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Help to ID app for restoring personal data from DVDs

R

RemarkabLee

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 14, 2007
562
9
Hi all.

I found a set of 6 DVDs that appear to be backed up from a built in macOS utility, circa 2010 and looking to find the best way to restore them using an optical drive-less modern Mac.

I've copied the disc contents to a hard disk and tried to open the sparseimage and drag files out of it, but it does appear the last file of the preceding disc has the same name as the first file of the next disc but with different sizes. Checking the log file does indicate this is the case. The safest way to restore this is probably to find the same utility which created them, to restore them.

Couldn't see an obvious way to use Disk Utility in terms of restoring backups split over discs like this.

Any ideas please?


Here's some data that may help:


Directory structure fo first disc
Code: 
Admins-Mac:NAME - 2010.04.17-11.50.58.911 - Part 1.FullBackup admin$ ls -lR
total 0
drwxrwxrwx@ 1 admin  staff  264 14 Apr 09:21 Contents

./Contents:
total 40
drwxrwxrwx@ 1 admin  staff   264 13 Apr 23:54 Backup.catalog
drwxrwxrwx@ 1 admin  staff   264 13 Apr 23:54 Contents
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 admin  staff  6392 17 Apr  2010 InfoPlist.strings
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 admin  staff  8600 17 Apr  2010 backup.log.gz

./Contents/Backup.catalog:
total 616
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 admin  staff  109949 17 Apr  2010 cat
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 admin  staff  201792 17 Apr  2010 stat0

./Contents/Contents:
total 8718384
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 admin  staff  4463808512 14 Apr 09:47 Backup.sparseimage

InfoPlist.strings contains:

Code: 
"Media Type" = "CD/DVD";
"Ancestry" = (
);
"Backup Archive Version" = "2";
"Archive Format" = "DiskImage";
"FinishDate" = "2010-04-17 10:53:58.719 +0000";
"UUID" = "7148BBA3-491D-424B-9BB7-B7AEC4770F0F";
"Package Version" = "1";
"Master" = "NO";
"StartDate" = "2010-04-17 10:50:58.911 +0000";
"OS Version" = "0x1063";
"Home Directory Real Path" = "/Users/firstnamelastname";
"Target" = {
    "Backup Configuration" =     {
        "Prefers Full Catalog" = 1;
        Spanning = 1;
        "Spans to Same Media" = NO;
        Splitting = 1;
    };
    "Destination Path" = "/";
    "Managed Backup" = 0;
    Name = "CD or DVD";
    "Target Archive Version" = 1;
    Type = "CD/DVD";
    UUID = "833B9ECA-FDB7-4566-A133-BCF0EE0A065C";
};
"User's Full Name" = "Firstname";
"Source Filesystem Descriptions" = (
        {
        "Create Date" = "2009-05-02 08:15:22.000 +0000";
        "Filesystem Description Archive Version" = 1;
        Identifier = "-1370552370479135514";
        "Modify Date" = "2010-04-17 10:46:19.000 +0000";
        "Mount From Path" = "/dev/disk4";
        "Mount To Path" = "/Volumes/Storage";
        Name = Storage;
        Type = hfs;
    }
);
"Incremental Catalog" = "NO";
"Device/Disc Label" = "NAME - 17 Apr 2010 11:50 - Part 1";
"Home Directory" = "/Users/firstnamelastname";
"Package Size" = "4437389019";
"Contained Backups" = (
    "7148BBA3-491D-424B-9BB7-B7AEC4770F0F"
);
"User's Short Name" = "firstnamelastname";
"ScheduledStartDate" = "2010-04-17 10:50:58.909 +0000";
"Device/Disc Name" = "NAME - 2010.04.17-11.50.58.911 - Part 1";
"Archive Info" = {
    "Archive Components" =     (
        "Backup.sparseimage"
    );
};
"BackupSet" = {
    "BackupSet Archive Version" = 1;
    Name = NAME;
    QuickPicks =     (
    );
    UUID = "CB94F6B6-7C43-4384-9401-0A75F8FC59AB";
    "User Node Specifications" =     (
                {
            "Graft Paths" =             (
                                {
                    doNotCrossFilesystemBoundaries = 1;
                    filesystemDescription =                     {
                        "Create Date" = "2009-05-02 08:15:22.000 +0000";
                        "Filesystem Description Archive Version" = 1;
                        Identifier = "-1370552370479135514";
                        "Modify Date" = "2010-04-17 10:46:19.000 +0000";
                        "Mount From Path" = "/dev/disk4";
                        "Mount To Path" = "/Volumes/Storage";
                        Name = Storage;
                        Type = hfs;
                    };
                    pattern = "/Volumes/Storage/NAME/NAME Set";
                }
            );
            "Node Specification Archive Version" = 1;
            Operation = Include;
            "Prune Paths" =             (
            );
            "User Action" = Log;
        },
                {
            "Graft Paths" =             (
            );
            "Node Specification Archive Version" = 1;
            Operation = Exclude;
            "Prune Paths" =             (
            );
            "User Action" = Log;
        }
    );
};
"Package Name" = "NAME - 2010.04.17-11.50.58.911 - Part 1.FullBackup";
 
