Can't copy some files from FileVault Sparsebundle in Time Machine backup

Question

Level 1

6 points

Can't copy some files from FileVault Sparsebundle in Time Machine backup

I've got filevault turned on for my mac Mac Mini (10.6.2). I'm using Time Machine to back up to a firewire drive. There's plenty of space - my Mini hd has 250 Gb of 500 used, and I'm backing up to a 750Gb partition on the external drive. The initial backup went OK, and when I logged out it backed up my filevault-protected home directory. When I logged back in, I was able to browse the Backups.backupdb on the external drive, go to the users directory, and open the sparsebundle that was my filevault-protected home directory (after entering the password). I can browse through this backup of my home directory. However, when I try copying files from the backup of the home directory, I get an error:

The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in "(filename)" can't be read or written. (Error code -36).

I get this error for some files, but not all of them. I've tried running BatChmod to reset permissions on all files in my home directory, and then erasing the backup drive and having Time Machine recreate the backup. However I'm still having this problem.

I have also tried restoring the entire hard drive (to a 3rd external HD) by booting from the 10.6 DVD and going through the full-restore process. All of my files are fine when I restore using this method.

Is there something I should do so that I can restore individual files from the backup of my filevault sparsebundle? It is extremly inconvenient to have to do a full hard drive restore if all I want is a file or two, and of course if the motherboard on my mini dies and I can't get a close enough replacement computer, then I could really be up a creek.

Thanks,

John F
New York

Mac Mini core 2 duo, Mac OS X (10.6.2), 4Gb memory, 500Gb hd

Posted on Feb 16, 2010 7:23 AM

Reply

Answer 1

V.K.

Level 9

56,174 points

Feb 16, 2010 7:34 AM in response to feinberj

feinberj wrote:
I've got filevault turned on for my mac Mac Mini (10.6.2). I'm using Time Machine to back up to a firewire drive. There's plenty of space - my Mini hd has 250 Gb of 500 used, and I'm backing up to a 750Gb partition on the external drive. The initial backup went OK, and when I logged out it backed up my filevault-protected home directory. When I logged back in, I was able to browse the Backups.backupdb on the external drive, go to the users directory, and open the sparsebundle that was my filevault-protected home directory (after entering the password). I can browse through this backup of my home directory. However, when I try copying files from the backup of the home directory, I get an error:

The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in "(filename)" can't be read or written. (Error code -36).

I get this error for some files, but not all of them. I've tried running BatChmod to reset permissions on all files in my home directory, and then erasing the backup drive and having Time Machine recreate the backup. However I'm still having this problem.

I have also tried restoring the entire hard drive (to a 3rd external HD) by booting from the 10.6 DVD and going through the full-restore process. All of my files are fine when I restore using this method.

Is there something I should do so that I can restore individual files from the backup of my filevault sparsebundle?

Don't try to restore files individually by hand using finder. TM backups are protected by very restrictive ACLs and are not designed to be accessed that way.

you can restore the whole sparse bundle with the home directory from TM interface. you should be logged in as a different user when you do this. the easiest is to be logged in as root so as not to deal with any permissions issues.
another thing you might try is doing it from command line instead of finder. this is also not the designed way but might work where finder copy doesn't.
to do this run the following terminal command after you mount the sparse bundle with backups of the home directory


ditto --noacl path/to/source/file /path/to/target/directory

here path/to/source file is the path to the file in the sparse bundle you want to restore and path/to target directory is the path to the folder where you want to copy it to. an easy way to get the path to an item is to drag that item to the terminal window. make sure that you have all the spaces correctly in the command.

It is extremly inconvenient to have to do a full hard drive restore if all I want is a file or two, and of course if the motherboard on my mini dies and I can't get a close enough replacement computer, then I could really be up a creek.

Thanks,

John F
New York

Reply