Error occurred while restoring from the TimeMachine backup

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KidVid Author

Level 1

17 points

Error occurred while restoring from the TimeMachine backup

I have an brand new HD that I want to restore from TimeMachine.

Erased and partitioned this brand new drive. Created 2 partitions and formatted as “OS Extended Journaled/ GUID.”

Did a “Command R recovery boot” and went through the steps to backup from TM to my new HD.

15 seconds into the restoration process Msg. reads:

“Error occurred while restoring from the backup.

Restart your computer and then try restoring again.”

Trouble shooting:

Luckily my original files and initial boot drive that TM was backing up from remains fine and I performed some more TM back ups as well as a TM backup onto another drive as well.

I even tried restoring to another empty drive with older backups and backups off of another HD and got the same error message.

All my BU’s and BU attempts have been within 10.7.3 on the same MP.

Thank you in advance for any help!!

Mac Pro 2X3 Ghz duel core intel xeon, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 16 GB Mem

Posted on May 16, 2012 4:55 PM

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Answer 1

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

May 16, 2012 8:54 PM in response to KidVid

Sounds like the backups may be damaged. Repair them, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting

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Answer 2

KidVid Author

Level 1

17 points

May 16, 2012 9:20 PM in response to Pondini

Again the two drives I have tried to back up to are new, erased and formatted as described above.

I did a "Repair Disk" on both and they each came up with:

"The partition map appears to be OK"

Again I have tried several of the Timemachine back up files from both drives. Both those drives also checked out "OK" in first Aid.

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Answer 3

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

May 16, 2012 9:28 PM in response to KidVid

KidVid wrote:

. . .

I did a "Repair Disk" on both and they each came up with:

"The partition map appears to be OK"

That's only the partition map. You also need to run Repair Disk on each of the partitions (indented under the main line for the drive). That's new in Lion -- in previous versions of OSX, running Repair Disk on the main line for the drive repaired all the partitions, but it doesn't anymore.

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Answer 4

KidVid Author

Level 1

17 points

May 16, 2012 11:00 PM in response to Pondini

Yes, the partition map is OK as well as each of the partitions on each drive:

The volume WesternDigital 250GB appears to be OK.

The volume WesternDigital 750GB appears to be OK.

And my other drive:

The volume Maxtor 500GB appears to be OK.

Rememebr in my troubleshooting I wanted to eliminate the possibility of a bad drive by having two separate hard drives available to try to back up to from TimeMachine. Each HD has been formatted as I have described above.

To eliminate the chance that the TimeMachine files were corrupted I have successfully used TimeMachine to write to two additional separate drives also.

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Answer 5

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

May 17, 2012 7:17 AM in response to KidVid

Very strange. 😟

About the only think I can think of is:

Something (the installer) on your Recovery HD may be damaged. There should be a copy of it on each of those external HDs. You won't see them normally, but if you start your Mac while holding the Alt/Option key, you'll see them, per the green box in Using the Recovery HD. See if you can do the restore from one of them.

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Answer 6

KidVid Author

Level 1

17 points

May 17, 2012 3:54 PM in response to Pondini

Thanks to Pondini for hanging with me though this.

For now I think we can assume the two fresh formatted empty drives that I would like to use as my future boot drives are ok.

I think we can also assume the TimeMachine files are ok since I was able to do time machine back ups onto two other separate drives.

I think you have me on the right track with a potential damaged (Lion’s hidden) Recovery HD.

In the past I have seen that “Startup Manger” showing all possible startup volumes. However today by restarting and holding the Alt/Option key will only take me to the “Utilies Menu”

I understand that when formatting a drive as being “GUID” it will create a hidden “Recovery HD” thus allowing me to see it by doing an Alt/Option Restart.

I Erased and reformatted my 2 test drives again as OSX Extended/ GUID and tried to Alt/Option Restart with again no “Startup Manager.”

Do you have any thoughts from here? Should I reinstall Lion onto one of my test drives?

Thank you again for your time and patience with my frustrating situation.

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Answer 7

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

May 17, 2012 4:11 PM in response to KidVid

KidVid wrote:

. . .

In the past I have seen that “Startup Manger” showing all possible startup volumes. However today by restarting and holding the Alt/Option key will only take me to the “Utilies Menu”

Do you mean this one?

