thats what this forum is for, especially if you're still having problems.
➤ It's seems in fact that there is no possible solution, except what I said above and is certainly crazy/out of subject.
Just try to be as clear and concise as you can.
And please don't post the same things repeatedly -- it wastes your time and ours, and can confuse other folks.
➤ You're absolutely right and I tried to do so this time, and I'm sorry because I see it's still (far) not enough (short).
Thank you once more. I wish you a good evening and week-end. Here it's 01:40 AM.
With my kind regards
Olivier Herrbach
[email protected]

How to merge two iTunes libraries, one from a Time Machine backup. Help!

Hey there,
Here´s the backstory, my laptop was stolen (along with my older iPod which had ALL of my music on it) in February. I am from Minnesota, and I now live in New York, but my backup from December was in Minnesota at that time. On me at the time my laptop got stolen was my 32 gig iPod Touch, which had ~80% of my music on it, but not all of it due to capacity issues. I bought a new Macbook and loaded all of my music that I HAD onto my new laptop, and of course have downloaded a bunch of stuff since then. I really like my new Macbook so I want to just pull and merge my old iTunes library onto my new computer, without duplicates and without having to manually go and delete things. Since my iPod Touch was loaded randomly, I have a lot of albums that have something like 11 out of the 12 songs or whathaveyou. I tried restoring from my old Time Machine backup, but I have realized that I really liked the cleanness and functionality of my new computer without three years of detrius in it, so I am going to restore from my NEW Time Machine backup, and would like to get my old music back onto my new computer. If this is confusing at all please let me know and I will try to clarify. Please help me with this, there has to be a program or something!!!

You have some choices. Obvioiusly the easiest thing to do will be to restore the entire library from the Time Machine backup. You can also use the new iTunes in the Cloud feature built into the latest iTunes to download any music and TV shows you might have purchased from the iTunes Store.
So what you could do is first, download your purchases from the iTunes Store, then restore everything else from the TM backup.

Problem restoring files from a Time Machine Backup! HELP!

Heya,
I have Snow Leopard and have been using Time Macine regularly since May.... I never needed to restore any file until now...
Deleted some must have stuff.. and emtird the trash (of course!).. so went to time machine to restore it...
Looked it up... nice interface.. have stuff since May 2011... nice.. found the 10+Gb of stuff I had deleted.. and restored... Pffffew!
Opend the file... Bzzzz! you loose... file is currupt,,, what?
load again.. still no go? files all look the right length m.. hmm very strance... can;t open then... lets try a simeple file...
restore a text file... size ok.. but... EMPTY!
use HexEdit to open the text file... All ZERO's!
check the otehr files I restores ALL ZERO's!
DOH! restore files I saved into safe old Time machine in May 2011... AL ZEROS!!
***! Everything is ZERO! my last 6 months worth of time machine backups is all gone! Directory structures say they are there.. file sizes are ok.. but NO DATA!!!
Can somone please HELP ME!
G./

Open Disk Utility. Click once on the external drive left-most icon (not the indented volume name/icon); what does it indicate for Partition Map Scheme? Also, do you have an Intel Mac or a PPC Mac?
Now click "Verify Disk" and see if it finds errors or if it reports "ok."
What I am hoping (this is something of a long shot) is that there will be errors found on the disk that Disk Utility can repair and then your data will be properly associated with the file names and headers. "Verify" simply reports back on the state of the file system and can do no harm; only when you click on "Repair" will it actually try to repair anything. You might want to report back first on the results of "Verify" before trying to "repair."
By the way, this Verify (or Repair) procedure can take ~ hours for a large disk that is mostly full. I did this recently on an external Time Machine drive that was 1.5 TB in size and 2/3 full and it took ~ 3 hours.
If severe errors are found on that disk, something stronger than Apple's Disk Utility might be called for, such as Disk Warrior. Hence better to report back here before roceeding with any "repairs."
The type of error I am hoping you might have is in the file system that relates the filenames and their header (and file sizes) to the locations around the disk where the actual data inside the file are located. If that file system gets damaged, your computer will have trouble finding the actual data that goes with each file. Hence getting zeros when you should have gotten data. Sometimes this can be fixed, sometimes it cannot. Often it can. If the problem is caused by a physical problem with the disk, the likelihood of recovery is low. If the problem is with the file system/mapping to the data on the drive, it very well might be fixable.
Have you had any power failures, system freezes, improper or disorderly computer shutdowns, etc. or unexpected dismounting of the backup drive anytime since you have been using it? Have you ever gone into that external backup drive in the finder and changed any of the files on it yourself, or has it only been touched indirectly through Time Machine?

