Disk Drill allows you to backup data on Mac OS X by creating a byte-to-byte disk image. This disk image (or DMG) is an exact copy of your hard drive, usually saved onto a separate external hard drive. Backing up your failing Mac hard drive — and running Mac data recovery from it — has never been easier. MacOS Big Sur Ready! You can create a disk image in Mac OS X with the Disk Utility. Disk Utility is located in the Utilities folder inside your Application folder. Simply insert the DVD that you want to backup, select the DVD in the left hand column of Disk Utility, then click New Image in the Disk Utility toolbar.
| Click here to return to the 'Manually backup and restore a User Home Folder' hint |
Provided the user account isn't the only admin account you can just use the System Preferences option to delete the user account. It prompts to archive the account to a disk image or a folder.
Book of ra 2020.
Deleting the account does not preserve ownership and permissions, as this method does. When deleting/archiving an account you're removing the user and all associated information, so the system changes the permissions to be accessible by other (admin) users.
Why would you want to preserve ACL's & ownership? The OS will restore the correct ownership after the new user is created on the new system.
Don't ACL's use the UUID of the account & not the user ID? So when you make the new account the UUID's no longer match? Right click the account in System Prefs & select Advanced options…
Anyway, if it works for you, great.
Huh. The right-click-user-to-see-Advanced-Options bit should be a hint unto itself -- never knew about that! :)
Neat! Neither did I! Now I'm going to have to try right clicking in all such lists!
> and then will verify the home folder as having the correct ownership.
Does it actually check the ownership of *all* files in the folder, including sub-folders?
There's Time Machine and also the Migration Assistant. Best way to win monopoly. Most of the time, if there is storage available, I would want to back up the entire disk, probably as a disk image, using Super Duper, CCC, Disk Utility or ddrescue if things are really bad. Then you can install a new system, run Migration Assistant and select as many user accounts as you want to move from the backup to the new system.
Definitely true that Time Machine or other utilities will give you a more complete backup of the entire system. This process was designed as a quick and easy solution for moving user accounts between machines without migrating all data. Harrahs or flamingo. It's easy to demonstrate and doesn't require much technical skill.
I usually do the backing up via System Preferences. Simply delete the account. You will get asked if you want to archive it in a disk image.
Again, using System Preferences to delete/archive the account does not preserve ACLs, permissions, ownership, etc.
Maybe I'm a dinosaur, but I rsync my $HOME to a small NAS daily, via a root cron job.
Given how few actual changes there are (other than data in Dropbox which is excluded from the rsync anyway) after the initial heavy run, daily rsyncs take mere seconds.
It's as maybe not quite as good as time machine or whatever it's called, but this method has worked for the past few years. I have had H/D's crash on me once or twice - oh yes, but never lost userdata, thanks to this method.
I suppose this is a pretty decent illustration of 'whatever works for $you' :D
Using rsync will also make it a recursive backup which is both faster and more practical than using Disk Utility. The downside is that it force you to the CLI. Logic pro mac.
Aaaah, but the CLI is a haven of refuge in troubled and unstable gooey times. It is predictable, it is always your friend.
The CLI doesn't care if you see other shells, or even have a beer after severely misusing it.
*cough*
What's your rsync command, the full line please?
Latest os version of mac. Not terribly adventurous:
rsync -avz -e ssh /Users/username/ someuser@10.0.0.100:/home/username/macbackup/
ssh keys exist on both ends, I should add, thus eliminating any need for a manual login
HTH!
This is a good hint. But. There are things to consider before you go there.
There is no point doing this unless you are sure that it is a system level problem. First establish whether it is a system or a user level problem by reproducing the problem with a fresh user account. If you restore the user account, it may just bring back all that bad stuff.
Hope this helps :)
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