Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with restore

How can I fix an aborted iPhone restore?

Captain Cardanthian! — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:01:20 -0800

Restored my iPhone to factory settings (after backing it up) in an attempt to fix an app updating issue. Now I can't restore all my previous stuff because iTunes says "the backup session failed." Please help. My (non-jailbroken) iPhone 3GS backed up normally in its previous sync, and the restore was going smoothly until I got to the "set up your phone" step and chose to restore from backup. It got up to the point of actually starting to put things back on my phone after the preliminary set-up kind of thing, then there was a problem: It said the restore had failed because the phone had been unplugged. (I didn't unplug it, but I may have jostled the cord.) I then started over with trying to restore from the backup and, after a few minutes, got the error message saying it couldn't be restored because the backup session failed. Another attempt (and another) got the same error. I am super freaking out here. How can I get my iPhone back the way it was? If I can't get it back, what do I do now? Can I get anything back? My contacts should still be on my SIM card, right?

This disc was made for bootin'

CodeMonkey — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:10:19 -0800

I would like to make a custom boot disc that is very simple to the user. All it would do is restore an image from 6 DVDs to a hard drive. The only options I would like the user to see is: 1) format drive 2) restore drive 3) exit I would like to create this menu and all sub menus that I see fit. I have seen UBCD but it is too complicated for the people I know. I would like to use Driveimage XML and have it read the discs one at a time to restore the drive. Any suggestions?

Using factory restore disc after factory set RAID 5 configuration change

lyam — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:51:54 -0800

Will changing/removing a factory (DELL) set RAID 5 configuration from a home desktop PC interfere with rebuilding the OS (XP Pro) from the factory restore discs? I have a home XP Pro system utilizing a RAID 5 array that was setup by the factory. If I want to rebuild the system, but reconfigure the hard drives as two independent drives, will I still be able to use the factory restore disk to restore the OS? I'm afraid that I only have access to XP from the restore disc (shakes fist at Dell). Thanks!

Restore deleted usernames and passwords to Firefox?

sockpup — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:11:03 -0800

I errantly deleted all of my saved usernames and passwords from Firefox. Is there any way to get them back? I wasn't paying attention and clicked "remove all" instead of "remove". Mac OS 10.5. Firefox 3.5.3.

Smartest way to restore a mess of files to a newly formatted drive?

kitcat — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:29:39 -0800

I'm going to wipe my hard drive and reinstall Windows XP. But my files are in a huge mess and I'm scared I'm going to screw something up. This is my first time reformatting my hard drive on my 4 year old Dell laptop. I have my XP cd and I know how to find and reinstall the right drivers. But backing up and restoring my files to the new system has me nervous. I've pretty much decided to use Mozy, but can anyone tell me what the restore process looks like?

The thing is, there are all kinds of files on my laptop that are unfamiliar to me and they are strewn willy-nilly accross many folders. The folders do not have sensible names, either. These are files with code and scripts in them, audio files, image files, yada yada. The code files scare me especially - some I created myself and don't remember, but some seem to belong to open source applications and the like I downloaded as .rar files and that got scattered around.

Please help me figure out how to deal with this mess. Should I attempt to 'tidy up' before I backup the system (please don't scold me for not backing up sooner - I had been, but Mozy kept crashing my system) - or should I back everything up first and then work to restore only those files I think I need? Will Mozy allow me to 'look at' my files and choose the order in which to restore them? Will it let me sort everything by file type?

Any and all advice is deeply, deeply appreciated.

How will I face the commute again?

Ghidorah — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 01:10:23 -0800

Is my iPod touch dead? It's a 1st gen iPod, 32GB. I've never done anything to it in terms of software or jailbreaking or whatever. Last night, I plugged it into my computer to recharge, and this morning, I unplugged it. The catch is, I unplugged it without doing the safely remove bit, but I'm not sure if that matters. I'd closed iTunes, and the touch never shows up as hardware to remove, and, well I've done this hundreds of times. Fast forward to the morning commute, and I got a totally black screen. No lighting up, no sad mac face, just, nothing.

I've tried holding down the home button, holding down the lock button, holding down both of them together. I plugged it back into my computer, and iTunes didn't auto start. When I did start iTunes, my iPod doesn't even show up. It's just sitting there, looking black, dead, and like a stupidly expensive paper weight. It was a birthday gift from my wife, and I'd like to hold onto it.

Any ideas? Any suggestions? Can you bring my portable sanity dispenser back to life?