Clean install of Lion. Now I can;t see the partition on a USB external where I did a Time Machine backup. Help?

Howdy.
Ok, wanted to update my daughter's MacBookPro (late 2009 - 2.26ghz - 8GB RAM) I took a new external and partitioned into two GUID partitions. Installed Lion on one, and did a full (and verified) backup on the other. Booted off the external, erased the laptop drive and installed Lion. Works perfectly.
But when I try and access the Time Machine backup, I can't even see the partition. The icon is on the Desktop, the partition is in Finder. When I first instaled it even asked if I wanted to use that partition for Time Machine. But I can't do anything but a full restore, which I obviously do not want.
I tried going into Time Machine itself and when asked if I wanted to "Use Previous Disk" to do TM backups, I said yes. But I could not get the Mac to "inherit" the old backup.
Migration Assistant doesn't see the partition either.
Help?

First I formatted 2 partitions GUID on the external and installed Lion into one of them., and backed up the Macbook (via Time Machine) into the other. I then booted off the external Lion partition, erased the Macbook, installed a fresh Lion.
I then restarted using the new internal Macbook drive. Works perfectly. But now, when I try to use Migration Assistant I cant see the second partition, the one with the Time Machine backup.
I know I can do it manually but actually the computer is with my daughter at college in Arizona and I'm in Connecticut, so I'd rather get to the screen that allows you to restore users and settings only.
Thanks!

My 2008 MacBook Pro Stop Recognizing my Time Machine Backup Disk "HELP"

My 2008 MacBook Pro Stop Recognizing my Time Machine Backup Disk & without it my MBP Run's Slow like a "I Hate to say it Windows OS" Is my USB Drives? (2.0) Or is it Time to UPGRAIDE to a Unibody MBP? Please Help ASAP

Take it to an Apple store or AASP.

Initial time machine backup crashes Yosemite 10.10.3

I have a 15" Macbook Pro 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 running Yosemite 10.10.3 (14D136). I previously had a 1TB Time Capsule that ran pretty much without a problem. I recently upgraded to a new 3TB time capsule (http://store.apple.com/us/product/ME182LL/A/airport-time-capsule-3tb) .
I have attempted numerous times to complete the initial backup both via wifi and hardwired into the thunderbolt port. It will run for an hour or so then just says (stopping). After that the computer gives me the pinwheel of death. After a restart everything runs fine and can restart process but same things happens. I have about 720GB to transfer so it takes a while (10 hrs or so). Every time I return it has stopped. I have erased and reinitialized the time capsule disk several times.

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
Step 1
For this step, the title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
          SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Initially the words "String Matching" are shown in that box. Enter "BOOT_TIME" (without the quotes.)
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Select the BOOT_TIME log message that corresponds to the last boot time when you had the problem. Now clear the search box to reveal all messages. Select the ones logged before the boot, during the time something abnormal was happening. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
For example, if the system was unresponsive or was failing to shut down for three minutes before you forced a restart, post the messages timestamped within three minutes before the boot time, not after. Please include the BOOT_TIME message at the end of the log extract—not at the beginning.
If there are long runs of repeated messages, please post only one example of each. Don’t post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Step 2
In the Console window, select
          DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION ▹ System Diagnostic Reports
(not Diagnostic and Usage Messages) from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
There is a disclosure triangle to the left of the list item. If the triangle is pointing to the right, click it so that it points down. You'll see a list of reports. A crash report has a name that begins with the name of the crashed process and ends in ".crash". A panic report has a name that begins with "Kernel" and ends in ".panic". A shutdown stall report has a name that ends in ".shutdownstall". Select the most recent of each, if any. The contents of the report will appear on the right. Use copy and paste to post the entire contents—the text, not a screenshot. It's possible that none of these reports exists.
I know the report is long, maybe several hundred lines. Please post all of it anyway.
If you don't see any reports listed, but you know there was a crash or panic, you may have chosen Diagnostic and Usage Messages from the log list. Choose DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION instead.
In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.)
Please don’t post other kinds of diagnostic report—they're very long and rarely helpful.
When you post the log extract or the crash report, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

