sparse image restore failure-could not validate source
 

sparse image restore failure-could not validate source - invalid argument

mountain lion sparse image backup along with 2 other sparse images on FWHD.

Using ML disk utility, FILE > OPEN DISK IMAGE to open the desired disk image.

selected sparse image on left
selected restore
clicked "image" then selected sparse image again
dragged internal drive to destination field

"erase "macintosh HD mbp" and copy the contents of MBP SD sparse image on b.sparseimage" to it.

error msg:
restore failure-could not validate source - invalid argument

As explained in the User's Guide, you should not select the sparse image file as the source. Use its mounted volume (the disk the image "contains") as the source, below the image file.

I tried that and every other possibility.
when I have the source as the backup I get restore Failure - Could not unmount volume "/" (resourse busy).

Are you booted from the recovery partition or a DVD? You can't restore to a drive you're running from - and it sounds to me like you're running from the drive.

oops, you are correct. Seems like I forgot a small step.

This is the first time I have ever restored from a sparse image file. I have always used bootable backups which I can easily use to start the computer and then clone onto the new drive. I now create sparse image backups because I want to backup automatically 3 computers on a network every night and just create bootable backups every few days. BUt I messed up the bootable backup by allowing SD to run automatically and wipe out the backup I wanted to restore.

Maybe it doesn't matter, but your instructions say to follow the instructions under the restore tab so if you are using Mountain Lion you area told to "click IMAGE" which puts the sparse image file not the backup in the source field. Of course maybe this happened because I was trying to run the restore from the disk I wanted to restore onto.

By the way, I am using Mountain Lion so I wasn't sure whether to use the OS X install disk or the recovery HD to access disk utility. I used the recovery HD because I wasn't sure if the old Leopard disks would mess up the recovery HD. WAs this the correct assumption?

I'd use the recovery volume if you have one, yes.