Next time, label DO NOT CRUSH

hermitosis — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:48:47 -0800

How do I smooth out creases in a fairly fresh oil painting? An artist sent me a large painting in the mail rolled up in a tube, but the box was crushed and the tube got flattened at one point. It's far from ruined and the paint didn't crack or anything when I unrolled it, but there are faint creases running down the entire length of the painting where it was flattened.

The painting isn't on canvas, it's on some kind of heavy duty upholstery fabric. It was painted recently enough that I could smell oil paint when I took it out of the box. I tacked it up on the wall from the top in hopes that gravity might help, but I'd like to see if I can do anything about the creases before I actually stretch it back onto a frame.

Any suggestions? I'm not planning on paying to have it restored -- the damage isn't that great -- but home remedies would be awesome.

(Here is the painting, incidentally...)

Firefox Restore Sesson Fail

NorthCoastCafe — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 07:41:17 -0800

Since upgrading to the latest Firefox (3.51?) the Session Restore feature which restores windows, tabs has NEVER worked. I get a white screen which says how embarrassing it is my previous session can't be restored. I'd just like to start every session as a new one, it would save a lot of time, but can't figure out how to avoid the restore function. The Mozilla/Firefox support site is so dense and discombobulated I can't find anything helpful there. Any suggestions?

Minor but annoying Firefox problem

N2O1138 — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:08:49 -0800

I'm using Firefox 3.5 (on Leopard). Whenever I re-open FF, it remembers my tabs as it should, but there's a catch. All of them will "load" forever without actually doing anything unless I go to the location bar of each and hit enter. Hitting "Reload all tabs" doesn't work, instead it makes them all go blank. Also, until I switch to another tab and back, the URL of the first tab doesn't even appear. At first I thought the Fast Dial extension was causing this, but I disabled it and still have the problem. However, the problem seems to go away when I disable TMP and enable Tab Kit (so it seems it's TMP-related). I would simply use Tab Kit, but there are a few things in TMP that "I just can't live without."

I also just switched from TMP's session restore to the Session Restore extension to fix another minor problem (which it did), but that didn't help this one.

Best practice for an upgrade to Jaunty Jackalope?

zenja72 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:17:14 -0800

I need to help my friend upgrade from Intrepid Ibex to Jaunty Jackalope. I'd appreciate any tips or advice for doing this. What's the best backup tool to use, and how do I restore from the backup if things go wrong? I'm thinking something like Time Machine would be nice, but I can do command line stuff, too. Any other best practice tips for the upgrade itself? Thanks so much in advance.

Comprehensive hard drive imaging

geodave — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:52:27 -0800

Is there a fairly comprehensive method I can use to image a hard-drive quickly, in case I end up needing that backup image later? Essentially it breaks down like this: I'd like to open a small repair shop, and I'm confident that on a regular customer's computer the chances of me accidentally borking something important whilst attempting a fix, are low. All the same, I've been using some drawn out and inefficient backup procedures to ensure that if everything goes to hell, I can get everything back to roughly the same place it was when they brought in their computer.

My question is, is there a "best" way to do this? I want to be able to take a customer's machine (PC or Mac) and quickly image the whole drive, so even if I just spend an hour deleting random files for fun, I can go back and restore the state of the drive as it was when they came in. It can be a hardware solution, a software program, anything.

Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.

Installing Windows 7 on a MBP with a non-working DVD drive

N2O1138 — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:22:32 -0800

How can I install Windows 7 (via Boot Camp or rEFIt) from an ISO? I think the Superdrive on my Macbook Pro (10.5.6) is on its last legs, because it ejects almost anything I put in it. (Meaning blank DVDs, and the DVD I burned of the ISO on my Windows XP desktop with ImgBurn). It's not extremely old (I got it refurbished on Christmas 2007), but still old enough to be out of warranty (at least I would think so). What I have available: 1tb My Book Firewire External Hard Drive 4gb 1st gen iPod Nano, that isn't even formatted as an iPod right now, so it's basically just a 4gb USB flash drive. I know I can boot from it if it's set up right, because I've been using it with this What I've tried so far:
I can't restore the iPod to the ISO in Disk Utility, so I tried to convert the ISO to a DMG (in Disk Utility and using a program called Converso), getting errors both times.

I tried mounting the ISO, erasing everything on the iPod, and copying everything straight out of the ISO to the iPod, but it doesn't appear as anything bootable.