Time Machine backup crashes my MBP since I've installed Mountain Lion

Hello,
I've got a MBP (1.5 years old) and do my back-ups on Time Capsule. Recently I upgraded to Mountain Lion and since then I've come accross some back-up issues:
1. I've got the error message containing the "sparsebundle already in use" wording
2. I followed the procedure of unticking (+ reboot) and ticking (+reboot) the "share files" box in the Airport Utility -> Disk section
3. When I want to launch the backup after that, it always takes about 2 minutes before my MBP crashes and restarts.
Has anyone an idea on what goes wrong or what I would have to modifiy in the settings?
Thanks in advance for any help.
caraval
PS: another MBP connected to the same TC but still running on Lion performs its backups without problem

Hi Clinton,
I tried it again (manual launch of backup) and it crashed again.
In the console there's one type of message coming up repeteadly:
9/19/12 8:50:04.508 PM PhotoStreamAgent[203]: [3] MSPublisher - 145909544 Encountered temporary network issues during upload. Will try again later...
Please let me know if you wish the whole bunch of logs (which is taking up a lot of place, don't know what would be the best way to attach it)
Besides, hereafter the error report which is being sent to APPLE. I appreciate your help on that matter.
Regards,
Andreas
Interval Since Last Panic Report: 178 sec
Panics Since Last Report:          2
Anonymous UUID:                    4D5AE0A6-68EB-416A-BC82-E7DA03BA0834
Wed Sep 19 21:04:00 2012
panic(cpu 2 caller 0xffffff8000cf3031): "hfs_UNswap_BTNode: invalid backward link (0x0001c35b == 0x0001c35b)\n"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-2050.9.2/bsd/hfs/hfs_endian.c:297
Backtrace (CPU 2), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff807d463ad0 : 0xffffff8000a1d5f6
0xffffff807d463b40 : 0xffffff8000cf3031
0xffffff807d463b90 : 0xffffff8000ce7fb4
0xffffff807d463bd0 : 0xffffff8000b1a3aa
0xffffff807d463cc0 : 0xffffff8000b17353
0xffffff807d463d70 : 0xffffff8000b19a1f
0xffffff807d463dc0 : 0xffffff8000d11b4f
0xffffff807d463df0 : 0xffffff8000d06636
0xffffff807d463ea0 : 0xffffff8000afa37f
0xffffff807d463ed0 : 0xffffff8000af3ab7
0xffffff807d463f30 : 0xffffff8000afa2f9
0xffffff807d463f50 : 0xffffff8000de17da
0xffffff807d463fb0 : 0xffffff8000acecf3
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: launchd
Mac OS version:
12B19
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 12.1.0: Tue Aug 14 13:29:55 PDT 2012; root:xnu-2050.9.2~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 3005059E-270B-3B9F-940D-7A66C05DDC9D
Kernel slide:     0x0000000000800000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff8000a00000
System model name: MacBookPro6,1 (Mac-F22589C8)
System uptime in nanoseconds: 1650045041453
last loaded kext at 558793539780: com.apple.filesystems.afpfs          10.0 (addr 0xffffff7f82d5b000, size 348160)
last unloaded kext at 619488404238: com.apple.driver.AppleUSBUHCI          5.1.5 (addr 0xffffff7f819dc000, size 65536)
loaded kexts:
com.apple.filesystems.afpfs          10.0
com.apple.nke.asp_tcp          7.0.0
com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC          1.60
com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor          1.9.5d0
com.apple.driver.AGPM          100.12.69
com.apple.filesystems.autofs          3.0
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager          4.0.9f8
com.apple.driver.AppleHDA          2.3.0f2
com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHCIControllerUSBTransport          4.0.9f8
com.apple.iokit.IOUserEthernet          1.0.0d1
com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X          7.0.0
com.apple.driver.ApplePolicyControl          3.2.6
com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin          1.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleLPC          1.6.0
com.apple.driver.AppleMuxControl          3.2.6
com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyHIDDriver          122
