Retrieve 'lost' files from Apple's backup 3

Feb 13, '06 05:39:00AM

Contributed by: idletask

I recently wiped my PowerBook and started over. I used Apple's Backup 3 software, and backed up my home folder to my FireWire drive, thinking I was all that. However, after I re-installed the system, I found that the backup did not behave in the same way it did before I wiped my computer. For instance, I found that it would not let me make new backup jobs (and my .Mac account is fine- I used it to restore my address book and other things that .mac saves). Anyway, when I used the Plan: Restore from Backup menu item, nothing would happen when I selected my file.

Apple's website was not much help for me, and I was thinking I was going to have to say goodbye to my iPhoto library and my music. I then thought that the file (with the extension .incrementalbackup) was probably a replacement for some type of archive. I know that Unix'ish things like to use gz or tar.gz and so I made a guess: I renamed my file to TAR.GZ, and it then looked like a folder.

I opened the folder and browsed around until I found a file called backup.sparseimage, which looked just like a DMG icon. I opened that file, and it mounted like any other DMG file, and I was able to pull out most of my files. I had made an incremental backup, so not everything was there, but almost all of it was.

Hope this helps some one else.

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