Please help if you can

Rebuilding Ubuntu Server 8.04 Help!!

purenitrous — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:40:27 -0800

I recently lost a raid array on a ubuntu 8.04 server forcing me to rebuild it from scratch and/or restore data from backup. (I have copies of /var, /etc, and /home) The problem is I can't seem to rebuild the server so that it works exactly the way it did before, this is killing me!! (fyi... I inherited this system). My specific problem seems to be with Samba. I'm looking for help in two different ways... help 1) either figure out how to restore this system with what I've got backed up. Or fix samba so it works. See details below: The previous system was Ubuntu 8.04. I've got good backups of /etc /var and /home.

What I want to do is simply build a basic install of ubuntu server 8.04 and restore /etc and /var. But this fails, because I am missing packages. I don't know what packages need to be installed to make this system complete. It seems like there should be something in my backup of /var/lib/apt should be able to tell me what packages are missing, need to installed, or reinstalled.

If I can't restore the server with the strategy above, I guess I need to rebuild the thing from scratch... which is what I've been doing and leads me to my next problem: Samba, LDAP, name resolution, and/or other unknown problems....

Samba user authenticate to openldap directory on another network. I've got nss working. I can do a #getent passwd and see ldap data. I've got my secrets.tdb setup and it seems like samba can query ldap. But I'm not sure all the naming services are working. In my /var/log/samba/log.smbd I see some errors "warning: failed to create BUILTIN\Administrators group! Can Winbind allocate gids?". (smb.conf log level = 5)

anyhow, I can post whatever log files or config files that might be helpful.

Another interesting clue to what might be wrong.... I have a win2k and wink3 server that both have shares with permissions for users from the domain that the failed Samba server was advertising. On the windows servers I've added the IP address of the WINS server on the network that the LDAP server is located... now the windows servers at least show user info in the permissions dialog box for the shares. But folks still can not authenticate to these windows shares... access is denied because of invalid credentials (or something).

Any ideas?

TIA,
Dave

Is it safe to restore an iPhone unlocked with AnySIM?

doomtop — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 13:24:02 -0800

Is it safe to restore an iPhone unlocked with AnySIM? I have an original iPhone. It is jailbroken and running 1.1.1 firmware. AnySIM was used to unlock the phone. However, I don't know exactly which version of AnySIM was used.

I want to restore the phone to factory defaults and start fresh. Ultimately I hope to upgrade it to the latest firmware available.

Is it safe to do a restore through iTunes? I have heard there could possibly be issues with this due to the unlock using AnySIM. Could a restore brick the phone?

If it matters which version of AnySIM was used, is there any way to figure that out? The AnySIM app is no longer installed.

Any insight here is appreciated. Also, once I get it fully restored, I plan to upgrade and would also be interested in info on the current tools available for upgrading/jailbreaking/unlocking/etc.

Thanks!

my old bag

happy scrappy — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 13:05:58 -0800

Please help me restore the shape of my Coach bag. I've had this Coach bag for over 10 years now. It's time I cleaned it and tried to restore some of its original shape. The bottom is bowed out a bit from the weight of stuff inside, and the front is curved in and the back is curved out, from being stored on its side for extended periods of time. I don't think this is the kind of thing I should send it to Coach to repair ... or is it? Should I just put sturdy cardboard inside, fill it with tissue paper and stand it upright while storing it? Or is there a better way? Thanks in advance for your advice.

Insights to convert a physical computer to a virtual machine

fcoury — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:53:29 -0800

What are the alternatives on converting a physical computer to a virtual machine that would run (preferably) on a Virtual Box emulator? I have an old computer around with Windows XP that I use only from Remote Desktop. I was wondering if I could transform that into a VM image and shut it down once and for all.

The only drawback is that it runs a modified version of Windows so I would not be able to just install a new WinXP VM and backup / restore. It would have to be a more physical-style copy.

Any insights?

After the restoration

Sara Anne — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:48:37 -0800

A couple of weeks ago I had to do a System Restore on my PC, after which I had to reinstall Microsoft Office (2007). Ever since, every time I I open an office program like word or Excel, the program has to go through a long configuration process. This is only true for Microsoft Office programs. I'd like to figure out a way to make this stop.

How do I migrate from b2evolution to Wordpress?

Nixie Pixel — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:13:12 -0800

I am a new blogger using b2evolution who is considering a switch to Wordpress. I would like to back up & restore the whole blog. What exact steps do I need to take (on both the blog & database side) to accomplish this? Unfortunately, I am brand new to blogging, hosting, PHP, SQL...I am a real noob. I wanted to start my own blog so I registered a domain (www.nixiepixel.com), found a webhost (HostGator), and purchased a hosting package. With my hosting package came Fantastico, an application that enabled me to easily set up various programs through a few clicks of my mouse button.