com.apple.driver.AppleSMCPDRC          1.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHDGraphics          8.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient          3.5.10
com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl          1.0.33
com.apple.GeForce          8.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyDriver          2.3.0f2
com.apple.driver.AppleSMCLMU          2.0.2d0
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHDGraphicsFB          8.0.0
com.apple.driver.SMCMotionSensor          3.0.2d6
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCButtons          235.4
com.apple.driver.AppleIRController          320.15
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCKeyboard          235.4
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless          1.0.0d1
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib          1.0.0d1
com.apple.BootCache          34
com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient          3.5.1
com.apple.driver.XsanFilter          404
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage          2.2.1
com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI          4.9.5
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort          2.4.0
com.apple.driver.AirPort.Brcm4331          601.15.21
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub          5.1.6
com.apple.iokit.AppleBCM5701Ethernet          3.2.5b3
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI          5.1.5
com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM          1.6.1
com.apple.driver.AppleSmartBatteryManager          161.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons          1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleRTC          1.5
com.apple.driver.AppleHPET          1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS          1.9
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC          1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC          1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient          196.0.0
com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall          4.0.39
com.apple.security.quarantine          2
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement          196.0.0
com.apple.security.SecureRemotePassword          1.0
com.apple.kext.triggers          1.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily          10.0.6
com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib          2.3.0f2
com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily          1.8.9fc9
com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib          1.6
com.apple.iokit.Apple
Model: MacBookPro6,1, BootROM MBP61.0057.B0F, 2 processors, Intel Core i5, 2.53 GHz, 4 GB, SMC 1.57f16
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics, Intel HD Graphics, Built-In, 288 MB
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M, PCIe, 512 MB
Memory Module: BANK 0/DIMM0, 2 GB, DDR3, 1067 MHz, 0x80AD, 0x484D54313235533642465238432D47372020
Memory Module: BANK 1/DIMM0, 2 GB, DDR3, 1067 MHz, 0x80AD, 0x484D54313235533642465238432D47372020
AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0x93), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.106.98.81.21)
Bluetooth: Version 4.0.9f8 10405, 2 service, 18 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Wi-Fi, AirPort, en1
Serial ATA Device: TOSHIBA MK5055GSXF, 500.11 GB
Serial ATA Device: HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS23N
USB Device: hub_device, 0x0424 (SMSC), 0x2514, 0xfa100000 / 2
USB Device: Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad, apple_vendor_id, 0x0237, 0xfa120000 / 4
USB Device: BRCM2070 Hub, 0x0a5c (Broadcom Corp.), 0x4500, 0xfa110000 / 3
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, apple_vendor_id, 0x8218, 0xfa113000 / 7
USB Device: hub_device, 0x0424 (SMSC), 0x2514, 0xfd100000 / 2
USB Device: Built-in iSight, apple_vendor_id, 0x8507, 0xfd110000 / 4
USB Device: IR Receiver, apple_vendor_id, 0x8242, 0xfd120000 / 3

