I'm right and all of you are left.
In: Apple
30 Aug 2009Actually, it’s as simple as pie, if Terminal made pie, that is.
Start up from the Snow Leopard DVD (or start the Snow Leopard Installer from Leopard or Tiger, and after a restart it’ll boot off the Snow Leopard DVD).
Go to the Utilities menu and select Terminal.
Type this in Terminal:
“cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD” – or whatever your current system partition is called
Press Enter
“mkdir Previous” – to create a folder called Previous (I opted not to go for Previous System, cause I have no clue as to what the Snow Leopard installer would do to a “reserved” folder name)
Press Enter
“mv Applications/ Developer/ Library/ System/ Users/ ./Previous/” – to move these folders to the Previous folder
Press Enter
You should also delete any other folders and files lying around which don’t contain information you’d rather keep. I deleted everything else except including all the files and folders beginning with a period (I reinstalled again). It didn’t hurt and I didn’t lose any data. You just have to:
“rm -r foldername” and press Enter
Then go to the Terminal menu and select Quit.
Continue with your installation.
Your data should be available in the Previous folder after your new clean Snow Leopard install is complete. I know it was there for me. Enjoy. Don’t forget that you will be creating a new user on a new system once this is done, and you may have to “sudo chown” and “sudo chgrp” your files to be able to access them from your new user account.
PS: I don’t know how this works for FileVault users but files are definitely preserved.
NB: If this doesn’t work for you or you screw up in any way, should you lose data or whatever, it’s your problem, not mine. I shall not be held liable for that. This advice is provided “as is”, with no guarantees whatsoever, bla bla, bla bla bla.
Outlet for giving a crap.
49 Responses to Archive and Install Snow Leopard
Matt
October 8th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I’ve restarted and tried putting in “cd/Volumes/Macintosh\HD” and it just says “No such file or directory.” I know it’s there and I know it’s called “Macintosh HD.” Is there something I’m missing?
chris
October 8th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Your syntax is off. I think you mean:
cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/
Use tab-complete to avoid errors.
Karl Reed
October 23rd, 2009 at 6:27 am
This method worked great for me, but now I’m not sure how to set up a new admin acct so that I can copy “previous” stuff over to the new directory. Can anyone offer some help? Plz & thx!
TJ
October 25th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
@Karl Reed: After you’ve finished installing Snow Leopard, you’ll have all your stuff right there in the “previous” directory, and you can just copy it using Finder. I personally don’t copy over the folders but just copy the contents of the Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Movies, Music, Pictures, Public and Sites folders to the new account I created during the Snow Leopard installation (at the end, when it asks for your details and what username and password you want). That way you avoid most issues with those folders belonging to the username they did under Leopard.
I also copy the folders from Library/Application Support/ for apps that required lots of customization and for which I’d rather not start fresh.
You can also move stuff via the Terminal, if you so need.
And whenever your user needs admin rights, you just “sudo”. I.e. If “mv /Previous/Documents/* ~/Documents/*” tells you you don’t have the rights to execute that move operation (though you should and this is just an example) you can always just “sudo mv /Previous/Documents/* ~/Documents/*” and after hitting Enter and then entering your user’s password, everything should execute.
Do note that using sudo in improper places (like the /System folder) can really foobar your system.
Hope this helped.
Zachary
October 26th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Just did the archive and install- however when I was done I was not prompted to create a new user account- as my old users were still there. I signed into my old “admin” account to find the system looks new and my previous folder contained everything I wanted it to- yay- but I can’t make any changes or move anything over since all accounts are now “Standard”. How do I make one an “admin” account if I no longer have the rights to do so?
zachary
October 27th, 2009 at 7:30 am
Nevermind. Found a solution. Ended up just deleting the old “admin” through terminal which prompted the system to have me make a new one. Good as new.
TJ
November 1st, 2009 at 3:28 am
@Zachary: Wow… that’s weird… and really shouldn’t have happened, though.
James
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:15 pm
I tried this and had the same result as Zachary; Snow Leopard installed cleanly, but I was never prompted to create a new user. And my old account is still there, but now is a “Standard” one, without admin privileges. Zachary, if you’re out there, how did you delete the old “admin” in terminal?
JKT
November 13th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
There were various kinds of archive install. Remember how you were prompted whether you wanted to retain user accounts, network settings, etc? To that end, I recommend using “cp’ instead of “mv”. Leave the Library and Users directories where they are so that the new install can read and retain the old settings. Yes, this leaves open the possibility that any corruption you may be reinstalling OS X to get around will be retained, but it also might go swimmingly. So I recommend copying first. If your system still doesn’t behave properly, only then try the moving the old directories.
