Bare metal restore when Time Machine is on an iSCSI drive?

It's doubtful.

First, TM stores it's backups differently when they're done wirelessly, in a sparse bundle. When they're done to a locally-attached drive, they're in a Backups.backupdb folder. Why they're done differently isn't clear, but they are, and you cannot swap them.

What you are doing is not supported by Apple, as the only network backups supported by TM are to a Time Capsule or another Mac running Leopard: Here's the official word: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1733

You apparently found a "hack" that allow the backups to work, in some cases, to a degree. But you're doing this your own risk.

First, since this is *unsupported by Apple,* there's nowhere to go when there's trouble.

Second, you're risking a future update preventing it from working, and perhaps rendering your backups useless.

If you still think this is a good idea, do yourself a favor before you bet your backups on it: be sure it really works, at least for now:

Get a copy of CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper! or the like, and make a full bootable clone of your internal HD, on an external disk. Test it by booting from it, as you may need to restore it to your internal HD if the restore from TM fails. Then reboot from your internal HD.

Attempt a full system restore (like you'll need when, not if, your internal HD fails), via the instructions in item 14 of the of the Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of this forum.

Again, even if it works today, tomorrow is another day . . .

transco wrote:
I do make periodic 'SuperDuper' clones and have restored the system drive from them.

Good strategy. Like many here, I use both a clone (CCC) and TM.

Can you restore selected items via +Enter Time Machine?+

transco wrote:
Yes, TM machine partial restores work OK. OSX see's the iSCSI drive as just another local drive (as long as the driver is in place).

Then the full restore likely *will not* work, but I can't swear to that.

To do the full restore, you boot from your Leopard install disc, and use the Installer on it. It puts up a prompt for you to select a TM disk or look for a Time Capsule. Since that driver isn't on the disc, it's doubtful the drive will be seen.

Most likely, an Erase and Install and Migrate won't work, either, for the same reason.

You might be able to do an Erase and Install, load the driver, then use Migration Assistant (in your Applications/Utilities folder). You can check this by just starting it up, entering your Admin password, select +From a Time Machine Backup ...+ and click Continue, then see if it appears as an option on the next screen.

Of course, just because it appears that it would work now, isn't any guarantee . . .