Time machine backup crashes macbook pro

I have 500gb Time Capsule an every time I start a backup it goes for 5-10mins and then stops? I think? Any way the Macbook is dead Screen is black and you have to reboot it. Copying files to the time capsule works from both a PC and Mac so the drive is fine wifi is good every thing is connected.
It worked for the first couple of weeks, maybe its the macbook? Anybody got any clues?

Yep me too. Here's the report. Anyone make any sense of this?
Mon Jul 21 21:09:12 2008
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x00321C20): "hfsUNswapBTNode: invalid forward link (0xF3FF0006)\n"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1228.5.20/bsd/hfs/hfs_endian.c:254
Backtrace, Format - Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x4196b768 : 0x12b0fa (0x4592a4 0x4196b79c 0x133243 0x0)
0x4196b7b8 : 0x321c20 (0x487d90 0xf3ff0006 0x0 0x2)
0x4196b848 : 0x316ca6 (0x4196b868 0x7d45200 0x1 0x0)
0x4196b888 : 0x1fa5ad (0x433e28f0 0x7d6c804 0x0 0x0)
0x4196b948 : 0x1faee8 (0x0 0x4196b96c 0x0 0x0)
0x4196b988 : 0x33ef99 (0x5439e08 0x1 0x2 0x48a8dc)
0x4196ba18 : 0x32dc04 (0x7ef0370 0x1 0x1 0x547ae40)
0x4196ba98 : 0x1f63a2 (0x4196bac8 0x246 0x4196baf8 0x1da567)
0x4196baf8 : 0x368cfe (0x7ef0370 0x33 0x0 0x0)
0x4196bf78 : 0x3ddde2 (0x547ae40 0x5cfa560 0x5cfa5a4 0x0)
0x4196bfc8 : 0x19f2c3 (0x58f0a60 0x0 0x1a20b5 0x58f0a60)
No mapping exists for frame pointer
Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0xb06148b8
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: mds
Mac OS version:
9E17
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.4.0: Mon Jun 9 19:30:53 PDT 2008; root:xnu-1228.5.20~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: MacBookPro2,1 (Mac-F42189C8)

Time Machine Backups Stall out

Hello,
I thought I had this resolved when I replaced the backup drive. Time machine backups of my server stall out. They start seemingly fine, but eventually they will reach a point where the progress bar just stops progressing. I can find nothing in any log to indicate why this may be happening. I replaced the backup drive and backups resumed normally until I noticed today it started stalling again. I have tried resetting time machine by stopping the service in sys prefs, deleting the time machine plist in the root library, and restarting time machine and choosing the drive. This did not resolve the issue. Any ideas?
Thanks for your help.
Nick

Had the same problem that I resolved.
Went to bed with time machine stuck at 49.8% complete, thinking by the time I awake, it would finish.
Awoke to find it still stuck at 49.8%
Noticed the backup drive's light was off, so I figured if I could wake up the drive, it may resume loading.
I awoke the drive by going to the menu, then click view log.
After a few seconds, the backup drive light turned on, and the progress bar started moving again.
In about 4 minutes, it completed its restoration.
Seems we have to figure out these things on our own.
Shame on Apple.

Can't get old time machine backups to delete from the trash can

time machine backups won't delete from my trash can

You shouldn't be deleting old Tima Machine backups. When TM runs out of space it automatically deletes the oldest backups to make rioom for the new
http://pondini.org/TM/12.html

Installing OS X from Time Machine Backup. Questions

Hi. I have a quick question.
When you buy a new iMac, and you re-install/restore OS X from a Time Machine Backup taken from another machine, is EVERYTHING copied across?
What I mean is, will it restore the new machine into EXACTLY the same state as the old one? Will it carry across the same OS X version (10.6.2), all the Apps you had installed (and registered), every single detail?

Reuben Feffer wrote:
Thanks V.K.
What are Time Machines two restore options?
Here's the situation. I have a brand new 21.5-inch iMac that I would like to get exchanged, because it's faulty. I've put quite a lot of data on the new iMac and I have a Time Machine drive attached to it. It would save me A LOT of time if I could simply restore that data from the faulty 21.5-inch iMac to the properly-working 21.5-inch iMac. So, exact same hardware.
Tell me more about this Backup Utility on the Snow Leopard install DVD. If I perform a restore using that, will it re-install the Operating System, all the Fonts, Apps, EVERYTHING from my Time Machine backup?
yes, everything. but it should only be done on exact same hardware as i said. if you'll get a new mac which is exactly the same hardware as the faulty one then you can use it. to use it boot from the snow leopard install DVd and choose "restore system from backup" from the utilities menu. then just follow the instructions. this will wipe the hard drive and restore your whole system just as it was at the backup time.
if you get a different kind of mac then use setup assistant instead. that will keep your user data, apps, fonts etc but give you a fresh OS.
Message was edited by: V.K.