TJ
November 14th, 2009 at 10:16 am
That kind of defeats the whole purpose of Archive and Install though…
Plus that one can copy those folders while still running Leopard, from Finder, and wouldn’t need to go all Terminal to do it
The really nice thing about using mv and clearing all crap out for a new install is that afterwards you can just copy your old keychain files or Application Support files you really do need.
Mr.Bojangles
December 2nd, 2009 at 1:18 am
Alternatively:
cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD
mkdir Previous
mv * ./Previous
This moves the Unix items you don’t normally see out of the way and preserves your Fink / Ports / etc items. (Basically anything in the root of your drive, but if you have more then 9 folders there tops, you’ve been doing it wrong.)
j
January 2nd, 2010 at 1:24 am
I am having this problem where the system wont startup past the white opening screen. I dont even get a apple logo. I have some very important files that I want to backup –
I just did what you explained. It took 2 mins and that was that…
I am a litttle sceptic that, that simple action has saved all my documents. Am understanding right that supposedly I can reinstall snow leopard now, and find my old desktop files and everything in a folder somewhere after finishing the installation?
Is this the best way of saving your files if your mac wont start?
TJ
January 2nd, 2010 at 5:37 am
That should really be it.
Just to make sure, you can go into that Previous folder via Terminal, by typing: “cd Previous” then hitting ENTER and then listing all the files and folders by typing “ls -al” and hitting ENTER.
This is the “simplest” way of saving your files on the same computer if your Mac won’t start.
The best way would be starting in Target Disk Mode if you have a second Mac and they both have Firewire ports, and then copying the files to another hard drive altogether, just in case something is wrong with the drive itself and not your OS.
Oh, and using a backup service is the best for peace of mind. I personally use Mozy for my Mac.
Rob
January 17th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
you don’t have to go to all that trouble. if you already had snow leopard, you just choose the partition where it is installed, and it will automatically archive install it. no more “previous” folders and a whole lot simpler.
TJ
January 21st, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Rob, you’re wrong here. It doesn’t archive and install, it installs over it. Archive and Install means and has always meant “move everything to a Previous System folder and install a fresh copy of OS X”.
Jack
February 2nd, 2010 at 7:26 am
RE:I just did the archive and install- however when I was done I was not prompted to create a new user account- as my old users were still there. I signed into my old “admin” account to find the system looks new and my previous folder contained everything I wanted it to- yay- but I can’t make any changes or move anything over since all accounts are now “Standard”. How do I make one an “admin” account if I no longer have the rights to do so?
I have this same exact problem and Im stuck here any help would be great. Please and thanks you!
TJ
February 5th, 2010 at 11:27 pm
Well, Zachary deleted that “admin” account and it fixed it for him…
NOTE: This will also delete the files in /Users/username but not those in /Previous/Users/username. Don’t come crying if you delete your data.
To delete an account from Terminal you could just run “dscl . -delete /Users/username”
eric
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:05 am
if you really need an admin account you can also just log in to root obviously if you hadnt tried that, but just checking, and if you cant the use the singleuser mode trick. just google mac singlueuser mode admin hack and you should find how to do it
eric
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:17 am
im bored so i might as well post how.
restart your computer while holding command+s
once you get to white text on a black screen, and you let it finish doing whatever its doing, type in
passwd root
(new password)
(confirm new password)
then you should be good. if you dont get prompted for a new password after typing passwd root, type
/sbin/mount -uw /
(let it finish)
passwd root
and type the new passwords
hollie
March 17th, 2010 at 10:29 pm
my computer was recently stolen from me and returned. the asshole who stole it knocked out all of my info and I’m trying to archive and install but I don’t know where the utilities button would be and snow leopard just let me reinstall and didn’t give me any options? Anyone have any ideas?
M@ Smith
April 2nd, 2010 at 5:47 am
Pretty sure that Rob is right. an hour ago I was convinced that I’d fubared my data. Following apple’s instructions, and then I thought that I missed a step. I panicked once i thought that I was overwriting everything and hard booted the computer back to the install disk. I entered the terminal and the directory didn’t show anything non system! Convinced that it had overwritten everything, I followed the instructions here anyway. After completing a new install, all the old data appears to be there in my Previous folder. I haven’t started moving anything but I don’t expect any problems except perhaps with MobileMe, blackberry, and iPod syncing?
M@ Smith
April 2nd, 2010 at 5:25 pm
If someone wanted to test this procedure they should use a different folder name than Previous? Pr3v10u5
I had to drag all my files over manually to any existing folders on the new system since they are “required” or something to that effect.
Also some could not be used since they are in use. In the case of the dock, I decided to keep the new one. It was nice to get my preferences back. I am afraid that I crossed the streams again because I ran a ‘sudo chmod 755 [userFolder]‘ before moving the files, however I don’t think that was helpful and therefore not necessary.
