Need to reinstall without loosing data? Archive & Install my way.

[AndreX86]

After screwing up my hackint0sh I realized I might be able to save the information and reinstall at the same time. I work as a 'product specialist' for apple and we do this often for computers that have "system wide" issues. Basically Archiving saves the /Users & /Applications folders.

 

This is the way we can archive & install With Hackintosh.

 

After you have royaly screwed your install...

1) Insert your Hackintosh DVD and boot to it (if for some reason you get an kernel error when booting, try reburing your DVD at 2x).

2) Select your language and on the welcome screen select "Utilities" from the menu bar and from that menu select "Terminal". (yes i am making this real simple for the newbs).

3) Type "cd /Volumes/YOUVOLME NAME (press tab twice if you dont know it and it will show you the items in that folder). Now we are going to remove everything EXCEPT for /Users & /Applications.

Type "rm -Rf " and then type the name of the first file or folder in the list, which usually starts with a period. What I do is type the first character or two and press tab, put a space and begin typing the next file or folder. You need to press tab twice to see the contents of your drive / volume. Once all of the files have been added press return and sit back while that info is being erased, when its finished you will get the command line back. Type "ls" to view the folders, you should see /Users & /Applications, if you see anything else remove it.

Picture_2.bmp

You should double check to make sure you have not typed /Users or /Applications otherwise you will F yourself Like I have trying to fix my computer very late at night / early early morning when I wasnt thinking .

 

Once the information is erased quit terminal and you can now install as you normaly would. You user account will be there when you finish installing. If you choose the same name that you had when creating the new account during the setup assistant it will log you right into your account.

If for some reason it does not log you in, you can still access your user folder in /Users and basically add a new account to the computer making sure the "short name" is spelled the same as the name on your user folder. If it is and you create the account you should see something like:

 

"A folder in the Users folder already has the name "short name". Would you like to use that folder as the Home folder for this user account?". < SAY YES OR OK OR YES! and then you can log out and log into your account.

 

 

 

HOPE THIS HELPS

[bibendum]

Thanks for posting this.

 

now install as you normaly wood

 

But what if I'm not normally wood?

 

Patrick

[JonMS]

Thanks for posting this.

But what if I'm not normally wood?

 

Patrick

 

I'm wood all day.

[AndreX86]

Thanks for posting this.

But what if I'm not normally wood?

 

Patrick

 

You welcome .

[Juiceman]

Hell yeah! thx man this I'm sure will come in handy!

[eggmaniss]

Sweet I wish I had know this when I f' ed my install updating lol. Lost evrything it was a total bummer. thanks for posting it and making it a total n00b guide for n00b's like me.

[rschultz101]

partition way

 

partition

1 osx install 20GB

2 osx backup, or test install 20GB

3 user/data , apps

 

install on first partition,...

carbon copy clone, to second partition, now you have full backup

for users, used to link manually to 3rd partition,...

now, just, click user, right mouse, advanced, and relocate

for apps, any new stuff, install on 3rd partition,

 

with this setup, you can boot, from, 1st, or second, and have everything there,

oh, easiest, way to install, is use ipc DL , click on installer, installs from running machine,

usually, use esata for that,... let me know if it's usefull, or any better way