Migration Assistant can't find my hard drive - can you help?

laerm wrote:

. . .

(I know a fresh install is better

Rarely on a Mac.

I can see it from the "Browse other Time Machine backups" menu, so that's good.

Take another look at the recent backups that way. See if the top-level Applications, System, and Library folders appear.

Also look in Users; your home folder(s) should be there.

Let us know what you find.

Pondini wrote:

laerm wrote:

. . .

(I know a fresh install is better

Rarely on a Mac.

Oh yes? Hunh. Well, glad I did that right even if I did not know so. 🙂

Take another look at the recent backups that way. See if the top-level Applications, System, and Library folders appear.

Also look in Users; your home folder(s) should be there.

Let us know what you find.

No, those top-level directories are not there. In fact, I have to finagle around a bit to find my old user folder (which looks intact).

Micah

EDIT: I just let Spotlight troll through the TM disk. It has found those top-level folders only in the oldest backup possible.

Drat. 😟

You've been bitten by a bug we're just identifying: for some reason, Time Machine stops backing-up some or all of those folders. See Serious Time Machine bug on Mountain Lion.

Glad you're good at finagling; you get to do some more.

You'll need a temporary Admin account to work with; create one if necessary, via System Preferences > Users & Groups. Log on to it.

If there's a user account with the exact same name as the old home folder, delete it.

Via the Finder, drag the old home folder from the most recent backup to the /Users folder on the Mac.

Create an Admin user account with the exact same short name (Account name) as the home folder. When you click Create User, you'll see this:

Click Use Existing Folder, obviously.

That should get your user account back intact.

But you will have other things missing:

All your extra applications -- added Apple stuff, like iLife and iWork, plus 3rd-party apps, and the serial numbers/purchase keys for them. You can re-download any you got from the Apple Store for free, using the same AppleID you purchased them with. If you had, say, iLife apps purchased on disc, you can reinstall them if you can find the disc.

System-wide things like printer drivers, system settings, Internet plug-ins, etc.

Let us know how it goes, or if you have further questions or problems.

So what you're saying is that, while I just took a lovely two-week vacation, I will need another one after ******* around with this? 😢

Thanks for the info. I'm thankful it's an obvious solution, even if it is a crappy one. I'm also glad this is a bug Apple already knows about, but it makes me less satisfied with being an Apple user (and I was already starting to slide down that slope). That's neither here nor there, though...

What are your thoughts on restoring the Applications folder I found in the oldest backup? It's from 10.6.8, sure, but at least it will give me a head start on which apps need updating/reinstalling. And the Application Support directory is still in my user library, so maybe some stuff will work well. I think I may learn a lesson here and no longer install apps for all users as well.

Thanks very much for your help. I will get on this and get back to you if I have any further questions.

Micah

PS: I just read the other message board post you linked to. If I can give you any information bug-report-wise, let me know how. I won't be destroying the evidence for some time yet (my user folder is 160GB: that'll take some time to copy over...).

laerm wrote:

So what you're saying is that, while I just took a lovely two-week vacation, I will need another one after ******* around with this? 😢

Maybe, maybe not. Depends mostly on how many extra apps you have/had, and whether you have the discs and/or download locations and purchase data.

I'm also glad this is a bug Apple already knows about,

That's not certain, yet, but they will. We know the result, but haven't a clue as to the cause, yet, so tracking it down will not be easy for them.

but it makes me less satisfied with being an Apple user (and I was already starting to slide down that slope). That's neither here nor there, though...

I understand, but this is the kind of thing that happens to the best sometimes. I can't tell you how many times i've posted: No hardware lasts forever, and no backup app is perfect. Then I go on to recommend keeping "secondary" backups, at the least, with a different app. That's several places on my website, too.

What are your thoughts on restoring the Applications folder I found in the oldest backup? It's from 10.6.8, sure, but at least it will give me a head start on which apps need updating/reinstalling.

Yeah, might be worthwhile, again depending on your situation.

You'll be able to identify PPC apps easily (you'd already replaced them). The easiest way to do that is from the Apple Icon in your menubar > About This Mac > More Info > System Report. Select Software > Applications in the sidebar, then sort the Kind column to pick out the PPC indication (I forget exactly what it is).

Some Intels and Universals won't be compatible, either, but you won't know that until you try to use them.

But you're still likely to have trouble with "complex" apps, since /Library was lost. See Transferring Applications so I don't have to retype it.

And the Application Support directory is still in my user library, so maybe some stuff will work well. I think I may learn a lesson here and no longer install apps for all users as well.

Probably not a good idea, as you'll see in the above link. Secondary (etc.) backups are the way to go. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #27 for more, and some suggestions.

Thanks very much for your help. I will get on this and get back to you if I have any further questions

😎 And do keep us posted.