If so, that's quite odd. That's what you should get via Cmd-R. Are you using a wired keyboard? Sometimes wireless ones aren't recognized quickly enough at startup.

I understand that when formatting a drive as being “GUID” it will create a hidden “Recovery HD” thus allowing me to see it by doing an Alt/Option Restart.

Not exactly. The first time you do a Time Machine backup (on 10.7.2 or later) to an external HD formatted GUID, it will copy the Recovery HD from your startup drive.

I Erased and reformatted my 2 test drives again as OSX Extended/ GUID and tried to Alt/Option Restart with again no “Startup Manager.”

If a Recovery HD was there, that erased it. 😟

Do you have any thoughts from here? Should I reinstall Lion onto one of my test drives?

Yes. 🙂 That should also create a new Recovery HD on that drive; you can then boot from it and do the restore.

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Answer 8

KidVid Author

Level 1

17 points

May 17, 2012 11:14 PM in response to Pondini

Yes, I am now able to Alt/ Option Restart to the “Startup Manager.”

I did another sucessful repair and a reformated the two empty drives as described at the top of this thread.

I also did another sucessful repair on the two drives that contain my Timemachine backup folders.

Within the “Startup Manger” I selected and booted from my TimeMachine backup drive and then tried my other TimeMachine Backup drive and then tried the “Recovery HD” again… all with no success. In these attempts I tried using my reformated empty drive and then the other one.

I reported at the top of this thread that “all my BU’s and BU attempts have been within 10.7.3” Ironically this evening I noticed that 10.7.4 was available but searched for any fixes to my issues and didn’t see any. I still think I should update to 10.7.4 then run TimeMachine on both drives then reformat each of my empty test drives again. Then again follow Pondini’s steps laid out in his Using the Recovery HD.

I hope I didn’t miss anything. This is all I can think of before unplugging and taking this heavy machine and hard drives into an Apple store. Any thoughts?

Thank you again for your time with my issue.

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Answer 9

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

May 18, 2012 8:05 AM in response to KidVid

On the assumption that the Recovery HD on your internal HD is damaged (not sure, but seems reasonable), reformatting your TM drives and running backups to them would copy the damaged Recovery HD.

I'm not sure, but I think reinstalling OSX on your internal HD will replace or update the Recovery HD.

If you have the time & bandwidth to download a fresh copy of Lion, here's what I'd suggest:

Go to the AppStore and look at updates. It should show Lion. Download it, but when presented with the Install window, don't click Continue yet.

Instead, copy the installer, per Making a Lion Install disc or partition. You can put it on a partition of an internal or external HD, or a Dual-Layer DVD. That will save you from having to download it yet again if you ever need it.

Then install Lion on your internal HD.

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Answer 10

KidVid Author

Level 1

17 points

May 18, 2012 3:29 PM in response to Pondini

These are the four hard drives I am using for troubleshooting:

1. Internal new 1TB drive

2. External erased and reformatted 500GB firewire drive

3. Internal original 500GB drive designated for TimeMachine with

~200Gigs of successful backup (Including entire bootdrive)

4. External erased and reformatted 300GB drive that I told

TimeMachine to back up to for testing purposes.

I have only erased and reformatted the first 2 empty drives to use as a future boot drive once I can finally restore from my TimeMachine files to one of them successfully.

My troubles all started when I couldn’t get my cpu to boot from my initial boot drive. That’s what has put me on this track. I have since repaired that boot drive with DiskWarrior to perfect order.

Through a lot of my trouble shooting, I have left that initial boot drive in but have since taken it out. I don’t have lion installed on any other drive. Again, my 2 test drives are empty.

I don’t know how long this old boot drive will remain in perfect order and am glad I have found that I cant use TimeMachine on this side of needing it desperately.

Pondini- Thank you again for hangin' in there with me. I think I understand your last recommendation:

Do I load a new copy of Lion from this location?:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-lion/id444303913?mt=12&ls=1

The suggestion of “coping the installer” is to have a hard copy like I used to in SnowLeopard etc. for a faster future install?

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Answer 11

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

May 18, 2012 3:42 PM in response to KidVid

KidVid wrote:

. . .