Can't fully restore my Time Machine/Time Capsule Backup to my newly-wiped SSD/HDD

On receiving my leased, Bootcamp-enabled MacBook Pro, I saw that there were no installation discs for Windows or OSX, and that there were 2 partitions (or so I thought) for Mac and Windows: 375GB each. As I produce music using software in both OSs, I wanted to create a 185GB FAT-32 partition to store my sound samples, projects etc. I attempted to create this partition by resizing (halving) my Bootcamp partition in OSX Disc Utility. The first time I attempted it, resizing was possible, but after the new partition was created, I had problems booting and so had to edit my GPT in order to boot again. Once ‘fixed,’ (by deleting the new partition) I couldn’t resize the Bootcamp partition to fill the 185GB gap, and that 185GB was ‘lost.’ The Bootcamp partition was 375GB but its used space + free space added up to 190GB
So the other day, I tried to follow what I thought was a more logical approach, which I was *sure* would work. My plan was to:
Use Windows Backup (and/or Clonezilla, or Disk Utility) to store an image of my Windows partition.
Uninstall/wipe the Windows partition using BootCamp Assistant, creating 1 big OSX partition
Use BootCamp Assistant to re-partition the HDD for Windows, OSX and ‘shared,’ and then re-install Windows, leaving 175GB for shared music production files
Restore the image/backups (approx 70GB) and carry on as before.
During the process, I deemed that this wasn't possible on my system for a variety of reasons: My laptop already had 4 partitions (Windows Recovery, Bootcamp/Windows, Mac Recovery HD, and Mac) and my understanding is that the MBR of my SSD only supports 4 partitions in its Bootcamp + OSX-compatible state. I have never got this '5 partition' strategy working.
I was unable to restore my Windows partition after re-installing Windows via Bootcamp. As a solution, I then decided to wipe the OSX partition (at that point the only 'visible' partition on the disk) and in-place re-install Mac OS X, with a view to installing Windows after OSX.
Once I wiped my hard drive, however, restoring my files and settings, didn't work as expected. Time Machine backups etc were inaccessible after a normal re-install. Re-installing with file transfer at setup froze at the 10% mark, with an estimated 200 hrs to go. The option to try a full-system restore via Time Machine is greyed-out. Even the Migration Assistant failed at a similar point. On the occasions where it claimed to complete successful (most recent situation) it seemed to neglect files, etc., and I'm now stuck at this stage.
I can view files/backups in Time Machine but I can't completely restore my computer to the state it was on 18th May...and 11 days without a fully-functioning laptop is really annoying. I wasn't able to ‘clean’ *or* ‘in-place’ re-install OSX using my existing settings and so I'm frustrated that Time Machine isn't a flawless backup & restore process. Migration Assistant didn’t transfer everything. Can I get things back to the way they were?
Things that haven’t restored correctly:
None of my icon customisations at the top of the screen were there (DropBox, Evernote, Google Drive, Kuvva, the way battery icon was displayed
Safari: Top Sites, History, Plugins
Logic Pro: Downloaded sounds, presets (10+GB), recent items, plugin settings/AU manager
Mail: Settings (and I’m assuming, the downloaded/cached mail: 7GB)
Trash can: Empty
All recent item lists apart from cloud-based services like Evernote, Notes, contacts
iTunes library
Dock view and settings
Settings for most programs
And I'm sure there are more!

Thanks Pondini; I'd hoped you'd reply. I'm still getting used to this tech, no can't even quote here.
Pondini wrote:
AkaraE wrote:
Time Machine backups etc were inaccessible after a normal re-install.
If you mean you installed OSX and created a user account, then couldn't find the backups, that's because they're treated as being from a different disk, until you either transfer your data or do a manual "associatedisk". See the blue box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #19 for details.
Yet to try the associatedisk...didn't realise this was possible until reading your guides. The explanation makes sense now. On installing OSX it said transfers were possible after installation, so I put off transferring as the first 'restore' had frozen on 10%, thinking I'd do it afterwards.
Re-installing with file transfer at setup froze at the 10% mark, with an estimated 200 hrs to go
That sounds like damaged/corrupted backups. Try to Repair them, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
Yet to try...didn't realise this was possible until reading your guides
The option to try a full-system restore via Time Machine is greyed-out.
You mean, on the Mac OS X Utilities menu on the Recovery HD? I've never heard of that. That should always be selectable, so you can specify where the backups you want are located. Nothing happens when you click it? Can you click the other options there?
Even the Migration Assistant failed at a similar point. On the occasions where it claimed to complete successful (most recent situation) it seemed to neglect files, etc., and I'm now stuck at this stage.
Also sounds like directory or file problems on the backups.
This is just when I go into Time Machine/Star Wars. I can't just go to the latest backup and click "Restore" (which I assume would just restore my whole computer/HDD, although I have no experience in this). I can only select files and restore them individually.
Time Machine isn't a flawless backup & restore process.
There has never been any such thing.
I bought into the Time Machine 'hype' and thought it was an easy and reliable tool, but was a lot more difficult to do a full restore than I thought.
Trash can: Empty
Correct. Time Machine (like most backup apps) don't back up trash.
All the rest should have been backed-up and restored. Do you see them in the backups? What, if anything, was excluded from being backed-up?
As a non-native Mac user, I'm not sure where all these things are stored...perhaps in Library? I think that not having the full hard-drive just restore annoyed me...I felt that backing up my whole hard drive every hour should've allowed me to restore everything to as it was without a hitch, and when it didn't work I just tried a few things before posting on here.
If repairing the backups finds and fixes things, you might want to try again.
Gonna try now
If not, and if you can see the missing items via the Time Machine browser (the "Star Wars" display), you should be able to restore them selectively.