BoomBox-Creations
April 3rd, 2010 at 10:40 am
How would you do this to back up the files to an external hard drive?
Ive tried the cp command instead, so it looks like this:
cp Volumes/(drivename)/ ./Previous/
But it keeps on coming up with an error of no such file or directory.
Can someone help?
BoomBox-Creations
April 3rd, 2010 at 10:46 am
Edit the one above:
i also tried
cp Volumes/ “(drivename”/ ./Previous/
but still no luck (the “” are supposed to be there, it tells it that the drive is the whole name if there is a space)
TJ
April 6th, 2010 at 8:58 am
Are you sure the drive’s mounted?
Try a “ls -l /Volumes” and see if it’s there. If it’s not, you may have to mount it using “diskutil mount /dev/HDDDEVICE”.
HDDDEVICE = diskXsY where X and Y are numbers representing the device and respectively the partition. Hope this helps you.
BoomBox-Creations
April 8th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
I figured out the problem with the drive, it was an NTFS, so no working, thanks for the help anyway.
I ended up taking it into the shop, i archived it to the hard drive and the install failed half way through…. Multiple times.
It was a software bug.
Thanks for all the help that you managed to give and hope it works for others.
Bill Thompson
June 24th, 2010 at 1:39 am
If the object is to go back to 10.6.3 after using Software Update to take it up to 10.6.4 (have the 10.6.3 Install DVD in hand), is the procedure any different than described above?
Thanks!
TJ
June 24th, 2010 at 3:57 am
Same thing, basically. Unless you have a Time Machine backup of before the update which you’d rather use.
George
August 1st, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Neither method for getting an admin account worked for me. Got nothing on the first suggestion and got No such file or directory on the second. What now?
TJ
August 11th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Seeing as I’ve never run into any of these problems (and have done this quite a lot, on multiple Macs), I’m guessing this has to do with the fact that I remove all the files and folders in /Volumes/Macintosh HD with the exception of the ones I move to the Prev folder.
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August 16th, 2010 at 11:07 pm
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david
September 16th, 2010 at 8:56 am
Why did I buy a Mac? This is actually even more irritating than Windows. My computer is running as slow as death…..I can barely boot it…I can’t use time machine to back anything up….why does the Mac OS X dvd not boot when I hold down “C” when booting the system? Why did they eliminate what seems to have been a fairly sensible feature like archive and install? As it stand I can neither archive nor install. This sucks. I hate Apple.
c
September 19th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Humm… hope this helps.
Was reading the boards on this issue and it came to me.
RELOAD from your original os 10.5 or whatever you have discs that came with your Mac. ALL older versions of installers allowed you to ARCHIEVE and install.
Once you have your new untouched system installed and you ARCHIEVED one, Install your Snow Leopard on top of your FRESH new load of your OS.
You now have a clean install of your OS with a clean Leopard on top and a ARCHIEVED one of your old.
Hope this helps…. The terminal way is an alternative but its a bit more scary at least for me.
Chris
Tomaz
October 14th, 2010 at 7:55 am
How can I install the “previous” folder on my external hd? I don’t have enough space on my mac so I need to transfer it to my external drive.
thanks
TJ
October 14th, 2010 at 8:00 am
run “ls /Volumes” and see if you recognize your external HD there (the volume name).
And whenever you run the “mkdir” or the “mv” commands I specified above, the destination should be “/Volumes/EXTERNAL-HD-VOLUMENAME/Prev/”.
Hope this helps.
Tomaz
October 14th, 2010 at 8:05 am
thanks for the light-speed answer!
here’s what I get:
-bash-3.2# ls /Volumes
.Trashes Mac OS X Install DVD
Hitachi Easy Drive Macintosh HD
how should I write the volume name? sorry, I’m a real noob
Tomaz
October 14th, 2010 at 8:09 am
btw Hitachi Easy Drive is the one I’m trying to install the folder on
TJ
October 14th, 2010 at 8:20 am
@Tomaz:
Go to the Utilities menu and select Terminal.
Type this in Terminal:
“cd /Volumes/Hitachi\ Easy\ Drive”
Press Enter
“mkdir Previous”
Press Enter
“cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD”
Press Enter
“mv Applications/ Developer/ Library/ System/ Users/ /Volumes/Hitachi\ Easy\ Drive/Previous/” – to move these folders to the Previous folder
Press Enter
You should also delete any other folders and files lying around which don’t contain information you’d rather keep. I deleted everything else except including all the files and folders beginning with a period (I reinstalled again). It didn’t hurt and I didn’t lose any data. You just have to:
“rm -r foldername” and press Enter
Then go to the Terminal menu and select Quit.
Continue with your installation.
Please make sure you’re files have actually been moved to the new locations (by running “ls -l /Volumes/Hitachi\ Easy\ Drive”) and checking to see that those folders are there.
giyad
November 13th, 2010 at 8:14 am
Hey, thanks for the write up!