Message was edited by: Pondini

Pondini wrote:

Maybe, maybe not. Depends mostly on how many extra apps you have/had, and whether you have the discs and/or download locations and purchase data.

Well, my issue is more that this is my work computer and requires a weird jumble of a few different Python versions and a particular C installation which takes a day to get set up... The other stuff, fine, I have all discs and whatever. Scraping up some licenses might be tough, though...too bad those don't all live together somewhere. That'd be handy.

I understand, but this is the kind of thing that happens to the best sometimes. I can't tell you how many times i've posted: No hardware lasts forever, and no backup app is perfect. Then I go on to recommend keeping "secondary" backups, at the least, with a different app. That's several places on my website, too.

Yeah, true, and after posting it I thought I sounded needlessly whiny. What kind of company Apple is these days is not the company they were 5, 10, 15, 20, etc years ago, so I suppose there's no sense worrying about it.

Point being CarbonCopyCloner, here I come!

Yeah, might be worthwhile, again depending on your situation.

You'll be able to identify PPC apps easily (you'd already replaced them). The easiest way to do that is from the Apple Icon in your menubar > About This Mac > More Info > System Report. Select Software > Applications in the sidebar, then sort the Kind column to pick out the PPC indication (I forget exactly what it is).

Some Intels and Universals won't be compatible, either, but you won't know that until you try to use them.

But you're still likely to have trouble with "complex" apps, since /Library was lost. See Transferring Applications so I don't have to retype it.

I used upgrading to 10.8 as an excuse to stop using a particular PPC app I didn't like, so I'm happy where I am in that regard. 😉

That was my thinking: some stuff will work, some won't. Only one way to find out and then I'll know what actually needs a real install. I'm not going to bother copying over some of the giant apps, like Office or Adobe, because, yeah, they need an install, but most of my other stuff is pretty light...fingers crossed.

Again, thanks for the help. Do you need me to chip in anything in that other thread, the one with you and Topher Kessler talking? I don't want my loss to have been for naught...

Micah

laerm wrote:

. . .

Scraping up some licenses might be tough, though...too bad those don't all live together somewhere. That'd be handy.

Many apps put them in /Library. But I started keeping text copes in a folder, so I know where it is, and don't have to depend on them putting it someplace where Migration/Setup Assistant will find it.

Yeah, true, and after posting it I thought I sounded needlessly whiny. What kind of company Apple is these days is not the company they were 5, 10, 15, 20, etc years ago, so I suppose there's no sense worrying about it.

And we don't even know if Time Machine is the culprit yet -- this may well be caused by some other app, even a 3rd-party app, doing something obscene to the prefs file. TM may be an innocent victim. You'd think it could withstand anything like that, but until Apple gets a look at the damaged files, it's hard to tell.

Point being CarbonCopyCloner, here I come!

😎 It's a very good app, with excellent support (better than Apple gives Time Machine, but it's a one-product shop).

Office or Adobe, because, yeah, they need an install, but most of my other stuff is pretty light...fingers crossed.

Some of the Adobe stuff is so screwy, even Migration/Setup Assistant can't find all the pieces it puts all over the place. Always need a reinstall.

Again, thanks for the help. Do you need me to chip in anything in that other thread, the one with you and Topher Kessler talking? I don't want my loss to have been for naught...

I don't think so, but will post back if we do. Thanks for the offer.

You're quite welcome -- glad you're at least most of the way back. 🙂

Hi Pondini -

Thanks again for the help. One final question (things are going as best as can be over here): what do you recommend for my Time Machine now? Should I erase it and start over? Do you think if I just let OS X use TM as it is supposed to without altering what it's already backed-up it will keep ignoring those missing directories?

Thanks...

Micah

laerm wrote:

. . .

(things are going as best as can be over here):

Great! 🙂

what do you recommend for my Time Machine now? Should I erase it and start over? Do you think if I just let OS X use TM as it is supposed to without altering what it's already backed-up it will keep ignoring those missing directories?

We haven't identified the culprit yet, but it looks like this is being caused by some app or process, likely from a 3rd party. Here's the main thread where we're 'cussin and discussin it: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5080333

We've found a few users where, in the past, it was intermittent, of all things. So we don't know if the fix will "stick" indefinitely.

At least until we get a better handle on it, I'd recommend checking your backups occasionally to assure the top-level Applications, Library, and System folders are there. If so, you're cool.

If not, run the fix again (#A4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. And, see if you can help locate the culprit -- some app that you ran about the time TM stopped backing-them up. If you notice it within 24 hours (so you can pinpoint it within an hour), we may want to look for a clue in your system logs for that period.

Thanks!

This seems to have worked for me, 5 years later, after a High Sierra install gone awry. 🙂