Time Machine backup and main drive corrupted. Help! (REWARD OFFERED)

Here's the deal:
I have a Macbook Pro and a Mac Mini both runnign Snow Leopard. I use the Mac Mini as a kind of media center / server, it has a few external drives connected to it. On of these drives (1GB) is dedicated to Time Machine, the Mac Mini (80 GB hard drive) backs up to it directly and the Macbook Pro (500 GB hard drive) does it over the network (Time Machine created a sparsebundle). This has worked well for years now. Occasionally I got the error that Time Machine needed to start a new backup because the old one was corrupt. That happened about 2-3 times a year (did the same thing when I backued up via USB). Now about 2 weeks ago, that error came up and I just let the Macbook Pro on overnight and connected the ethernet cable for faster transfer.
When I woke up, the Macbook Pro didn't respont at all, spinning beachball, no response at all beside mouse movement. I let it do it's thing for another 10 hours (while I was at work) and just held down the power button to power off and restart it. But all I got was the gray-on-gray flashing folder with the question mark in it, that's what you get when the Mac can't find bootable partitions. So I popped in the OSX Snow Leopard install disk, ran disk utility. It saw the hard drive, but no partition (i.e. Machintosh HD) on it. I checked the Time Machine backup and the sparsebundle was 300 GB (the Macbook Pro had 400 GB used, the remaining 100 GB were free). There is no way to restore from an unfinished Time Machine backup...
First thing I did was clone the internal (Macbook Pro) hard drive to a DMG disk image using DiskDrill (the only program I found that could recognize the drive at all, not even DiskWarrior could). I also bought the exact same hard drive model and partitioned it like the cloned the corrupted hard drive to the new one using ddrescue (a command line tool that doesn't quit upon i/o errors but proceeds and tries to recover as much as it can). It copied everything except 65 kilobytes, the corrupted drive seemed to be physically damaged in a bunch of sectors relatively at the beginning of the disk. Since I had now an exact copy on a fresh, healthy drive, I went crazy trying out Disk Warrior (didn't recognize the drive at all), data rescue, testdisc, p a Windows isk, etc. Only R-Studio (on windows) showed the EFI and Macintosh HD partitions on there, they started and ended on the same sectors on the corrupted drive and its clone. After some research, I figured that the partition table was corrupt so I reformated the clone disk using the OSX Snow Leopard install disk (1 HFS Journaled Partition with GUID Partition table). R-Studio showed the EFI and Macintosh HD on that reformated drive, again, same sectors as before. So I figured I could just copy just the bytes where the Macintosh HD starts from the corrupted drive to the clone (using ddrescue). That worked, after almost 24 hours, I had the clone drive with a "disk1" partition on it that even disk utility could see.
Now I was able to run Disk Warrior on it, but all it could do was recover a few Application folders (Resource-Folders and lproj-stuff), about 100 MB in total. It couldn't repair more of catalog file apparently. Luckily, Time Machine backed up quite a bit (300 GB out of 400 GB of data) and I was able to manually copy all the Dokuments, Desktop, user Library, Applications, Music, Download and Movies. Unfortunatley, only a little bit of the Pictures folder was copied. iPhoto library (80 to 100 GB) was nowhere to be found, backup must have failed right then. I can salvage the drives (time machine drive, original hard drive with a few broken sectors, DMG-image of that drive, 1-1 copy of that drive with partition table repaired) but that only gives me files with numeric names and today's date on teh JPEGs (instead of the date the picture was taken).
Is there any way I can recover that iPhoto library? It appears the catalog file got corrupted because the hard drive (only 8 months old...) failed on a few sectors. If I understand it correctly, the catalog file on HFS+ file systems is where the folder structure and file names are stored in a B-Tree. I can't imagine that some i/o error during backup can totally annihilate that file when it was working perfectly before. Here's a few things I want to try out but haven't figured out how so far:
- Time Machine had to start a new backup. There's plenty of free space on that drive so there's a good chance there's old data left on it. Is there a way to restore files (including file names) and fodlers from deleted time machine backups?
- Is there any way to re-build that catalog file from what is there left on the original hard drive? I can't imagine 65 kilobytes destroys it all.
- Are there other ways to recover my iPhoto Library? The raw JPEG (and AVI) files with correct file names or metadata would suffice.
Thanks in advance for any help, I'll actually reward the person with a working solution, 5 years of photo memories are somewhat important. It really ***** that a failure during a backup destroys that...