I may have bitten off more than I can chew (at least until I become better educated!). I have had some problems setting up my b2evolution blog and getting it formatted the way I would like it to be. After days of pulling my hair out I read up on Wordpress and am seriously considering a switch.

I have found a couple of sites that have instructions on how to migrate over to the new software, but they kind of leave me behind. These are not meant for newbies like me to understand. Here are my current problems:

Because a script was run to install b2evolution, a database & database user were created automatically, and I have no information on the user login and such. I can't access that info...or if I can I have no idea how to do so.

I don't know how to backup my b2evolution blog (either the database or web side) and wouldn't know how to restore it if I screw this up.

I am brand new to web hosting in general, and this process specifically. I will not want to use the Fantastico script to install Wordpress so I that I can control the installation process, all configuration involved, record the information I need for future administration, and pave the way for me to be able to actually upgrade the software without trying to run another Fantastico script to do so.

Can anyone help me learn what all the various steps are that will allow me to back up and migrate all of my current information, and perform a new installation of Wordpress with the intention of restoring that information?

I tried to learn at least part of this on my own because I needed to back up and restore my b2evolution installation, and the only information I could get from their support forum was very brief, such as "make a database backup." Being a brand new user, this information was helpful but ultimately confusing, and I haven't figured out how to do this yet.

So I do hope that someone is able to help clear up some of this for me, or at least point me to guides or tutorials that start from the very, very beginning. Such as defining basic terms and concepts, and from there specific steps I need to take to reach my goal of moving all my posts, comments, and information from b2evolution to Wordpress, and having a working, configured Wordpress installation (and database backend).

Thank you very much!

~Nix

Help me restore my iPod.

scottreynen — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:27:36 -0800

I have a first generation iPod nano. Over a year ago, I installed linux on it, through some process I don't remember now. Now I want to get it running the standard software, but a normal iTunes restore doesn't help. I've read a few instructions for uninstalling iPod linux, and the first step is always putting the iPod into disk mode, but I can't do that, I think because the software controlling the button inputs is messed up. When I turn it on, I get a language-selection screen, but I can't select a language. Pressing the center and top button successfully forces a restart, but then pressing the center and left button does not put it into disk mode, nor does pressing the center and bottom button put it into recovery mode. I've tried both several times, so I'm pretty sure it's not just a timing issue. Is there anything else I can do or did I brick it?

How can I clean my computer when it won't let me?

bjork24 — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:56:11 -0800

I need to swab my old laptop as completely as possible before I sell it... the only problem is, I don't have a restore or new operating system disc. Please help! I'm wanting to sell my year-old HP DV1000 laptop, but HP did not include a restore or original Vista reinstall disc with the computer. Instead, they suggested I create and save a restore point on my laptop, which, of course, I chose not to do. Now I need to sell the laptop, but I want it as close to a clean slate as I can get it. I've uninstalled every program, deleted all personal files, cleaned out all caches and temporary file folders, but I still feel uneasy. I've also tried to create a restore point, but it's now saying that would require more space than is on my hard drive (wtf?!).

Does anyone have suggestions on how I can wipe my uncooperative laptop as clean as possible without having to shell out money for a new OS install disc? Thanks!

PS - It's running Vista Home.

Help me copy a Drupal install for local sandbox testing

Banky_Edwards — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:28:00 -0800

I'm having some trouble recreating a Drupal site on my local machine for testing/sandbox purposes. The mysql databases are the biggest stumbling block at the moment - very basic, beginner advice is probably needed. Short into: I took on a freelance project to redesign a site that's currently built in Drupal, which I've never used. It was my intent to nuke the current site & rebuild a static site, as Drupal is serious overkill for what this site needs. However, it turns out the client is well attached to some of the current features (the video management tool in particular, but also the "news story" updates & such). Since I don't know Drupal at all, I declined to attempt a site update without extensive testing first, and proceeded to try & recreate the site on my home machine. I have installed Apache 2.2, PHP 5.0, Drupal 6.2 & MySQL 5.0 successfully, and all four appear to be working.

Here's the current problem - I have no idea how to get the source databases working with my installation. I backed up the databases via the online control panel, but I've just realized that what I have are backup files, not the actual DBs. Attempting a restore via MySQL Administrator tells me "The selected file was generated by mysqldump and cannot be restored by this application." I'm obviously in way over my head - I've done a variety of work in php & the like, but I've never been responsible for setting up or maintaining databases, so I might have bitten off more than I can chew here.

