Contribute
Register

Apply Functional Kexts/DSDT/Settings to Another Drive

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jun 23, 2011
Messages
75
Motherboard
MacPro OSX 10.6.8 and 10.9
CPU
Intel Core i7 2600 3.39 GHz
Graphics
ATI Radeon 5770, Nvidia GTX 660, GTX 780
Mac
  1. Mac Pro
Classic Mac
  1. 0
Mobile Phone
  1. 0
Hello,

After about a year of happily using my Snow Leopard build, 10.6.7, I had a calamity this weekend. I grew tired of iTunes always asking me to update (I usually say no because it works fine for me as-is), and I wanted to be able to connect my iPad to this computer (iTunes said that I needed to update in order to sync with iPad). So I said, fine update.

Big mistake. iTunes took it upon itself to update a litany of other software including OS X (to 10.6.8) without asking me. I had left the room and came back to find the kernel panic screen over the unfinished update/installation process. After shouting a variety of obscene words and phrases I restarted but OS X wouldn't boot from the HDD. I booted instead from my clone HDD, which hadn't been updated (still 10.6.7), and it worked.

From that point I decided that I should finish updating to 10.6.8 on the primary HDD, so as not to leave the OS half-installed. So I ran the combo installer while on my clone drive but redirected the destination of the install to the primary HDD. So that finished and now the primary drive had a finished/full update to 10.6.8.

At this point I could boot from the primary drive in verbose mode, so I began to try and repair systems that were not correctly functioning (particularly the sound, and the ability to boot normally). I ran MultiBeast to see if I could get it booting again.

To make a long story short, I tried reinstalling the DSDT and kexts for my motherboard. Certain parts of my computer had never worked correctly, like Firewire, so I thought I might as well try to fix that now, but all of the DSDT.aml files on the database were for newer BIOS versions than were on my Motherboard, so I flashed the BIOS to be the same version as the DSDT.aml file that I downloaded from the database, I configured the CMOS/BIOS settings: SATA mode to AHCI, HPET to 64-bit, and ACPI suspend to S3, then I ran MultiBeast to install the corresponding DSDT.aml along with system utilities and the necessary kexts. Lucky me, MultiBeast crashed during installation.

I reached a point where the gray Apple loading screen (with the Apple and spinning circular thing) would go for a long time and then show a "NO" symbol (like a no-smoking sign without a cigarette in the middle). The same thing would happen on my clone HDD too. I shouted even more unpleasant obscenities then went and bought a new hard drive, re-installed Snow Leopard using the iBoot+MultiBeast method with UpdateHelper before the 10.6.8 ComboUpdate.

My new hard-drive turned out to have a 4,096 block size so I'd get the Boot0 situation (awesome). So, I fixed that and now the new hard drive boots, I got the sound working, internet working, all seems to be good (or good enough) EXCEPT, all of my software applications are installed on the original, now-unbootable HDD. I'm talking hundreds upon hundreds of GB's worth of software applications, project files and data, much of which (including Adobe CS) was purchased and downloaded from the internet so it's not like I have DVD's to just reinstall this stuff. This is all to say that the stock answer on the forums, "Just reformat your drive and start over!" is simply not an option. I would rather not spend days/weeks contacting the software manufacturers, re-downloading all of my applications, installing/re-registering everything, moving all of my data to this new drive, etc. So, finally, the question.

I have a new bootable drive, which functions well. It has the perfect combination of DSDT.aml, kexts, drivers that my motherboard and components like. Although I don't boot from it, I have my original HDD connected and I can see all my programs and data. Shouldn't it be possible to take the DSDT, Kext, Driver, etc. files from this functioning iteration of 10.6.8 and apply it to the un-bootable drive? I'm talking about copying the contents of the /Extras/ folder and System/Library folder from the functioning, bootable drive and pasting it into the corresponding location on the unbootable drive, thus making it bootable.

Surely there is some way to do this if it's simply a function of having the correct data in the correct places to make a drive bootable, or am I way off base here?

I'm going to hold off on trying this pending feedback from smarter, more-experienced members. Thanks for reading this long entry, and for any insight you might be able to share.

THANK YOU!


Just in case it's not listed on my profile, or below my user name, here are my specs:

OS: OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard)
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 (BIOS version f12)
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600 3.4 GHz (listed as 3.51 GHz in System Profile)
GPU: ATI RADEON HD 5770
MEM: 8 GB 1600 MHz RAM
 
My initial thought would be to track down the installer.log for the 10.6.8 update that went pear shaped and figure out what precisely caused the failed installation. That'd give you a good place to start as far as replacing malformed files. If the OS data isn't of paramount importance, I suppose one could also attempt checking file creation dates and applying all updated files and rebuilding all the file permissions on that drive. I'm speculating, of course, as I update compulsively and have to use alternate HDs for my important data.

If you do find the log file, do share. I might be able to tell a little better what all the fuss is about.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top