[Gankdawg]

The backstory:

I have an iMac and a Macbook. Every now and then, I manually copy files from the iMac to the Macbook as a form of backup as well as keeping things current on the Macbook (like the iPhoto library and Documents). This often results in the copying being halted part way through due to a permissions error or some other random message. I've tried many things but have never been very successful. Yesterday I went too far.

I did a Get Info on both the iMac and Macbook hard drives and changed one of the settings near the bottom of the window to 'Read and write' (I think it was set to 'Read Only') thinking that was part of the problem. I believe I also used the Action Menu to 'Apply to Enclosed items'. After OS X finished, I restarted both machines. I can't remember if OS X requested it or I just decided to. Anyway, the iMac turned off, bonged, and the showed a Kernal Panic. I thought that was weired, so I unplugged everything except the mouse and keyboard and manually power cycled. Still got a KP. Meanwhile, the MB was stuck with the spinning wheel icon and never restarted.

I booted the iMac from my SL DVD and ran Verify Disk and Repair Permissions. No disk errors at all (ruling out a hardware problem) and a some permissions fixed (but I can't remember which ones of how many). Restarted again, KP. Booted from SL DVD again and decided to do an Archive and Install (which is done automatically now with SL as I found out). A&I errored out about a third of the way through. I think it said something to the effect of "Cannot complete, missing file".

I gave up on the iMac for a while and tried the same thing with the MB. A&I worked just fine, I was back up. Tried again on the iMac and no luck. Booted the iMac in Target Disk Mode while connected to the MB and decided to backup some files on the MB just in case. No problems with that.

I figured that since I had a TM backup, I'd just do a restore. When I got to that screen, my TM drive wouldn't show up. I connected my TM drive to the MB and it was locked. I used Tinker Tool to unlock it, tried the restore again and it worked. But now whenever I launch an application, it immediately crashes and the reporter window that tells you that the problem was sent to Apple appears. I haven't tried all of my programs but off the top of my head, Safari, iChat, Skype, and iTunes all did not work.

I'm at a loss as to what's going on. The TM drive is not accessible from the Finder (can't remember what the error message says).

I'm posting this from work so if there are any ideas, I won't be able to try them until this evening. I'm thinking about just erasing the hard drive (after I clone it to make sure I have my stuff), installing Leopard and then SL, and then erasing my TM drive and starting fresh.

[seanc]

See if you can run SMART Reporter on the iMac, sounds broken, but maybe just really borked permissions.

What iMac do you have?

Is this thread of any assistance?

[Gankdawg]

Originally Posted by seanc 

See if you can run SMART Reporter on the iMac, sounds broken, but maybe just really borked permissions.

What iMac do you have?

Is this thread of any assistance?

Is SMART reporter in Disk Utility? I'll double check when I get home, but I'm sure it's status was OK. When I first got the iMac I had a hard drive problem (drive was replaced under Applecare) and DU told me it was bad.

I have a 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo.

I'll try the suggestion in your link when I get home, thank you.

[seanc]

A drive can fail quite a long way BEFORE it fails SMART, it depends on the manufacturers threshold. The latest SMART reporter will let you view the raw values. Disk Utility is not a reliable answer.

[reader50]

Try a permissions repair again - from the description, you tried it before restoring from TM, and not after.

Also, see if you can launch MacHD/Applications/Utilities/Console.app. If so, then try to launch one of the 'failed' apps. See what messages appear in Console.

[Gankdawg]

Originally Posted by seanc 

A drive can fail quite a long way BEFORE it fails SMART, it depends on the manufacturers threshold. The latest SMART reporter will let you view the raw values. Disk Utility is not a reliable answer.

Where is SMART reporter?

[seanc]

http://www.corecode.at/downloads/sma...rter_2.4.6.dmg

[Gankdawg]

Tried SMART reporter, it wouldn't launch. Launches fine on my Macbook.

I've tried all the chmod -uw 1777 and other stuff from the other thread, nothing is working.

I've repaired permissions, no change. I get a bunch of lines that say "Warning: SUID file .... has been modified and will not be repaired".

[seanc]

So, just to be clear, have you done an Erase and Install? Did you do this BEFORE you restored from Time Machine?

When restoring from Time Machine in the OS X installer, does it give you flexibility on date/time or does it just do it? I'd suggest restoring to the day before everything broke and then importing any really important files you updated, manually.

[Gankdawg]

No, I didn't do and Erase and Install. I just booted from the DVD and then selected the option to restore from a TM backup. I should try and Erase and Install.

Yes, it does give you the flexibility to choose the date and time. I chose my most recent backup on the first try and the second most recent backup on the second try. Both of those were before the problems.

The TM drive is still unavailable to me. It doesn't have a locked icon on it but at the bottom of the Get Info box, all of the settings are to Custom instead of Read and Write.

[seanc]

Unavailable when booted from the borked OS X install or from the OS X disc?

Please don't mess around with the permissions of your backup!

I suspect the permissions are screwed somewhere deep in the filesystem, restores onto the broken filesystem won't help. Erase and Install, please verify accessibility of the Time Machine volume from the Install DVD first.

[Gankdawg]

I know the Time Machine volume works, I've restored it twice now.

I'm booted from the install DVD right now and it sees the TM volume.

[seanc]

Go for it then. Hopefully all will be right with the world afterwards.

[CharlesS]

Could you post one of those crash reports that it wants to send to Apple?

[Gankdawg]

I don't have a way to do that because every program I launch results in a crash.

[CharlesS]

Boot from something else, go to your hard drive, look in /Users/you/Library/Logs/CrashReporter, pull out one of the crash logs for an app that crashed this way, and post it.