Final Update:
The catalog file on the original hard drive could not be fixed. Seems like Mac OSX tried to repair the catalog file while the sectors this file resides on failed. To make things worse the partition table was also broken beyond repair, even overwriting the sectors with a new correct partition table didn't help. DiskWarrior found less then 100 MB worth of stuff, mainly Applications folders.
I recovered pretty much everything from the incomplete Time Machine backup by right-clicking the sparsebundle and browsing through the folders with the long alphanumeric names, looking for the version of the folder with the most files in there. All I was missing was part of the ~/Pictures folder, i.e. photobooth pictures and the whole iPhoto Library. My best option was to recover these files using data recovery tools.
DiskDrill proved to be the absolute best, fast, responsive, efficient, and the only one able to mount the DMG-file with no valid file system on it. As there were many i/o errors and broken sectors on the original hard drive, I made a copy of it using a free command line tool called ddrescue (the standard dd tool just aborted when it encountered the i/o error). ddrescue copied the whole drive to a DMG image, I had 56 kilobytes with errors on the first pass, but it managed to shrink that down to just 4 kilobytes (wow!) after the second pass where it tries to re-read the broken secors. It took about 24 hours for a 512 GB 2.5" drive (5400 rpm) but well worth it. Be advised that ddrescue is really persistent and tries everything to recover those last errorneous bytes. At the very end of the process, the read/write head of the hard drive just goes wild trying to catch the data on the sectors with different momentum. This works but I assume this is pretty damaging for the original drive. I also copied it all to a new hard drive (again using ddrescue) and tried partition and catalog repair tools on that (DiskWarrion, testdiks, pdisk, etc.). Still no hint of a good result.
I made a deep scan on the clone hard drive with DiskDrill. At the end (after about 8 hours over USB) it found 13 partition (I assume that's the Macintosh HD, EFI and some DMG files lying around) and hundreds of thousands of pictures. I restored some JPG files just to check the quality, some were damaged, some were good with all the EXIF data intact. I just made it copy all JPG files into a folder. I know the pictures taken from my camera produce JPGs larger than 1 MB and smaller than 5 MB, so I sorted them by size and moved the smaller and larger files into seperate folders. I took the remaining folder (100 GB) and just dragged it into iPhoto. It imported them overnight. Auto-Split by events and I got my library back, alas with different file names, originals and edited versions side by side, lots of duplicates, some damaged, some not. But hey, all the pictures in chronological order. Okay there was also one large event with all the JPGs without valid EXIF data landed inside, iPhoto just takes the file creation date (i.e. the date where the recovered file was copied). As far as I can tell, these are all just data corpses, halfway overwritten copies, random pictures from the internet, desktop pictures, etc.
I started to work my way back through the events, deleting the duplicates and renaming the events. There's an app called "Duplicate Annihilator" which apparently can find duplicate pictures in iPhoto and mark them for you. The free version only does 500 pictures but if it works, I'll get the full version. It can mark th eduplicate photos by adding something to the picture comment in iPhoto so you can manually review it all. Good stuff!

Time Machine Backup Crash - HELP!!!! Everything wiped out.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for