restoring: what is the best method?

[limsilas]

hello,

did an archive/install of leopard to troubleshoot something, but messed up and lost of my "previous systems" folder. now i want my hard drive to be EXACTLY the same as my bootable superduper clone on my external USB drive.

however, it seems like there are multiple ways to go about this:

1. superduper's restore feature: i'm tempted to go this route, and choose the "Erase [internal HD], then copy files from [external HD]" option, as opposed to smartupdate, because i really don't want ANY vestige of my current internal HD left.

2. disk utility's restore: external HD as the "source," internal HD as the "destination," "Erase destination" checked off.

3. re-install leopard: then migrate data from the bootable clone. but will this really migrate EVERYTHING over??

anyone know which is the BEST way to go? if i choose to use superduper's restore, am i right in being skeptical of smartupdate? i can just imagine all kinds of conflicts with mail.app, ical, safari settings........especially since my internal HD files will be more "up to date," but less what i want.

[dnanian]

Before you do that, why is deleting your Previous Systems folder a problem?

[limsilas]

sorry if i wasn't clear; on my internal HD, i've deleted my "previous systems" folder. now i want my internal HD to be an exact copy of the bootable clone that i'm running off of right now, down to the size of the icons on my desktop.

[dnanian]

So... you're running from the backup? Smart Update should work fine, but you can also do an erase-then-copy...

[limsilas]

yeah, i'm currently running off my external backup. i'm a little afraid of smartupdate because my internal HD's files are all newer than my backup's, since i've been using the internal HD the past few days, but i want NOTHING from my internal HD to remain.

will erase and copy take a while (40GB backup, 120GB internal HD)?

[dnanian]

Fine, erase away. Figure it'll run around 4-10MB/s.

[limsilas]

success!! i'm happy.

[Rachaelg]

Hello,
I'm new to this group. It's been very helpful so far. I've got a question I cannot seem to get an answer to in relation to this thread. My hard drive was just replaced and I want to restore it from my superduper backup. It seems easy enough using my startup disk, but I can't figure out whether I should check "erase destination" My source is the superduper backup and my destination is my new internal hard drive. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[TMay]

rachaelg

Yes, that's the answer Dave was giving in this old thread. It is really just as easy as it looks. In the main window, select your backup as the source, your new hard disk as the destination, and then pick "Restore--all files" from the drop down right below. Click the "Options" button, and make sure that under the "During Copy" choice one of the first two options is selected -- either "Erase then Copy" or "Smart Update." (It makes no difference which of these two you choose.) Then "Copy Now" in the main window.

That's really all there is to it.

[Rachaelg]

Thanks for your help! restored my old drive.

[dnanian]

Congratulations! See -- not too hard...