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I have an iMac (17") about 2 years old. It seemed a bit slow so stupid me decided to erase the HD and restore it. I made a backup using Disk Utilities. When I tried to restore things using Disk Utilities in the Snow Leopard DVD. it does not work. I get this message: Could not validate source. Bad file descriptor. What am I doing wrong and how do I get the information that is in the dmg file. Thanks for any help. Angelo
You should re-install the OS from the original discs that came with your machine. Then using your backup (which I hope you had on an external HD) you can restore your files. Your profile doesn't say what version of OS X you are using, if it's Leopard or Snow Leopard once you have OS X installed on your internal HD then your can use your Time Machine backup for restoring your files.
Just to provide a bit more information. I followed the guidance in the article: MAC OS X v10.5, v10.6: How to back up and restore your files. Old article number was 106941 and the modified one (Jan 26, 2010) was HT1553. Thanks.
If you did not backup your files to an external source and then formatted your drive then essentially you have wiped out everything on your drive.
Because you have Snow Leopard (10.6.x) you should be using
Time Machine at a minimum for doing backup's. Many people (including myself) use 2 external drives for backup's, one being Time Machine that does incremental backups but is not a bootable disk. The second drive people use to make a bootable clone of their internal drive, that way if they lose their internal drive due to failure or other means they have a backup they can run their computer from.
I think you have just been taught a lesson, hopefully not a terribly expensive one however you have lost everything that was on the internal drive before you formatted it.
I am not the brightest light on the block but I know enough not to erase my hard drive without backup. As I said originally, I made a disk image using Apple's Disk Utility and I followed the guidance listed on the article I mentioned above. As I mentioned, when I try to restore the data, I gepaper,t the following message: Could not validate source. Bad file descriptor.
As far as lessons, I am willing to learn even as a Social Security recipient. The important information that I can't access is genealogy related, Quicken program (I have the information from the broker/company on hard copy) and some emails that I had saved in Mail. If I can't open the file, it will take quite a few hours to recover. I just liked the way I had things set up.
I got it, and I think I came across a little too harsh and for that I apologize. I'm hoping you didn't lose your genealogy and financial data, let's keep our fingers crossed!
If you aren't sure quite what to do you might want to make an appointment at an Apple Store and have someone help you out. As a worst case scenario if you did lose the genealogy information you might look into a data recovery service and they might be able to get it. It's not cheap but it may be possible. My recommendation is until you take it into an Apple Store and have it looked at to not do anything too intrusive. I'm not sure where you live but if you're too far from an Apple Store you can try
this link to locate an Apple Authorized Service Provider.
No offense taken. Before I go that direction, here something else. There is a disk image of the back up on my external HD. It will open if I double click on it. I have heard of invisible files and plists but know nothing about it. Could I drag the folders/files to the internal HD? I know this is not the way to move things or restore files. What do you think? As far as the Apple Store, I could go to St Louis or Indianapolis. Chicago is the nearest but not my cup of tea. Thanks.
I would advise against moving the files from your external HD to your internal, it might make more of a mess so better to leave well enough alone. I wasn't aware you had an external HD, did you use Time Machine for backing up? I wasn't able to locate the article you were referring to earlier.
Try this URL:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1553. Just to recap. I backed my internal HD to my external HD. Just like the article says. I named it 02-19-10 Macintosh HD Backup. The file has dmg after it. I think I followed all the steps in the article. Later.
OK, Let's be clear. I've copied the instructions for backing up and for restoring from the Article using the Disk Utility process. *Re-read them very carefully and ensure you are following the restore instructions to the letter!*
Also going forward please use Time Machine for backing up, it's incredibly easy to use.
_Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility_
1 Connect an external hard drive (FireWire or USB) that has sufficient free space to hold at least one copy of the contents of your Macintosh HD.
2 Start from your Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6 Install DVD. (Insert the disc, then restart and hold the C key.)
3 Select your language. Do not start an installation.
4 Choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
5 Select the disk you wish to back up (your source disk, such as Macintosh HD) in the source pane on the left.
6 Click the "New Image" button in the toolbar.
7 Give your image a useful name such as "04-15-2009 Macintosh HD backup". A date in the name makes it easy to tell when the backup was made.
Note: For additional security, you can encrypt the backup disk image. From the "Encryption:" pop-up menu, select either 128-bit or 256-bit AES encryption. When prompted enter a password for the encryption: Use the password assistant to help you make a good password, or see this link for information about how to choose a good password.
8 Be sure the Save destination is a location on your external hard disk, then click "Save" to continue.
9 Enter your admin name and password if prompted. The imaging process will begin. The time it takes to complete the imaging process depends on factors such as the amount of data on your Macintosh HD. Approximately 1 GB per minute will be imaged, depending on various factors.
10 When the process is complete, quit Disk Utility (press Command-Q).
11 Press Command-Q to quit the Mac OS X installer; you will be prompted to restart.
_Restoring the backup disk image's contents to your internal Mac OS X disk_
Note: If the Mac you are restoring to is not the same Mac you used to make the backup disk image, use _Migration Assistant_ instead of Disk Utility to properly transfer the data back to your Mac.
Important: These steps will overwrite data with the same name in the same location, such as files on your desktop and in your Home folder.
1 Connect the external disk you've backed up to.
2 Start from your Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6 Install DVD. (Insert the disc, then restart and hold the C key.)
3 Select your language. Do not start an installation.
4 Choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
5 Select your internal Mac OS X disk that you want to restore to.
6 Click the Restore tab.
7 Drag your internal disk to the "Destination:" field.
8 Click the "Image..." button next to the "Source:" field.
9 Navigate to the location of the backup image you want to restore (located on your external disk).
10 Click "Open" to continue.
11 Click the "Restore" button. Confirm you want to "Restore to Disk" by clicking "Restore" again. This will replace data on your Mac OS X volume with data from your backup that has the same name and is in the same location.
12 Enter your admin name and password when prompted. If the backup disk image is encrypted, enter the disk image password if necessary. The time it takes to restore from the image depends on factors such as the amount of data on your backup disk image.
I already had these instructions that I printed several days ago. The only thing I did not do is connect the external HD since it was connected all the time. As I said before when I try to restore the data, I get the following message: Could not validate source. Bad file descriptor.
All I am looking for is for someone to tell me what causes this error and how do I get around it? Lastly, I will give this up if some expert tells me it is a lost cause.
Did you get an answer or a clue to solve your problem?
I have excactly the same issue here. I followed the description above to the last letter. but all I get when I tries to restore is "Could not validate source. Bad file descriptor", and the restore halts.
