Apple just replaced the hard drive in my MacBook Pro, returning it to me with a new system installed but with none of my other apps or files. I could have used Qrecall to restore it to it's previous condition (old system plus my other files), but it seemed to make more sense to keep the newly installed system and migrate the rest of my files over on top of that. I don't see any way of doing this with Qrecall, though I was able to do it using Apple's Migration Assistant and a SuperDuper clone of the drive.

Did I miss this this option in Qrecall, or is this an option that Qrecall just doesn't have. If that's the case, please consider adding it. It would be highly useful in situations like I just encountered, or in any move to a new computer.

Ralph

Ralph,

That's a brilliant idea!

I had been toying with the idea of writing a driver so that QRecall archives could appear as regular volume on the desktop. I had considered this idea somewhat of a novelty and hadn't really invested much time in it.

Exposing the archive as a volume, however, would allow Apple's migration assistant to use a QRecall backup as the source for a new install (assuming that one had captured the entire volume), which I think is a very significant advantage indeed.

I will definitely push this issue higher on the new feature list. It might require a little patience, though. Something like this is not likely to show up until 1.3 or 1.4.

I'm glad you like the idea. It will be really convenient for people moving to a new computer, or, as I was doing, recovering after a major crash and wanting to start with a fresh system. Hopefully I won't need it again before v1.3 or 1.4.

Another advantage to mounting the archive as a volume would be that it would provide a column display, making it much easier to browse the archive. If you did that, would be mounted volume also allow browsing of layers, as the current display does? That would make it much more of a competitor for Time Machine for users who like the simplicity of that interface.

BTW, I've just found that backing up my new drive -- with the same name as the old one -- has created a new volume in the owners and volumes list. I already had two, I think because one was from my original beta ID before the qrecall release, so now I have three volumes with the same name, covering different chronological periods.

Ralph

Ralph Strauch wrote:Another advantage to mounting the archive as a volume would be that it would provide a column display, making it much easier to browse the archive.

Alternate views (column and icon) are the next addition to QRecall. I hope to have these in the beta by late June.

If you did that, would be mounted volume also allow browsing of layers, as the current display does?

No. The finder and OS will see it a standard volume. There are a number of ways of approaching this, and I haven't made any decisions yet. If I can manage it, it would be nice to see if I can "trick" the OS into treating the volume as if it were a Time Machine volume. If that were possible, you could use Time Machine's interface with a QRecall archive.

Otherwise, I'll either have to simulate a Time-Machine-like folder organization, where each layer is a top-level folder in the volume, or something else clever. There's still a lot of details to work out.

BTW, I've just found that backing up my new drive -- with the same name as the old one -- has created a new volume in the owners and volumes list.

Correct. Every "new" volume is treated as a unique entity by QRecall. "New" in this context means different. If you reformat or resize a volume, QRecall treats is a separate volume. You can delete the old volume from your archive (select the volume in the Owner and Volumes drawer and choose Delete Item). This will delete all of the archive information about the old volume. You might want to wait a few months before doing that. I also plan to add a command that will let you merge two volumes, making migration a little smoother.

Indeed I have a similar question. My 2007 imac is still running tiger and I keep putting off the snow leopard install due to the migration issue I don't want to deal with.

Assuming I do a complete volume back up using qrecall, wipe the drive, and install snow leopard I am still faced with a manual restore and re-install scenario right?

David Cretney wrote:Assuming I do a complete volume back up using qrecall, wipe the drive, and install snow leopard I am still faced with a manual restore and re-install scenario right?

Let me suggest an alternative:

- Don't wipe your drive.

- Make a backup (this is your safety net, but not your migration tool) using QRecall.

- Now install Snow Leopard, choosing the "Archive and Install" option. This option takes all non-Apple system-level components and sets them aside (in a disk image you can later peruse). The installer then installs a fresh, completely clean, copy of Snow Leopard but preserve your users, their home folders, any third-party applications you had installed, your system network configurations, and so on.

This is conceptually equivalent to installing a new copy of Snow Leopard, creating user accounts with the same names and UIDs as you had, then restoring all the home folders, Applications, Fonts, etc. that you had before, reconfiguring everything in System Configuration, and so on. Yes, you could do this by hand, but the Archive and Install option is much easier.

If anything goes horribly wrong, you've got your backup fall back on. If you really want to do it by hand, you may have ownership and permission issues to deal with.