My troubles all started when I couldn’t get my cpu to boot from my initial boot drive. That’s what has put me on this track. I have since repaired that boot drive with DiskWarrior to perfect order.

That fixed the directories, etc., but (apparently) there are still some misssing files, and/or internal damage to some files (Neither Disk Utility nor Disk Warrior can detect that).

Do I load a new copy of Lion from this location?:

Not if it's going to charge you the $30. Go to the App Store and click Purchases in the toolbar, and you should see something like this:

Click the UPDATE button for OS X Lion. It's a big download, of course.

The suggestion of “coping the installer” is to have a hard copy like I used to in SnowLeopard etc. for a faster future install?

Yup, exactly. Just be sure to do it after the download is finished, but before you install Lion, because after installation it will be erased.

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Answer 12

KidVid Author

Level 1

17 points

May 19, 2012 3:27 PM in response to Pondini

I successfully loaded and installed Lion to a blank FW drive.

Tried the Migrate Assistant within that installation process.

I received the infamous “Transferring Files To Support Applications” right at the Less Than A Minute mark.

Comments are mixed on this known MA bug but the best solution I could find is to somehow disable the Spotlight Search.

I don’t know if this is advisable or even how to do it.

The other process I have tried since successfully loading Lion to my new harddrive is to Restart holding Alt/ Option and try booting and restoring from each of the TimeMachine drives and Recovery Drives with no success… just same result.

Any help would be sincerely appreciated!

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Answer 13

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

May 19, 2012 3:53 PM in response to KidVid

KidVid wrote:

. . .

I received the infamous “Transferring Files To Support Applications” right at the Less Than A Minute mark.

I believe those files are mostly (or entirely) in your top-level Applications folder; they're put there by "complex" apps -- typically, the ones that come with their own installers. They enable background processes, helper apps, etc.

Did your user accounts and home folders transfer over ok?

The other process I have tried since successfully loading Lion to my new harddrive is to Restart holding Alt/ Option and try booting and restoring from each of the TimeMachine drives and Recovery Drives with no success… just same result.

Not surprising, if our theory that your original Recovery HD was damaged is correct -- the copies of it on the TM drives are also damaged.

Can you start from the Recovery HD on the drive you just installed Lion on?

If you can, then, while running from it, you should be able to do the full restore from your backups to your new internal HD.

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Answer 14

KidVid Author

Level 1

17 points

May 19, 2012 4:50 PM in response to Pondini

Pondini: No, unfortunately my user accounts and home folders didn’t transfer.

I have tried the Alt/Option Restart and tried booting to the (what I think is) new Recovery HD within the Startup Manager then tried a “Restore From Time Machine Backup” with the same negative outcome. It just changes the name of the new drive Im trying to set up as the nickname of my old Bootdrive.

Pondini: What do you think of what Tom suggests here?:

http://tomsucks.wordpress.com/2008/01/07/transferring-files-to-support-applicati ons/

The comments in his Blog’s forum seem to be indicating that by somehow disabling spotlight then doing a Migration Assist from a new loaded Lion.

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Answer 15

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

May 19, 2012 5:06 PM in response to KidVid

KidVid wrote:

Pondini: No, unfortunately my user accounts and home folders didn’t transfer.

You might want to run MA again, but exclude Applications.

I have tried the Alt/Option Restart and tried booting to the (what I think is) new Recovery HD

If in doubt, start from the new drive, be sure it's selected in System Prefs > Startup Drive, shut down, then restart while holding Cmd+R. That should get the Recovery HD associated with the new drive.

It just changes the name of the new drive Im trying to set up as the nickname of my old Bootdrive.

Yeah, the first thing it does is erase and rename the destination.

Pondini: What do you think of what Tom suggests here?:

http://tomsucks.wordpress.com/2008/01/07/transferring-files-to-support-applicati ons/

The comments in his Blog’s forum seem to be indicating that by somehow disabling spotlight then doing a Migration Assist from a new loaded Lion.

First I've heard of it. But you can exclude a drive from indexing via System Prefs > Spotlight > Privacy.

Another thing you might try re: the full restore is, pick an earlier backup. The way and as quickly as it fails, it sounds like something damaged in the installer, but perhaps it's something badly corrupted on the backups. Perhaps an earlier one is ok.

Message was edited by: Pondini

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