After ignoring a failing Mac HDD in a Mac mini for many months, it finally got so trashed that the MacOS Mohave will not startup. I have a fresh Samsung 850 Pro SSD to use and started to install a fresh OS and where a Time Machine backup from August was referenced. The resulting restore failed in that there were errors and some data not copied. So I did a restore directly from a TM backup (not a clean install of the OS) and the resulting volume acted weird, really slow and never fully booted. WTH?!?
Now, Iām thinking clean install and manually install and copy everything as needed. What do I need to do to get back my Plex Media Server data (not the media itself). All of the edits of tv extras manually entered or all of the thumbnails manually imported. The media was stored on a RAID and it was not subject to any failure, Iām talking about a Mac mini that was running PMS server.
So, do you like the install everything from scratch approach?
Would you establish an admin account on the Mac as the 1st user and created a second account for PMS? Would that work? And, is that a recommended option?
After moving the files you might need to perform the steps from the following support article (sometimes simply copying the files results in hiccups due to different machine identifiers):
When restoring after a failed HDD, whatās the typical recommended way to get PMS going on the replacement SSD? My concern is that the original HDD might have damaged files and the Time Machine backup may have damaged files too. I was surprised that a clean install from USB drive had some errors reported and some data not copied.
I suppose itās a lucky shot and up to your own preference.
You can attempt restoring the previous environment ā hoping the files are ok and nothing got messed up. Alternatively you can always start over.
Personally I suppose thereās no harm in trying to restore the files.
I finally have a new SSD that was created from a time machine backup from 6/4/2020. I have access to the original drive and could copy some files. With respect to the Plex data or database, what data might I want to copy from the original hdd? The internal but somewhat damaged HDD was in use with Plex for a couple of months. What data might I be missing on the original hdd? The media was on a separate raid. The Plex server app was running from the internal hdd.
Funny, the size of the Plex Media Server folder in the Finder list is 3.84gb, and the Get Info dialog says 4.18gb and the copy dialog indicates 6.36gb. Does that seem strange?
