Very Weird/Complicated Issue
 

So I've been running the latest version of tiger (10.4.11) for quite some time now but started to have some wireless issues and was advised to update to Leopard. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware of certain permissions issues that would arise if you did an erase and install and used the migration assistant (which didn't work) after a new user had been created. Before the update, I did a full backup of my hd to an external fw drive which completed successfully.

After the botched upgrade I booted to my fw drive, erased the internal hd using disk utility, and then started up superduper. Oddly enough, the white part with the buttons in superduper weren't visible. When I clicked the registration button, again, you couldn't click anything the text in the white window was cut off.

I then tried to do a restore using disk utility which ran fine for 85% of the time, but then had an error to the effect of "operation failed: you do not have permission to something something." Tried repairing the permissions on both drives and running it again to no avail. Class just started and I need my laptop but am at a dead end. Please help, I've spent so much time trying to restore my drive that I'm going insane. Thank you.

I'd probably suggest clean installing Leopard, PLJ, and then -- when prompted, the very first time -- migrate from the backup. That way you shouldn't run into permission issues.

Thanks Dave, will try that. What explains the SD issue though? Would it work even if I could use SD to restore?

It sounds like the "Saved Settings" folder on the backup has a bad set of defaults for some reason. Deleting that folder would resolve it, but use migration right now, since you wanted to be on Leopard anyway.