Neither Time Machine nor Migration Assistant Works.

[Chewmagroo]

Time Machine doesn't work.
Migration Assistant doesn't work.

OS 10.6.3

I installed a new SSD in my old perfectly functioning but slow 2006 iMac. After 4 months it failed. Pretty surprising, but apparently it can happen so bought a new one. I had been using Time Machine to back up to an external SSD so not a major problem…. or so I thought.

After installing the new internal SSD I booted from a 'recovery' partition on my external (firewire) that I had already installed basic Snow Leopard on. I couldn't not figure out how to restore the new SSD using time machine so I tried booting from the Snow Leopard CD. This allowed me to access 'OS X Utilities' and click the 'Time Machine Restore'. I followed the instructions but the process failed after 20 mins or so (the progress window just disappeared). I tried this again and the process froze at about 27 mins remaining.

I then tried a different approach. I erased the new internal SSD and installed Snow Leopard on it, booted from this and tried Migration Assistant but the same thing happened. It just froze mid process with about 30 mins remaining. I left it for a good hour but no change. I tried Migration Assistant again transferring just my user account but this also just froze.

It seems no matter what process I try it just freezes up.

Any ideas?

 

[Fishrrman]

[[ Any ideas? ]]

I realize this won't help now, but...

... next time, try CarbonCopyCloner instead of Time Machine.

If you had a CCC cloned and bootable backup instead of TM, you would have had that iMac back up and running two minutes after the first SSD failed...

 

[Chewmagroo]

Fishrrman,

I will bear that in mind if and when I get this sorted.

Thanks

 

[Weaselboy]

It seems no matter what process I try it just freezes up.

Any ideas?

It sounds like you are following the correct steps. It could be that you were backing up corrupted data off the failing SSD, and you now have a corrupted backup. Same thing would have happened if you were using CCC or any other backup software.

When you get to the point in the restore where you select what you want to restore, do you get the screen where it asks for a date to restore from? I'm wondering if you picked a date further back in time if that would reach back before the corruption and maybe work.

 

[Chewmagroo]

When you get to the point in the restore where you select what you want to restore, do you get the screen where it asks for a date to restore from?

There was no date option with either the Time Machine restore or the Migration Assistant transfer.

 

[Weaselboy]

There was no date option with either the Time Machine restore or the Migration Assistant transfer.

You don't see this after selecting the disk to restore from using the restore option when booted to the DVD?

 

[Chewmagroo]

You don't see this

No, but I'm going to try it again to be 100% sure.

 

[Weaselboy]

No, but I'm going to try it again to be 100% sure.

Here is a step by step that shows where that screen would normally appear.

 

[Chewmagroo]

Here is a step by step that shows where that screen would normally appear.

Yes, I've already seen that info.

I tried restoring from the DVD again and I was mistaken. That window did appear so I selected the second most recent backup from 6 June and tried restoring. Froze at 67.4% with about 20 mins left to run. I then tried again (after erasing and re-partitioning SSD) going back about a week to 31st May but same thing happened, just froze at 48.7% / 40 mins this time. Each time this happens I end up having to force shut down because the entire system was unresponsive. I'm going to try one more time going back a month. If that doesn't work then there's no point going back any further. A months lost work is no different to 4 months to me. Both are catastrophic.

While I try this, is it not possible to install the OS on the new drive, boot from it and then launch Time Machine and restore somehow that way? Although I already tried similar with Migration Assistant with no luck.

 

[Weaselboy]

While I try this, is it not possible to install the OS on the new drive, boot from it and then launch Time Machine and restore somehow that way? Although I already tried similar with Migration Assistant with no luck.

No... that would not be a restore. That would be an OS install followed by importing things using Migration Assistant.

I was hoping by you going back in time a bit there you could get beyond the corrupted files.

 

[Chewmagroo]

No... that would not be a restore. That would be an OS install followed by importing things using Migration Assistant.

I was hoping by you going back in time a bit there you could get beyond the corrupted files.

Ok, I went back a month and it worked so I'm guessing there's some sort of corrupted file between 1st May and 31st May! This is not an ideal situation but way better than nothing.

I'm not too keen on continuing with this process going forward from the 1st May so is it possible to just manually drag important files and/or applications from the backup disk to the restored system? What I mean is drag stuff from the Backups.backupdb file from about 31st May?

Or can i just restore stuff directly through Time Machine even though its actually forward in time?

 

[flynz4]

If I understand correctly, you now have a backup which brought you back to May 1. That is great. Now you can try to find a point in time where you still had a valid backup without corrupt data. For example... if you goal is to get to May 31st... then do a binary sort. Restore to May 15th... and then continue to split the difference forward or backward depending on if the restore works.

Regarding the recommendation to use CCC... the advice is good... but I STRONGLY recommend that you continue to use Time Machine as well. In your case... if you have corrupted data someplace in May... a CCC clone possibly might just contain post corrupted clones. Of course... it may be the case where just your time machine data is corrupt (and not your SSD data)... which is another reason why you want multiple backups... using multiple programs. Any backup or cloning program can cause errors... and much more likely... humans often make inadvertent and undetected errors.

I personally use both clones and Time Machine backups, and I also use incremental backups to the cloud using Crashplan. All three have a different function as follows:

1) CCC - Quick recovery of known good data
2) Time Machine - Versioned backups... allowing you to go back in time to correct either machine, or human corrupted data
3) Crashplan - offsite disaster recovery... also with very deep versioning

If I absolutely had to choose just one or 2... then I would prioritize in the reverse order of the above. Your current example of corrupt data is a possible proof point of why versioning is important.

/Jim

 

[Weaselboy]

Ok, I went back a month and it worked so I'm guessing there's some sort of corrupted file between 1st May and 31st May! This is not an ideal situation but way better than nothing.

I'm not too keen on continuing with this process going forward from the 1st May so is it possible to just manually drag important files and/or applications from the backup disk to the restored system? What I mean is drag stuff from the Backups.backupdb file from about 31st May?

Or can i just restore stuff directly through Time Machine even though its actually forward in time?

You don't really want to just open the Time Machine backup and start dragging things out. Because of the way Time Machine works using hard links to older files, that can cause problems.

What I would do is this. Let's say the missing files are in your Documents folder. Just open the folder in Finder then click the Time Machine menu bar icon and click Enter Time Machine. That will bring you to the most recent TM backup of that folder. From there you can either restore the whole folder, or just command-click the individual files you want to restore. Then click restore on the bottom right. You repeat this process for each folder you are missing files, even Applications if you want.

The issue with Applications will be some apps are fully self contained and they can easily be restored this way, but other like MS Office have other support files scattered around and this won't work.

Hopefully it was only the OS data on the TM backup that was corrupt and not your personal data and this will get you back in business.

If by "not continuing", you mean not using Time Machine for backups, I would a argue that Time Machine saved you here by keeping older (and not corrupted) files from your failing drive. CCC or other "cloning" type apps would not have been able to do this. Nothing wrong with a clone as a second line of defense.

 

[Chewmagroo]

Thanks for both of those replies.

I'm going to continue using TM as Weaselboy mentioned. It actually proved to be my saviour in this situation. What I meant was that I didn't fancy doing anymore full restores to get closer to 31st May. I will just try to restore individual files and applications.