Will not boot after Time Machine Restore

Question

Level 1

15 points

Will not boot after Time Machine Restore

My hard drive corrupted so I erased partition and restored from two different (one at a time with erase in between) time machine backups from several days apart, but once restore is complete computer will not boot.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.6), Airport Extreme & Express

Posted on Feb 22, 2011 6:35 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 22, 2011 10:46 AM in response to gns1013

gns1013 wrote:
My hard drive corrupted so I erased partition and restored from two different (one at a time with erase in between) time machine backups from several days apart, but once restore is complete computer will not boot.

Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.

You might try booting in "verbose mode" ( http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1492) to see if you see any messages that might explain the problem. You could also reinstall OS X over the top of what's on your boot disk. That shouldn't disturb any user files.

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Answer 2

keg55

Level 6

11,743 points

Feb 22, 2011 11:45 AM in response to gns1013

Boyd's correct.
I had the same issue running 10.6.6 and re installed 10.6.3 from my OS DVD. I was able to get back to my desktop then I ran the 10.6.6 combo update and finally used the Disk Utility to repair permissions. All my data and apps were still there. I had to reinstall one of my apps so keep that in mind.

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Answer 3

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Feb 22, 2011 4:10 PM in response to gns1013

Did you use your +Snow Leopard+ disc? If you used a Leopard disc, that's the problem.

But either way, as keg55 says, just reinstall OSX from your Snow Leopard disc. Your Mac should start up fine; then download and install the 10.6.6 "combo" update. Info and download available at: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1349 Be sure to do a +Repair Permissions+ via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) afterwards.

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Answer 4

Feb 23, 2011 8:33 PM in response to gns1013

I had very similar happen today. 10.6.6 corrupted, restored from 2-1/2 years of Time Machine backups, tried both most recent and a 24-hour-old backup, neither one would boot. Installed Sno Lep 10.6.0 and it booted.

I'm nervous about applying the 10.6.6 combo update. Will that truly give me exactly what I would have gotten if the TM restore had worked? It sounds fishy somehow.

Also, just out of curiosity, ... why did these TM restores fail to, well, restore our systems? :-/

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Answer 5

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Feb 23, 2011 8:44 PM in response to Chap Harrison

Chap Harrison wrote:
. . .
I'm nervous about applying the 10.6.6 combo update. Will that truly give me exactly what I would have gotten if the TM restore had worked? It sounds fishy somehow.

No, it will get you a fresh, up-to-date version of OSX, instead of the apparently damaged one on your backups.

Also, just out of curiosity, ... why did these TM restores fail to, well, restore our systems? :-/

Apparently, something in your installation of OSX was corrupted; those changes were backed-up, so when you did a full system restore, the damaged/missing objects were brought back along with all the other stuff.

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Answer 6

Feb 24, 2011 8:32 AM in response to Pondini

Pondini wrote:

Chap Harrison wrote:
. . .
I'm nervous about applying the 10.6.6 combo update. Will that truly give me exactly what I would have gotten if the TM restore had worked? It sounds fishy somehow.

No, it will get you a fresh, up-to-date version of OSX, instead of the apparently damaged one on your backups.

After having done that (and subsequently running Software Update, which added a few more updates), the machine booted up.

However:

I was surprised that, when I first launched Mail, it went through its "Import Mail" process.

Repair permissions reports that it has detected +and repaired+ a lot of Java VM-related errors - but it apparently does not actually repair them.

And, Time Machine reports that it cannot do a backup because "the backup disk is not available". (I can locate it just fine with the Finder). When I go to SysPrefs > Time Machine and click Select Disk... or Options, I get a perpetual SPOD and have to force-quite SysPrefs.

Any thoughts? I'm thinking that I should try and determine the last time I restarted +prior to+ the corruption, and restore from a backup prior to that.

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Answer 7

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Feb 24, 2011 9:28 AM in response to Chap Harrison

Chap Harrison wrote:
. . .
I was surprised that, when I first launched Mail, it went through its "Import Mail" process.

Yes, it often does that. So does iCal, on occasion. Odd, but not a problem.

Repair permissions reports that it has detected +and repaired+ a lot of Java VM-related errors - but it apparently does not actually repair them.

Ditto. And see [Mac OS X: Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions messages that you can safely ignore|http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448].

And, Time Machine reports that it cannot do a backup because "the backup disk is not available". (I can locate it just fine with the Finder). When I go to SysPrefs > Time Machine and click Select Disk... or Options, I get a perpetual SPOD and have to force-quite SysPrefs.

The preferences file may be damaged. Try a "full reset" of Time Machine, per #A4 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

However . . . don't do a backup until you're sure you've got what you want, where you want it. First, everything you put back on your system is treated as new, and will be backed-up again. Second, if you need to use +Setup Assistant+ or +Migration Assistant+ again, they always use the most recent backup.

Any thoughts? I'm thinking that I should try and determine the last time I restarted prior to the corruption, and restore from a backup prior to that.

Possible, but it may not help much, if at all, especially if you can get everything working.

