Cannot restore or migrate from Time Machine backup

Sounds like it might be a hardware problem. Try running this: Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test. Run the Extended tests(that may take an hour or so, depending on how much RAM you have). Write down any error code(s) it shows.

There must be a problem with a file, that Disk Utility/Disk Warrior can't catch (they only look at the directory, etc., structure, not the actual files).

One thing you might be able to do is retry the full system restore, per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. As noted near the bottom, you can display the Install Log while it's running; that probably won't show the file it's choking on, but it does show what section was being restored at the time. That can help in two ways:

First, assuming it's somewhere in a User folder (since Apps and System folders are the first things restored), you can install a fresh version of OSX and get it running.

Second, since you have a general idea where the problem is, you can log on to the affected user account and do selective restores of files in that area and beyond.

Aha! Error -36 is an I/O error, usually indicating some sort of problem with the content of the file (although it could be any of a number of other things).

One workaround is to have Migration Assistant omit the contents of the Music sub-folder in the affected user home folder.

Just how to do that depends on where you are:

How many user accounts are on the backups?

Do you have any working user accounts now (ie, can you log on to your system and use it)? If so, were any of them transferred?

shunsbridge wrote:

Just the one user account on the backup, the one mentioned in the log!

And I'm logged onto my system now with a new account, fresh from a clean install of the Snow Leopard DVD - so nothing from the original backup...

Ah, good.

Here's what you need to do: Create another (temporary) Admin user account. Log off the first one, and on to the new one, and delete the first one (and if there's a partial transferred account, delete it, too).

(This is necessary to maintain the transferred account's permission to the backups. The pink box in Problems after using Migration Assistant has an explanation.)

Then try Migration Assistant again, but select only that user account, and omit the Music sub-folder (it will transfer folder but not the contents). See Using Migration Assistant on Snow Leopard or Leopard if necessary.

If it fails again, see if you can find the new culprit in the log. If so, delete the transfrerred account and re-transfer it, omitting both the Music folder and the new one.

Once you get all you can, run MA again to get your Apps and other files, but omit the user account.

Log on to the transferred account, and use the "Star Wars" Time Machine display to selectively restore the contents of the Music folder (not the folder itself) and any others you had to exclude. That will probably fail on the same item(s), so you may have to do it in pieces, to avoid the problem(s).

That should get you 99.9% back to normal.

shunsbridge wrote:

All back to normal! Huge sigh of relief...

Yes, I'll bet! 🙂

Glad to hear it, and thanks for the feedback.

I'll definitely think again before relying on a backup of a system that wasn't running great in the first place though

Yup. I don't know if the problem could have been found otherwise, but it's always best to try that before employing the "nuclear" option. 😉