Restoring data

[Edward]

Before sending my powerbook back to Apple for some repairs I created a Sparse Image of the hard drive. I just got my computer back from Apple. They nuked everything I had on my drive and I am now trying to recover the data I saved in the Sparse Image, which I have copied over from an external drive. In Disk Utility I constantly get the message that the hard drive is full.

Can I safely select "Erase Destination Disk" and have all contents of the Sparse Image copied on to the hard drive? Or will the Erase Destination also erase the Sparse Image itself? One more question, is it safer to restore using the Saprse Image on the Powerbook or the one on my external drive?

[dnanian]

To recover the data, you don't want to copy the image file itself to the drive. Rather, you want to copy its contents.

See the "Recovering from a disaster" section of the User's Guide, Edward. It goes into detail about exactly how to do this, and I think will prove useful.

Hope that helps!

[Edward]

Dave,

Thanks for the clarification. I have two follow-up questions: when I go into Disk Utility to restore the Sparse Image on my hard drive, should I click "erase destination"? What I want to accomplish is removing the OS 10.2 with the OS 10.4.6 which resides in the Sparse Image. I just want to make sure that "erase destination" will let me reach this goal without messing up the hard drive. I assume that the Sparse Image has all of the libraries and "invisible files" that were on the original hard drive before i sent it to Apple.

Second: in the User's Guide you say that I should restart the computer with the OPTION key held down. If I use "erase destination," do I still need to hold down this key? I'd think that the restored data would simply replace the OS 10.2 data and just let me log in as usual, withou any special key commands.

Thanks in advance for your patience!

[dnanian]

You won't need to use Option in this case. You'll need to use Tiger's Disk Utility to do it, using the "alternate" restore method described there.

And, yes, you'll want to erase...

[Edward]

Dave,

I've followed all instructions for both a restoration with "erase destination" and without. With either option I get this message:

An error (16) occurred while copying. (Resource busy)

I have no programs, files, or folders open when I attempt the resoration aside from Disk Utility

Any idea what could be causing this problem?

[dnanian]

Are you booted from the drive you're trying to restore to? Have you booted from the Tiger install DVD?