Error occurred while restoring from the TimeMachine backup

KidVid wrote:

. . .

booted to Lion on my new test HD. Then did a command R restart to boot to its Recovery HD and do a TimeMachine backup from there. I used the oldest TimeMachine Backup file I could find and still receive the same error.

Very strange. There must be something missing or damaged in your backups that Disk Utility can't detect. The fact that it was failing so quickly sure sounded like it was something wrong with the installer, not the backups.

Eventually, once you get back in operation, you may want to erase that drive and let TM start over fresh.

Im thinking I could try to run Migration Assistant but exclude Applications

Yes, that sounds like your best option now.

Assuming that works, you can try running it again, selecting Applications and excluding all user accounts. If that fails, you may have all your 3rd-party apps, but some (the "complex" ones) may not work properly as their support files didn't get transferred. You'll have to reinstall those from the original discs or re-download them.

I not sure if unchecking all the boxes and dragging all my drives into the privacy box is all I need to do to disable Spotlight.

Don't worry about unchecking the boxes -- that just controls what data is presented. The Privacy panel determines what gets indexed.

I cant remember how to get to the Migration Assistantfrom the newly loaded Lion.

If you install Lion on an empty partition, when it starts up you'll be asked if you want to transfer your stuff. That's Setup Assistant, and the best way to do it. See Using Setup Assistant on Lion for details.

If you did an upgrade install, Migration Assistant (very similar to Setup Assistant) is an app in your Applications/Utilities folder. See Using Migration Assistant on Lion.

Mr. Pondini,

In a closed, archived Apple Support discussion I saw your advice to run Time Machine (TM) excluding Applications. I did it and it appears to have solved my problem. So I just wanted to say thank you. I am not sure why it worked but so far so good.

Background:

What does this mean? And what if anything do I do next? Thank you so much....

Commish of TX wrote:

Mr. Pondini,

In a closed, archived Apple Support discussion I saw your advice to run Time Machine (TM) excluding Applications. I did it and it appears to have solved my problem. So I just wanted to say thank you. I am not sure why it worked but so far so good.

I don't recommend that as a normal practice -- I suspect it was meant to help diagnose a problem -- most likely, a problem with a file in an Application.

I discovered it was the hourly TM backups causing it; or I could trigger a shut down by simply instructing TM to Back Up Now and then waiting for it to hit a particular spot in the process

It's extremely rare for a problem with Time Machine to cause a system crash -- it almost always fails with a message, or on rare occasions the backup process will crash.

Is your entire system crashing, so you have to restart, or is your user getting logged-off?

Obviously, you need to find what that "particular spot" is. With a bit of luck, there may be a message in your logs. Use the widget in #A1 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting to display the backup messages from your logs. Locate the most recent failed backup in question, then copy and post all the messages here.

Also, what version of OSX are you running, and what are you backing-up to (external HD, Time Capsule, etc)?

If nothing there has a file name in it, you might want to use the Console application per the pink box in #A1 to look at the logs directly. But don't filter for backupd as mentioned there; locate the backup messages, then see if there are other messages about the same time, sent by other processes. If so, copy and post that portion here (not a screenshot, and not pages and pages, please).

However, It's quite possible that the message doesn't make it to the log before the crash -- if not, you may have to do some trial and error to find the problem. That may be easier if you have another drive (or partition) you can use temporarily. It won't need to be very large.

Thank you for responding. It is an entire system shut-down that occurs. A gray colored transparent "curtain" descends slowly down the screen and then a message in about 6 languages appears saying that I have to restart -- and to use the power button to do that. No other message is given as to what happened. OSX 10.7.4 Backing up to a Time Capsule.

Will get started on the assignment you've given me on Monday. Thanks!

Commish of TX wrote:

Thank you for responding. It is an entire system shut-down that occurs. A gray colored transparent "curtain" descends slowly down the screen and then a message in about 6 languages appears saying that I have to restart -- and to use the power button to do that.

Ah, that's a kernel panic.

See this Apple article: OS X Lion: If “You need to restart your computer” appears

KidVid wrote:

I was originally guided through a series of great trouble shooting steps by Pondini. My issue was traced to something in the Settings.

I don't think it was settings. And the settings you're talking about, in either Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant, are limited -- only system-wide settings, like your time zone, power management/energy saver, Time Machine, etc.; not settings for applications.

The solution was to just load the OS (Lion) onto the new Hard Drive and when prompted to “Restore From Time Mach Backup” I just un check the settings box. For others having this issue I have read that the issue could reside in the Applications or in the User. Again mine was in the settings.

Your previous post said it was Applications, not settings.

And it was, apparently, nothing wrong with either your Applications or Settings, but something on the backup drive.

Update: This week I had to go through this all again when choosing to migrate to a Solid State Drive… and again I had to uncheck the settings box to be successful.

Please explain. Were you using Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant? Exactly what did you do, and exactly what happened?

Having to restore all my settings is annoying and I wish there was a way to find out exactly what setting is causing this issue.

What settings are you referring to?

To anyone that is unable to find any solution to this issue.. you may want to consider a drive cloning software like “Carbon Copy” etc. It’s a workaround but be careful… what if you really needed to restore from a dead boot drive?

Yes, it's always prudent to keep "secondary" backups. Often a clone, like CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper, is good.

Does anybody know If there is a “Time Machine” type of backup in Carbon Copy?

No. CCC can be set to "archive" older copies of files, but it's different from Time Machine -- you can only do a full restore from the last backup, not an earlier one.