Questions: can what I'm trying to do here actually be done? That is, will it be possible to essentially mirror the original website on my localhost so I can learn without blowing up the live site? Would it be better to create new local databases & attempt to recreate the site that way? Or should I stop wasting my time and just nuke the sucker in favor of a simple, static site?

I'll be working on this all weekend, so any and all questions can be addressed. E-mail's in the profile if needed.

How do I restore my old Mac's rsync backup to my new Mac?

autojack — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:20:19 -0800

What's the easiest way to restore my OS X 10.4 backup of my iBook laptop onto my shiny new OS X 10.5 Macbook? The catch: I made the backup using rsync, to a Linux file server. A few weeks ago, my three year old iBook G4 started running very slowly and making an ominous clicking sound. A lifetime of experience, plus the knowledge that my warranty had just expired, let me to the obvious conclusion: the hard drive was dying. I was planning to buy a new Macbook as soon as I received some money I was owed, so I decided to capture a backup, power the old laptop down, and use my Windows desktop until I got the new laptop.

Having no other readily-accessible option, I used rsync to back up the entire contents of my home directory to my Linux file server. I used some kind of Mac-specific option in rsync to save the filesystem metadata, I think. I haven't been able to find the site with the instructions I used to do this, but I haven't looked very hard yet.

I need to restore this data now, and I want to do it without breaking things on my new system, since it's got a newer OS. The main things I need are all my documents (easy to recover, really), all my Stickies notes, and all my Mail.app mail and metadata.

I suppose it's possible that I could use Apple's data migration app to cleanly copy this stuff right off the old iBook, if its hard drive will cooperate for a little bit longer. I'm doubtful that it will, though, and I'd really hate to have a half-done restore.

I don't even know where to start. I'm a Linux guy so a lot of that translates to the Mac, but there always seem to be a few Mac-specific pitfalls or footnotes that the Apple fanatics point out which save my ass in these situations. I think that's basically what I'm asking for.

Going forward, I think I'll be using Time Machine for this purpose.

Defrag an iPod?

grabbingsand — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 07:25:28 -0800

To defrag or not to defrag (an iPod)? For the most part, my 5th gen iPod has been behaving. However, when recording (using an Xtrememac MicroMemo), I will get the occasional instance of "lost time," as if seconds-long bits of conversation have been cut out. I've a feeling that this is occurring during occasional hard drive spin-ups. So I've been considering an iPod defrag. Opinions online conflict with one another, and most iPod defrag debates are three or four years old, so I'm turning to the AskMe hivemind for the current skinny.

Additional iPod info: 5th gen, 30GB (27GB used), Windows formatted.

recover deleted files on old DOS system

imaswinger — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:32:25 -0800

Help me recover some deleted files on an old DOS system. I have tried:

the undelete command: it found the files in question, but said the first block or sector or something was corrupt or unreadable or something. Subsequently running undelete turns up nothing now. (it's the plain-jane undelete)

Attach as second drive to XP to run Easyrecovery: Unknown partition, even though it's fat16. I now know XP can't read fat16 for some stupid reason.

Use UltimateBootCD: I tried 2 or 3 of the recovery programs there, but they said the partition was corrupt or unreadable.. something along those lines.

It still works perfectly fine as a dos machine. The files in question are less than 10 small text files. It's an old 40mb drive. Hope this helps...

Restore humpty_SQLdumpty?

Lyn Never — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 16:15:11 -0800

Through a series of dumb (though possibly dumb-lucky) mistakes and mysterious errors followed by disk failure, I am piecing a SQL (2005) server back together from not exactly optimal ingredients. I need help. Here's what I have: full backups from 2/18, after which point backups either quit running (more likely) or started deleting themselves in contravention of what I told them to do (nightly folder backups have no new files in them, so I think it just quit working). I also have the log (.ldf) files from the night before everything died.

I sure would like to get that two weeks of data back. I am hoping that nobody diddled with log shrinking in the meantime (let's assume not), so if I'm understanding things correctly these logs, if not backed up in the meantime, cover the duration that backing up was not occurring.

Can I get everything back from those ldf files? Recovery model was full, and I've had no problems restoring those 2/18 backups. The logs from the night before the failure are sequestered elsewhere and haven't yet been touched by the reinstalled SQL. They're expecting to lose all the data from the day the drives died, I really really don't want to tell them it's far worse than that.

If this can be fixed, what do I need to do?