Problem recovering from kernel corruption
 

I got a crash course of re-installing Lion yesterday. My macbook pro
running Lion locked up and even after I ssh'ed to the rascal and
gave the reboot command it would not reboot.

I finally hit the power switch and much to my horror the mbp would
not reboot ( there was a kext problem early in the boot process ).

I said ok, and tried rebooting the SD backup made the night before.
Unfortunately it gave the same error.

Evidently the kernel was damaged but still running and SD apparently
simply propageted the damage...

I can't use Time Machine because within the million plus files on the
mbp there are some that cause Spotlight to crash and die and Spotlight
is needed by Time Machine.

Is there any way to prevent this problem?

I just made a copy of the Extensions file from /System/Library.
If the problem occurs again I plan on taking the SD backup drive
and attaching it to another mac, and then copying the extensions
file back over the extensions file on the SD clone and then reattaching
the drive to the damaged mac an seeing if the SD Clone will boot...

Any other suggestions?

Jerry

I'd clean install Lion to the source, then migrate from the backup when it prompts you. That'll ensure any Apple kexts are 'fresh' ones, and unless a 3rd party kext is the problem, you'll be able to boot.

If it's a 3rd party kext, safe boot will get you in so you can correct the issue.

Actually I :
1) Installed Lion over the top of the bad version
2) Ran Software update
3) Installed the Java for Lion update
4) Copied the site-programs ( were user installed python
extensions go ) from the SB backup
5) Rebooted and I was back to where I was before the lockup :)

Jerry