Stupidly deleted /var folder

[Stoph]

The other morning I went to my computer and the startup disk was full and the var folder was packed with junk. Like a total idiot, as I was sleepy and not thinking, I deleted the var folder and emptied the trash.


Obviously now the OS doesn't start. It won't let me install over the top of the affected disk and rebuild the installation and I can't use migration assistant. I've tried copying the var folder from a working fresh installation on another disk, but it doesn't seem to help anything.

Any ideas? I *could* just start over with a fresh installation, but that's also a pain as I have loads of tweaks etc to the way I like things running. I'm on Mountain Lion btw

 

[wildwillow]

You could at least try installing over your existing Mountain Lion installation, skip the step to format your drive and see if this allows you to boot into your current set up.

 

[Stoph]

You could at least try installing over your existing Mountain Lion installation, skip the step to format your drive and see if this allows you to boot into your current set up.

No I did try this, but it said something like it can't be installed on this volume

 

[wildwillow]

No I did try this, but it said something like it can't be installed on this volume

Did you try to install with an older version of Mountain Lion?

 

[Stoph]

Did you try to install with an older version of Mountain Lion?

I didn't. Should I have? My modded USB drive for hackintosh installation and that's 10.8.5 - that's the only version I have.

 

[wildwillow]

I was wondering if you were trying to install an older version over a newer version but re-reading your post It may be because to install it needs enough room and you mentioned you deleted the var folder, how much space is now available on that drive?

 

[Stoph]

Well I made a disk image of the one I messed up and restored another disk so I could re-install a fresh OS on my boot disk and copy the var file from the working disk. I've tried to boot and use migration assistant on the "patched" disk, but it failed to properly migrate my user and says I can't boot from the patched disk. The patched disk has 500gb and it's got 306gb free

 

[Stoph]

However, I just noticed that the var folder on the old disk that I copied from the NEW disk is much smaller, so all those locked files can't have transferred

 

[wildwillow]

What I would do in your shoes, is create an installation connected to the same system (OS X side by side), OS X can see everything on another installation. Manually move all your data, music, photos etc over to the new installation. That way you'll have a clean drive that is bootable. This will save you the time in trying to repair the non bootable drive. Seems as if the var folder is important and not replaceable on each installation.

 

[Stoph]

Yeah I was trying to avoid having to start again, as it were. Things like the cloud backup of the other disks will be a pain as it will see it an a new computer, and will probably want to re-backup the 3tb of data on my other disks. But I think you're right. It seems that the var folder is unique to each installation and can't be copied over. I managed to get all of the files from the working var folder copied over, but it still says OS X cannot startup from this disk.


Cheers though (y)