recovering database after re-formatting disk

Started by charlesc49, July 26, 2012, 10:32:36 PM

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charlesc49

hi

after experiencing major system problems, I backed up my hard-drive both manually & w/ time-machine, then erased my hard disk and reinstalled macOS10.7.4. Now (in addition to other issues that have also arisen), I can no longer open the database from the "old" files on the previous disk. I managed to copy the scarcebundle file to the new disk, and copied the folder into which espionage 3 opened the disk image; espionage identifies the file, but reports a critical error: could not mount disk, etc. What should I do? Thanks

zsolt

#1
Hello, it is a bit hard to figure out the current status, so pls answer the following:

Do you have a padlock in the menu items?
Can you unlock Espionage?
Do you have any folders in the main espionage window?
Can you unlock any of those?
When you click on small "i" near folder name, do you see anything like "disk image missing" or "mount point missing"?
If you click on copy password, and do a paste in a text doc, do you get a password or just blank?

Tx
Zsolt
Follow @espionageapp on twitter for news! | For general Mac support, please visit Mac Me Support

charlesc49

#2
Hello, it is a bit hard to figure out the current status, so pls answer the following:

Do you have a padlock in the menu items?

Yes

Can you unlock Espionage?

Yes

Do you have any folders in the main espionage window?

Yes, the one I can't open


Can you unlock any of those?

No

When you click on small "i" near folder name, do you see anything like "disk image missing" or "mount point missing"?

Yes, when I click on it, there are several options, including decrypt folder; when I click on that I get this message:

QuoteEspionage couldn't decrypt the folder due to an error.

You'll now be prompted to choose a location to save the encrypted data to AND THE PASSWORD TO THIS DATA WILL BE COPIED TO THE CLIPBOARD! Please SAVE THE PASSWORD in case the data is recoverable!

The error was: Could not mount disk image for Invisible -. See system log for more info.
[/b]

I got a password, and saved it - but when I tried to save the file to my disk I got this message:

Quote"178C1874-A667-4337-A34F-DB719C625ADF.sparsebundle" couldn't be moved because you don't have permission to access "Desktop".
[/b]

If you click on copy password, and do a paste in a text doc, do you get a password or just blank?

I got a password.

thanks for looking into this

zsolt

#3
Hello, now there are two ways to go:

1. just get the data out from the disk image, then delete the whole thing and start from scratch, the good part is that you get your data back, the bad thing (if you intend to continue to use Espionage) that we will not learn why this happened, and it might happen again.

2. we troubleshoot this until we figure out what went wrong

and 2.b :-), to get the data out so that we are safe and then not delete all and troubleshoot it.

Any case I will explain how to get the data out so that you are safe:
Click on copy password as I told you already, then after clicking on small "i" near folder name, indentify the disk image which belongs to this folder (just note the first few letters of the name) and then click on disk image menu and open the folder in which the disk image resides.
Now switch to terminal and write the following command:

hdiutil attach

and then drag the disk image from finder onto terminal window, this will fill in the path for you.

Now hit enter, and you will be asked for password, just paste the one you got before and hit enter

the disk image should mount as an external volume and you can copy the data out.

Now to the problem, it might be that you have some kind of permission error, because when you click on decrypt folder, then what Espioange tries is to move the disk image onto your desktop, this should normally be possible, but in your case it fails.
So it might be that it fails to unlock, i.e. mount for the same reason, i.e. lack of permissions.

It is hard to tell exactly what to check, but if you want we can make a remote session and I can look into it. I'm available today most of the day.

Let me know.

Rgds
Zsolt
Follow @espionageapp on twitter for news! | For general Mac support, please visit Mac Me Support

charlesc49

#4
Hi

Thanks for suggestions above: here is the result copied from the terminal window

QuoteCharless-MacBook-Pro:~ charlesc$ hdiutil attach /Users/charlesc/Library/Application Support/com.taoeffect.Espionage3/Data/178C1874-A667-4337-A34F-DB719C625ADF.sparsebundle
Enter password to access "178C1874-A667-4337-A34F-DB719C625ADF.sparsebundle":
hdiutil: attach failed - no mountable file systems

I don't know if I made it clear in my first post that I had to modify permissions to get to the sparsebundle file on my back-up disk. I don't know how much that might affect the file once I managed to move it...

Best
CCH
 -=+=-  -=+=-  -=+=-  -=+=-  -=+=-  -=+=-  -=+=-  -=+=-

zsolt

#5
Hello, this seems like a corrupted disk image. I guess the mess you had on your mac, influenced the disk image integrity too. You can try to repair it with the disk utility but first make a copy of it, just in case. You will be prompted for password again, so have it at hand.
If that fails, then I have another set of tips how to repair the disk image, but first try what I suggested.
However, make sure you have no permission problems, because I'm not sure how would manifest a mount attempt, or repair attempt of something you have no sufficient permissions for, or if it is in folder where you do not have rights to write...
You might want to run a check permissions from disk utility too, but for your local disk...

Pls give it a try and let me know.

Rgds
Zsolt
Follow @espionageapp on twitter for news! | For general Mac support, please visit Mac Me Support