Last edited:
RemarkabLee said:
Hi all.

I found a set of 6 DVDs that appear to be backed up from a built in macOS utility, circa 2010 and looking to find the best way to restore them using an optical drive-less modern Mac.

I've copied the disc contents to a hard disk and tried to open the sparseimage and drag files out of it, but it does appear the last file of the preceding disc has the same name as the first file of the next disc but with different sizes. Checking the log file does indicate this is the case. The safest way to restore this is probably to find the same utility which created them, to restore them.

Couldn't see an obvious way to use Disk Utility in terms of restoring backups split over discs like this.

Any ideas please?


Here's some data that may help:


Directory structure fo first disc
Code: 
Admins-Mac:NAME - 2010.04.17-11.50.58.911 - Part 1.FullBackup admin$ ls -lR
total 0
drwxrwxrwx@ 1 admin  staff  264 14 Apr 09:21 Contents

./Contents:
total 40
drwxrwxrwx@ 1 admin  staff   264 13 Apr 23:54 Backup.catalog
drwxrwxrwx@ 1 admin  staff   264 13 Apr 23:54 Contents
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 admin  staff  6392 17 Apr  2010 InfoPlist.strings
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 admin  staff  8600 17 Apr  2010 backup.log.gz

./Contents/Backup.catalog:
total 616
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 admin  staff  109949 17 Apr  2010 cat
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 admin  staff  201792 17 Apr  2010 stat0

./Contents/Contents:
total 8718384
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 admin  staff  4463808512 14 Apr 09:47 Backup.sparseimage

InfoPlist.strings contains:

