Restoring from time machine to RAID0 - possible?

bogmarcin wrote:

give pls a step-by-step to your p.2:

I cannot give any more detail than that. I have no idea what hardware you have or how anything you have is configured.

Put simply, if I understand you correctly :

1) made RAID0 if you don't have it yet

2) install OSX on the RAID0

3) boot your fresh OSX (from the RAID0) and copy your data from TM using MA during initial set-up of your new OSX

Yes. That is correct. You can run Migration Assistant at any time.

PS. if I am to resort to MA, then why not to install the newest High Sierra? Isn't the MA equally able to restore from the previous versions of OSX, in my case from Sierra TM backup, with the same information loss?

There is no "resorting to" Migration Assistant. There is nothing wrong with Migration Assistant. It is just another way to do the exact same thing. It is, in fact, the exact same thing.

Migration Assistant can be used to import data from an old version of the operating system to a new one. However, I strongly suggest that you avoid High Sierra with any kind of Raid setup.

bogmarcin wrote:

Should I have done some bootable USB or sth before I've erased the disks on my Mac?

You should always keep your OS installers. People who upgraded to High Sierra found that their Sierra downloads had been removed from their list of Purchases in the Mac App Store. There is still a secret link I can give you if you don't have your Sierra installer. If you have some older OS version, then go to the Mac App Store and download the installer for it. Now.

You don't necessarily need a bootable USB or anything. As long as you have that installer, you should be able to reinstall that OS version. That being said, you should have some kind of bootable install medium. If you have a Raid, I assume that you should have hard disks laying around from which you can boot if you had to. If you don't, then you should probably seriously re-evaluate your machine's configuration.

btw, looks like you don't see much problems with the mess, so could you pls provide your step-by-step instruction with the view to restore as much as possible? It's important because the one thing all the related threads are typically lacking is simple step-by-step instructions.

As I mentioned in my first reply. I don't have a Raid and have never used one other than playing around with a JBOD quasi-raid. Just to say you have "a Raid" is meaningless. There are lots of possible configuration options and platforms. Which one you have makes all the difference in the world.

All I can give you are step-by-step instructions that you could use when your boot disk isn't going to be immediately bootable. For example, this might be because you've bought a new hard disk and installed it. In your case, you just have one extra setup to setup your Raid.

0) Boot your machine. If your Raid is not yet bootable, you will need to boot it somehow. You can use a bootable USB, a bootable external drive, or the recovery partition on your Time Machine backup. Since your startup disk has no configuration at all, you cannot use its built-in recovery partition, because it doesn't have one yet. Those are the preferred methods because you will be able to control what OS you want to install. You can also choose Internet Recovery and boot from your firmware. But with that option, you have less control over what OS version gets installed. It may install an old version that you need to upgrade. Or it may install the latest OS version, whether you want that or not.

1) Once the machine is running via some boot disk, you can rebuild your Raid. However your Raid is supposed to be configured, do that. If you were booting from the Raid before, you should be able to continue to do that after restoring from backup.

2) Once your Raid is configured and exports itself as a single disk, then you can reinstall the operating system onto that disk. This is where that OS install app is used.

3) Once the machine can boot itself, you can run Migration Assistant to restore all of your data.

As for the "full-blown", I don't see how there is no difference between MA and full-blown TM restoration, after all after the latter you should get absolutely everything as before a crash, including every last setting of your system and apps, so what do you mean "they are the same"?

OK. Now you are talking about something else entirely. If you are concerned about crash recovery, you need to take a step back and decide exactly what kind of Raid configuration you want to use, for what purpose, and what hardware to use. But that is a side topic and I'll ignore that for now.

There is no difference between Migration Assistant and "full blown" Time Machine restore. They are both, equally "full blown". Migration Assistant just gives you some additional options. The "full blown" Time Machine restore is just Migration Assistant with all boxes checked. When you do a new setup with Time Machine restoration, it essentially follows the same steps I've outlined before, and then runs Migration Assistant. It just doesn't handle Raids, at least as far as I know. You just have to do the steps manually so that you can configure your Raid. But the last step is always the same. It is always Migration Assistant.

Please remember, you keep asking me for specifics but you have not provided me with any such specifics. I have no idea what machine you are running, what operating system, what operations you perform, what kinds of disks you have, what kind of Raid you have - nothing. That is why I keep giving you general information.

High Sierra was just released a few days ago. It includes a brand new disk file system. It is designed for Apple notebooks like MacBook* with a single SSD - and that's it. You are free to try to install it on your Raid if you want. But before you start, make sure that you realize that probably no one has ever attempted that before. At a minimum, you will want to purchase another big external disk to use for Time Machine. Should you ignore my advice and update to High Sierra, you shouldn't touch your existing Time Machine backup.

Here is the download link to Sierra: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT208202

Again, if you haven't downloaded the stand-alone installers for your current operating system and Sierra, if you aren't yet running that, then you need to download those Right Now. It took a fair amount of complaining and bug reporting to get Apple to re-post Sierra for download. This advice applies to every single Mac user, Raid or not.

A recovery volume is just a boot volume. It will get your machine running. It also includes Disk Utility that will allow you to repartition and/or reformat your hard disk so that you can install an operating system on it. However, Disk Utility may work in your case because of your Raid. I have no information about your configuration. I don't know if you can use Disk Utility or not.

But once you get the machine booted somehow (Recovery or external boot disk), and once you configure your Raid (however that happens), you can find the OS installer (for Sierra or earlier) on whatever external disk you have connected, and launch it.

I cannot give you any information more specific than that. There are at least a dozen other ways to do this. Half a dozen of those will lead to complete catastrophe. This is as good as it gets. Raid configurations on a Mac are very rare. Booting from them is even more rare. If you are unable to rebuild the system yourself without step-by-step instructions, then stop now. Buy a new Mac and use Migration Assistant (sigh) to restore from your most recent backup. That is the only procedure I can give you that is guaranteed to be safe.

OS installers downloaded from the App Store will go into the Applications folder. You can copy it from there. Be aware that in order to easily run it, you will need a full operating system complete with the Finder. A recovery boot may not give you that. I don't know if you can launch it from the recovery terminal.

Hello bogmarcin,

What exactly are you reading? I don't have a Raid array so I can't test it. But I don't see why it would be a problem. I definitely don't see why you would need some 3rd party tool.

In a worst case scenario, you would have to construct a new Raid. You might have to boot from your Time Machine Recovery partition or via Internet Recovery and then rebuild the Raid. But once that is done, you could always run Migration Assistant to do the bulk of the restore.

There here is no difference between Migration Assistant and a restore from backup. They are both "full blown". With a Raid, you might have problems getting a bootable OS installed. I don't know what software and/or hardware is running said Raid. You may not be able to restore in one step. But once you get the Raid booted and running, Migration Assistant will do the job. I suggest you keep a copy of the OS installer you want to use. Otherwise, you might be restricted to whatever Apple wants you to use.