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Answer 8

Feb 24, 2011 11:41 AM in response to Pondini

Pondini wrote:

Chap Harrison wrote:
And, Time Machine reports that it cannot do a backup because "the backup disk is not available". (I can locate it just fine with the Finder). When I go to SysPrefs > Time Machine and click Select Disk... or Options, I get a perpetual SPOD and have to force-quite SysPrefs.

The preferences file may be damaged. Try a "full reset" of Time Machine, per #A4 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting| http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html ] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

However . . . don't do a backup until you're sure you've got what you want, where you want it. First, everything you put back on your system is treated as new, and will be backed-up again. Second, if you need to use +Setup Assistant+ or +Migration Assistant+ again, they always use the most recent backup.

Thanks - that troubleshooting document looks very useful.

The total number of files on the disk dropped from 1.1M to 0.9M after I restored. Certainly some of that is cache, temp, Trash, etc., but I absolutely want to be able to dip into my now-obsolete backup of the last 2.5 years of history. Pretty sure there's room on the TC for both, but wanted to make absolutely sure that the "full reset" wouldn't somehow prevent me from that. I don't think there's any way for me to be sure I've got everything I want, where I want it. (I do a lot of Perl / CPAN stuff that creates directories that are not within my home folder, and I expect I'll continue to encounter surprises for months to come.)

On the "up" side, my 'pooter seems a lot snappier now!!

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Answer 9

jmo85331

Level 1

0 points

Mar 7, 2011 11:40 AM in response to Chap Harrison

I had drive corruption due to some home re-modeling and an electrician that bounced house power (note to self: UPS for Xmas). I had to unfortunately do the WiFi TC restore @ 8 hours. My heart fell when my Mac just hung at the spinner for 20+ minutes. Tonight I'll do a DVD Snow Leopard installation over top ... and hope for the best.

At this point, should I consider all previous backups suspect? I can't say for certain that the system corruption occurred due to the dropped power. And, since a complete backup needs to be done, should I just kill all the others? Is there a "snapshot" that TC supports, where I can mark something as "last golden backup"?

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Answer 10

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Mar 7, 2011 12:04 PM in response to jmo85331

jmo85331 wrote:
I had drive corruption due to some home re-modeling and an electrician that bounced house power (note to self: UPS for Xmas).

Don't wait that long.

I had to unfortunately do the WiFi TC restore @ 8 hours. My heart fell when my Mac just hung at the spinner for 20+ minutes. Tonight I'll do a DVD Snow Leopard installation over top ... and hope for the best.

It would have been 2-3 times faster via Ethernet. 😟

At this point, should I consider all previous backups suspect? I can't say for certain that the system corruption occurred due to the dropped power.

No telling, of course. If you used a Leopard disc, no, there's not necessarily anything wrong with your backups. The Leopard installer can copy everything from a Snow Leopard backup, but it can't "bless" it to make it bootable.

If there was damage to the backup of OSX, that could explain why it wouldn't boot. There might or might not be other damage. Most likely, anything damaged would not have been restored at all, but it's possible you have some damaged/corrupted stuff.

You might want to repair your backups, per #A5 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum). That won't necessarily find everything, but if it says the file structure "appears to be ok," they probably are.

And, since a complete backup needs to be done, should I just kill all the others?

Depends on how much space you have.

Is there a "snapshot" that TC supports, where I can mark something as "last golden backup"?

No. You can manually delete things, but you can't control how TM "thins" your backups.

If in doubt, don't resume backing up to the TC until you know you've got everything you want (or can get) off of it.

Get a good external HD, perhaps a portable model. Make a "bootable clone" of your system on it, and update it regularly. See #27 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum) for some suggestions.

When you can, either resume backing-up to the current backups on your TC, or erase it and let Time Machine start fresh.

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Answer 11

jmo85331

Level 1

0 points

Mar 7, 2011 6:04 PM in response to Pondini

System back - whew! A major "thank you

" to those that posted their experiences here.

Now I've got to figure out how/when to do the next backup. Thanks for the recommendation for the external drive - I'll be hitting Amazon or Newegg this weekend.

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Answer 12

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Mar 7, 2011 6:09 PM in response to jmo85331

jmo85331 wrote:
System back - whew/___sbsstatic___/migration-images/migration-img-not-avail.png A major "thank you " to those that posted their experiences here.

Yay/___sbsstatic___/migration-images/migration-img-not-avail.png 🙂

Now I've got to figure out how/when to do the next backup. Thanks for the recommendation for the external drive - I'll be hitting Amazon or Newegg this weekend.

One caution: if you're considering a Western Digital, check it out here: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=1787. But note the disclaimer that they don't support it +*at all.+*

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Answer 13

Aug 28, 2015 6:59 AM in response to Pondini

Hello,

I am having a similar problem.

Having recovered from a snow leopard disk, with a snow leopard timemachine backup, the now recovered hard drive is not bootable.

When I tried to install Snow Leopard over the disk to make it bootable as was suggested above, the installation menu tells me "This disk is used for time machine backups" and will not allow me to install over it.

When it recovered, it named the disk "Time Machine Backups" is that the problem?

I appreciate any advice you might have.

Thanks

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