Code: 
"Media Type" = "CD/DVD";
"Ancestry" = (
);
"Backup Archive Version" = "2";
"Archive Format" = "DiskImage";
"FinishDate" = "2010-04-17 10:53:58.719 +0000";
"UUID" = "7148BBA3-491D-424B-9BB7-B7AEC4770F0F";
"Package Version" = "1";
"Master" = "NO";
"StartDate" = "2010-04-17 10:50:58.911 +0000";
"OS Version" = "0x1063";
"Home Directory Real Path" = "/Users/firstnamelastname";
"Target" = {
    "Backup Configuration" =     {
        "Prefers Full Catalog" = 1;
        Spanning = 1;
        "Spans to Same Media" = NO;
        Splitting = 1;
    };
    "Destination Path" = "/";
    "Managed Backup" = 0;
    Name = "CD or DVD";
    "Target Archive Version" = 1;
    Type = "CD/DVD";
    UUID = "833B9ECA-FDB7-4566-A133-BCF0EE0A065C";
};
"User's Full Name" = "Firstname";
"Source Filesystem Descriptions" = (
        {
        "Create Date" = "2009-05-02 08:15:22.000 +0000";
        "Filesystem Description Archive Version" = 1;
        Identifier = "-1370552370479135514";
        "Modify Date" = "2010-04-17 10:46:19.000 +0000";
        "Mount From Path" = "/dev/disk4";
        "Mount To Path" = "/Volumes/Storage";
        Name = Storage;
        Type = hfs;
    }
);
"Incremental Catalog" = "NO";
"Device/Disc Label" = "NAME - 17 Apr 2010 11:50 - Part 1";
"Home Directory" = "/Users/firstnamelastname";
"Package Size" = "4437389019";
"Contained Backups" = (
    "7148BBA3-491D-424B-9BB7-B7AEC4770F0F"
);
"User's Short Name" = "firstnamelastname";
"ScheduledStartDate" = "2010-04-17 10:50:58.909 +0000";
"Device/Disc Name" = "NAME - 2010.04.17-11.50.58.911 - Part 1";
"Archive Info" = {
    "Archive Components" =     (
        "Backup.sparseimage"
    );
};
"BackupSet" = {
    "BackupSet Archive Version" = 1;
    Name = NAME;
    QuickPicks =     (
    );
    UUID = "CB94F6B6-7C43-4384-9401-0A75F8FC59AB";
    "User Node Specifications" =     (
                {
            "Graft Paths" =             (
                                {
                    doNotCrossFilesystemBoundaries = 1;
                    filesystemDescription =                     {
                        "Create Date" = "2009-05-02 08:15:22.000 +0000";
                        "Filesystem Description Archive Version" = 1;
                        Identifier = "-1370552370479135514";
                        "Modify Date" = "2010-04-17 10:46:19.000 +0000";
                        "Mount From Path" = "/dev/disk4";
                        "Mount To Path" = "/Volumes/Storage";
                        Name = Storage;
                        Type = hfs;
                    };
                    pattern = "/Volumes/Storage/NAME/NAME Set";
                }
            );
            "Node Specification Archive Version" = 1;
            Operation = Include;
            "Prune Paths" =             (
            );
            "User Action" = Log;
        },
                {
            "Graft Paths" =             (
            );
            "Node Specification Archive Version" = 1;
            Operation = Exclude;
            "Prune Paths" =             (
            );
            "User Action" = Log;
        }
    );
};
"Package Name" = "NAME - 2010.04.17-11.50.58.911 - Part 1.FullBackup";
Click to expand...
You should be able to double-click on the sparseimage files. With luck these will just have your files on them rather than containing some proprietary format.
 
From 2010, and judging by some of the names listed, my guess is the archive was made by Backup.app:

Backup software - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

According to the link, it's no longer supported, so you'll probably need to find a bootable OS with the app on it, of the proper vintage, in order to read the data.
 
chown33 said:
From 2010, and judging by some of the names listed, my guess is the archive was made by Backup.app:
According to the link, it's no longer supported, so you'll probably need to find a bootable OS with the app on it, of the proper vintage, in order to read the data.
Click to expand...
Yes that was it.

Managed to find a copy of MobileMe Backup 3.2 on cnet.com and used that with a VM running 10.8 to successfully restore the multi-DVD backup.

Thanks chown33!
 
RemarkabLee said:
Yes that was it.

Managed to find a copy of MobileMe Backup 3.2 on cnet.com and used that with a VM running 10.8 to successfully restore the multi-DVD backup.

Thanks chown33!
Click to expand...
I am in the same boat. Recently came across a series of 7 DVD-R disks that are labeled as Mac home folder backups from 2005. I am able to grab an .img from OSX Tiger but not 100% sure how to go about creating a VM to host it. Howd you go about it? Bonus points if you did it on Unraid.

Edit: Disregard. I found a guide online that helped me achieve this. Well, I found out how to install and run Tiger. But restoring the multiple DVD-Rs worth of a backup has proved a little more problematic. Im resorting to just digging in to the Content folder, mounting the .sparseimage file and just dragging over and merging as i go.
 
Last edited:
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