Erase and re-install

Apple support had me do an erase and re-install wiht only the keyboard and mouse connected.

That completed and I shut the system down, plugged in the ethernet cable and time machine firewire cable and rebooted the system.

Nothing works!

No networking, Safari doesn't connect; so how do I tell it about the network.

I put in my email address but I don't know the answers to the questions about e-mail server, etc. Windstream, my ISP, says for me to call Apple, they don't support Macs.

Bob

Did you back up your system before doing the erase/install?

Having erased the drive you have to enter all applications, System Preferences, email details and network connections etc again. You needed to back up your system to an external HDD using SuperDuper or similar, install the OS on the Mini and copy the external to your hard drive.

Hard lesson alas.

Agreed, but really hoping that Apple support had the OP back it up before doing this.... However, knowing how on occasion apple support has a newbie taking the call, I would not be surprised if he was just led into the Abyss without any guidance :/

I have a Time Machine and lots of back ups.

No idea how to restore anything as the Migration Assistant does NOT see the Time Machine since the re-install although it is on the desktop.

I only have iLife and Office to reinstall (I don't have any other applications) but I would like to get all of my user settings and documents and music (none of it iTunes) restored.

Bob

It sounds to me as if you need to reinstall the network just as if you were hooking up your router for the first time. I have an airport extreme router, and I'd go to the airport utility in the utility folder to do that. I'm not sure how one does it with a Linksys, D-Link or other third party router. There must have been instructions that came with the router.

OK... this should work.
If you install your install disc and boot from it, and choose language, and press continue, you will see Utilities in the menu bar.
Scroll down and go to restore system from time machine backup, and to select the one you want.
There you should be able to choose your user/system settings, etc.
I would only do that and then restart.
After that, I would manually move the documents and music, in which to do this, once restarted, open finder, and then open a second finder window.
In first finder window click documents, and in the other window go to the docs in your backup, highlight all the docs in the documents folder, and drag them all into the documents folder on your HD.
With your itunes, open your music/itunes folder, and drag the contents from the same folder on your backup, into the music/itunes folder on your HD. It will probably ask you if you want to replace the items in that folder and just click yes.

Not at all.

I don't want to do a complete restore. I just want to restore some items.

The only option under the re-install-utility took me to a complete restore which i do not want to do.

I was able to get the Music and Documents restored by just by copying files. I haven't been able to find the Address Book data yet.

Thanks,

Bob

user/library/application support/address book

Is it possible that your time machine is not formatted the same as your mac - as macintosh os extended (journalled) and this is why migration assistant wont see it?
You can see this by going to disk utility, clicking on the time machine backup in the left column, and at the bottom it will tell you the format.

That got the address book fixed.

The time machine has the extended journalled file system.

Thanks again,

Bob

I'd repair permissions in disk utility, and then see if migration assistant has stopped acting up.

I ran disk repair and it found no problems.

Verify Disk Permissions and Repair Disk Permissions are both grayed out.

Bob

Odd you can run Repair Disk but not access Verify and/or Repair Permissions. Are you booted from the hard drive or is the install disc still in the machine please Bob?

For back ups recommend an external hard drive, and use SuperDuper to make a complete copy of your operating system and all files.

I'm a recent convert to Mac (June).

I did a erase and install of Snow Leopard then searched for updates. This required three reboots to complete. I then installed iLife and MS-Office. No disk is in the drive for sometime.

I have an external OWC 1.5 TB drive for my iMac 24.

Bob

bsprowl said:

I ran disk repair and it found no problems.

Verify Disk Permissions and Repair Disk Permissions are both grayed out.

Bob

Click to expand...

They should be grayed out for the time machine external HD, that is normal.

Since doing all the updates, have you tried migration assistant again to see if its working yet (for unknown reasons)?