Disk Utility issue since snow Leopard Ugrade

If you have an image you are sure is good but still getting the "invalid argument" error do this:
1: open terminal window
2: type in sudo asr -noverify -source <source image path here> -target <target path here>

I was getting this error message

Could not find any scan information. The source image needs to be imagescanned before it can be restored.

Then I did what you said under image menu and scan scan image for restore and it worked. After I did that I could use the restore feature Thanks 🙂

Bingo RazRut, worked like a charm. Thanks.

Thank you. This way is realy running.

Can’t restore sparse image backup image of MacOS X 10.6 Snow Leopard made by Superduper with disk utility.

I’m having a similar issue to the original poster so I thought my results might be helpful for others having similar problems.

In my scenario I have three partitions set up on one hard drive on a 24 inch iMac. The partitioning I accomplished with boot camp about four years ago. The first partition I call superduper because that OS’s sole purpose is to run the backups and restores. The second partition I call backup and I use that partition to contain the backup images. The third partition I simply call MacOS X. That partition contains a working OS I use to get stuff done. Originally I was using Superduper to do the backups and the Mac Osx 10 disk utility to do the restores.

I found that this procedure worked great with MacOS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard. However after having made a backup image of MacOS X 10.6 Snow Leopard the disk utility performed the restore however upon reboot back into the MacOS X 10 partition the operating system had a kernel panic and crashed. Note that before I attempted the restore procedure I used the disk utility to erase the target partition which in his case is MacOS X.

I tried updating Superduper to version 2.6.4 which is the latest version as of this writing to no avail.

I then downloaded and installed Carbon Copy Clone version 3.4.3 and used it to restore the MacOS X 10.6 Snow Leopard image that I made with Superduper and the restore work fine.

Also note that the scanned image for restore procedure in MacOS X 10 disk utility doesn’t work for any of the images. I get an unable to scan – invalid argument error on all images. That includes images that work just fine before using the disk utility.

Note that the images I am talking about are sparse images (*.sparseimage) and not *.dmg files.

“A sparse image is a type of disk image file that can be created under Mac OS X using Disk Utility. Encrypted sparse image files are used to secure a user's home directory by the FileVault feature in Mac OS X Snow Leopard and earlier.

Unlike a full image file (.dmg), which takes up as much actual space as the real disk it represents (regardless of the amount of unused space), a sparse image file (.sparseimage) takes up only as much actual disk space as the data contained within.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparse_image

SuperDuper for Mac

http://download.cnet.com/SuperDuper/3000-2242_4-46651.html

Carbon Copy Cloner for Mac

http://download.cnet.com/Carbon-Copy-Cloner/3000-2242_4-10169677.html

I have a Mac Mini Intel Duo 2009 model. Upgraded it to Snow Leopard a while back. Read all of the above. Tried all disk utility solutions (without going into terminal window) and as expected none worked. I am not massively technical but did understand that if you clone to an external HDD then to the new disk I could clone the original HDD to the new upgrade HDD. Using Carbon Copy Cloner could not have been simpler - instruction tell you what to do and the software is simple. The OSX, all apps & data were carried across and not a setup or install disk in sight!! No need for an essay - it just worked. Do not waste any more time that you need to - it worked like clockwork. Thanks!!

This actually worked for me and I had the problem described in the original post.

Works a charm thanks

I created a DMG drive image from Disk Utility and put it on an other drive. It had ages of osx86 tweaks, and program installs. I made one before I did any software upgrades and installs. Well, my last software upgrade didn't work, and I ended up hosing my hard drive trying to get it back. When I boot to OSX installer, and try to use disk utility, I get a bunch of errors like:

Invalid Volume Count, run repair. Repair is Greyed out. Internal Error Unable to Scan Could Not Mount Source Image Could not find any scan information. The source image needs to be imagescanned before it can be restored. Unable to Scan "Macintosh HD.dmg" (Invalid argument)

Methods I have tried include running disk utility from an older Leopard boot disk, asr -restore -noverifiy -source...

I have reinstalled Snow Leopard to the drive, and tried to just copy the files over from transmac in Windows 7, as it seems to read the image with no error, but when I copy, sometimes it gives me a permissions error and halts.

FINALLY Super Duper took my DU created 20 GB DMG, restored it to my hard drive, and made it bootable! Just like it was before. In under 10 minutes. Amazing.