restored TM BU to an external drive won't boot

Not sure what all you've done to get the drive ready for a TM restore, but TM is not designed to be a complete system restore, that I know of. I believe that you need to load OSX on the external drive first using the OSX install DVD. Then once you have the OS loaded on the drive you can use TM to restore your settings and files.

Beast159 wrote:
. . .
will Mac OS let me install on to an external drive

Yes, you can restore your backups to an external drive.

and and does my TM restore Data have to be on the same partition as the OSX.

No; in fact it should be on a different disk or partition from your backups.

If I can't get this to work I would be happy to recover my pictures. Can You give me some pointers on how to recover my iphoto pictures. Thanks

It sounds like what you did should work, but let me ask a few questions:

How much data was on your internal HD, and how large is the partition you've restored to? If that partition doesn't have at least 10% extra free space, OSX may not have room to boot up, and isn't going to work well if it does.

What kind of external drive is this? If it's a Western Digital, it's possible it's not a bootable drive. Here's their list: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=1787.

How is it formatted? I don't think the installer will let you restore to a partition that isn't set up right, but it may. Use Disk Utility (while booted from the Install disc); select the top line of the drive and see what the *Partition Map Scheme* near the bottom is (must be either GUID or +Apple Partition Map),+ then select the partition you're restoring to and see what the Format is at the lower left. It should be either +Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+ or +Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, journaled).+

If you do get it to boot up, immediately turn TM OFF, even if it's started a backup.

iyacyas wrote:
Not sure what all you've done to get the drive ready for a TM restore, but TM is not designed to be a complete system restore, that I know of. I believe that you need to load OSX on the external drive first using the OSX install DVD. Then once you have the OS loaded on the drive you can use TM to restore your settings and files.

No, you don't need to load OSX first. See #14 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

Ok lets start from the beginning. I assume that you have an external drive that will replace the broken drive.

If this external drive is the same drive that contains the TM backup then do not do anything with this drive. in fear that you may loose your data.

You need to purchase a replacement drive for the Mac or an external drive strickly for getting you up and running.

Once you get an external drive that is empty (not the one with the TM backup) perform the following.

1. Plug the external drive into the Mac.

2. Insert the OSX install DVD into the Mac as far as you can get it into the drive.

3. Power-on the Mac and immediately press and hold the "C-key" to boot from the
install DVD. Once the Language screen appears release the "c-key".

4. Once booted to the Language screen, select your language then continue.

5. Follow the on screen instructions until you get to the window which ask you where you are going to install OSX, select the external drive then continue setup.

6. After you have OSX installed on the external drive you'll be able to boot from that external drive by pressing and holding the "Option-key" while booting.

Then you can restore from the TM backup.

If any of this is unclear post back and we'll try to clarify.

By the way what is wrong with the original drive? What make you think that it is toast?

iyacyas wrote:
. . .
5. Follow the on screen instructions until you get to the window which ask you where you are going to install OSX, select the external drive then continue setup.

6. After you have OSX installed on the external drive you'll be able to boot from that external drive by pressing and holding the "Option-key" while booting.

No, there's no reason to install OSX from the Leopard disk. When you use the +Restore from backups+ option, the first thing the installer does (after the final confirmation) is erase the internal HD. Then it restores everything from the Time Machine backup, including OSX.

See #14 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

Or see this: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15638.html

Good to know!

Beast159 wrote:
What kind of external drive is this? If it's a Western Digital, it's possible it's not a bootable drive. Here's their list: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=1787.

My Drive isFANTOM HDT721010SLA360 Media 1TB and it has a Guid Partition Table. The TM backup is in one partition of 450GB and My Restore Data is in another Partition of 336GB of which 125GB is free.
all partitions on the disk are Mac Os extended journaled.
I agree with you it should work but crashes every time I try to use the backup partition to boot with.

Then there's either something wrong/corrupted in your backups or the drive.

Try to install a fresh copy of Leopard on that partition, and transfer your data, etc., from the backups. See the *Erase, Install, & Migrate* section of the Glenn Carter - Restoring Your Entire System / Time Machine *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

Then download and install the "combo" update to get back to 10.5.8. Info and download available at: http://support.apple.com/downloads/MacOS_X_10_5_8_ComboUpdate Be sure to do a +Repair Permissions+ via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) afterwards.

Beast159 wrote:
I ran a verify disk on my TM back up partition

For future reference, that's a waste of time. Just run the Repair.

The restore data partition is fine. I am nervous to do anything with the fantom Hard Drive as you suggested (for fear of losing Data) and I don't have another Hard drive big enough to do that.

I don't know what you mean. If you erase the partition you loaded OSX onto, it won't affect the other partition, with your backups, at all. But you must attach the disk directly to your Mac to do the installation/restore and boot up from it.

1. Can I install using my Leopard Disk

Yes.

or do I need to start with the tiger disk that came with the system

No, you can't restore Time Machine backups via the Tiger disk.

2. If My back up is corrupt, do you have any suggestions in ways I might be able to recover individual files from the TM back up.

Do the +*Erase and Install+* and migrate as mentioned before.

If that doesn't work, after installing OSX (and the "Combo" update), you can restore selected folders via the normal "Star Wars" display. See #15 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

3. If my TM back up is corrupt I wonder if using an Airport Extreme method of TM back up

That's the first you mentioned that! That is not officially supported by Apple: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427?viewlocale=en_US, but it works for some (including me). It isn't likely the cause of this. A likely cause was, whatever was going wrong with your internal HD corrupted something(s) in OSX before your last backup(s), so the corrupted file(s) were copied to your backups.

If you do get another drive, I'd strongly suggest, once this is all sorted out, that you use it to make a "bootable clone" of your system, via CarbonCopyCloner (which I use) or the similar SuperDuper, and update it periodically. That way, you have two separate, independent backups. If one fails, you have the other as a "fallback," plus with the clone, you can boot up and run your Mac normally (if a bit slower) if your internal HD fails.

Beast159 wrote:
I am afraid of the fact that the TM data file and the partition for the restored data is on the same drive connected via USB to my laptop and as Data is read and transferred at the same time is there not a risk of it corrupting the original TM back up data. Although, I have already done that once and seemed ok just won't boot. Now that I have repaired the TM backup partition using disk utility maybe I should try the erase and install migration etc.

Two drives would be better, but as long as you're careful and don't erase the wrong one 🙂 you should be fine, again.

Your call!

It's your call, but I'd be inclined to start with the full restore from TM, per #14 of the FAQ Tip. (Use Disk Utility to format the drive first -- see #5 there.)

If that works, then you'd strongly suspect the external drive just isn't bootable.

If it doesn't, then you know there's something wrong with the TM backups, and you'll have a couple of options:

Do the full restore again, but select an earlier backup. If the HD failure corrupted your copy of OSX, and that got copied to your recent backup(s), an earlier one should be ok.

Or, install a fresh copy of OSX, and use +Setup Assistant+ to bring over your users, apps, etc. Then download and install the "combo" update to get back to 10.5.8, then Repair Permissions (as in the previous post).