But I have a question. I backed up the contents as you described into a folder called “Previous”, but then I decided to perform a clean install and formatted my drive (obviously backing up that previous folder to an external). So now, when I moved my applications over, I’m getting errors when I try to open them up, is this because of my clean install?
I don’t want to move my Library or System files over unless I’m sure it won’t screw anything up. I’m going to clone my drive right now, but I figure if someone can give me an answer it would be faster.
Thanks in advance!
giyad
November 13th, 2010 at 8:24 am
Oh and the error I’m getting is you can’t open it because it may be damaged or incomplete.
I’m thinking this may mean that there was an error when I moved them onto my external? Because some files work and some don’t. For example, text mate worked but VLC didn’t. So now I’m a little worried to migrate my system and library files over. What do you think?
I’m definitely going to clone before doing anything else.
giyad
November 13th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Ok, sorry to bombard your comments haha… but i figured out that the reason some weren’t working is specifically because the library files were missing.
Should I just sudo mv the Library and system files?
giyad
November 14th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
nevermind, i figured it out…
I ended up just not copying the Applications over, the only important things for me anyway were the preferences.
So I ended up copying certain files only from system preferences /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration, and user preferences in ~/Library/Preferences/
kev
March 16th, 2011 at 11:30 pm
hey folks !! thanks for the great info !! i am backing my files up via terminal as i type !!
@TJ just wanted to say i followed your steps and all is good except … i get an error trying to copy the DEVELOPER folder … on my mac my developer folder is located in the LIBRARY folder … just fyi … i dont think its a big deal cause im still copying the LIBRARY folder and all of its contents … if that is an issue please let me know …
also i see everyone is skeptical about the INSTALL and ARCHIVE option on SL … from what ive been reading its not an option any more its STANDARD … once i get all of my data backed up i wll be running the SL install disc that came with my macbook … i will let yall know wether or not my data was still there after it completes …
right now still pending my almost 200gigs of data to be transfered … man this was a journey … fyi i also needed an external file system that could catch files bigger than 4gig … using HFS+
def not planning to go back to the microsoft world … but ive been reading that the windows hacks for HFS+ are way more better than hacking the mac for ntfs …. let me know if yall heard anything diff ….
once again thanks for the NOTES !!
kev
March 17th, 2011 at 3:29 pm
success !! however on the first re-install off the cd THAT CAME WITH MY MACBOOK did not work … also once the install was finished it rebooted my computer and never booted to my desktop … just to got to the apple and the spinning thing and just gets stuck on that page … in addition after the first attempt to re-install from my OS X cd i could no longer boot from the cd …. performing “alt” @ start up did not give me an option to boot from the cd …. nor did holding down “c” … everytime the cd eventually just ejected @ some point ….
i ended up using a friends mac to install from hsf+ usb drive using the same os x disk … if u dont know how to do this … u can do it in DISK UTILITIES just connect your external drive …. open Disk Utilities … go to the Restore tab … and drag and drop your OSX CD from the list to the SOURCE field …. then drag and drop your USB external Drive to the DESTINATION field and click restore … Disk Utility will use the OSX CD to make your USB drive bootable and able to install Snow Leopard ….
once i got my USB external drive bootable to install snow leopard … i booted my mac holding “alt” and selected to boot from my USB external Drive … and it did without no hesitation like it did many times trying to boot from the CD it even took a few tries on my initial attempt to re-install … well long story short on the first attempt to re-install from the USB drive …. it crashed while installing … however on the second attempt it completed and my macbook finally booted to its DESKTOP !!!!!! Everything still in placed NOTHING MISSING !! even my desktop picture all is still in tact …. so i can confirm that it doesnt archive anything but it @least doesnt erase or move anything either … so as long as the re-install goes fine you will not lose any data …. im finally typing from my macbook now !!!!!!! been down for a good 5 days !!!!!!!
SIDE NOTE TO AVOID ALL OF THIS BS … INVEST SOME TIME IN BACKING UP YOUR SYSTEM !!!!!!!! i was currently working on a music video when this bs happened and none of my stuff was backed up … if it was i could of saved myself 5 days of trouble shooting and researching …. def plan on doing a fresh install once this project is completed …
also my original issue was that my computer was getting the kernel panic attachs @ bootup …. it all started when i tried to upgrade to 10.6.4 smh lol
also also lol … it was noted somewhere that if your computer crashes due to upgrading to the latest software … if you restore using your original software … you will be restored to that version …. however mines is back up running 10.6.3 … ?? but that is per-say from the USB drive which was made from my original disk ….. maybe thats only from the cd upgrades and maybe why it still didnt work for me ???? just some addtional fyi ….
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